Hiwatt Question

[braintheory]

So today I played a 1982 Hiwatt DR103 (dual input) and surprisingly it had tons of gain and also pretty compressed. I always thought Hiwatts where supposed to be super clean. I once played a Reeves Custom 50 (supposed to be a clone of a 50 watt Hiwatt DR103) at Destroy All Guitars and turned it up all the way and it was still clean. The guy at DAG said vintage Hiwatts were very clean. So can anyone one explain this contradiciton to me?

 

[Jofipe]

It's been modded.. they don't have tons of gain by any means. If you dime the preamp they have ACDC amounts of gain at max. However the beauty starts when you crank the volume also.

 

[university81]

i've got an older 4 hole from 76, super clean right up the dial, unless you're really cranking preamp + master and even then it's a kind of light crunch

never tried a 2 input version, but it really sounds like it was modded to me

 

[mrhiwatt]

Modded I would Say. I owned a 87 Lead 30 it had fair amount of distortion and 70's dr 50 which cranked had Ac/Dc
the Who type crunch. To get any more than that it had to have pedals. The Dr 50 is insanely loud when cranked totally unusable in a house type loud. David Gilmour probably uses Hiwatts the best set loud and clean and uses pedal for boost and distortion.

MrHiwatt

 

[Travis]

Vintage ones are typically medium gain at most. Pete Townshend's were probably the grainiest, and the Jimmy Page model used at Royal Albert hall certainly had more than a stock one, and that gain was footswich-able. Vintage piece vary from one to another just like Marshall's and Fenders but Hiwatts are probably the most consistent vintage amps because of the assembly.

 

[Mudder]

There are some nice options if you wanted a Hiwatt vibe with crunchy gain. Reeves has models that do that. Sioux Guitars also makes a gainy Hiwatt style called the Armor. Sounds great but I've never dealt with them.

There are some real solid pedals that pull it off too like the Catalinbread RAH, WIIO, and Hyperpak.

 

[braintheory]

Why then do some people describe the Soldano SLO or Wizards high gain channels as sounding Hiwatt-y?

 

[Mudder]

Why then do some people describe the Soldano SLO or Wizards high gain channels as sounding Hiwatt-y?

I think because there's not nearly so much compression or note overlap. Hiwatt is a clear tone with terrific note definition and even when pushed hard there's a clarity and separation to the strings/notes. I think some describe it as dry, but I'd just say there's no overrun. VHT is what I normally think of as a modern high gain Hiwatt.

 

[rupe]

An '82 is not what any Hiwatt afficionado would call vintage for starters...not sure what they may have been doing to their circuits to up the gain by that point in time.

An old Hiwatt is certainly capable of getting pretty aggressive when dimes, but they still retain a nice crack and clarity...they don't get compressed without outside help.