itsgoodnow
Well-known member
Hey all,
I wanted toss some info out there on this amp in case anyone was wondering about it. I got a Hiwatt Custom Super Hi-50 a little bit ago but really only got prolonged play time with it recently. First, the amp looks slick. It has that 70s black and white look Hiwatt is known for. If Darth Vader were an amp he would be this amp.
Some key points that apply, it is an incredibly open amp. Similar to Wizards I have owned. I had this next to my 1970 Marshall Super PA and the two felt similarly open (and dare I say articulate). That is a big achievement for a modern amp, particularly with so much gain on tap. There is voicing that reminds me of the Fryette deliverance, but this is more open and, I hate to use this word, but more organic in the way it plays and how the sound comes out. Also similar to my DR103, the amp is also really fucking loud (luckily this amp has a very good master volume).
Boring part first, it cleans up insanely well, and you can easily get that clean Hiwatt top end bite cranking the power section and lowering the front end gain. I have a DR103 and it easily covers the same ground and the lineage of this amp is very clear when you're not juicing it for gain.
Moving on to the more fun stuff, the gain side. There is a standard mode and the foot switchable 4th gain stage. Both sound great and I do not think they are wildly different, the 4th gain stage adds (of course) more gain, and a little bit more compression. It definitely thickens the tone. The part I truly love about this amp is that the knobs all wildly impact the tone shaping ability. The EQ controls work really well. It is a (partially) Fortin designed amp, and I'm sure people worry that the lows on the amp would be thinner (as some people's impressions are of his amps). That is not the case here. You can thin it out to get the thinner low end to make sure it is very tight, or you can get a controllable fat ass on your bass frequencies. There are a lot of options and it can kind of do it all.
My favorite aspect are the 2 gain knobs. Essentially Gain 1 is low-mid frequencies (more of the grind) and Gain 2 is high-mids (more of the bite). The more you add or subtract to these knobs the more it affects the tone of the amp. I am a Marshall guy, but found myself running both dials at noon, or favoring a bit more grind than high-mids (which is where Marshalls live). It can be a fucking grind-fest easily--think the grind portion of we die young. It can do a less nasally upper mid thing just as easily. The amp also can get incredibly thick and doomy if you want. Not my style but it is in there.
The amp can be very articulate, but where it excels is really at having the notes felt even through a very thick wall of sound. I tend to favor marshall style amps because a well tuned one can have intense note separation in a chord. Here, you can feel the notes but they are not popping off individually it is more of a defined wall of sound. Very different but, even as a Marshall-nerd, very nice and huge.
The feel is very natural and nice. It is a tighter amp. Not the tightest, but pretty damn tight. I am sure it would tighten up with a boost, but I really do not find it necessary. It is not stiff. It is very easy to play. Lead notes really pop off nicely.
If anyone is looking for an alternative to the high gain Marshall or Mesa sound (particularly if you want grind instead of the Marshall kerrang), while still retaining the ability to have vintage voicing, this would be my recommendation. It is more than different enough to justify its existence in a sea of other amps. I would place this in my top 5 amps I have ever played and would purchase it again.
I wanted toss some info out there on this amp in case anyone was wondering about it. I got a Hiwatt Custom Super Hi-50 a little bit ago but really only got prolonged play time with it recently. First, the amp looks slick. It has that 70s black and white look Hiwatt is known for. If Darth Vader were an amp he would be this amp.
Some key points that apply, it is an incredibly open amp. Similar to Wizards I have owned. I had this next to my 1970 Marshall Super PA and the two felt similarly open (and dare I say articulate). That is a big achievement for a modern amp, particularly with so much gain on tap. There is voicing that reminds me of the Fryette deliverance, but this is more open and, I hate to use this word, but more organic in the way it plays and how the sound comes out. Also similar to my DR103, the amp is also really fucking loud (luckily this amp has a very good master volume).
Boring part first, it cleans up insanely well, and you can easily get that clean Hiwatt top end bite cranking the power section and lowering the front end gain. I have a DR103 and it easily covers the same ground and the lineage of this amp is very clear when you're not juicing it for gain.
Moving on to the more fun stuff, the gain side. There is a standard mode and the foot switchable 4th gain stage. Both sound great and I do not think they are wildly different, the 4th gain stage adds (of course) more gain, and a little bit more compression. It definitely thickens the tone. The part I truly love about this amp is that the knobs all wildly impact the tone shaping ability. The EQ controls work really well. It is a (partially) Fortin designed amp, and I'm sure people worry that the lows on the amp would be thinner (as some people's impressions are of his amps). That is not the case here. You can thin it out to get the thinner low end to make sure it is very tight, or you can get a controllable fat ass on your bass frequencies. There are a lot of options and it can kind of do it all.
My favorite aspect are the 2 gain knobs. Essentially Gain 1 is low-mid frequencies (more of the grind) and Gain 2 is high-mids (more of the bite). The more you add or subtract to these knobs the more it affects the tone of the amp. I am a Marshall guy, but found myself running both dials at noon, or favoring a bit more grind than high-mids (which is where Marshalls live). It can be a fucking grind-fest easily--think the grind portion of we die young. It can do a less nasally upper mid thing just as easily. The amp also can get incredibly thick and doomy if you want. Not my style but it is in there.
The amp can be very articulate, but where it excels is really at having the notes felt even through a very thick wall of sound. I tend to favor marshall style amps because a well tuned one can have intense note separation in a chord. Here, you can feel the notes but they are not popping off individually it is more of a defined wall of sound. Very different but, even as a Marshall-nerd, very nice and huge.
The feel is very natural and nice. It is a tighter amp. Not the tightest, but pretty damn tight. I am sure it would tighten up with a boost, but I really do not find it necessary. It is not stiff. It is very easy to play. Lead notes really pop off nicely.
If anyone is looking for an alternative to the high gain Marshall or Mesa sound (particularly if you want grind instead of the Marshall kerrang), while still retaining the ability to have vintage voicing, this would be my recommendation. It is more than different enough to justify its existence in a sea of other amps. I would place this in my top 5 amps I have ever played and would purchase it again.
