Hiwatt Hi-Gain 50

mine has the "designed in england" logo on the back of the amp, so it's the cheaper 50W chinese model.

it has all the standard features a modern head has (such as effect loops, main out, ext. cabinet,...) but i always use just the basics. it's a 2 channel amp, both of the channels also have two voicings: the clean has a bright pull switch, the drive has two stages of gain.

there's a shared EQ for both channels, but that's not a problem for me at all because i always use only one.

i mostly run it with the chet atkins gretsch 6120-59 guitar and marshall 1960A box. the first time everything sounded bright, too bright... but everything improved with the tubes warming up and after playing it for a couple of weeks.

the first channel is supposed to sound like the old classic hiwatt custum amp. it has the same circuit they say. it sounds like that? of course not, but it's quite there! it's a pretty clean channel, but at higher gains you can get a nice overdriven sound when hitting the strings, cleaning up with the guitar volume pot down. i don't use the bright voicing coz it's too bright for me.

the hi-gain channel is not marshally sounding, far from beeing a messa. pretty british sounding overdrive and that's how i like it. as already said, two stages of gain. the drive channel has an additional volume knob which you can use to ballance the volumes if using both channels.

don't know about the reverb, i don't use it.

it's not noisy. hiwatts are also known for sounding good with pedals. i only use a boss od-3 overdrive to add a bit of more gain or as a booster... but the pedal's off for like 90% of the time. it does sound good anyway, better than with the marshall i have. but i really can't tell about that too much.

as for now i didn't have any problems. looks rock solid.

never had to contact the company for anything. but when i was looking for some info about the amp i found out how poor their web pages were. very little info about it.

i also own another head, a marshall 100W '77 jmp super lead. there are diffeneces between both and that's what i was looking for. the hiwatt delivers wonderfull clean sounds. plus, didn't get the hi-gain version to obtain marshally or mesa distortions. buy marshalls or boogies for that.

i'm not a fan of high gains anyway, i like more the old r'n'r sounds. i rarely use the drive channel, i set the clean with the gain pretty high. by hitting the strings i get a really nice overdrive with lots of definition, by not hitting the strings hard or with the volume knobs down you get the cleaner sound. for a bit of more overdrive (when needed) i push everything with the boss od-3. it's perfect to me.

Updating after gigging for 2000 plus people in the gym.
I had a problem with internal fuse which was blown. I had it fixed and also changing the power tubes (for JJ KT 77s) It makes sound better.
All the guys were amazed with my tones and 50 watts really did work. (My pedals were Peterson StroboStomp 2 tuner, Fulltone OCD 4th gen. , TC Electronic VPD1, MXR Carbon Copy, and Danelectro DC-1 Coolcat 18Volts.)
If you have many stompboxes,this one will be a very must-try amp. If not, you may want some amps that have all the bells and whistles.
I have many great pedals and that's why I chose this amp over Laney VH100R and Marshall JVM 410.
After all, very nice headroom and big sound which all I need.

Hiwatt Hi-Gain 50 head basic model (no reverb, no fx, no speaker sim.) Made in England (it is written on the rear panel `designed and manufactured in England`) not chinese model.
I think it is pretty simple but powerful features. (normal/bright and hi-gain push-pull switch)
If you know how to tweak the knobs, it will be versatile enough for almost every style of music.
And the Hiwatt site says that this amp is designed as a canvas so by using some external fx you can create very your own sounds.

I use this amp with Carvin 412 (with V30 speakers)
Very clean to tight heavy bottom crunch tones you can get instantly.
Using my Legacy and other great guitars (like Musicman Steve Morse model, etc...) I can get Fenderish crystal clean, (with bright switch on), blusy crunch, fat searing lead tone, extremely heavy bottom dist and even very nice jazzy tone. I played many othere brand like Marshall, Fender, Vox, Boogie, Peavey, Dr.Z, Hughes & Kettner, ENGL, Line6, Roland... almost major brand and the sound quality is second to none...
I mean every amps have thier own good points but I would like to give high note because it works really well with any fx pedals.

No problem. Hiwatt is known its military specs.

This is minor. The site is really poor. The products info is very weak. I hope it gets better soon.

Well, I heard that there is a chinese version which is cheap.
It costs almost 2K so I bet this is not a cheap one. Actually, this is the most expensive amp I??ve owned but I am too satisfied to complain any. I went to the the local shop for getting Laney VH100R which is also a really nice amp. I tested it first then I turned on Hiwatt. After a few notes and chords, it was a very easy and obvious decison. Normally when I get some gears, I do many researches and have the tones that I want in my head. This is ??The One?? for me. I know that this category is a tough field. Many great heads are out there in this category. But if you have enough money, it will be a great choice.

This is the plain 50 Watts 2/3-channels (clean channel, gain channel, the latter having an additional boost stage). One tone stack for both channels. No reverb, no effect chain, just the direcht signal path. Bought in 2007 as a showroom model in my local guitar centre. Its the version designed in England, manufactured in China. This is a sleeper - those who could not compare think that soldering in Asia is still a problem. I checked it against the 50 and 100 Watts Hi-Gain heads made in GB which were almost twice the price. There was absolutely no difference in the clean and gain channels, its the same circuit and same parts anyway. BUT the reverb in the China-SER-models was kind of mushy. As I wanted a classic rock head and had no need for a reverb I chose this one and saved a considerable amount of money without compromising tonewise.

This thing is straight. Some may call it brutal, others into the face. Clean channel is classic Hiwatt territory. Big Gilmour and Townsend cleans, Killers or Coldplay play them as well. Much more authority than Marshall, tecs say due to the military grade components - great that this Hiwatt tradition survived, big trannies with no leaning towards sag. 2nd channel is everything from Australian crunch to drop-D riffing, searing leads. Think all except for pure metal, get a Rectifier or Engl then. It is unforgiving in more than one way - you will hear what you play, and you will hear it in any mix. Don't let it frighten you if you test it without any musical context, think of cutting through a mix. This is a head for those who play live. Don't know about the Hiwatt cabs. Best cab imho 4x12 with low power speakers like Greenbacks, G12-65. This amp plus V30 or comparable speakers 'd be too much for me. And the lower the db of the speaker the closer you can get to tube saturation without deafening yourself. The 50 Watts is still mighty loud, use a Weber, THD, Marshall Power break etc to crank it on smaller stages. If it had separate tone stacks for both channels I gave it a 10, this is a mighty high nine.

Military specs, classy components. Used it for more than 20 gigs in small sized venues and a tour in Netherlands/Belgium, never any issues, always have a backup amp (this one as a 212 combo but better use a big cab) ready but never needed it.

No issues so far, no need for support.

This is a perfect head for serious rhythm and lead work in a rock band. Look out for them, they are somewhat hard to find coz they have been discontinued, only the GB models still in the pipe but much more pricey. As long as you don not need the reverb SER-version you'll be as happy with these.

This is the British made version of the Hi-gain 50 head, not to confused with the cheaper Chinese version. It's a well built, all valve amp and has two channels;
Clean - with pull knob on the ch1 volume for the sought after 'bright' sound.
Lead - With pull knob on the ch2 gain control for extra higain
There is only one set of eq (bass, mid, treb and presence) which is for both the clean and lead channels. Then there is ch2 volume control and a master volume. Reverb is accutronics variety.
Round the back there is a send and return fo effects, choice of 16, 8, or 4 ohm, an doutput mute switch, channel select/mute foot switch jack and reverb/effects loop foot switch jack. The footswitches didn't come with the amp, I had to buy those seperately. Another feature is the ability to turn the amp from European 240v to US 110 at the flick of a (recessed) switch, which is pretty good.

I use a beat up old US Strat with my amp

First off clean - the standard clean sound is wonderful - crystal clear, sparkly tones (reminded me of David Gilmour's trademark sound). Nice bottom end, great treble that cuts through. with the 'bright' sound on (activated via pull knob) there is an even brighter more trebly sound that is terrific. However, because there is only one set of eq controls I found that the 'bright' clean sound doesn't sit well with the lead channel as the lead channel sounds muffled in comparison when you switch between the two. I therefore tend not to use the 'bright' option. However, the standard sound realy is great and I've had compliments from those that have borrowed the amp at gigs. It's easy to dial in a sound you're pleased with. Pushing the clean volume up the sound breaks up very nicely indeed and you can get a lovely crunch sound.
The lead channel is not quite so good. If you just want a slightly overdriven, bluesy crunch, it can be quite tricky to acheive it with this channel. Crank it up and you can get a pretty good lead sound, and with the 'higain' knob pulled out, you can get a passable metal sound. But with the shared eq it can be quite difficult to get a decent tone on both the clean and lead channels without compromising on one or the other. The presence works well, depending on the speaker cab you're using it with (I'm using it with a Mesa Boogie cab so can hear the difference), and I usually have that on about 4 or 5. The reverb is nice but subtle - you won't get amazing surf guitar sounds with this like you would on a Fender, but it is a pleasant sounding reverb nonetheless. There is very little in the way of hiss or hum from this amp.
So on summary - 9 for the clean channel which is fantastic, but probably only a 6 or 7 for the lead channel so I'll give an overall score of 8

I also own a Fender Pro Reverb and the build quality of that amp looks positively shabby comapared to the Hiwatt. This amp is built like a tank and, whilst I haven't had it long, I suspect that it will last for a very long time without problems. There are no rattles when carrying it about and as stated before, no hum or hissing sounds or anything to cause alarm. However - i have one major gripe with this amp. When you switch from lead back to clean it is instant switching. However, when you switch the other way - from clean to lead - there is a noticable split second of silence when switching. I took it back to the shop I bought it from (Chandlers in Kew, London - HIghly recommened) and they contacted Hiwatt who confirmed that this was a known design problem!!! Apparently there is a capicitor that has to kick in and that causes the delay in switching. It's only a split second of delay, but it is noticible and pretty poor for an amp that is this expensive! Apparently Hiwatt have directed the guys at Chandlers to a contact in London that has come up with a fix for it, but he won't e-mail the details to Chandlers, they'll have to go visit him, so it's taking a while to get my amp fixed. Therefore the amp is being marked down for reliability as it has a fundemental design flaw

Hiwatt build good amps, but they're a small operation and so the support is poor. The website is badly designed and some sections don't work. I actually e-mailed them to advise that the 'spares & accessories' section on the website wasn't working, but that was 3 months ago and they haven't done anything about it. However, they did respond to my e-mail about three weeks afterwards. I ordered a footswitch from then when I bought the amp and that took about 4-5 weeks to be delivered. And of course - they've not been very helpful about the design flaw in the channel switching on this amp. So overall, I've not been impressed.

I've been playing 15 years and have owned a variety of amps - Marshalls (crap), Fender (great sound but unreliable), Line6 and Vox amp modellers (we all make mistakes). If I was just judging the Hiwatt on it's clean channel I'd give this amp a 9 or a ten, i really love the sound that much, and it looks cool, it's sturdy, it's classy. However, I wanted a 2 channel amp for versatility sakes and I've been sadly dissapointed by the channel switching problem and I've been slightly underwhelmed by the lead channel, though it is usable. If this was stolen I think I might go for something from the Hiwatt Custom ranger instead and just get my distortion sounds from pedals instead.

easy to play with hi-gain switch, this is made on PCB instead custom was hand wired, loudspeaker are celestion in combo vers.

though was a cheaper version of custom, sound is very good, is suitable at many colour tou want, warm sound and dynamic, in Hi-gain ch. flow much distorsion as you need while normal ch. go to clean sound to lovable crunch blues tone.

just a troble in the unit I've tried was master volume that work bad, until three quarter of knob sound is low in last quarter volume goes to max according to me is a factory failure... don't you ??

site is very poor, it's difficult get features about....

it's a pity for these great amps.

I've just tested it in a shop, I'don't buy it (see trouble above)I'planning to buy it when I'll find a unit with master volume working normal, I hope isn't native feature :(