Hiwatt Leeds (Solid State) - Has anybody tried one?

NCo

I’ve just learnt about Hiwatt’s Leeds range and I am super intrigued. For some reason there are very few reviews out there, which is a shame.

I wonder if anyone here tried one and can comment on how goos they are and whether or not these amps have the Hiwatt character?

I currently have the Super Crush 100 which is a fantastic amp, and I’m not keen on any tube amp. I am really keen on buying one of ehe 50\150 versions (head) and any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

rze99

I wonder too.  

ICBM

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

borntohang

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

When we took over from MusicGround some of the Maxwatt range was redesigned as the Crunch series and some models were totally dropped - Mike Fortin actually worked on those redesigns with us and the idea was to bring the range closer to the 'Hiwatt sound' as opposed to generic SS amps. The Leeds are a further update of some of the Crunch range mixed with totally new product like the Leeds 25 (which is actually my personal favourite).

@NCo I'm not registered on here to be an official Hiwatt rep and this is my personal account which pre-dates my time with the company so I don't want to be seen as shilling in any way, but I'll be happy to answer any spec questions you might want to know. I've done most of the demos on the official YT channel which hopefully get the point across despite my average playing!

 

NCo

borntohang said:

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

When we took over from MusicGround some of the Maxwatt range was redesigned as the Crunch series and some models were totally dropped - Mike Fortin actually worked on those redesigns with us and the idea was to bring the range closer to the 'Hiwatt sound' as opposed to generic SS amps. The Leeds are a further update of some of the Crunch range mixed with totally new product like the Leeds 25 (which is actually my personal favourite).

@NCo I'm not registered on here to be an official Hiwatt rep and this is my personal account which pre-dates my time with the company so I don't want to be seen as shilling in any way, but I'll be happy to answer any spec questions you might want to know. I've done most of the demos on the official YT channel which hopefully get the point across despite my average playing!

 

If this is you, then average you are not!

https://youtu.be/wqHWWMGndOE?feature=shared

I heard similar things regarding the Leeds being an upgrade over the crunch in terms of build quality, so it’s reassuring. I’d mainly like to know how much of the Hiwatt character do they have? Any main differences between the 25, 50 and the 150 head versions? And really, any personal feedback you have playing these.

Really appreciated, thank you!

NCo

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

Neither did I until two days ago, which is odd as these have been out for a while. I wonder if this is intentional on behalf of Hiwatt’s marketing team.

StefB

I first chanced upon these when researching the Laney Lionheart Foundry combos last year.

Here's a thread from TGP, relevant info starts at comment #40, page 2, where an actual owner describes it quite well, and seems/seemed to love it - https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/new-laney-lionheart-foundry-60-watt-analog-ss-combos.2570757/page-2

Pricing on them is very reasonable too, I was/am tempted with the B-Stock 150w head at £295 delivered from Andertons - https://www.andertons.co.uk/search.php?search_query=hiwatt+leeds&cio_inStock=True

ICBM

StefB said:

Pricing on them is very reasonable too, I was/am tempted with the B-Stock 150w head at £295 delivered from Andertons

That looks like a bargain. The proportions of the head look better visually than the 50W one as well - although I’m not normally a fan of the wasted space in a solid-state head trying to look like a valve one.

I love the name too - a neat double pun .

Is the ‘0001’ in the description the serial number?

borntohang

NCo said:

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

Neither did I until two days ago, which is odd as these have been out for a while. I wonder if this is intentional on behalf of Hiwatt’s marketing team.

We have a marketing team??

Jokes aside we're a small company right now and wanted to take our time getting ducks into place before we start running (apologies for mixing metaphors). And yes that's me in the 50 video.

The 25, 50, and 150 are all different amps really:

- The Leeds 25 is the only one with a class-D power section and the overdrive channel goes up from clean to roughly mid gain levels. I've actually been gigging the 25H for about six months in 100-300 cap venues using a HG112 cab and my other guitarist has just started using the 110 combo version. We're all very happy with it.
- Leeds 50 is based on the Crunch 50 with some reliability updates and some changes to the voicing. The gain channel is mid to high gain and the Vintage/Heavy switch changes the EQ and gain range.
- Super Leeds 150 and 300 use the same preamp with different power amps. Three channels with a shared EQ on the Drive channels but independent volume and gain controls. Gain goes all the way from totally clean to high gain.

All three amps have spring reverb and effects loops. We've tried to aim for Hiwatt voicing on the clean channel so uncompressed and bright when you want that, and great pedal platforms. The cleans won't distort if you push them: that's either a good or bad thing depending on your view so if you do want pushed cleans the Leeds 25 will probably be your guy.

NCo

borntohang said:

NCo said:

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

Neither did I until two days ago, which is odd as these have been out for a while. I wonder if this is intentional on behalf of Hiwatt’s marketing team.

We have a marketing team??

Jokes aside we're a small company right now and wanted to take our time getting ducks into place before we start running (apologies for mixing metaphors). And yes that's me in the 50 video.

The 25, 50, and 150 are all different amps really:

- The Leeds 25 is the only one with a class-D power section and the overdrive channel goes up from clean to roughly mid gain levels. I've actually been gigging the 25H for about six months in 100-300 cap venues using a HG112 cab and my other guitarist has just started using the 110 combo version. We're all very happy with it.
- Leeds 50 is based on the Crunch 50 with some reliability updates and some changes to the voicing. The gain channel is mid to high gain and the Vintage/Heavy switch changes the EQ and gain range.
- Super Leeds 150 and 300 use the same preamp with different power amps. Three channels with a shared EQ on the Drive channels but independent volume and gain controls. Gain goes all the way from totally clean to high gain.

All three amps have spring reverb and effects loops. We've tried to aim for Hiwatt voicing on the clean channel so uncompressed and bright when you want that, and great pedal platforms. The cleans won't distort if you push them: that's either a good or bad thing depending on your view so if you do want pushed cleans the Leeds 25 will probably be your guy.

I am more interested in the cleans, so I could do without the extra gain. Do they all sound the same in bedroom levels? And here’s probably the most expected question of them all: How Gilmourish do they get?

JayGee

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

The MaxWatts (at least the bigger 50/100 Watt ones) actually make bloody good pedal platform (in the “make pedal sounds loud” way rather than the “add special sauce” way) amps. A venue I’ve been playing jam nights and the odd gig at for years has one of the 50 Watt combos as a “house” amp, I’ve used it a number of times when we haven’t had enough “nice” backline to go around at Jam night and once you get round the idea of a cheap solid state amp with that branding and livery it’s pretty decent. It’s also put up with a lot of abuse over an extended period so I don’t think the internal build quality can be too bad…

If the Leeds series follow the same pattern then you could do a heck of a lot worse at the price point!

ICBM

JayGee said:

The MaxWatts (at least the bigger 50/100 Watt ones) actually make bloody good pedal platform (in the “make pedal sounds loud” way rather than the “add special sauce” way) amps. A venue I’ve been playing jam nights and the odd gig at for years has one of the 50 Watt combos as a “house” amp, I’ve used it a number of times when we haven’t had enough “nice” backline to go around at Jam night and once you get round the idea of a cheap solid state amp with that branding and livery it’s pretty decent. It’s also put up with a lot of abuse over an extended period so I don’t think the internal build quality can be too bad…

Exactly - they look as if they should be a bit flimsy, but in fact seem quite robust. They’re clearly built down to a budget, but they seem to have cut the *right* corners.

NCo

ICBM said:

JayGee said:

The MaxWatts (at least the bigger 50/100 Watt ones) actually make bloody good pedal platform (in the “make pedal sounds loud” way rather than the “add special sauce” way) amps. A venue I’ve been playing jam nights and the odd gig at for years has one of the 50 Watt combos as a “house” amp, I’ve used it a number of times when we haven’t had enough “nice” backline to go around at Jam night and once you get round the idea of a cheap solid state amp with that branding and livery it’s pretty decent. It’s also put up with a lot of abuse over an extended period so I don’t think the internal build quality can be too bad…

Exactly - they look as if they should be a bit flimsy, but in fact seem quite robust. They’re clearly built down to a budget, but they seem to have cut the *right* corners.

There’s some great information in the following thread, including pictures of the internals, would be great to get your view on it:

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/im-a-closet-hiwatt-admirer-opinions-of-the-new-ss-crunch-and-leed-amps.2573895/

ICBM

That’s very well made. Like the Orange Crush Pro it’s an old-school linear power supply and Class AB power section. It’s actually nothing that couldn’t have been build the same thirty or forty years ago - there’s no new tech in it. Through-hole components throughout, decent pots, massive heat sink for the power transistors, no fan cooling (that’s good), well laid out and nicely assembled.

In particular, notice that the two large resistors on the power amp board are mounted on proper stand-off posts - one of the common failures on PCB amps is resistors like this either being mounted directly to the board so they cook their solder joints, or held up away from the board by their own leads so they vibrate and crack the joints instead… the devil is in the detail, PCB is actually very reliable if the correct design choices are made like this and not penny-pinched.

The only real weak points I can see are that most of the jacks are poor - apart from the speaker and I think the input ones, that ‘box’ type is brittle and easy to break if the cable gets tugged - and the power transformer mounting brackets are maybe too flimsy. You can fix the jacks if they break by replacing them with a chassis-mount type and flying leads to the board, and some large washers under the bolt heads would help hold the PT on better.

If the electrical circuit design is good - I don’t see any reason for it not to be, this type of circuitry is very well understood, and just takes a tiny bit of conservative spec’ing of components to make it almost perfectly reliable - then there’s nothing to worry about at all.

guitars4you

borntohang said:

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

When we took over from MusicGround some of the Maxwatt range was redesigned as the Crunch series and some models were totally dropped - Mike Fortin actually worked on those redesigns with us and the idea was to bring the range closer to the 'Hiwatt sound' as opposed to generic SS amps. The Leeds are a further update of some of the Crunch range mixed with totally new product like the Leeds 25 (which is actually my personal favourite).

@NCo I'm not registered on here to be an official Hiwatt rep and this is my personal account which pre-dates my time with the company so I don't want to be seen as shilling in any way, but I'll be happy to answer any spec questions you might want to know. I've done most of the demos on the official YT channel which hopefully get the point across despite my average playing!

 

Something is nagging me about these in that the Tanglewood Distributor was selling these for a while - Tony Flatt ????? - Not sure if this was part of a UK distribution or say a northern distribution - Also something tells me that Strings and Things, for a while also had them in the catalogue - I'm going back around 20 years - I might have purchased some for stock, but it was a low key thing at best 

chrisj1602

@borntohang how loud does the 25R combo get? Looks a great amp for the money!

guitars4you

guitars4you said:

borntohang said:

ICBM said:

Interesting… I didn’t know anything about these.

There was an older series called MaxWatt which was surprisingly good-sounding and reliable, even though the build quality wasn’t anything special and they looked a bit cheap. Not brilliant, but better than an average low-end solid-state amp, and I don’t think I ever saw a dead one.

These look better made, at least from the outside.

When we took over from MusicGround some of the Maxwatt range was redesigned as the Crunch series and some models were totally dropped - Mike Fortin actually worked on those redesigns with us and the idea was to bring the range closer to the 'Hiwatt sound' as opposed to generic SS amps. The Leeds are a further update of some of the Crunch range mixed with totally new product like the Leeds 25 (which is actually my personal favourite).

@NCo I'm not registered on here to be an official Hiwatt rep and this is my personal account which pre-dates my time with the company so I don't want to be seen as shilling in any way, but I'll be happy to answer any spec questions you might want to know. I've done most of the demos on the official YT channel which hopefully get the point across despite my average playing!

 

Something is nagging me about these in that the Tanglewood Distributor was selling these for a while - Tony Flatt ????? - Not sure if this was part of a UK distribution or say a northern distribution - Also something tells me that Strings and Things, for a while also had them in the catalogue - I'm going back around 20 years - I might have purchased some for stock, but it was a low key thing at best 

Found some old stock book info - Looks like around 2004 I purchased and sold a few G100/112R models for around £290 - 100 watt combo 1x 12 - And a similar format but 40 watt - G40/12R for £169 - And I purchased them from Tanglewood Distributor

borntohang

@guitars4you before any of our times here unfortunately so wouldn't know names, but MG did used to go through Strings and Things. We're self-distributing to dealers in the UK at the moment.

@chrisj1602 with it being a 25w 10" open back combo there will be some inherent limitations for how much volume and bass it can push, but I've absolutely been gigging both head and combo with a moderately loud rock band and PA support - crunchy cleans and then a boost pedal for a step up. We've been working on a demo video of the combo keeping up with a drummer and bassist, but it's kind of hard to get the exact volume across without being in the room!

Litterick

Some positive comments about the Super Leeds in r/Hiwatt.

JayGee

borntohang said:

…with it being a 25w 10" open back combo there will be some inherent limitations for how much volume and bass it can push, but I've absolutely been gigging both head and combo with a moderately loud rock band and PA support - crunchy cleans and then a boost pedal for a step up. We've been working on a demo video of the combo keeping up with a drummer and bassist, but it's kind of hard to get the exact volume across without being in the room!

On the basis of my Mesa 5:25 I’d say that 25 Watts and 1x10” in an open backed cabinet can actually go quite a long way even without help from a PA!

ICBM

JayGee said:

On the basis of my Mesa 5:25 I’d say that 25 Watts and 1x10” in an open backed cabinet can actually go quite a long way even without help from a PA!

There’s quite a difference in usable volume between valve and solid-state though - and I say that even as a solid-state enthusiast. There are real physical reasons for it, not snobbery.

I would expect to need at least twice the power, with even a well-designed and built solid state amp, to achieve the same perceived volume as a valve amp through the same speaker.