Hiwatt Hi-Gain 50 combo Chinese-manufacture Pt2 - Overdrive & Hi Gain Sounds

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. Pt1 addresses the layout and clean sound of this amp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE0fi26wByw

Pt3 features a hotter pickup guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN429Jtq3uk

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Hiwatt
• Hi-Gain
• 50
• combo
• China
• Chinese
• all-valve
• 50w
• overdrive
• hi
• gain
• distotion
• Fender
• Strat
• Kinman

[JackFuzz73]

Thank you very much for making this demo.

[kombik98]

@JackFuzz73 I hope people can benefit from my experience. I'm not guitar hero but I it's always good to see what a product can do and there simply weren't many comprehensive reviews out there for it. For the record, the amp really loves single coil guitars. Teles, Strats or P90 equiped Gibsons sound best and tend to avoid making the amp fizz up the way higher output pickups do. It isn't that humbuckers are bad in it but it sounds better with single coils.

[Speackoolm]

Hi! Very nice sound!!

Are you running stock speakers and stock tubes?

[kombik98]

@Speackoolm Stock speakers, stock valves. But I need to do a demo of this up past the pain threshold. After running it with the master and clean channels almost flat out I now know why the best sounding Hiwatts are non-master volume amps.

[kombik98]

@Michaelfender Thanks Michael. I did buy this because my budget was lower but as you said in a round about way it's a good amp and more for the money. I'll be posting another vid soon as I've been messing about with the tone and some different guitars since this demo. The results, I feel, are impressive.

[Michaelfender]

@Barnekkid A Chinese man putting together an amp is no different to an English man putting together an amp. Some Marshalls are "made in england" but with chinese parts, defeating the purpose. This Hiwatt does have Chinese parts and is made in China, but that doesn't make it cheap or crap. you get more amp for your money than you do with a handwired, and not everyone can afford them. People buy chinese stuff and they sure as shit don't care what you think. Deal with it and stop being a twat.

[kombik98]

@Barnekkid You have to admit that by saying Chinese guitar stuff is crap there's an implication I made mistake. My amps aren't all Chinese. I have a US '66 Fender Bassman head and an English '88 Laney Protube AOR 30. But there were few reviews for this model and when I bought it I decided to show what it could do. Go ahead, do some vids of your amps. I'm sure they sound great. And enjoy the dim sum. Meanwhile I'll tough it out with the Chinese crap. ;o)

[Barnekkid]

@kombik98 Wow indeed. Nobody said anything about an error in judgement, but I for one don't like the proliferation of chinese crap everywhere I look and I take every effort not to support it. I play guitar too. I have a 64 Fender Deluxe Reverb, a 64 Fender Super Reverb, and an early 60s Vox AC30. When it comes to guitar, I make the sacrifice. I'll send pics of my amps some day. For now, all I want from china is dim sum.

[kombik98]

@Barnekkid Wow, thanks for suggesting my purchase was a huge error of judgement. Would I have prefered to buy the UK model? Yeah. Did I have AUD$3000? No. Does this amp sound good? Totally. How about you have a close look at your computer and see how much of it is made in China. I'll bet lots of it is made there or close by. Boycott Chinese stuff indeed!

[Barnekkid]

Boycott chinese stuff, especially guitar amps. Thanks for the vid.