How small is too small and how materials matter – Hiwatt has the answer?

As our our domestic lives change and space is ever frequently becoming an issue where does the guitarist turn to when it comes to either small and compact vs tone and weight. There has been a big trend over the last few years of developing smaller, more compact valve amplification which caters for both home and small live use, as with everything in life there is a point where small becomes too small….just look at the trend in mobile phones…these are now getting bigger rather than smaller with the launch of devices such as the iPhone 6 plus.

Guitar amplifiers, although a different beast often have the same trade off i.e. how many features can you fit on a chassis without diminishing the original design/sound. The Hiwatt Little Rig series  was one of those projects…They had to essentially fit one of their 100W chassis into a small 20w compact boxes. After various modifications to the initial design they where very impressed with how their Little Rig series amplifiers both perform and look. The internals continue the long heritage of point to point wired amplifiers without resulting to the PCB method which other manufacturers have chosen in order to reduce size.

In the 2000s Hiwatt did experiment with a 7w which had small amounts of success but 20W seems to be the optimum point which people will buy/use. This wattage point then dictates the physical size of the amplifier.

Another issue is weight, a Hiwatt is a pretty heavy bit of kit with 100w heads weighing around the 35kg mark. They continue to make their amplifiers out of premium birch ply but again this all adds to the weight of the amplifier, maybe in the future there will be materials which offer the same sonic properties but at a reduced weight without going down the Gibson Reson-wood option….. it would be interesting to see a carbon fibre Hiwatt!