Jimmy Page’s Hiwatt Custom 100

Page started using the Hiwatt Custom 100 amplifiers around mid-1969, on Led Zeppelin’s North American summer tour. In the start, he was using them exclusively, but around 1971 he added a Marshall 1959SLP to his rig and used it together with the Hiwatt. Around late 1971, the Hiwatt was gone and Jimmy stuck to the Marshall only.

So, after the Vox, I looked around and everyone was using Marshall amps, so of course I wanted to do something different, so I got the Hiwatt, which had a foot-switch overdrive. Eventually I did go on to the Marshalls.

Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page

The amps that Jimmy used were custom versions of Hiwatt’s amps with a few modifications to give them more gain. Based on the schematic posted by Hiwatt, the amp is largely the same as the Hiwatt DR103 with the addition of a choke.