Mah first hiwatt?

[frigid midget]

I'm just playing with the idea, I'm kinda always on the lookout for an amp that's 'better' than my current amp, in whatever way:)

I spotted a couple of possible good deals online. In both cases a DR504, which for obvious reasons seems preferable over its 100watt brother.

Wherever I look for reviews, it seems like "it nails teh Gilmour toanz" type of comments are supposed to win me over. I've got nothing against these guys or their bands, but neither Gilmour or Townsend have even the slightest influence on my amp choice here. Okay, I'll admit, The Who is awesome. But my point is: I don't play the same sort of guitars, or play remotely the same style of music.

I'm influenced hugely by 90s indie rock, and for the the last decade or so I'm into all sorts of math/post rock, etc. But for a while now I've been messing with heavier stuff a lot (stoner/sludge), for which my current amps (fender+vox) aren't quite suited.

I'm looking for a punchy attack, deep growling vintage-y low end, old school tube sag, nice note definition with chimey semi cleans dialed in...And lotsa lotsa power:) Don't know if any of that makes any sense, but untill I actually properly tried a hiwatt amp, that's for some reason the way I think of Hiwatt amps:)

Anyway, is there anything I should know about the new-ish line of DR504s, anything to pay extra attention to when trying one of these amps out? I normally wouldn't even bother to ask anyon's opinion beforehand, but these heads are damn expensive compared to the competition, so it's not exactly an easy decision.

For what it's worth: I play single coil fenders exclusively (tele/strat/jazzmaster), and a cheap baritone (teh brootz), and rely on fuzz peds a lot (duh). Part of the reason why I'm Hiwatt-curious: I've owned all kinda of vox/orange/fender/marshall amps, and I guess I want to try out a different classic flavour. Also, I happen to have a Hiwatt 4x12 cab from the 70s, with the original fanes. I'm guessin it shouldn't sound awefull with a Hiwatt head:)

[rfurtkamp]

90s "indie rock" was whatever Fender head was cheap (Bassman/Showman/etc), Roland Jazz Chorus, or Marshall.

I wouldn't associate a Hiwatt with any sort of tube sag thoough.

If you want one, you want one though. They're fine amps but well, aren't great at tiny volume and you pay for the name in spades.

[GAS KING]

I am/ I was in the same boat as you.....though I've made some shit happen this year.

On the tone side.......Yeah, my tone taste definitely falls into the bright, tight, crunchy, punchy........big but not super bassy.
Never cared much for the who, though I do like the guitar tones........like Pink Floyd, but never worship.

I was in a stoner rock band a few years ago (as the bass player), but am currently playing guitar in a LOUD spacey punk/hardcore thrash sort of thing....though lately we're doing more melodic heavy 90s alt sorta thing.

On the gear side, I'm currently using a Egnater/Rocktron TOL100 head.....which has a snappy clean channel......some have said Vox mixed with Fender. Love this amp...have been using it for years now.
I also use a Mesa Heartbreaker head or the JTM head I built sometimes.......I blew my Trace Elliot SpeedTwin head.....which was okay sounding when it worked.

I typically play humbucker guitars.........Agile LP, Hofner VeryThin, Iceman.... (my SG too....but it's fucked lately)
...but I've also used a Jazzmaster, CS First Act Delia w/P90s, HSS Ibanez Roadstar.


That said, I had the HiWatt bug for a long time.....just always turned off by the price. Kept trying to find a Reeves at an affordable price......with no luck.

I found a Sound City 120 on eBay a few months ago.....it had supposedly been rebuilt into a Hiwatt.......but it wasn't.
Sounded like shit. Wasn't wired up right. It was the harshest, brightest amp I've ever heard.
Got in contact with a amp tech and sent it off to him to be completely rebuilt.
Should be done within the next few weeks.
Which will be insane. 6 power tubes.....probably more than I'll ever need.....but also very badass.

In the meantime, I managed to work out a deal on a Trinity TriWatt.
When I first plugged it in, I was like "oh fuck YES! this thing is awesome"
with 6V6s it's around 22w, and KT66s around 38w....I think.....which is right on the lower cusp of what I can practically use live with the band. My JTM is around that, but I had to use high efficiency speakers to use it without a PA.
Supposedly similar to a true Hiwatt. I really have no baseline for comparison.
All I can say is that it sounds really good.
Set up clean, it does take some volume to get it in the sweet spot.......like when your pick attack is heavy and it just barely starts to break up.....that's where it sounds best to me.
with the OD switch pulled it gets a lot louder, and I think the TriWatt has more gain than a typical Hiwatt with built in gain.
It's a wonderful gain tone too. Just powerful, rich, and commanding. The thing I like most is the clarity.....it's high gain, but also very clear. That's something I typically have a hard time getting from pedals.

:blah: didn't expect to type all of that...........blabbering.......

Anywho, whatever it takes for you to get one......do it.

[chillerthanmost]

Don't associate new Hiwatt with vintage Hiwatt. It's just the name that was bought out. Different circuit, different parts, different quality, different sound. Plus for the price of a modern Hiwatt you can probably find a vintage Hiwatt. I would say stick to the 100w if you want power, the 50w will only be loud the very first time you plug it in, but once you've had it for a few days you will want the 100w. Might also depend what your band is like, but I couldn't keep up with a 50w. I have a 1968 Sound City 100 which is nearly identical to a vintage DR103. The Sound City has a bit more balls and hair behind it though. It's crazy huge sounding in every way possible, and by far the best amp I've had (and I've had about a dozen other vintage amps). Anyways, a vintage Hiwatt will give you almost anything you throw at it, as far as type of sound. They are pretty versatile and shine with good pedals. Just pair it with the right speakers, if you have original Fanes than it will sound great, though it might be a hair piercing with certain fuzz pedals. My band recently played with Black Cobra and the guitarist was using a vintage Hiwatt DR103 and it sounded beautiful. A bit cleaner than my Sound City but perfect for having several pedals to fall back on. Anyways, just my opinion. I've had four different Sound City (early MK3's and later MK4's) amps, have played a handful of Hiwatt amps (dual inputs and quad inputs), and am a pretty big Dave Reeves/Hylight Electronics fanboy. I don't even let anyone work on them but myself, ha! But yeah, if you have a 70's Hiwatt cab, then get a vintage DR or at least look out for an early MK3 Sound City. They've actually been popping up a lot more lately than before, and still much cheaper than a real Hiwatt. Keep in my Dave Reeve's designed the Sound City MK3 and earlier circuits while he was building Hiwatt's at home with nearly the same exact circuit, but he had nothing to do with the MK4 Sound City amps, so don't fall for anything that says a Sound City is a Hiwatt if it's after a Mark III. Hope any of this helps. Good luck.

(and for reference in comparison to other amps; I've had/played vintage JMPs, ampegs, traynors, univox, fender, sunn, sovtek, and peavy amps. The only other amps I've liked as much is my YBA-3 and my blueline SVT, which are the only other two amps I've kept aside my MK3 100. I did really like my Sunn Sorado but it was just a hair behind at 60w when we would play live, plus Sunn's have a bit more sag than any of the others and I couldn't use as many pedals. Four input JMP's are excellent and sound great but sound like a Marshall no matter how you run them and what you run through them. They spit out the words "Marshall!" right through the speakers, that isn't necessarily a bad thing at all. My two Ampeg v4's were dark and dull sounding. The earlier one sounded better, specially once I spent a good buck getting good power and preamp tubes, but they did always shine with bright pedals and single coil guitars. Traynor's are great and get close to a Marshall "feel" without sounding like a marshall, but they are no Hiwatt. Same with Sovtek (my MIG sounded more like a v4 than a Marshall). Nothing really get's close to the Hiwatt sound besides my old MK3 Sound City's. And of course probably some modern clones that I've never played. Feel free to ask anything if you want more details in how those compare to what you're looking for. I ramble as well, so maybe none of this even makes sense.)