HiWatt Hi-Gain 50 Heads - anyone have any experiences?

impmann

Good or bad - anyone have 1st hand on these? 

timmysoft

Drive side is good, not really high gain, more a vintagey pushed tone. Clean side is whack. Reliability not great, i used to tech for a band that had one, liked to munch through a set of valves every 2 months and just loved throwing fuses.

impmann

Clean sound is 'whack'? Surely that's what a HiWatt is all about - does it not sound like a classic HiWatt (like the ads claim)?

What used to kill the valves? Bad bias? 

ICBM

impmann said:

Good or bad - anyone have 1st hand on these? 

Sound OK but not great, and unreliable as timmysoft said.

impmann said:

What used to kill the valves?

I wish I knew! A practice studio I know has a couple of them and the damned things are always breaking down, despite my best efforts. (And I really am trying, I'm not just using them as a source of guaranteed income.) Even when they blow just fuses and not the valves, I've never been able to find anything wrong with them on test, and I'm pretty brutal - full crank into a dummy load with both test signals and guitars, and they work fine with the currents well within the range where they couldn't be causing fuse 'nuisance blows'. A month or two later they come back with blown fuses and sometimes valves…

I know it could be cables, cabinets or impedance setting that's the problem and I have warned the studio about it, but I still can't be sure. I've biased the amps much cooler than stock too, but even that doesn't seem to make much difference.

I've also removed the occasional problem with filament fuse nuisance blows (which are harmless but stop the amp working) by bypassing the fuseholders - and the bias circuit fuse as well. These are unnecessary in an amp with a mains fuse, an HT fuse and individual valve fuses, and if the bias fuse was to fail for any (or no) reason it would definitely fry the valves.

Basically, just avoid unless you want trouble!

martinw

I've repaired a few....same issues with the bias fuse circuit, for example.

Personally I don't think they sound very good either.

impmann

OK, thanks for the input chaps - *really* appreciated. :-)

RichValentine

Could always buy one of the Custom Studio/Stage heads and get 20/40W... might be one in the classifieds... *cough*

impmann

I'd love that, Rich... but it's out of my price-range... unless you want to do a deal with a p90'd SG Classic?