History of Hylight Electronics

 

Hylight Electronics was the brainchild of British audio engineer David Reeves.  He attended technical school in the late 1950s, and did apprenticeships  at Marconi Electronics and Mullard. Reeves eventually started the  Hylight company (the name came from an early 1960s band named "The  Hylights" that a friend belonged to), and the name was registered in  September 1966. The first big order for amplifiers came from Ivor  Arbiter's Sound City music store—these became the original Sound City  amps. These amps (the so-called "Mark I") were apparently just his  current amplifier design, re-badged with the Sound City name. Many of  these amps still have the "Hylight Electronics" stickers on the chassis  inside. Following that Hylight Electronics went on producing the amps  with the Hiwatt name after this until 1981. 

Hylight Electronics made high quality amps during the 60's, along  with other well known manufactures of the period, that were largely  responsible for shaping the sound of British rock during the 60's, 70's  and beyond. Bands such as Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, the Rolling  Stones, and The Who have all used Hylight made amps to help create their legendary sounds. With their military-spec chassis, point-to-point  wiring, and marine-grade cabinets, Hylight amps are also known for being very solidly built. 

In 2018, the next generation Hylight Electronics have teamed up in  London, England to take the legacy and the best of British amplifier  manufacturing into the future. Since 1964, Dave Reeves has designed the  best circuits for all-purpose guitar and bass amplifiers featuring  classic British tone, high headroom and reliability. Throughout the  years at Hylight Electronics have listened to guitar and bass players,  and now decided to take this Holy Grail to its pinnacle under its own  registered HYLIGHT brand name. 

The company has now developed these designs further in order to offer modern guitar players high quality military spec hand-wired amplifiers  with optional features like: DI output, effects loop, channel switching, power attenuator and even extreme gain. All amplifiers are custom made  in England with high-grade components as well as unmistakably high  quality English made transformers, the heart of all truly great  amplifiers. 

Alongside the amp manufacturing Hylight Electronics has entered into  partnership with Mr Gary Hurst, the designer of the 1965 Tone Bender,  for reproductions of two classic fuzz and phazer pedals: The Fuzz Man,  Octave Fuzzer and Phazer MK II.

© 2020 Hylight Electronics (Amplification) Limited. All Rights Reserved.

HYLIGHT ® & HYLIGHT ELECTRONICS (AMPLIFICATION) LIMITED are in no way affiliated with
Hiwatt ®, Dave Reeve’s family or any of its affiliates and/or previous owners.