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"The Who" Isle of Wight" Hiwatt & P90 tone

carlygtr56

Les Paul Froum Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2003
Messages
311
So, I'm confused. I thought that Pete's tone was just the SG into the Hiwatts and that he only cut the fuzz on for certain passages. Is that not the case?

Cause if he left the fuzz on the whole time, I'm going out and buying one!!!! What a great guitar tone. It's my personal favorite.

he turned the fuzz on and off.
 

Drawrein

New member
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
1,075
The isle of wight dvd is a good dvd , I have had it for a while . I was reading a townsend interview a while back where he said that he prefered to find a guitar that goes with his amps instead of amps that go with his guitars . He also said that his reason for the hiwatts was his search for high wattage fender amp tone and that the hiwatts were the closest he got .

Makes sense since he went with 4 or so blonde Vibroverbs(?) a few years back. Dont know what he's using on this years tour however.

D
 

HighwayStar

Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2004
Messages
278
I'm not sure how far apart these two shows happened
Live at Leeds: February 14th 1970
Isle of Wight: August the same year

Definitely something about that Leeds venue that contributes to the great tone (or the recording process).
 

mthrunn

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2019
Messages
52
I recall reading somewhere that Pete's HiWatts were modified with cascading preamp stages - more distortion. Similar to what later became master volume amps.

Thread resurrection!

This is a common myth. In reality, the CP circuit is just different than the DR- it’s not a “modded” DR circuit. And no, it has an extra preamp tube because, unlike the DR circuit, the CP has 4 independent channel inputs.

But yeah this is my holy grail tone. Spurned years of Hiwatt mania
for me, that’s still going strong.
 

corpse

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 9, 2007
Messages
4,876
The following night after Leeds was Hull- I am sure part of the compilation J45 is talking about (J45 where are you???) What has always struck me was the delay- it sounds like a tape delay. "Sparks" is really a guitarists Desert Island track.
 

MapleFlame

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 3, 2005
Messages
14,044
Great resurrection. Has it really been 12 years. Zang, goes by fast.
 
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