Hiwatt lead 100
D Wilde
I have got a Hiwatt Lead 100 amp head on a non-standard 4x12. Has anyone
heard of this type of amp before (i've seen Custom 100's but not "Leads").
It is in fairly good condition so does anyone have any idea what it is
worth? (I think it was made in the 70's or possibly later??)
Cheers
Dan Wilde
TimTube
The Lead amps were mid '80s with channel switching, some had reverb. Not bad
sounding amps, but rather cheaply constructed compared to the '60s and '70s
Customs. All tubes are mounted to rather thin PC boards. Some of these were
made in the UK, some were made in Modesto, CA. I would think something around
$500 would be about top price for one in excellent condition.
Tim
A great amp can make a lousy guitar sound great.
A lousy amp will make a great guitar sound lousy.
A great player will sound great with anything.
D Wilde
TimTube wrote in message <20000827190837...@nso-fj.aol.com>...
Thanks for the info, but it doesn't sound much like what I've got. There is
no channel switching (two inputs though, "Bright" and "Normal" with volumes
for each), no reverb and the four valves and massive transformers (and other
silver cylinders??) sit on top of a metal chassis that is approx. 19x10x2.5
inches. There are two pcb boards inside (with HIWATT DR-1 NLC and HIWATT
DR-2 NLC on them) that host resistors and capacitors. Oh yeah, in am near
Manchester, England and it says on the back plate Made in England by Hiwatt
Biacrown Ltd.
Anyway cheers for replying
Dan
Bcoolstuff
incarnation of Hiwatt, formed immediately after Dave Reeves' death in 1981.
Look at the ID plate on the rear of the amp - how do the stampings read? The
Biacrown-era Hiwatts are known for mid-production design changes and oddball
stuff in general. I know, I have a 50-watt combo that sounds similar to yours
design-wise, but is tagged as as a Custom 50 out front. Sound is another clue
- Does your 100 overdrive at low volumes? Mine retains the Hiwatt clean tone
with the channel volumes down, but if you goose the preamp, it'll get real
dirty. It'll take your face off either way if you bump the master up a couple
notches. Check your output valves - the Biacrown amps (and the early Sterling -
USA stuff) shipped with Gold Lion KT77s (or KT88s on the bigger 200s and 400s).
Based on what you've imparted so far, I'd place the value higher than $500, but
others may disagree. E-mail me if you have any more questions.
Billy
D Wilde
The valves I guess are what you called "Gold Lions" as they have a lion with
its tail up printed on them and also KT77 (and 792OZ)
As for overdrive, with using either the normal or bright input, you need to
have the overdrive knob and the channel volume about 2/3 of the way to get a
distorted sound at low volumes, and as you say if your not careful with the
master volume the 'golden lions' bite your head off...
As it is in my room most of the time I only use probably 10watts or so, its
not a practice amp but seemed like a good deal (Ł400 for the amphead, a
dodgy 4x12 with "NL" sprayed in white on the back, and my first guitar which
I still own, a 80's Japanese Fender Strat, got 9 years ago when I was 14)
Getting back to point, the plate on the back states - HIWATT© AMPLIFIER
Made in England by HIWATT BIACROWN LTD, Type A P, MODEL No.OL103, Serial No.
16246. Surely there must be records of them somewhere??
I've sent some guy at UMIST (the university in Manchester) an email as he is
really into Hiwatt equipment so I'll see if he has any ideas.
Cheers
Dan
Danny Russell
D Wilde wrote:
>
> Cheers for the info, it made the most sense out of what I've heard so far.
> The valves I guess are what you called "Gold Lions" as they have a lion with
> its tail up printed on them and also KT77 (and 792OZ)
> As for overdrive, with using either the normal or bright input, you need to
> have the overdrive knob and the channel volume about 2/3 of the way to get a
> distorted sound at low volumes, and as you say if your not careful with the
> master volume the 'golden lions' bite your head off...
> As it is in my room most of the time I only use probably 10watts or so, its
> not a practice amp but seemed like a good deal (£400 for the amphead, a
> dodgy 4x12 with "NL" sprayed in white on the back, and my first guitar which
> I still own, a 80's Japanese Fender Strat, got 9 years ago when I was 14)
> Getting back to point, the plate on the back states - HIWATT© AMPLIFIER
> Made in England by HIWATT BIACROWN LTD, Type A P, MODEL No.OL103, Serial No.
> 16246. Surely there must be records of them somewhere??
> I've sent some guy at UMIST (the university in Manchester) an email as he is
> really into Hiwatt equipment so I'll see if he has any ideas.
Treasure those KT-77's (dial the bias back a bit). They're the best
tubes your ever going to have installed that amp and once they're
gone ...they're gone. -Danny
--
<<<GET BLITZED!!!>>>
http://home.flash.net/~blitz/tunes.html
To get inside my whacky head.
Bcoolstuff
Made in England by HIWATT BIACROWN LTD, Type A P, MODEL No.OL103, Serial No.
16246. >>
The "OL", I'm pretty sure, stands for "Overdrive Lead" - If you have the
"Overdrive" knob, then your circuit is probably a little different than mine.
My combo (SA112OL) has only the "Bright/Normal" input volumes and a master. I'm
going to shoot you a JPEG (catalog page w/your amp) via e-mail - look out for
it. And don't lose those Gold Lions! They're very rare these days, and worth a
pretty fair amount of money!
In the meantime, check this site:
http://members.tripod.com/~dcsbulldog/index.html
If you look thru the photo gallery there, you'll find pics of my Hiwatts (among
many others), including some shots of the guts on my 50-watter (look for the
"Hey Bulldog" section. Also, if you need further info, e-mail the crew at the
above site - they are former Hiwatt employees, and have access to lots of info
that I don't.
Billy
SgtRutters
http://members.tripod.com/~dcsbulldog/
I have a Biacrown Custom 50 that these guys told me had something added to the
Master Volume and when you turned it up all the way and controlled the amp with
the preamp volumes, the amp will overdrive fairly easy. It's true, it does
overdrive easily, but I've never used a "real" HIWATT before to compare them.
Anyway, I love mine.