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Hiwatt SA212 RV

Although pretty much all Hiwatt amplifiers bare the caption “Custom Built”, few of them were in reality. There are a few famous custom models such as the Jimmy Page, the Pete Townshend or the John Entwistle (The Ox) amplifiers. But this particular 70’s model is probably one of the most worthy of displaying the Custom adjective. Although it apparently is not so rare in northern Europe and Germany (I have also seen another one in Geneva a few years ago), it is one of the very few Hiwatts to offer reverb and tremolo.
The overall circuit is exactly what anyone would expect from these British workhorses, with a 60’s style preamp circuit and the addition of a great capacitor coupled reverb that sounds good for anything including Surf music. The tremolo is acceptable but its Depth control is all but progressive. As always, the twin Fane speakers really bring up the magic in this amp and it is a wonder why Hiwatt didn’t include this deep boingy reverb in more amplifiers.

Unfortunately, there is a price to pay for such an amount of great tone, and that is wheight! Be sure to invest in a rugged set of castors if you plan to use one of these.