Re: Introduce yourself
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:27 pm
hi i'm chris
live over in the uk.
an registered about a month ago, loads of good info on here! came accross it on a google search of hiwatt.
after researching this site an m.huss site i went an bought a 100w hiwatt head off ebay that just happened to pop up!
purchased off the original owner 22/01/10 on ebay. a hiwatt dr103 head, with SAi 4x12 straight cab, + fuel costs for 1200pounds. i've registered it with mark also.
ex cond, it is all original, never bin touched, org Partride codes, Cap codes, Pot codes- dating it manufactured late '72, org mullard el34's, org brimar pre's, org bulgin power lead. Inside, no H.J. sig but all the solder joins have the red pen mark, still got all the org mustard caps an blue resistors, the only time it has seen a solder iron was when it was made, infact i'm sure the only time the chassis has bin out of the box was when he took pics to put on ebay! comes with org black with blue pipe cover, even came with original reciept of purchase when new in feb'73 for 90pounds! WOW! (apparently the weekly wage back then was about a tenna a wk!) i am a lucky boy! apparently he used to have 2 dr103's with 2x hiwatt 4x15's which he played bass thru during the 70's an its been in his front room since the early 80's! he was really quite sad to see it go, as i will be if i ever have to.
so after 10hrs of travel an 600miles later i got home an took the head out of the box an it was fantastic, so vintage, so new! as described above. sorry no pics dont have a camara! will post some pics if i ever get around to it.
he said the cab came from a guitarist friend which he gave to him when he stopped playing bass, to have something to play the hiwatt thru, an was made in the same period, which i thought well it looks a bit tatty, no holes in the grill cloth, but no vynal on the bottom an grazes on the edges an corners, so well gigged then. got the back off an was amazed to find not only a lovely well built ply cab pretty much the same construction (looks the same) as hiwatt cabs (same handles, height, width, depth etc) with what looked to be the original speakers which were.......... pre rola celestion 16ohm 25w greenbacks!! again i think the cab back has never bin off (no marks, no cobwebs, clean as inside) with 3x '70 an 1x '71 date codes!
so after havin played thru the dr103 for a few wks at home an band rehearsals with an old 70's roost cab i have with goodmans audiom 60's (which sound better than the greenbacks to me, an can handle the power more being an 8ohm 240w cab) it sounds awesome!! i had to change out the 4th posistion ecc83 tube, which was causing noise an low output (have changed all the pre's for some old shield logo mullards i had lying around, an changed the el34's for some jj's which have tightened up the sound somewhat, an to keep those lovely old mullards as spares for recording maybe?)
i now have bin intouch with a fella who has 4 sound city fanes (which need recones) that i'm gonna try in the SAi cab an see if they sound better than the goodmans. dont no what to do with the celestions as i have no use for them at the mo.
so a month on from finding this lovely place it seems i have also found my amp sound that i've been lookin for for 25 yrs! having always used valve amps, fenders, g.t. amps, carlsbro, simms watts, sjb, an many other little valve amps (dallas/scala, epiphone, danelectro) oh an a ibanez starfield 100w stereo head! not marshalls tho, dont like them! but mostly fenders for gigs ('71 super rev+ '72 bassman 50 head)
i am very glad that i have come accross this forum an got my self a little bit of vintage hiwatt history. an thought i'd share the experiance man!
cheers chris
live over in the uk.
an registered about a month ago, loads of good info on here! came accross it on a google search of hiwatt.
after researching this site an m.huss site i went an bought a 100w hiwatt head off ebay that just happened to pop up!
purchased off the original owner 22/01/10 on ebay. a hiwatt dr103 head, with SAi 4x12 straight cab, + fuel costs for 1200pounds. i've registered it with mark also.
ex cond, it is all original, never bin touched, org Partride codes, Cap codes, Pot codes- dating it manufactured late '72, org mullard el34's, org brimar pre's, org bulgin power lead. Inside, no H.J. sig but all the solder joins have the red pen mark, still got all the org mustard caps an blue resistors, the only time it has seen a solder iron was when it was made, infact i'm sure the only time the chassis has bin out of the box was when he took pics to put on ebay! comes with org black with blue pipe cover, even came with original reciept of purchase when new in feb'73 for 90pounds! WOW! (apparently the weekly wage back then was about a tenna a wk!) i am a lucky boy! apparently he used to have 2 dr103's with 2x hiwatt 4x15's which he played bass thru during the 70's an its been in his front room since the early 80's! he was really quite sad to see it go, as i will be if i ever have to.
so after 10hrs of travel an 600miles later i got home an took the head out of the box an it was fantastic, so vintage, so new! as described above. sorry no pics dont have a camara! will post some pics if i ever get around to it.
he said the cab came from a guitarist friend which he gave to him when he stopped playing bass, to have something to play the hiwatt thru, an was made in the same period, which i thought well it looks a bit tatty, no holes in the grill cloth, but no vynal on the bottom an grazes on the edges an corners, so well gigged then. got the back off an was amazed to find not only a lovely well built ply cab pretty much the same construction (looks the same) as hiwatt cabs (same handles, height, width, depth etc) with what looked to be the original speakers which were.......... pre rola celestion 16ohm 25w greenbacks!! again i think the cab back has never bin off (no marks, no cobwebs, clean as inside) with 3x '70 an 1x '71 date codes!
so after havin played thru the dr103 for a few wks at home an band rehearsals with an old 70's roost cab i have with goodmans audiom 60's (which sound better than the greenbacks to me, an can handle the power more being an 8ohm 240w cab) it sounds awesome!! i had to change out the 4th posistion ecc83 tube, which was causing noise an low output (have changed all the pre's for some old shield logo mullards i had lying around, an changed the el34's for some jj's which have tightened up the sound somewhat, an to keep those lovely old mullards as spares for recording maybe?)
i now have bin intouch with a fella who has 4 sound city fanes (which need recones) that i'm gonna try in the SAi cab an see if they sound better than the goodmans. dont no what to do with the celestions as i have no use for them at the mo.
so a month on from finding this lovely place it seems i have also found my amp sound that i've been lookin for for 25 yrs! having always used valve amps, fenders, g.t. amps, carlsbro, simms watts, sjb, an many other little valve amps (dallas/scala, epiphone, danelectro) oh an a ibanez starfield 100w stereo head! not marshalls tho, dont like them! but mostly fenders for gigs ('71 super rev+ '72 bassman 50 head)
i am very glad that i have come accross this forum an got my self a little bit of vintage hiwatt history. an thought i'd share the experiance man!
cheers chris