Project: The Hiwatt from Hell!
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- čas přidán 28. 09. 2022
- When Steve returned Dave Friedman's '68 Marshall (after its appearance on The Malcontents S2, EP13 • The Malcontents - S2, ... ) Dave had a surprising request: that Steve take his old Hiwatt PA 100 head and convert it into Steve's own personal favorite Hiwatt circuit. This video charts the journey and details the process.
Also check out The Malcontents S2, Episode 14 ( • The Malcontents - S2, ... ) where we compared the almost-finished version to a great early '70s DR504!
#hiwatt #vintageamp #fryetteamps #friedmanamps - Zábava
Amazing transformation. You can hear it on the first chord he hit. Reminded me of Martin Barr's Hiwatt tones.
Those old Hiwatts are the most beautiful builds I’ve ever seen in a guitar amp. What incredibly clean work.
Really interesting video, thanks. I have a Hiwatt PA200 with a matching pair of 4x12 purple back Fane columns. Running the preamp out feed from my Marshall JCM50 dual gain into the slave input on the Hiwatt results in a pretty awesome sound. I can also still run harmonica via Lone Wolf pedal into a channel which also sounds great. I've only used that setup outdoors! Anyway, really glad I found you guys and thought you might be interested. Cheers
Oneal Son and Oneal Wife give this a thumbs up. We watch these boring guitar reviews with Husband Oneal. This was entertaining and THE BEST gear review ever.
I consider myself a novice amp tech of sorts and I totally geeked out on this episode, I'll be watching this again. Thank you so much for posting this, loved it!
Night and day difference. Major upgrade. Bravo!
Well done!!
Amazing video fellas and thanks for sharing this with us! I just built a DR103 and that preamp cap can was a 16uf/32uf multifunction can, from the schematic I was working from. I used an ARS, which looks similar to what you have in that amp.
Someone else has probably said this by now, but just in case: I'm pretty sure "the Canadian mod" was an extra preamp gain stage that Hiwatt's Canadian distributors (whoever they were) added to compete with the early Marshall 2203s, Boogies, et al, for the whole "stadium rock at any volume" thing.
At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. Every mod we've ever seen just added hate. And the reason, as was mentioned somewhere in one of the vids, is that most modders know nothing about how a power amp works, and even less about how the DR designed power amp works.
You know you're pro when you can place your drink on the bench without worry.
I think the Canadian Mod means that the channels dad was once the president of Cuba.
Or, it means his dad helped assassinate Kennedy.
As a Canadian this hurts. Traynor doesn't sound like this. Garnet doesn't sound like this. Hell even the old Pepco stuff sounded better than this did.
27:09 Caps look like a 16uf+32 no?
What was the brand of that blue cap? Many companies use that blue color. Even F&T has dual can caps in that color. But I can't believe that F&T would die in 5 years. I use them in most of my amplifiers and I haven't seen any issues yet. They measure at or above the given value. ESR is always good. Though last batch of 50 + 50 500V I got sections are more apart then before. One side has higher capacitance and better ESR than the other. Still way in the tolerance and at positive side. But old batch was having more alike values. One cap would be better than others in the old batch but they were all above stated values. 32 + 32 were very similar between sections and between each other. Their single caps were even more consistent for me.
The Diarrhea Sound! Reminds me of early 1980s when you could get the ratty abused Sound City heads for a dime a dozen. Most people didn't know how to run them, and they got the nickname of "Sound Shitty". Actually, there was one guy in the band room next to mine that would do his 1980s version of a Power Station with his Sound City 50 watt by running the amp into an attenuator, down to line level, then through a Roland Space Echo, and them out to a power amp. That sounded killer and was super responsive to pick and volume knob dynamics.
🤘
That's a 32+16uF filter cap on the first stage, Steve
You're right! The part of the vid where we revisited that point got edited out. Kudos for paying attention :)
@@FryetteAmps I've been pretty into Hiwatts lately.. which makes sense cuz I work there now hah
@@calvinator420 Can you arrange to send us a current DR103? We'll feature it on an upcoming show.
@@calvinator420 Hiatt is still I. Business ? Cool, I didn't realize that. Hey, Steve is asking if you could send them a amp to feature......contact marketing......please
Those Are Plessey Capacitors and They Were used Right Up To At least 1977, I Had A HIWATT DR103 4 Input model 2 Toggle Switches Pear Shaped Dolly/Batton/Lever And Slotted Nickel Plated Ring Nuts On The Switches As The Lever Was Also, Chrome Versions From NSF/Cutler Hammer/ Lucas UK Did Not Exist When this Hiwatt Was Made/ The Other Make Of Switch That Was A similar Pattern And design Was Arrow, Now Arrow Hart , It Had Also Mc Murdo Output Valve/Tube And Preamp Valve Sockets, With 3x ECC83/12AX7 1 X ECC81/12AT7 And Was Fitted With Colomor Electronics EL34s Labelled In White Lettering, (A London UK Valve Supplier) Output Valves, It Has One Unique Feature On This Chassis Only I Would Know Because I Fitted It And No One Out There Would Ever Be Able To Guess Or Point Out What That Is, The Cabinet Covering, Also Was Not original As I Replaced That With The Also Correct HIWATT Type Basket Weave Vynide From Maplin Electronics UK, Made By Wardell Storry's Manchester, Who Made Most Of The UKs Guitar Amp Coverings And A Furniture Chair Covering For The Seat Of Dinner Table Chairs.
There Are Many Other Items On This Chassis Of This DR103/AP100 Head, That I Can Point Out Upon Viewing It Of Which I Still Have Proof Of Serial Number And Dated Proof Of When I Recorded That Serial Number Too. With Other Notes About That Particular Chassis's, Circuit Differences To The Standard Hiwatt DR103 And DR504 Circuit Preamp Drawing Available From HiWatt's factory In 1980/81 At Kingston Upon Thames Surrey And Those Same Layouts Of Drawn Circuit Diagrams, Schematics, I Also Obtained copies from Harry Joyce later In The Early Nineties, Which Were Identical to that Earlier Set, So Noted The Differences And Component Variations On My HIWATT DR103 AP100 Version On My Hand Drawn Circuit Diagram/Schematic Which I Drew Up A Circuit Diagram/Schematic For In The Small Hours Of The Morning in 1989/90, I Actually Put The Serial No/# On That Circuit Diagram, Of Which I gave A Copy To Frank Levi III , I Once found It On The Internet And I Still Have The Hand Drawn Written Original I Drew And Put All The Transformer Details On It for The Mains TX And Output TX As Well As The Test Label Date That Was On An RS Components/Brady Type Cloth Label On That 1977 Chassis, This Amplifier Was Also Repurchased By Me In 1999 and Was Never Shipped To me Till Currently From A Person Who Had My Money Paid For By A Cheque Through My Bank, He Made Various Excuses About Why He Had Not Sent It, I Have An Email From Mid 2001, Having Sent Him An Email From A Computer In The Factory Of Cornford Amplification Where I Was Working at the time Along With My Friend Martin Who I Apparently Inspired To Not Only Get Into Repairing Guitar Amplifiers, But Also He Got In To Designing Them Too, Cornford Are His Circuit Designs, He Currently Designs and Develops Another UK Make And Is One of The most Decent and Kind People I Know.
The fella Who Still Owes Me The Hiwatt DR103 Till This Current year 2022, Has Never Done The Decent Thing And Made Good My Amps Delivery, He took My Money And Said he Would Make Sure I Received The Amp In A Return Email To Me A Few days Later In 2001, Saying He Was Working All The Hours Etc To Pay Bills And Keep The Wolf From the Door, Ironically I Am Pretty Certain He Was Not Short Of A Bob Or Two, English UK Slang For Shillings, Old UK Currency Till 1970 (Schillings, German Version). I Quite Prepared To Track Down This Amplifier Because I Am in Law The Rightful Owner Of It And Anyone Else Who Is In Possesion Of It Was Fraudulently Sold It, if They Did Not Also Part With their Money To Him Too, To Never Receive it.
On A Saturday Afternoon Three People Came to See The Amp To Purchase it As An Example to Copy From in a new another Itteration of this make, In Any Event it was purchased from a friend of mine who I sold it to, and I was present when that purchase took place as I arranged the Meeting of these Parties for the transaction to take place of the Amp's Purchase.
I will have to find time to get that Circuit Diagram/Schematic out to give you further details and a copy of it, but after covid I had to rearrange my life a bit to survive financially due to being Self Employed and my income going down the tubes overnight.
Totally off topic, but what/who is that outro song? Me likey.
czcams.com/video/knqmw58CoYc/video.html
P.S. What's The Make Of The Amplifier Head On The floor On It's End To The Direct Left Of The Fryette 4 x 12 Speaker Cabinet ? Around Time 27.53 To28.08 , It looks like An S But Is Obscured By The Les Paul's Headstock In The YT Video.
It's this: soundcityamp.com/products/master-one-hundred
Few years ago there was a Marshall PA head for reasonable price in the music store in the other city. It looked very similar to that one. I was like score, if it has proper irons it’s a gold. Plus so many channels that must mean lot of preamp tubes and other goodies. Then I saw inside pictures and that was it. Disaster. Plus no way near what I thought it will be. Way less parts and modified and worked on. Looked very sad and I just decided not to get it. Something cheaper than it should be is often just almost junk. It’s nice t easy to get those good deals.
That canadian tone is so maple syrupy.
You'll be happy to know , no canadian amp sounds that way...
That's more of a peavey Rage tone.
Again I love Steve Fryette but….The only thing that he proved with the cap that was replaced was exactly what he said. “You need to use good caps.” Using a POS new brand as a reason why you should leave 40+ year old spent electrolytics in makes zero sense. Throw some nice Vishays or even F&T cans in there and if they were that off then his argument would hold some water. Old Electrolytics belong in the bin
Niccochubby.
It sounds great but why not just use it as a multi-channel keyboard amp? Why always for distorted guitar? Some of those old PA heads sounded very good with guitar, Mountain, Nektar... but it seems like a crime to hack-up these relic amps.
I kind of agree. I have a Hiwatt PA200 with a pair of 4x12 purple back Fanes. My Marshall JCM50 dual gain has a preamp out and the PA head has a slave input. This combination is pretty darn sweet! Still have inputs eg. for harmonica via Lone Wolf pedal which also sounds great! I've only used this setup occasionally at outdoor gigs.