Hiwatt Hi-Gain 50 combo Chinese-manufacture Pt01 - Layout & Clean Sound

Since there are very few if any demos of the Chinese-made version of this UK-designed Hiwatt all-tube amp I decided I'd knock one together. Recorded using a TASCAM 2488mkII HD recorder with the amp close miked using a Shure SM57. I apologise for the switches between sound quality. The narration is done using a digital camera vid function and any poor sound quality is purely the shocking camera mic. Pt2 covers the overdrive and hi gain sounds using a low output Strat pickup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yau4Jzdg1cY
Pt3 shows the hi gain sounds yielded with a hotter pickup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN429Jtq3uk

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Hiwatt
• Hi-Gain
• 50
• combo
• 2x12
• Chinese
• all
• valve
• Fender
• Strat
• Kinman
• pickups

[jp6l6]

a real bore.

[kombik98]

@jp6l6 Cheers, fair call. If you already know how it works I can understand you'd rather just hear it. Did you watch the other review vids of mine? They have more playing.

[pgahiwatt]

the boost switch does not actually turn on the bright mode...try playing clean, hit boost on footswitch, then go to amp and pull the bright boost...i think the gain boost on f/switch just boosts the input...check out the who cover i posted today of naked eye..i used this amp...i bought mine from ebay new for 690 bucks del...effing bargain...the manual doesnt mention this either..weird...some uk models have reverb fx loop and mute for direct recording with speaker emulator, but they are $4G.

[kombik98]

I know, my combo was just AUD$739 on fleaBay. It would be nice to have the mute and the DI out but for that much difference in price I'll tough it out :o)

From what I can work out the treble boost is only a clean boost. It's of limited use but ok. I guess it would give you an edge playing clean blues or country solos. Are you running the original valves or have you swapped them for better ones?

[kombik98]

Yep, that's why it's called "layout and clean sounds". What did you think of what you heard?

[mourningleaves]

Playing starts at 5:27....

[pgahiwatt]

@kombik98 no..its bog stock but i also have a fane 2x12 cab together it sounds heaps better with better bottom end..i find the combo alone is a tad brittle...haha...i think we both love booteek muzik....hehe...i mic'ed the fane cab for my recording