Revitalizing a Classic British Amplifier in 2024 and Making The Sound Last.
Written by Kahmel Farahani on March 3, 2024
Some people have such an infectious love of music and passion for technology that it can get you excited and intrigued just listening to their story. Speaking to Andrei Nicula, the director of Hylight Electronics (Amplification), it’s his childlike passion for amps and speakers that really captivates you. Andrei likes to talk about a time when bespoke and hand wired amps were cranked up to their full 100 watts of power and used to blow the doors off of most any space they were used in.
It’s a story that goes all the way back to 1966. Billed as the the home of hand-wired British amplifiers, Hylight Electronics, have teamed up to take the legacy and the best of British amp 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. Over the following decades, Hylight listened to guitar and bass players, listened to classic records they loved, reviewed all the written feedback they received, studied the market demands and decided to take their Holy Grail of amplifiers to its pinnacle.
Hylight say that their goal is to offer modern guitar players high quality military spec hand-wired amplifiers with optional features like: line output, effects loop, power attenuator, gain boost and channel switching. 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.
A regular at many a gig in and around London, Andrei recounts to me his days working in the guitar shops in Denmark street and the often famous faces who would pass through to try out the guitars and amps on offer. “We had this little old guy in a wheelchair come in one day and ask about these massive, stunning vintage Marshall heads in the window. He asked if he could try them out so we set them up and gave him a guitar. He hit a big E power chord and said he liked the sound and would take the lot of them. He thanked me for the help and invited me to the gig his band was playing the following night. I asked him where it was he was playing and what the band was called. He laughed and said “Wembley””. It turns out it was Mick Mars of Motley Crue fame.
Andrei says that his mission these days is to show off the craftsmanship and quality of the Hylight Electronics amplifiers and pedals. “These amps are all built to last a lifetime. That’s the new horizon, to make music with a kaleidoscope of sounds”.
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