Product: Hilgen 5063
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
08/28/2008
at
07:35pm
by
Larry
Email: overundersd<at>hotmail dot com
Features
:
No Opinion
Hilgen Model 5063 "Swing Away". It looks like it was made 1965-66.The amp is a 2 x12" cab with a large cut-out on top.The head is in it's own cab and swings into the cabinet on hinges.It swings up and rests on top of the speaker cab for use.I'm pretty sure this is the top of the line Hilgen. It has 2 channels,reverb,tremelo,footswitch and ext. speaker jack. The amp has 2-EL34s for power & 4- 12ax7s in the preamp.It also has a 7199 to drive the reverb. 4 inputs - "Accordion" is the hottest!
Sound Quality
:
10
When I got the amp it would screech & feedback at earsplitting volume- 2 techs couldn't figure out what was wrong. I finally realized it was a loose tube socket & worn out reverb cables! Once I fixed that & put in good tubes,replaced the CTS speakers with a Greenback & Vintage 30,it sounded incredible. The amp gets a very British Marshall-Vox type sound.I put the treble on 10 and bass on 2-3 and it gets a bright ringing tone,for more break-up I do the opposite.The amp is loud,but not quite as room-shaking as a Marshall,so I'm thinking 35-40 watts.The amp sounds great at any volume- on 3-4 it sonds great for clean stuff,turn it up to 7 or so & forget about it! Notes sustain & feedback without effort- it's the best sounding amp I've played through.With an overdrive or fuzz,it sounds like heaven.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
The amp is pretty dependable.Unlike most point to point Hilgens,this has a circuit board-The components are on top & the bottom has solder traces connecting them.Not the greatest design,but it has held up.The 7199 reverb tube can make noise & some are microphonic,but the amp's tone makes up for it- I'm still working on a solution,there are subs for them.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No support- No Company,No schematics,The average tech never heard of it!
Overall Rating
:
10
Best & Coolest amp I've ever owned (I've owned A LOT).I had a 2-12 Hilgen with the 7591 tubes- that's a great amp too,but this blows even that away! Bought it on Ebay about 3-4 years ago,and haven't seen another one since. I saw 1-2 mentions on the internet,but no pics & none for sale. Every Hilgen I ever heard sounded great,I would replace this in a second (If I could!).
