MetalManiac
Li'l Junior Member
'74 DR504 Hylite Hywatt early preamp circuit is back from my master tech's bench.
Installed all new F&t caps, new Winged C "Cryogenic" NOS Svetlanas. Old stock preamp tubes. New Dale Screen Grid caps, Welwyn nOS resistor, a BiaS circuit added ( so sue me).All premium caps and a minimalistic approach -nothing replaced that didn't need to be.
AFter recap , it is extremely more punchy,Fat, Full , louder and if you look up "dynamic tube amp" in the dictionary, you would find the Hiwatt DR504-THE SINGLE MOST DYNAMIC AMP i HAVE EVER PLAYED.
I ain't gonna lie; I was actually kind of disappointed ; it lacked some of the magic I had heard before the recap, even with the old couple of bulging leaking caps, the flatline response and slow muddy veiled dynamics due to the old parts and tubes, weak biasing, etc...
It did start to warm up and sound better as I was playing to through the night- maybe tube burn in, or even the caps needed some voltage passed through them ?
Anyway, by the end of last night, It was sounding pretty darn good- I was starting to actually forget the old "capasitosis" thing tha sounded so good with all the worn out parts.I any event, I think most people who recap vintage amps are disappointed afterwards ..thats why Trucks keeps Gregs amp all stock.
edit- I have a lot iot this amp after recap, but this needed to be done. I got what I think was a decent deal on the unit- 1400 shipped , but after recap, it topped out at close to 1700.00 but i did trade some gear I ad so total cash on hand outlya was more like 1500.00, although now, it will outlive me without any issues, touch wood.
Also, I CAN see why the 100 watt Hiwatt is the best. Sadly for me, way out of my range, but I craved that extra headroom of the 100 watt Hiwatt which just wasn't there with my 50 watt. This is a design that begs for the 100 watt IMO, unlike the Marshall. Oh well.
Heres a slideshow for your bemusement;
http://s111.photobucket.com/user/dickdog1/slideshow/1974 Hiwatt DR504
Installed all new F&t caps, new Winged C "Cryogenic" NOS Svetlanas. Old stock preamp tubes. New Dale Screen Grid caps, Welwyn nOS resistor, a BiaS circuit added ( so sue me).All premium caps and a minimalistic approach -nothing replaced that didn't need to be.
AFter recap , it is extremely more punchy,Fat, Full , louder and if you look up "dynamic tube amp" in the dictionary, you would find the Hiwatt DR504-THE SINGLE MOST DYNAMIC AMP i HAVE EVER PLAYED.
I ain't gonna lie; I was actually kind of disappointed ; it lacked some of the magic I had heard before the recap, even with the old couple of bulging leaking caps, the flatline response and slow muddy veiled dynamics due to the old parts and tubes, weak biasing, etc...
It did start to warm up and sound better as I was playing to through the night- maybe tube burn in, or even the caps needed some voltage passed through them ?
Anyway, by the end of last night, It was sounding pretty darn good- I was starting to actually forget the old "capasitosis" thing tha sounded so good with all the worn out parts.I any event, I think most people who recap vintage amps are disappointed afterwards ..thats why Trucks keeps Gregs amp all stock.
edit- I have a lot iot this amp after recap, but this needed to be done. I got what I think was a decent deal on the unit- 1400 shipped , but after recap, it topped out at close to 1700.00 but i did trade some gear I ad so total cash on hand outlya was more like 1500.00, although now, it will outlive me without any issues, touch wood.
Also, I CAN see why the 100 watt Hiwatt is the best. Sadly for me, way out of my range, but I craved that extra headroom of the 100 watt Hiwatt which just wasn't there with my 50 watt. This is a design that begs for the 100 watt IMO, unlike the Marshall. Oh well.
Heres a slideshow for your bemusement;
http://s111.photobucket.com/user/dickdog1/slideshow/1974 Hiwatt DR504
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