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HI everyone!!

I have the possibility of buying a 1974 DR405 but I think I'll pass ,the person want's me to make an offer ,
I'm waiting for him to tell me what he wants approximitly .
Someone here interested ? How much is it worth??

Take care you all!!

Louis

I forgot to mention for the ones who dont know what this is that a DR405 is the same as Dr.Hiwatt 400 watt T-REX

This is a paint peeling Monster!!!!

Hiwatt! There is no substitute!!

Louis

You may want to post pics as there are Slave Conversions out there. Particularly one in NYC.

Be very careful!

Thank's Doc!

I've put an ad when I was looking for a Hiwatt and the ad is still there , and someone around Montreal
emailed me yesterday to offer me his DR405 ,his name is Merlin and yesterday's last new member name is Merlin !
I asked him on my yesterday's email if it was him but he did'nt answer back, so when he doe's and if it's him ,I'm gonna
invite him to post some pictures and take it from there.

Have a nice one!..........................Louis

Hi everyone, its me Merlin.
I took some pictures of my amp yesterday.

merlin wrote: I took some pictures of my amp yesterday.

Good lord, what a brute !

I only have my DR201 to compare to (in the heavy iron department). Visible differences between those two:

Humongous transformers (and I thought the ones on my DR201 were big!)

5 preamp tubes, rather than 4 - any idea what the extra one does?

The single capacitor up top (my DR201 has 6 mounted inside the chassis)

The location of the choke (mine is tucked behind the Power Transformer, but you've got another pair of tubes in the way)

How long have you owned this beast?

Dave

OldSchoolDave wrote:5 preamp tubes, rather than 4 - any idea what the extra one does?

The 400-watt amps have a cathode-follower driver tube after the PI, to drive three KTs per side.

I have an ECC83 shown on my schematic (based on the old hand-drawn ones), but I have doubts if that's what these old ones used. Something like an ECC81 or even ECC82 seems more appropriate.

--mark

PM sent.

my DR405 uses 12AX7s throughout except for the PI. Handwritten on the chassis by someone at Hylight Electronics, the same writing I have seen on lots of Hylights.

Odd..."12AX7" (vs. ECC83)?

I worry about tempting the heater-to-cathode breakdown voltage rating on the normal Hiwatt PI; I would think the driver tube would even more stressed.

--mark

I don't know which name is more commonly used in the UK.

If they knew the amp was headed to the USA...........then its a No-Brainer.

In respond to OldSchoolDave, I own it for a few months and gigged four time with it. I have' nt changed any tubes in it but someone did.

IT IS LOUD, NEVER TRIED SOMETHING THAT LOUD

This amp really become useful on a stage when you can say to the sound man that he wont work with you on your sound tonight..
I only wish I had a second cabinet, the one I use is 600watts 2x12 and when I put the volume a bit high it feels like the speakers will pop out.

Oh my... oh my... oh my... the size of those transformers is absolutely unreal. Dear Santa -- I've been on the nice list all year long -- Please, please, please deliver me a DR405 amp to me for Christmas!!!! Would love to hear that beast power up my bass stacks, but then perhaps it would be the incentive to go out and find a 2x415 stack again for old time sakes.

Soooooo, what's the price of admission anyway ...?

I sold a rough looking one to one to Mark Huss a few years ago and one to Michael O'Brian, the chap with the Sound City site. If I recall correctly, Mark paid £450 or £600 (I can't remember) with no valves in it and Michael paid £1000 with rep valves but no power valves. Mark had a slave with a good case, so he was able to come up with a clean example.

Both were stormers. Same volume at 10 feet and 100 yards. I put Michael's one through a Cerwin Vega folded horn 1x18 cab and a Trace 18+10 cab. Best bass sound ever? Mercy, mercy.

The first one came from a self-described hooligan guitar player. Imagine being in the same room as that!?!?!? I saw Freddie King a couple of times. A pair of Quad Reverbs was bad enough.... but these have double that clean headroom. Goodness, sake.

Trick is, to give what they can do, they will want good valves - and GEC KT88s are nae cheap these days.

You must be mistaken, if you had sold me one I would surely remember it (not to mention still have it)!

--mark