36 year old Brand New Hiwatt Half Stack ?? What to do ??

[louis]

Hi everyone !!..............something weird happened to me the other day,
I came accross a brand new 1978-79 Hiwatt Halfstack , the person bought it new in
the boxes and stored it for 35 years and maybe played 10-20 hours with it .
I really don't know what to do as it's a museum piece of History and I like
to play my amps like if it was an old pair of Jeans without worrying about
scratching the tolex ...........I'm still Speechless just looking at it !

[louis]

A few more pictures showing the speakers , someone at the Plant dropped some glue on
one of the speaker ,I think I won't try to scrape it.
The power cord is a 10 footer , one issue is a scratchy Master pot , are those sealed pots ?

[Dr.HI-TONE]

I'll tell you what to do.

CELEBRATE!



Keep this one nice and mint, play the hell out of your other one!

[OldSchoolDave]

Wow - that is pristine!

Someone poked a screw driver through the speaker surround and glopped that epoxy stuff on it. Not the glue I'd use, but I would leave it alone unless it starts to buzz there.

Just work the scratchy pot back and forth to see if you can clean off the oxidation.

Fortune is shining down on you, Louis .

Dave

[louis]

Wow - that is pristine!

Someone poked a screw driver through the speaker surround and glopped that epoxy stuff on it. Not the glue I'd use, but I would leave it alone unless it starts to buzz there.

Just work the scratchy pot back and forth to see if you can clean off the oxidation.

Fortune is shining down on you, Louis .

Dave

Thank's Doc and Dave !!

I'm Celebrating alright but it feel's so strange
to play that thing !!

I've done what you suggested Dave for the pot and it worked good ,no scratching left.
I emailed the owner and just like I thought ,he never even open the grill cloth ,
I can see tiny squirts of the same glue coming out from the edges between the foam ring and frame
so is this a big drop of glue or is it a small tear underneath ??............could I take a Q-tip with some
nail remover and gently melt the glue ??

Here is the owner's answer from when I sent the question if he or Hiwatt glued the speaker ,
I know he took it out new in the box back then at his home and almost never played with the amp.

....................

Morning Louis !

Hope you had a great Holiday !

Since the amp has never had work done and in fact the speaker grill cover was never even off,
it must have been done by the guys at Hiwatt themselves.
BTW i have found the original covers for both the head and the cab. If you come by, we can meet and i can give them to you!

[OldSchoolDave]

I can see tiny squirts of the same glue coming out from the edges between the foam ring and frame
so is this a big drop of glue or is it a small tear underneath ??............could I take a Q-tip with some
nail remover and gently melt the glue ??

I'm going to amend my original statement and say that the surround was ripped by the mounting clip (see how they're aligned?). Could very well have happened at the factory, I suppose.

Again, I would NOT mess with this unless you heard strange sounds coming from that speaker. Just leave it alone.

BTW i have found the original covers for both the head and the cab. If you come by, we can meet and i can give them to you!

It just keeps getting better. Buy a lottery ticket while your lucky streak is running hot !

Dave

[louis]

BTW i have found the original covers for both the head and the cab. If you come by, we can meet and i can give them to you!

It just keeps getting better. Buy a lottery ticket while your lucky streak is running hot !
Dave

Dave ! ...... Just went to the store and bought
a lottery ticket !!..........lol ...!!!

If I win , I will send the Half Stack to a place that will keep
It intact like the Vintage Hiwatt Convention,
the Reeves Family or to you if they don't want it cause you made
me buy the ticket . I always had a frendly bum relation
with my amps and guitars trowing them gently in
the trunk of the car or putting pedals and rackmounts
on top of the head and I still find it awkward to
have this amp at home , i'm more of a player
than I am a collector, I once had a 1958 Stratocaster,
you should have seen the tweed case after a few years
of gigging , it looked like if Raggedy Ann had an electric shock!


Louis

[thefatcyclist]

Jeez, well done. Harry and everything.

[louis]

Jeez, well done. Harry and everything.

Harryyy !!!!!..............How can you tell ??


Thank's !


Louis

[Dr.HI-TONE]

It is a fantastic find , but the HJ factor really means very little. His shop built the majority of them in the 1970's.
Buy a lottery ticket for me too!

[louis]

Buy a lottery ticket for me too!

Done !!!

[louis]

Good day !

I have a few questions ,

What is causing a static sound or pop corn
but without no pops !.....just static.
I touch the EL34's and the're not making
any kind of noise whatsoever when touched.

Second question is , doe's it have to be De-Fizzed ?
and is that fizz thing going on or can be heard when volume
is dialed lower or only when it's fully dimed ?

Thank's !


Louis

[mhuss]

The random pops could be a preamp tube. They're easy enough to swap out one by one with a known good one.

The fizz thing may or may not happen with your amp (apparently, some two-inputs are worse than others). If it does have the problem, you can hear it by turning the input volumes all the way up (the master can be turned down), and if it's spitting, the problem will be obvious to your ears:
http://hiwatt.org/mods/TwoInputNormal-Before.mp3

--mark

[louis]

The random pops could be a preamp tube. They're easy enough to swap out one by one with a known good one.

The fizz thing may or may not happen with your amp (apparently, some two-inputs are worse than others). If it does have the problem, you can hear it by turning the input volumes all the way up (the master can be turned down), and if it's spitting, the problem will be obvious to your ears:
http://hiwatt.org/mods/TwoInputNormal-Before.mp3

--mark

Thank's Mark !

I'll swap some preamp tubes ,
As for the fizz , the amp has a nice crunchy sweet spot at about "8.5"
and begins to spitt after that but it is not spitting
as much or dramatictly as on the clip you've posted , just a bit .

Can you tell by the circuit pictures ?

Louis

[mhuss]

Actually, that amp looks like it has the "Canada importer" mod. The curled up yellow wire is usually the obvious telltale. So, it should not spit, but it should overdrive pretty easily!

--mark