Hiwatt Bass 100 + Hiwatt 410

Chris P. · December 22, 2008, 07:50:30 AM

Hi there!

I'm very happy with my Orange head, but I always loved Hiwatt because of The Who. That's really like my dream amp.
I sold my Orange 4x10 recently and I bought a new Hiwatt 4x10 with the same speakers. My Orange head is for sale too, and if I sell it, I'll buy a Hiwatt Custom 200 which sounds almost the same, but PTP instead of PC-board.

But this week I bought a 25 years old '83 Hiwatt Bass 100. It's like a modern version of Hiwatt, with foot-switchable-only second channel, line out, fx-loop and ugly square JCM800 type on/off and Stand-by switches. But it has the chickenheads:) It has a pc-board, four EL34s and it was cheap! It sounds very, very nice though! I played it for five hours yesterday and I love it. I want to keep the Orange, but someone's selling stuff to buy it from me. If he buys it, I'll get the 200 Custom, if not I'll keep the Orange.

Pics:

chromium · December 22, 2008, 10:27:11 AM

Nice score!

How does that cab sound compared to the Orange cab? Is it sealed?

Chris P. · December 22, 2008, 10:43:47 AM

I have a big amp cos I like it. But a lot of times I (have to) use the available amp at a venue. Other times I get DI'd and I only use my amp as monitor, so really it ain't no use to have a big one. But I like it!

Because of this I didn't buy the very expensive Fane-loaded one (that's like 100 or 150 euros a speaker more expensive, so 400 or 600 euros more...) but the Celestion loaded. If I'm correct they are the same as my sold Ampeg SVT410 and sold Orange 410 and I like 'm. The Orange had a round port at the back and a bass reflex system. It was also deeper and higher than the Hiwatt, but a bit smaller.
The Hiwatt is just a cab, four speakers and two rectangular holes at the bottom of the backside. So not sealed. But I like it better than the Orange. Less sub lows but with more punchy mids, and warm and focused enough. I don't like those modern sub lows.

hieronymous · December 22, 2008, 12:04:13 PM

Looks like a cats & their basses thread revival is due!

Chris P. · December 22, 2008, 12:29:12 PM

Yeah, this black amp is a favourite of my black cat Booker T., but my grey tiger cat Curtis likes the speaker cloth better

rahock · December 23, 2008, 06:12:45 AM

I never used their cabinets, but that is one serious amp. It has been decades since I played though a Hiwatt head, but I used to play through an old band mates pretty regular. Ungodly powerful. I don't know how they match up with some of the newer stuff, but I'm gonna guess they still stand mighty tall

Nice score.
Rick

Chris P. · December 23, 2008, 01:37:10 PM

It does.

My 200W Orange is a lot louder though.

chromium · December 23, 2008, 09:52:52 PM

Their 4x10 + 1x15 cabs look pretty slick too:

...and dig the 400w head!

Chris P. · December 24, 2008, 02:09:41 AM

I would love to have such a cab, but it doesn't fit in my car...

I tried the 200W head and its LOUD. I don't think I need a 400. The 200 makes 200W out of 4 KT88s and the 400 makes 400W out of six KT88s. So I gues they have to work much harder, which isn't a gof thing I guess?

Psycho Bass Guy · December 24, 2008, 05:20:40 AM

The Hiwatt 400 uses eight KT88's, but the modern version is reported to be highly unreliable. It's not that hard to get 400 watts out of six good KT88's anyway.

Andrew · December 24, 2008, 07:15:45 AM

I owned a new Hiwatt DR201. while it sounded heavenly, I couldn't get enough volume from it to compete in my bands. I'm interested to see if you can compare the output volume from a Hiwatt 200 to your Orange, Chris. The AD200B has always interested me too, but I've never had good luck getting the volume I need from a 200 watt amp.

Chris P. · December 24, 2008, 09:58:05 AM

Hmmm.. I'm sure the 400 only has six KT88s...

I have two bands. One has a fairly loud stage volume and rehearsal volume. The 100W Hiwatt was more than loud enough. For my lower volume band I always used my 50W Vox AC50 and it was loud enough too, even on bigger stages. My 200W Orange is of course loud enough too:)

doombass · December 26, 2008, 02:32:18 PM

I have an Orange AD200B MK2 and the BPE 115 and OBC 410 and I love it. 1 1/2 years ago I joined yet another band which forced me to get an additional rig. At first I used my Marshall JCM 800 100W head and started searching for another 200 Watter. I ended up with a Mesa Boogie Buster. Nice amp but nothing like the Orange. A few months later I got hold of a used Hiwatt 200 Custom (yes the new series). It was not that loud though. According to the seller it had new JJ KT88 in it. One month later one of the tubes gave up (fuse broke). It soon turned out it was biased wrong. I replaced with a new set of Electro Harmonix and got it biased and now it's LOUD. Louder than the Orange

I play mine through an old Fender Bassman 4x12". Sounds wonderful but there's a store in Stockholm that has the Hiwatt combined 4x10/1x15. Nice price too so I might buy that one since the Bassman cab is a bit too woofy in our rehearsal room.

That said, if I were to keep only one of those two 200W amps I'd keep the Orange. The Hiwatt is great but it can't beat the overdriven sound of the AD200B. I use an overdrive pedal whenever I want to boost the sound in the Hiwatt because the preamp is very clean.

godofthunder · December 28, 2008, 06:12:48 AM

Nice score ! Is Hiwatt making the 400 again ? sometime in January my 70's Hiwatt DR201 should be here from England, I can't wait ! Wish I never sold my Hiwatt 2x15

Chris P. · January 02, 2009, 08:04:46 AM

Update:

Last week I sold the Orange and I ordered a Hiwatt 200:)

I like the overdriven sound of the Orange too, but I hardly used it. I have this English Muff'n by EHX which sounds almost exactly the same as the overdriven Orange. So I can use that for the Hiwatt. I just love big clean sounds:)