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PG's Charles Saufley is On Location in Frankfurt, Germany, for the 2012 Musikmesse Show where he visits Hiwatt Amplifiers booth. In this segment, we get to see and hear demos of their newest amplifiers and guitar effects pedals.

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David Ford on 03/05/2013	If you put a pair of TAD 7025 S Premium Selected -Mullard style- tubes for the 12ax7 tubes in the preamp and a better 12au7 as well you will have a different amp - was disappointed with mine on distortion but it sounds brilliant with those in now These are around £30 each for the 12ax7 and £15 for, say, a gold pin JJ 12au7
Henri Gastine on 02/02/2013	Ok in the end I bought this amp and I have to admit that sadly I'm completely disenchanted. Regarding the previous comment it did sound lovely in the store but at home I realised that it only sounds good with single-coil pickups and the overdrive channel is honestly terrible (though I rarely use overdrive, just knowing you can only use the clean is a bummer for a 850$ amp. Oh and there's only one sound (though a nice) one from the clean channel as the knobs don't seem to do much after 12 o'clock.
Henri Gastine on 01/23/2013	Sounded lovely in the store, good crunch sound and brilliant clean (rather like a Fender clean). Dunno what this amp did to the other commenter :P
1 mean HIWATT! on 04/28/2012	What an outrage, these amps sound nothing like the tried, true, and fully tested ancestors of the name HIWATT! Dave Grohl could have any amp company endorsement he wanted I'm sure and say "make it sound like Jimmy Page's amp from that concert what was it?". The pedals sound like little toys some kid is making with his mouth... awful. Did they say there is a tube in there? Complete low voltage waste. When Dave Reeves started his business roughly w/ Hylight Electronics. He wanted some of the finest materials he could get his hands on straight down to the chassis, screws, transformers, tubes, cabinetry(jointed). these amps still survive today because they were made to last. But today, tubes can't cope w/ the demand of the voltage those amp run. However there are minor changes like the so called "dual bias circuit" which can help for today's tubes so they last longer if you don't want to pay for Mullards. The sound of a HIWATT amp is loud, high headroom clean(responds quickly and improve your skill or show everyone your mistakes). Anything else than this is waste of its former name. These guys are just riding on a name/sound from the past. I don't hear it at all! I'm not sure what those speakers are in there, But fane speakers from the past were built for A HIWATT amp's standards. Smooth out the highs, round it out and it is big. Last fanes I heard were bright, lots of presence and like icepicks in your ear. Try the forums like: Vintage amp forum vintagehiwattconvention or the yahoo group all the guys/gals on there know what a HIWATT is supposed to sound like. As for this company... you are trying to make money off a name you can't keep up with.

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