The Sound City music store in London during the mid ’60s was at the epicenter of British rock—as, of course, was Jim Marshall’s retail shop. However, Marshall was way ahead of Sound
The Sound City music store in London during the mid ’60s was at the epicenter of British rock—as, of course, was Jim Marshall’s retail shop. However, Marshall was way ahead of Sound City owner Ivor Arbiter, as his amps were already making a name for themselves on stages in the U.K. and abroad. As the story goes, Mr. Arbiter wanted to get in on the action, and he needed someone to design amps for him that could take on Marshall. He picked well in choosing Dave Reeves for the task, although it’s not at all clear as to how Reeves—who later went on to start Hiwatt—became involved with Sound City. A good guess is that Arbiter made him an offer to build a run of amps under the store name, and that’s what he did—for a while anyway.
Sound City didn’t start small, either, as Reeves developed a 100-watter straight away that was marketed as a lower-priced competitor to Marshall. After Reeves’ departure, Sound City amps went through some changes—seemingly for the worse—and were gone from the scene by the mid ’70s. Following the ultimate demise of Sound City, the name—along with all Arbiter rights—were acquired in 2016 by partners Steve Fryette and Neal Ostberg.
Fryette is a longtime Hiwatt fan, and he is very familiar with the designs created by Dave Reeves, so one might chalk it up to destiny that an opportunity came along that enabled him to design a new series of Sound City amps, which were introduced at the 2017 Winter NAMM show. What we have on review here are the Master Lead 50 head and SC30 combo that represent the first wave of Sound City models to roll out of their Southern California factory.
MASTER LEAD 50
In classic British form, the ML 50 has