The Black Thread

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The All-Colour thread.

This is one of my guitar amps.


These are incredibly rare in the US, and are slightly less rare in the UK and EU. They were made in the Hammersmith district of London, England by ex-Selmer Truvoice employee Pat Nolan and a small crew from the late 60's to the mid 70's. The original circuit was a copy of a tweed era Fender preamp coupled to a British/European style (EL34) power section. It outputs 100 watts clean.

Pat Nolan moved back to his native Ireland, and currently owns a sound hire company.

Mine appears to be one of the earlier ones from perhaps around 1970.

By the way, "no colour" would be white -- black is a combination of all of the colours.

Edited. Thanks

Since this is the black thread, I figured that I'd post another guitar amp that is well known for it's basic black color. Hiwatt.

Early DR-103 shown here.

These were originally made by former Sound City amp designer David Reeves as the best guitar amp that money could buy. These feautured Partridge tansformers with a frequency range of 1Hz to 100Khz, and perfectly soldered Military Spec circuitry. They were essentially a refinement of the Sound City L100 Mk.3, which was also designed by Dave Reeves.

The Hylight Electronic era amps ( 1970-80) were completely handwired by a team at Hylight Electronics, who also made missle and torpedo guidance systems for the Royal Navy and RAF.
Production was limited to 10-15 per week, and all circuits and solder joints were inspected under magnification, solder joints marked with a marker, and the chassis signed by either Harry Joyce, (Team leader) or Dave Reeves. --They were so called 'Boutique Amps' before the term 'Boutique Amps' came to signify guitar amps that were built from the highest quality materials with the highest quality construction in limited numbers.

Sadly, Dave Reeves died in a motorcycle accident in 1982 when the amps were made at the Biacrown facility. Amps bearing the Hiwatt Marque after that point were not of the same quality as the early Hylight Electronics era models. Harry Joyce revived the concept and the look of early Hiwatt amps with 'Harry Joyce' amps. Music Ground PLC owns the UK rights to the Marque, and makes handwired copies of the originals. Fernandes Musical Instruments of Japan distributes these amps as well as their own mass produced copies of Hiwatt amps in the US and worldwide.

Famous users include:

Pete Townsend and John Entwistle ( The Who)
David Gilmour ( Pink Floyd)
Noddy Holder (Slade)
Dave and Ray Davies (The Kinks)
Nick Calvert (Hawkwind)
Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
Ted Nugent
Alex Lifeson (Rush)
Ian Curtis (Joy Division)
Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard)
John Haggerty (Naked Raygun)
Phil Lynott / Scott Goreham (Thin Lizzy)
Pat 'Fear' Ruthen Smear (The Germs, White Flag, Redd Kross, Nirvana unplugged)