anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

[jvegas]

I played one about a month and half ago and totally fell in love with the nice defined smooth rock tone it came out with.. I played it ata guitar center under the vintage selection and i believe it was the Hiwatt D50L Head... i played it with a tele and a strat and It was the tone i had been looking for.

Im considering buying one and using an AB switch with that and my hot rod deville for my cleans...

anyone have these? Any problems with these amps? pros..cons??

Also is $890 a good price range for a used one in mint condition.

The one I played on was a had a decent amount of wear and tear but was $1000 but sounded great.

thanks

J

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

The amp you are talking about is a late 80's or early 90's American made Hiwatt and has nopthing in common at all with vintage Hiwatt amps except the name "Hiwatt". To be honest I can't tell you anything about them, you might look around at Plexi Palace and see what you can find. Good luck

[WhoFan]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

I saw a channel switching Hiwatt from the early 90's-(i think) for sale a few years ago... $400 for the head... They are circuitboard amps.... Unlike the old 70's ones that were hand wired.. But i'd say if you like the sound of that Hiwatt head you tried out and can get it for a good price i'd do it...

WhoFan

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

Like Christian said, the one you played is an American version....I've never played one & I'm sure the nay-sayers are just comparing them to the "Good Old Days". If it sounded good to you, who am I to say it sucked.

Anyway, I had a '82 Custom 50 DR504...50 watter made in England by the Biacrown Company. The Biacrown have a reputation of being grittier...in a good way...than the earlier Hylight models.

The main knock on them is 1) They're loud as F*CK & 2) trying to get them to naturally overdrive or get the slightest breakup is hard. You need to crank them, which brings us back to #1 !!!

Mine took nicely to a Weber MASS, which enabled me to drive the crap out of it, while keeping the volume down.

If you're looking for a "REAL" Hiwatt, look for those say '76-'84....or the VERY NEW ones; Fernandes USA & Music Ground or whatever the UK company was, have finally got their thumbs out of their A$$ES & realized they could BOTH make money by making amps to the original specs. The NEW ones are supposed to be VERY VERY GOOD!

If I was really in the market for one, I'd start here though:

https://www.reevesamps.com

I'm infatuated with the built in "Power Scaling"!!!


Try these links too....the MArk Huss one is very informative:

http://mhuss.com/Hiwatt/

http://www.hiwatt.com/

http://www.plexipalace.com/va/index.html (These guys are very knowledgable, but they aren't the friendliest bunch!).

Good luck!!!!!!!!!


Oh yeah, and don't get roped in by all the chassis that are "signed" by Harry Joyce. I'm guessing damn near all of those are fakes...any idiot with a sharpie can scrawl his H.J. on them

[The Golden Boy]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

I had an old Hiwatt halfstack- I'm guessing late 60's- Salt and Pepper grillecloth. I hated it. I got it because it was a cool, old amp, and it was dirt cheap. Maybe had it for a week. I don't care for Hiwatts to this day because of that one experience.

[WhoFan]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

I had an old Hiwatt halfstack- I'm guessing late 60's- Salt and Pepper grillecloth. I hated it. I got it because it was a cool, old amp, and it was dirt cheap. Maybe had it for a week. I don't care for Hiwatts to this day because of that one experience.

When they are working right they have this weird distorted sound to them that is still clean-ish that is not for everyone.. That throaty bassy crunch is amazing for somethings, but not for everyone...

WhoFan

[The Golden Boy]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

When they are working right they have this weird distorted sound to them

It was a really gritty OD that had no sustain on it. It didn't have the "sweet" sound I had associated with a good tube OD. Looking back, I probably should have done some poking around and tube swapping and stuff- but it's long, long gone.

[JeffB]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

Frank Hannon


All the HI-Watt goodness you could ask for...pristine cleans to supa fat crunchy high gain


but his are modded

[Luke Duke]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

The main knock on them is (1) They're loud as F*CK & (2) trying to get them to naturally overdrive or get the slightest breakup is hard. You need to crank them, which brings us back to #1 !!!

I think that we have a conodrum, or paradox.

The only rule, is there are no rules

Luke

[WhoFan]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

A guy i know has 4 Hiwatt heads.... a 73 100 watter, a 76 100, a 76 50watter, and a new PT signature head that is 120 watts... He says that they are all extremely loud! The 50 watter is enough to give you a punch in the face and a kick in the ass... He told me the only real difference between the 50 and 100's is minor clean headroom difference....

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

Yeah, I would definitely stay with the 50watter.....PLENTY loud!

I REALLY like that Reeves Custom 30. If it's ANYTHING like the originals, I'm sure it would be perfect.

[CapoFirstFret]

Re: anyone have or use hiwatt 50watt heads??

If you want the original Hiwatt tone but made better and you are willing to pay the price, check out Harry Joyce amps.