Opinions of Hayden HGTA 20 amp head (aka PSA if you live in Brum!)

thecolourbox

Hi all

I've stumbled upon one of the above amps at a very attractive price, do are anybody has an opinions or experience on these at all?

Features seem good, 20w,valve, fx loop, reverb, two channels, safe silent line out, attenuation to 3 watts etc

thecolourbox

Having listened to the amp in youtube its not really my sound, but for those interested its in Birmingham City centre Cash Generators for £80, a full £10 cheaper than the Marshall Valvestate rack power amp they are also selling, and in fact £50 cheaper than a Marshall MG100 head as well! Madness

IanSavage

'kin hell, if it's still there this afternoon I might have to treat myself - the rest of you, hands off!

thecolourbox

Its very cheap isn't it, i thought about it even just as a power amp for that price! Imagine you could easily flip it on anyway if you didn't like it. Includes footswitch as well

IanSavage

Exactly man, thanks for the heads-up; I've only just picked up a nice solid-state Fender combo for similar money so can see which one I prefer and move the other on (if it's still there!); if the Hayden does decent cleans AND a more Marshally-kind drive may even be able to move my Drivemaster on as well to fund a cabinet for it...*strokes beard*

IanSavage

Holy shit...WAS still there...is a hand-made in the UK one rather than the (I assume later) Chinese-made version. 

I may have just scored a pretty much new UK-built valve head for £80 thanks again dude, I'll let you know how it sounds when I've got a cab here to run it up!  

thecolourbox

Boom, happy NAD my friend. I can only presume the usual clued up buyer there wasn't in that day, i think it was labelled as "audio separates" or something. I go in there quite frequently on the off chance, they have a lot of stuff in and out for such a small store

IanSavage

Well, as you said at that kinda price it's hard to leave it there; I'll either replace my Fender+Drivemaster with it or shift it on to a mate as a main head or a spare and make them a very happy bunny! 

ThePrettyDamned

IanSavage;367950" said:

Well, as you said at that kinda price it's hard to leave it there; I'll either replace my Fender+Drivemaster with it or shift it on to a mate as a main head or a spare and make them a very happy bunny! 

Er, am I your mate?



Nah, nice one! I'd like to know what you think, I've only tried the mofo amps, wasn't keen on them tbh but this looks like a different beast.

Fuzzdog

IanSavage said:

Holy shit...WAS still there...is a hand-made in the UK one rather than the (I assume later) Chinese-made version. 

I may have just scored a pretty much new UK-built valve head for £80 thanks again dude, I'll let you know how it sounds when I've got a cab here to run it up!  

I'm 99.9% sure these were all Chinese, as I was looking to buy one when they came out and spoke to a Hayden rep about them.  The Peacemakers (which the HGA replaced) were also rather mis-advertised as 'hand made in the UK' when they were all made in the far east aside from the rather rare (and eye wateringly expensive at the time) 100w head.  Don't let that put you off - I gigged for a few years with a couple of Peacemakers, and they put up with all manner of abuse.

Pretty nifty amps, and for £80 it's a monumental bargain! :-O

IanSavage

Ah right; that's VERY misleading advertising then, as there's a big part of the back panel where it's stamped 'Hand-made in the UK'! I feel an investigation coming on...

Fuzzdog

IanSavage said: Ah right; that's VERY misleading advertising then, as there's a big part of the back panel where it's stamped 'Hand-made in the UK'! I feel an investigation coming on...

They might possibly have done a very short run of them put together over here, but the rep I spoke to certainly didn't know of them.  To be fair, whenever I have spoken to anyone at Hayden, nobody seems to actually know anything at all about anything, so it's a possibility.  )  Hayden have always been a bit odd about disclosing (or not) where some of their amps are built.

From the Musicradar review of the 20 - "Hayden actually has two manufacturing bases. One is in England where ex-Matamp man Dave Green presides over the hand-built amps. The more cost-effective stuff, including these HGT series amps, are designed in the UK, but built in China. We should point out that this dual-origin arrangement led to some confusion with the MoFo series at retail, so just be sure you're buying what you think you're buying."

Regardless of origin, it's a sodding bargain for £80, they were about £600 new!

thecolourbox

Indeed, I think I wanted it only because it was a bargain not because I actually would use it... a most excellent bargain though =]

thecolourbox

I'll keep looking in there regularly in the hope they sell a nice Deluxe Reverb for £28.50

kelv_w

damn that's a bargain. I'm only about 10 minutes walk away. 

Very tempting! 

thecolourbox

I think you are too late

IanSavage

You're totally too late, all mine mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...

IanSavage

...and as a late bump to make you all feel jealous (and also make sure that I don't sell it on in a moment of madness, on here at least), I've been in touch with Dave Hall out of interest and he's told me that the head I've got is one of the 25 UK-made HGT A20 prototypes (the main run was made in the Far East). 

Thanks to @thecolourbox I think I've got my 'keeper' amp head. Good job it sounds shit-hot too, or I'd be upset with him  

thecolourbox

I'm sure you couldn't really ever be upset with me, me being so nice and all

Glad you got it and its a keeper, it was a bargain whichever model it is, even better that it was a uk one. I look forward to receiving your gift of gratitude, your previous amp or a nice guitar would be an appropriate touch i feel

Good amp score maestro!

IanSavage

If it turns out when I get it up to band levels that it'll do 'Marshall' as well as I suspect it will, you can have my Drivemaster as a 'thank you'  

[edit: I'm likely to be selling my Fender Studio Lead combo now, if that might be of any use to you...mate's rates fully apply!]

thecolourbox

Ha I was of course kidding, just happy to help out fellow GAS afflicted folks especially when it's such a good bargain.