The Story Of An Amp (and its Infamous Cabinet)

I was chatting back and forth in a Facebook post comment section the other day with my friend Duane Denison, well known as the guitarist in Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk, Cargo Cult and others. He had posted a photo of himself with his Hiwatt amp setup, and I wasn’t sure if he knew that I had bought a used Hiwatt cabinet (with his amp rig in mind when I got it). So i told him briefly about it, and decided that I would tell the story here. It’s not a long one.

I had been playing through whatever I could find for many years. During the early phase of Miracle Room, that was a solid state Peavey keyboard amp with a 15” speaker and the tweeter horn removed. It was a suitably gnarly sound, but I wanted a bit more tone. When Miracle Room recorded our self-titled EP at Water Music in Hoboken, the engineer (John Siket) sold me a Lab Series L-5 for $200 that was at the studio. If you don’t know about that amp, it was a solid state combo amp with the electronics designed by Bob Moog. It’s the most tubelike solid state amp I’ve ever played, WAY better than the cheesy sounding (to my ears) and ubiquitous Roland Jazz Chorus amp. And being solid state, it didn’t weigh a ton like most tube amps do.

When I moved back to Texas from New York in 2004, I found myself for the first time ever in possession of a van, and having a van I decided it was time I upgraded my guitar tone to a half-stack tube amp - a cabinet with four 12 inch speakers connected to an amp head. I knew I couldn’t afford what a desirable Marshall head would go for, so I did some research and discovered the Laney Pro-Tube Lead series. These were often described as the “poor man’s Marshall” (being British made and using similar tubes). I soon found one at the Cash America Pawn on South Lamar for about $250 and bought it. Now I needed a cabinet.

I decided to walk next door to a music instrument store called Musicmakers, and when I went back into their amp showroom, there was a used Hiwatt 4x12 cabinet. It had a price tag on it of $400. It didn’t take me long to inquire about it. The salesman came over, we hooked it up, and I played through it a while; sounded great! I decided to buy it and had the cash (as I recall). As I handed it over, I saw the salesman start to say something then catch himself and stop. I asked, “What?” He said he wasn’t sure he should tell me, so now I HAD to know.

He said, “Well, I’m not sure how you’ll take this, but the guy I got this cabinet from said that he had bought it from David Koresh.” I said, “Shit, man, I would have paid you extra for that!”

There is no signature or marking on it signifying ownership by Koresh, but it does have a band stencil on it from an early 70s Texas rock band named Navasota; their first record “Rootin’”, with a warthog face on the cover, was regularly seen in the cutout bins of record stores in the 70s. But it gets called “The Koresh” nonetheless!

A few years ago, my buddy Gary Chester (Ed Hall, Pong, We Are The Asteroid) gave me a Marshall logo off one of his amps, and I cut it and reversed the sections to say “all Marsh” and put that on the Laney head. I no longer have a van to move that beast around in, but I wouldn’t want to move it anyway unless I had extra help. The cabinet has wheels, but still weighs close to 100 lbs by itself. And I’ve added to my amp arsenal with a couple of small but loud amps: an Egnater Renegade 65w and a very loud Mesa Boogie DC-5 50w, both with single 12” speakers. And my go-to amp is a boutique Rivera 100 Duo Twelve 100w combo with two 12” speakers. That thing is LOUD af and has tons of tone.

But I still hope I get to pull out the Koresh for people again some day…

(Edit) I had to let go of this amp setup this past year, but the Hiwatt is in good hands (Jon Sanchez).