Marshall Mad !!!

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In the glorious and cherished mid '70 ( think Britt Ekland 's role in a Steve Austin episode ) and a little before that, Marshall was really threatened by these Londoner tube amps. It all began with an argument between Marshall and Tommy : that deaf, dumb and blind kid sure destroyed a lot of amps. Mr. Pete decided then to use Hiwatt weaponry ( and he stopped breaking amps as a side effect). Next thing you know, Hiwatt stacks back-up were mushrooming in the then very active rock scene. Best example sure is the Hiwatt cabinet on the inaugural stage of the Paradise. And me to guess Beef himself could have played through one. What an honor.( I am referring to Brian De Palma's movie 'Phantom of the Paradise' , rock movie that dwarves 'Rocky horror ..' big time. A must see !)

Here they are.( stop looking at the MS20) These are the classic Custom 50 and Custom 100 heads with that wonderful but Spartan look, legendary military spec point-to-point wiring and wall-of-aluminium pre-amp tube shielding. They are reliable: each one I found was working. The sound? Big issue. They were engineered to sound clean at any volume. These men were fighting against distortion. When they are maxed , you can hear that mighty clean sound. But if you compare them with similar power transistors amp , you discovered the magic of tube: that 'clean' sound is somehow spiced up and pleases your ears ten times more. It is that particular sound I have tried to mime with the BLOW mode of my FUSE BLOWER.

This is my weird Hiwatt combo. Usually , they come stock with the same attire than the amps above. I can only guess what is original: -buttons are for sure: they were common with English amps of this vintage such as Carlsbro. -logo should be: strange as it is, I doubt somebody could have forged it. -fire-engine red baffle board with garden fence: that is the limit of my knowledge. Any info welcome.

Into pedals too? See   JACQUES STOMPBOXES

h Here is the classic combo look for an HIWATT. Not very funny, but efficient. These 50 watters can compete with 100w twin with no effort. If you are into Marianne Faithful's ancestor bad habit--masochism-- , this huge big 200w slave is really for you. In those times of weak PA systems, you could buy a 50w head for rehearsal use, and, in case of stadium gig, simply plug a jack cord between your 50w SLAVE OUT and 5 of these babies, and SHAZAM, you play through 1000w of pure tube power. The second name of those huge partridge transformers is "lumbago". They are so heavy the hiwatt people had to place them symmetrically in order to keep balance, making this amp really easy on the eyes, with its 6 el34 like candles on the cake. Here is the smaller slave, for light sadistic use. goes with fake whips. www.ts808.com