So, who makes what? Apologies if the following doesn't read so clear, only I cut and pasted it from a thread I made on another forum, but I'm hoping some of the amp gurus here can shed some light on the situation:
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Well, I always thought the situation with Hi-Watt amps was kind of confusing, at least...
Basically, I was under the impression that the original 'Hi-Watt' trademark had been bought by Fernandes (of the 'Sustainer' guitar fame). I did some investigation and it became clear that the name is owned only be Fernandes in the US - in the UK it is owned by Music Ground, the shop that sells in Denmark Street, London, and in Leeds too.
As you can see
HERE, Music Ground is quick to point out that their Hi-Watt amps are not 'cheaply built like some reissue amplifiers', but that theirs are hand built, point to point and so on. Given that there are plenty of 'cheaply built reissue amplifiers' in my local music shop bearing the name 'Hi-Watt' (solid state and presumably made by Fernandes brand) I always assumed that the reference Music Ground were making was a pointed remark towards the Fernandes models.
Now, it gets confusing when you go to the two websites:
Music Ground Official SiteFernandes-Owned SiteThey share the same artwork and so on...so whose making what? The UK site offers only the custom heads, whereas the US one has the much cheaper transistor models also, and advertises the Custom models as 'Made In The Custom Shops England'...so what I'm confused about are whether or not the heads offered by Fernandes are made by Fernandes themselves, or whether they are the UK Music Ground models and they are acting simply as a distributor? Either way, it seems kind of odd that a large company like Fernandes would act as a distributor for a small British based company. A comparable British company would be Matamp, and here's the difference between the UK site and the US distributors:
Matamp UK Official SiteMatamp US DistributorThe overseas distributor is a much smaller operation, basically just one guy really. So either the Fernandes models are different, and a 'Hi-Watt' might not necessarily be a real 'Hi-Watt'; or the small British company has a multinational acting as it's US distributor which just seems plain
odd. :mellow:
Also, there is this quote by Tom Petersson of Reeves Amps:
Reeves Amps came to be after a few conversations with Justin Harrison of Musicground in Leeds, U.K. During the course of one of our conversations Justin mentioned that they own and manufacture Hiwatt. Justin clued me in that Fernandes owned the Hiwatt name and trademark in the U.S., thus preventing Hiwatt U.K. from selling amps in the United States. Well, my wheels started to turn and I came up with the idea of re-badging the Hiwatt U.K. with "Reeves" since Dave Reeves started Hiwatt back in the '60s. What better way to keep the lineage going?
Full Interview HereReeves AmpsDo you see why I'm a little confused?
Anyway, yeah, Hi-Watts are great. I fully plan, in the next year or two, to get either a Hi-Watt or a Matamp (Matamps are great too, plus you can go to their factory, try all the amps, get it completely customised and so on. Cheaper than a Hi Watt too...oh, and Jimmy Page & Peter Green used them - the 'Orange' amplifiers used to be just one product Matamp offered before they branched off, but that's another story...). It took me a while to actually find a price for a HiWatt head online, but you're looking upwards of £1500.
