Hiwatt DR103 that pedal show power boost special

meltedbuzzbox

Kylef said:

I have two Hiwatts, a Custom 100 2x12 vertical combo, and a Custom 50 2x12 combo. Love them but the vertical combo rarely goes out, whereas the Custom 50 usually sees a gig a month or so. But the weight of it and it’s flight case makes me think of going back to a Deluxe Reverb. Problem is nothing sounds like it a Hiwatt. 

@Kylef I'd be happy to relieve you of that Custom 100 if the thought crosses your mind :-D

Kultschar

Have Hi-Tone got a European distributer yet?

CustomPedalBoards

ICBM said:

CustomPedalBoards said:

hylight era 200's are very rare.
the 400's they only made a handful so are even rarer!
so if you have heard a 400 maybe it was some sort of reissue. 

The two of each I've worked on were all originals - one of the 400s having never been fully assembled at the factory and sold off when the company went bust - I finished off building it. They are the most powerful valve amps I've ever worked on, about 450W at the point of clipping and around 750W fully overdriven. I had to put together some special dummy loads to test them, out of a kettle and a fan heater! And loads of original 100s...

To me the 100 is harder, crunchier and harmonically richer even clean; the 200 is cleaner and has a very deep, bouncy effortless power; and the 400 is massively punchy but doesn't have quite the depth of the 200. My favourite was the 200, for both guitar and bass. The 100 is the only one you can realistically get anywhere near overdriving the power stage with I think, certainly for guitar.

And yes, the 400 is heavy - about 90lb, heavier than an Ampeg SVT head or an entire Fender SF Twin .

wow! so your very lucky there to have worked on 2 originals. yes the 400's you had to have 4 cabs connected to it i think!
2 for the 200 and u can get away with 1 for the 100 and 50
but even the 100 u have to be careful with 1 cab as turning it up full your in danger of breaking the speakers.
talking of 70's hiwatt fane cabs here of course.
if you have hi power speakers like the EV's etc then you can do it with less cabs.

wouldnt mind a 200 tbh
750w turned up on a 400! wow!

Kitsune

How available is Hiwatt nowadays? I’ve not seen anything in shops for an age. Plus the whole Music Ground business - but they seem to be under new ownership now?

 They’ve got the Little P/J/D series, which is 0.5 or 20 watts and just the job.....

ICBM

CustomPedalBoards said:

wow! so your very lucky there to have worked on 2 originals. yes the 400's you had to have 4 cabs connected to it i think!

2 for the 200 and u can get away with 1 for the 100 and 50
but even the 100 u have to be careful with 1 cab as turning it up full your in danger of breaking the speakers.
talking of 70's hiwatt fane cabs here of course.

Yes, the Fane power ratings are quite optimistic - Hiwatt knew this, and labelled the 4x12"s which contained four '50W' Fanes as 150W, not 200W. Even at that it was fairly common to blow them with a DR103, which typically puts out around 140W clean, and about 250W overdriven.

The 200 and 400 had switching in the jacks to prevent them being run without the full number of cabs, but these are a problem for reliability and it's normal to find them bypassed. With modern speakers it matters much less obviously - a single 4x12" loaded with EVs should actually take a 400.

CustomPedalBoards said:

750w turned up on a 400! wow!

To be fair I don't think you would ever run one like that - that was just flat-out with a sine wave signal into a dummy load, turned up to the point where the power then starts to drop off again, for proof-testing to make sure it would be reliable in use.

| literally used an old kettle and a fan heater with 1/4" plugs fitted to the power cable as dummy loads.

meltedbuzzbox

@HiwattUKofficial are you still in business?

CustomPedalBoards

canadian owned now i think?
the harrisons are also still involved some how.
the new owners really need to work hard at getting the brand back up there where it belongs and shedding the harrison association and the damage they did.

hitone are now the modern hiwatt brand to turn to. fine if your in the states but for us over here in the EU lots of shipping and taxes make it a bit of a pain.

meltedbuzzbox

There are new bits and pieces about but the price seems to be higher than the originals

ThorpyFX

Awesome episode.... Love my DR103, It is such  pleasing thing to play through.... takes pedals like a beast and has the most amazing clean tone without being too bright.

Modulus_Amps

Stephen who works with me is planning on building a DR103 next month or so, every time we build a head cab I want to keep it,  they are monsters but so cool. I will one day get a chance to build one to keep myself.

I thought the re-incarnated HIWATT were building these again??

glynes

1) "Hiwatt" in its current form is still intrinsically linked to Justin Harrison & Music Ground. Buyer beware.
2) That's not an original Colorsound Power Boost. That's a 1990's reissue.

Quality content as always.

Kultschar

Didnt the Harrisons have something to do with the new Shin-Ei Vibe-Bros also even though made in USA.  

Kultschar

I assumed it was vintage since no Volume knob or is it the newer 18v Castledine reissue!?

glynes

Kultschar said:

I assumed it was vintage since no Volume knob or is it the newer 18v Castledine reissue!?

Nah, this one is most likely a 9v reissue unless it's been messed with. And yes, the Harrisons were connected to that ridiculous "Shin-ei" bootleg too.

vasselmeyer

@glynes I'm assuming that Dan knows his pedals and effects extremely well. I'm curious as to what it is about the Coloursound that leads you to believe it's not an original. I'm not knocking your post, just wondering.

impmann

vasselmeyer said:

@glynes I'm assuming that Dan knows his pedals and effects extremely well. I'm curious as to what it is about the Coloursound that leads you to believe it's not an original. I'm not knocking your post, just wondering.

I'm intrested to know too...

Lebarque

 

EricTheWeary

Watched some of it. Obviously made the link back to the amp belonging to a forumite ( and who I met for about 15 seconds).  
Took me back to the early 1980s and mooching around second hand shops and ( based on my increasingly shakey memory) I could have picked up a shed load of  Colorsound pedals for less than the cost of a Wham album. 

 
 

glynes

vasselmeyer said:

@glynes I'm assuming that Dan knows his pedals and effects extremely well. I'm curious as to what it is about the Coloursound that leads you to believe it's not an original. I'm not knocking your post, just wondering.

Yeah, it's easy to fall into that trap because the production values are great and the playing & sounds are acceptable too.

Even if you haven't got the luxury to open the pedal up to see inside, if you look closely at the graphics on the case, you can still tell earlier reissues of Power Boosts apart from originals. The graphics were tidied up for the recent Castledine/Sola reissue, but still aren't 100% perfect. The one in the video is an older reissue though.

impmann

Interesting.... @CustomPedalBoards is he right about your pedal?