The Last Bass Outpost

Excellently played, great bass line, the Tribute sounds great, and I'm am left with serious, SERIOUS beard envy.

I knew that headstock looked familiar. I stop by the Alembic Club every morning, and there was discussion about it. I think I recall seeing it for sale too. That WILL pair up nicely with the HIWATT!

D'you happen to have a link to the club so I could read the discussion? I'd be interested if anyone has any more information on it!

So the UPS dropped this of late yesterday evening. I've been wanting an old Hiwatt since I started playing, though I've certainly been more than content with my small horde of Sunns. In the last 6 months I started to more seriously keep my eye out for one. Saw this one a few months back on eBay, and have been watching ever since. It was listed under Consumer Electronics instead of Musical Instruments, and the seller was unresponsive to my requests for more photos of the internals. It kept getting no bids and being relisted. No year listed, simply Custom Built Hiwatt. I set about doing my own research based on what I could see in the pictures, and despite the lack of a serial plate, was fairly convinced it was a '68 or '69 DR103, based upon the metal logo plate, and lack of Custom Hiwatt 100 text on the face plate. I could also make out what appeared to be the orange varnish of Partridge transformers, but I was still somewhat apprehensive of bidding without more photos. In the meantime, I missed out on a 1970 DR103 and cab locally, which was a real drag. So after months of watching with no bids on this listing, and jockeying around some other gear and money, I pulled the trigger.

After receiving the billing info, I discovered it was being sold by a Pawn Shop in PA, which might explain the lack of response or particular knowledge of what they had. Their loss is my gain though!

So as soon as it arrived I set about opening it up so do an inspection. Looking everything over, it appears it is an early 1969. Hiwatt 100w A.P. is written inside the chassis, which matches notes written inside other confirmed amps of that period. The pots date from the 47th and 50th week of 1968, and the transformers, consecutively numbered G8655 and G8656, match Partridge dating codes for 1968. So, either a very late '68 or early 1969. The only modifications I can identify thus far are the addition of a power outlet on the back (which resulted in some unwinding of the tidy braided wiring, oh well), an update of the screen grid resistors, and a three prong power lead. Even the capacitors appear original, with Dubilier's up top and a Radiospares unit under the chassis. So, despite the ad saying it was recently serviced by a tech, I'm likely going to take it in to have the caps updated when I get the chance, as it looks like at least two of the filter caps have some bulging occurring. I'll give it a quick test this evening after work, very excited! I knew it was a bit of a risk given the lack of info provided, but I'm very happy that it seems to have paid off, and under the typical going rate of a later 70s model on reverb and eBay!

Anyways, here's the part y'all actually came for, the pictures!

I like to think that Dutch is to German what the Welsh accent is to English.

I think he might have had four, actually. I believe he owned 3 in the 60s, which went on to form the groundwork for Frankenstein. This is one he got later that had already been refinished prior to his purchase, if I'm remembering his commentary from his Bass Culture book correctly.

I'll be honest, hearing a Levi's exec is in charge actually sounds promising. Levi's is one of the few brands I'm actually somewhat loyal to. Funny enough, there's actually a decent parallel between the two, as both Gibson and Levi's draw on their heritage products for their current product line. Levi's Vintage Clothing line makes some excellent reissues of their old clothes, they really know how to go through their archives and accurately reproduce items. They also seem to be pretty good at introducing new products while maintaining the integrity of their core line, instead of going whole hog on some hair-brained idea and ditching the things everybody loves. And that's what I want to see with Gibson: a core, stable primary product line with little alteration (maybe some, even Levi's occasionally updates fits to best suit current trends), while still trying out some new ideas (ones that make sense) and maintaining the integrity of their heritage.

Edit: I see JC actually mentions my point in the second article.

That's funny because my old Sunn300T is the SINGLE amp I have ever sold because I didn't like it and there are VERY few big tube bass amps out there that I don't either already own or have played.  Mine was bought used because of the four that I tried new, two of them blew up in the store, one was drastically overpriced and the other sounded like crap. After having been in them and seeing the awful over-complicated autobias circuit, that all makes sense now.

From what I recall the early production runs of the Sunn 300T had some known issues in the power supply, I remember reading years ago about high failure rates until they got it sorted out. I can't seem to find the info anymore, but in the later production of the 300T they revised it and the later Bassman 300pro had less problems. My 300pro never had any issues, though I can't say I was overly thrilled with all the knobs and sliders, and the distortion was...eh. Thought it did cleans really well though.

I only know the early Sunn amps (and not too well at that). Is the 300T the one FMIC put out starting about 20 years ago, or was there an earlier version? I know a girl who used an FMIC Sunn for several years, sounded good with her Stingray but definitely didn't sound like a real Sunn to me.

Yes, I believe they introduced the 1200s and 300T some time in the early to mid 90s, both sharing the same preamp, but the 1200s featuring a SS power amp. Not really any Sunn DNA in them though, Bill Hughes designed them as an evolution of the SVT, so they share a lot of their core concept with his work for Ampeg. They were completely designed by Fender employees and just badged as Sunn, then later rebadged as Fender when they shuttered the doors on Sunn in 2002.

They drop through the floor an d those of us that know buy them for a song. I'm 25 and I've been using tube amps exclusively for...8-9 years? I can bias and do basic service on my amps, and do it on my friends amps too, helps save on tech costs. Not all of us are ignorant. While bass may be primarily dominated by SS, I don't know a single guitar player over the age of 20 who doesn't primarily use a valve head. Maybe a few jazz players, who dig those Roland SS heads, and I know one guy who uses old Kustom tuck n roll heads.

Should have told him it was a light bulb. I remember the worst tube loss I suffered was I pulled two old Tung-Sol 6550s from a Sunn 1200s, put them away in a box to swap into my 200s, had a party, someone fell on the box. Found it the next morning, unwrapped them, two shattered vintage 6550s. Sad day indeed.