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Hello My name is Kristofer and i`m from sweden( so bare with my spelling and grammatics;)) I just recently bought my first hiwatt a 2 holer from 1980 imported by the swedish general agent musik utan gränser. I fired it up and it sounded ok a little tired and the volume was very low on both channel just thought that it was the tubes so i opened it up to change tubes and just to take a look at it. As seen in the picutres and i`m no expert at all but so i may be wrong, but to me it seems that someone has done a real butcher job, and i thought that they only made pcb board later in the eighties. So what to make of it? is it possible to restore it in some what easy way without it costing a fortune? And what do you experts think of it?? Best regards/ Kristofer

http://s1165.photobucket.com/albums/q58 ... Andersson/

Hi Kristofer,

Welcome.

Wow, that looks scary. I've never seen so much smoke damage, it almost looks like whomever used a candle to solder with!! I hate to say it, but your poor amp needs some serious restoration.

I think Hylight started using PCBs around 1978, and those do look original.

--mark

Hi Kristopher, welcome to the Vintage HIWATT forum!

they started using PC boards in 1980 and as Mark said those are the originals.

Unfortunately the amp does need a good tech.

Thanks for the input and as i thought.. Yep the pcb is marked hiwatt so thats non of my concern that it is not a genuine hiwatt.
Is it even possible the get a hold of those pcbs? i don`t think it`s a good idea to reuse the old ones as they look like something burned in there and scared and what not.
Are there any schematics and/or layouts to go after or are my components/wiring original so i can go after that?
Many questions and i really appreciate the time and effort from you guys

Unfortunately you are stuck with the board you have. There are no replacements out there.
HIWATT.org has schematics that can help you, but I don't think there are any that include the additional stuff the Swedish importers add on. I would be tempted to gut that stuff but that is just my opinion.

http://hiwatt.org/Schematics/DR_Pre2Input.pdf

http://hiwatt.org/Schematics/DR_100wOutput.pdf

Yeah i`m starting my self to have those thoughts, should probebly be easiest to rip it out and start over.
Do you guys know there are annyone in euorpe how has torretboards etc? or is it possible to buy torrets and basiclly everything that can`t be salvaged, from vhr shop? even if taxes and such is a kidney and a arm buying outside europe..

Wow sorry to hear about your troubles. This is exactly why I will never buy any piece of gear without seeing it and testing it first, especially vintage electronics, they make me extra nervous. That thing looks WAY rough, I hope your solution comes as painless as possible. Best of luck to you

Thanks jay i hope that as we'll, normally i check the gear first but it was cheap and driving 2000km wasn't an option. Time will tell,but it works and sounds really good so..

I would not gut the PC boards, just the Swedish importer "stuff".
All the un-essential stuff.

Hi Kristofer! I think I know that amp... Does it have retro fitted cooling fans as well? I remember it sounding really good but the internals put me off when I opened it for a look.

Ak-47 it is the same amp.. It sounds really nice, but as seen needs some work. I will talk with a amp builder to se how much job it will require a shame to let a good amp go to the cemetery. Where in Sweden do you live ak?

I am just north of Stockholm... where are you?

If you can, send it here http://www.lh-musik.se/ ...well worth the trouble ...Kalle is one of the absolute best in europe

I hope you did not pay too much.. and I guess you now know why we all want gut shots before purchasing hope it all works out for you!!

Ahh nice i`m in malmö so stockholm is a bit to far.. I didn`t think it was so expensive 8000Sek equivalent to around 800 if buying in us with taxes and etc.. but it is going on the learning account. Yeah i`m burning through ljudbojen to find a good one here in skåne but they are scarse..

I have three more questions for the experts here.. do you know if its possible to repair the damage on the pcbs by simply put some epoxi of some sorts on top off it to plaster it and is it ok to clean of the burnt areas with aceton or something thats is instant vaporising. And is it possible to put an ecc81 in v1 to lower the gain i know that it does wounder in v4 but what about v1?

krollan wrote:And is it possible to put an ecc81 in v1 to lower the gain i know that it does wounder in v4 but what about v1?

It's possible, but you may not like the results. Try a 5751 instead.

Dave