NAD: Hiwatt Custom Super-Hi 50 (WITH CLIPS)

[FourT6and2]

Ok had more time with it. Yup... best high-gain amp I've played to date. I've tried most of the amps out there and this one is it for me.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

Ok had more time with it. Yup... best high-gain amp I've played to date. I've tried most of the amps out there and this one is it for me.

I bet it's awesome Have you ever owned a Wizard to compare?

 

[misterspockyall]

Ok had more time with it. Yup... best high-gain amp I've played to date. I've tried most of the amps out there and this one is it for me.

Jeez, high praise. I’m on notice. What about it do you like so much. What styles does it do well?

 

[errrrrl]

So you bought it direct from Hiwatt UK? Clips please!

 

[FourT6and2]

I bet it's awesome Have you ever owned a Wizard to compare?

Never played a Wizard. Everyone says how awesome they are but all the clips sound bad to me. *shrug*

Jeez, high praise. I’m on notice. What about it do you like so much. What styles does it do well?

It just has the sound I've been chasing. I personally play a lot of prog rock/metal. But the tone I go for is more modern and less of that '90s metal sound. Bands I'm into are Tool, Muse, Karnivool, Tesseract, etc. But I like a really mid-heavy, angry, grind/growl and this amp delivers and I like the inherent voicing of the amp more than any other I've played.

I can never seem to get enough mid-range grind with most amps. I find myself maxing out the mids on many amp but can't get enough of that guttural jungle cat growl before the amp gets overly honky. Not the case with the Super-Hi. In fact, I find myself running the mids at like half way. The gain controls also behave differently. On most amps, as you run the gain higher and higher the amp gets more saturated and fizzy and overly compressed until it's just not usable. On the Super-Hi the amount of distortion doesn't really increase into white noise. Instead, the amp actually gets more "wet" sounding without getting fizzy. Hard to explain.

So you bought it direct from Hiwatt UK? Clips please!

Yeah. I'll make a clip soooooon. I'm busy this week.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

I bet it's awesome Have you ever owned a Wizard to compare?

Never played a Wizard. Everyone says how awesome they are but all the clips sound bad to me. *shrug*

Jeez, high praise. I’m on notice. What about it do you like so much. What styles does it do well?

It just has the sound I've been chasing. I personally play a lot of prog rock/metal. But the tone I go for is more modern and less of that '90s metal sound. Bands I'm into are Tool, Muse, Karnivool, Tesseract, etc. But I like a really mid-heavy, angry, grind/growl and this amp delivers and I like the inherent voicing of the amp more than any other I've played.

I can never seem to get enough mid-range grind with most amps. I find myself maxing out the mids on many amp but can't get enough of that guttural jungle cat growl before the amp gets overly honky. Not the case with the Super-Hi. In fact, I find myself running the mids at like half way. The gain controls also behave differently. On most amps, as you run the gain higher and higher the amp gets more saturated and fizzy and overly compressed until it's just not usable. On the Super-Hi the amount of distortion doesn't really increase into white noise. Instead, the amp actually gets more "wet" sounding without getting fizzy. Hard to explain.

So you bought it direct from Hiwatt UK? Clips please!

Yeah. I'll make a clip soooooon. I'm busy this week.

You just described the MCII with V transformer. Sounds like they're very similar. I bet I'd love the HiWatt!

 

[shred-o-holic]

So that's the amp that Mike Fortin designed/reconfigured. I have only heard the Maxwatt videos one in particular was Dino Cazares. I bet that thing is a monster \m/

 

[MetalHeadMike]

I listened to Jason's demo vid below, and while it sounds great, and Jason's playing is some of my favorite out there, I don't hear anything overly raw & aggressive, growling, or grinding in that tone. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome sounding thrash tone, but it just sounds...I don't know...smooth/refined maybe. But like I've said time & time again, clips are clips, and I'm sure it sounds quite different sitting in front of it. What would be most impressive in that tone however, is if Jason was plugged straight in with no eq in the loop and no boost.

I'd love to sit in the room and pound on one of these amps a bit!

 

[FourT6and2]

I listened to Jason's demo vid below, and while it sounds great, and Jason's playing is some of my favorite out there, I don't hear anything overly raw & aggressive, growling, or grinding in that tone. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome sounding thrash tone, but it just sounds...I don't know...smooth/refined maybe. But like I've said time & time again, clips are clips, and I'm sure it sounds quite different sitting in front of it. What would be most impressive in that tone however, is if Jason was plugged straight in with no eq in the loop and no boost.

I'd love to sit in the room and pound on one of these amps a bit!

None of these clips do the amp justice. The amp is different in person. It is absolutely savage, yet rather pleasant to listen to without any ear fatigue. These recent clips I'm seeing... I don't know... the amp doesn't sound anything like that to me here in the room. Could be anything—speakers, mic'ing technique, post processing, etc. Who knows.

But I guess this is at least closer to how it sounds in the room to me, although it's boosted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ANQ3b6tHQ
IMO the amp doesn't need a boost. But I'm playing in standard, not an de-tuned 8 string.

 

[Meeotch]

I'm really gassing for a Fortin Amp, and have my eye on this one or the new Cali. I'm leaning towards the Cali since it has a clean channel, and some pretty cool switching options, but when it comes down to it I just want a savage rhythm tone. Do you have an opinion on Fortin's Cali mod? Sounds like this new Cali is a mix of Killer Kali and Jose?

I'm guessing there is no midi in either of these, but I would love to have a footswitch-able effects loop too. Cheers!

 

[FourT6and2]

I'm really gassing for a Fortin Amp, and have my eye on this one or the new Cali. I'm leaning towards the Cali since it has a clean channel, and some pretty cool switching options, but when it comes down to it I just want a savage rhythm tone. Do you have an opinion on Fortin's Cali mod? Sounds like this new Cali is a mix of Killer Kali and Jose?

I'm guessing there is no midi in either of these, but I would love to have a footswitch-able effects loop too. Cheers!

This thing is better than any diode clipping Marshall circuit I've played. But it does not sound like a hot-rodded Marshall at all (a good thing).

 

[MetalHeadMike]

I listened to Jason's demo vid below, and while it sounds great, and Jason's playing is some of my favorite out there, I don't hear anything overly raw & aggressive, growling, or grinding in that tone. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome sounding thrash tone, but it just sounds...I don't know...smooth/refined maybe. But like I've said time & time again, clips are clips, and I'm sure it sounds quite different sitting in front of it. What would be most impressive in that tone however, is if Jason was plugged straight in with no eq in the loop and no boost.

I'd love to sit in the room and pound on one of these amps a bit!

None of these clips do the amp justice. What attracted me to this amp was a clip from a year or two ago at NAMM with the prototype. The amp is very different in person. It is absolutely savage, yet rather pleasant to listen to without any ear fatigue. These recent clips I'm seeing... I don't know... the amp doesn't sound anything like that to me here in the room. Could be anything—speakers, mic'ing technique, post processing, etc. Who knows.

If anybody is in the SF area they are welcome to stop by and try it out.


Will try to get a clip made soon.

But I guess this is at least closer to how it sounds in the room to me, although it's boosted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ANQ3b6tHQ
IMO the amp doesn't need a boost. But I'm playing in standard, not an de-tuned 8 string.

Agreed on your comments regarding recording. That's why you shouldn't write of the Wizard stuff! Ok...the style in that video is not my thing, but you can definitely hear an entirely different and much more aggressive voicing there in that clip. Like you said...technique, pickups, speakers...hell...I just think it's hard to capture the true nature/voicing of an amp in a recording period. It's just gonna sound different. I know when I listen to recordings I've done of my Wizard, I think well shit...it's missing this that or the other.

 

[FourT6and2]

Well, some bad news. I always check the bias on new amps. You never know what happens in shipping.

Plate voltage is around 510v (!). One of the tubes was reading 51mA and the other 28mA. So either they are just stupidly mismatched or one of them is bad. But the amp still sounds fine and I really don't see any red plating. Still, I don't want to pop a transformer if one of the tubes dies.

In the meantime, I did find a pair of tubes that would bias up. But there's no rating printed on them. They are super old, original Roznov Teslas from 1969. They sound pretty damn good I gotta admit. Not as tight in the low end as the modern JJs, but more snarl. In any event, clips are going to have to wait until new tubes arrive.

 

[Snave]

That's JJs for you. Put in a tube that can withstand those plate voltages, like SED or good Ruby (if you can find them). It's kind of silly to design EL34 amps with those kinds of plate voltages these days.

 

[hstlaurent]

Can you use kt88 in it?

 

[FourT6and2]

That's JJs for you. Put in a tube that can withstand those plate voltages, like SED or good Ruby (if you can find them). It's kind of silly to design EL34 amps with those kinds of plate voltages these days.

To be fair, this is the first problem I've had with a JJ tube in 20 years.
The annoying part is the amp doesn't have enough bias range. I need to order a pair of new tubes that test super low and it's going to be a bit of trial and error.

 

[Snave]

That's JJs for you. Put in a tube that can withstand those plate voltages, like SED or good Ruby (if you can find them). It's kind of silly to design EL34 amps with those kinds of plate voltages these days.

To be fair, this is the first problem I've had with a JJ tube in 20 years.
The annoying part is the amp doesn't have enough bias range. I need to order a pair of new tubes that test super low and it's going to be a bit of trial and error.

That's a shame. You could extend the bias range with a resistor change, no? Or do you want to keep it stock for warranty purposes?

My bad luck has been entirely with JJ EL34Ls. Not one set (out of 3-4 quads) lasted long without developing popping noises or other issues. Thought I was crazy until I saw Dan Gower had similar experiences. I stick with SED =C= now since I don't want to waste weeks returning faulty tubes.

 

[glip22]

That's JJs for you. Put in a tube that can withstand those plate voltages, like SED or good Ruby (if you can find them). It's kind of silly to design EL34 amps with those kinds of plate voltages these days.

To be fair, this is the first problem I've had with a JJ tube in 20 years.
The annoying part is the amp doesn't have enough bias range. I need to order a pair of new tubes that test super low and it's going to be a bit of trial and error.

My guess is that the designer wants this circuit to use cooler current draw tubes. Best bet would be to contact Eurotubes and tell one of them to pull the coldest quad they have. I had the same issue in an amp and I didn't want to change any resistors in this particular amp. I called them up and was able to bias up the tubes no problem.

 

[FourT6and2]

I don't think it's "designed" that way. After doing some reading, it seems to be a common problem with Hiwatts in general. They just have really narrow bias ranges and many people mod them with voltage doublers so they can bias tubes without the hassle. I can always just swap out the bias range resistor. But yeah... I'd like to keep it stock if I can.

I get my tubes from Antique Electronic Supply. They have good prices and their service has been great. So I called them up and ordered some tubes that test lower. I didn't want to go too low because then you neuter the amp.

 

[LP Freak]

Sounds like a pain in the ass to me