Hiwatt Lead 30 Head

THis is a 1986 Hiwatt Lead 30 Sg-30 Head, This is your basic rock n' roll amp, its perfect for what i play, a mixture of early aerosmith and zeppelin with some basic blues, it can get on the heavy side and when you turn it up past like 1/2 way maybe even a little sooner, it doesn't get much louder it just distorts more, it's one input one channel, i love it because you can really clean it up by turning the volume on your guitar down, and it has PERFECT feedback, you don't really need endless sustain, because you have it when it feedback's the note your playing... unbelievable cool. 4 EL84's, it has effects loop, which i never use, becuase the only effect i play with is a wah and talkbox, and i never really jumped on the whole effects loop, don't really understand it, but this is a LOUD 30 watts. 10 all the way

This is my dream guitar amp, as it can get me brutal like to date nugent overdrive, to like beautiful "Movin' Out" clean on aerosmith's first record, I have a strat and a 98 "the paul" am currently saving up for a 'real' les paul standard but the paul does... well okay, its like a SG in a les paul body and i HATE the dot inlays, but really sounds good with humbuckers and/or single's i love how little hiss you get, i at first bought a vox AD412 to go with it, but i hooked it up to a marshall, and the different speakers, completely blew me away. The vox was real brittle sounding, so i did some research and found avatar speakers, and bought a 412 loaded with celestion G12H30's and its still breaking in and it sounds AWESOME. This amp is real compressed i'm not that knowledgable about like class A or class A/B but i'm pretty sure its a class A... don't quote me on that though. like another poster put, its got two distinct sounds, a compressed clean, and a compressed overdrive, the overdrive is not that brutal (hence: overdrive) but its perfect for what i need it for. It isn't the point to point Hiwatt, no its not the hilyte era or whatever, this this is pure rock n' roll at a reasonable volume and you don't have to turn it up to 10 to get a good nit n' grit sound out of it, looks like a classic hiwatt, and mine's real beat up... love it

This amp seems built to last, i see nothing wrong with it, i don't trust myself with changing tubes so i take it in, and if it works when it leaves the shop, it'll work til the next time, this this is built to last and i gig without a backup, never fails.

Don't think i'll ever need them...

I've been playing for 6 years, i own this and a crate palomino, and a strat, the paul, vox wah v847, and a rocktron banshee, i love my simple set up and this hiwatt just fullfill's my dream, yeah, its not a marshall, but i'm perfectly content with my hiwatt, i had dreams of owning a marshall, and that went down the tube with this, honestly who didn't use a hiwatt at some point, hendrix used one for awhile, page, gilmour etc, i heard you can get this at a lower price than i paid, but if it were stolen i'd hunt the bastard that took it and rip him a new one for laying his paws on my hiwatt... but i love it, the clean is very cool, and overdrive is great at lower volumes and only gets better the louder it goes. i recommend this 100% i love it

This is a Sterling Imports-made Hiwatt from the mid-1980s ... I can't swear to the exact dates and circumstances of its manufacture, but this Web site may be of use, by Hiwatt nuts for Hiwatt nuts:

http://members.tripod.com/~dcsbulldog/index-2.html

For those of you who like to plug in and play, this is one of the greatest amps out there ... 1 channel, vol, bass, mid, treble, presence, master vol. It's got an effects loop, a slave out, impedance selector and 2 speaker outs. No reverb. Power and standby switches (SI also made a 20-watt head that didn't have a standby). Four EL84s in the power stage, four tube in the preamp (12AX7s, by my recollection)

Please indulge me in my story; it might be insightful: Back in '87, when I was getting serious with the band, I went looking for a definitive head ... I wasn't a total gearhead at the time, so Mesa didn't really figure entirely into my search, and they were pricey, anyway. I went to a shop with my '81 Paul Standard. First, I plugged into yer basic Marshall head, 50 or 100 watts, 4-input version; sounded utterly thick and dead, no bright shadings (and I know you can get them because I now own a fairly pristine JCM800 version of the "No. 1987" head). Next, I saw a Mesa (MK2 or MK3 head) and plugged in. I was skeptical because of a bias I had at the time of too many push-pull knobs and onboard EQ, etc. When I cut the EQ out of the mix and played with the knobs all in, I wasn't impressed (granted, I was a tone novice at the time ... I was forced to play a Peavey MX VTX hybrid because my dad couldn't afford the Fender Twin II I was dying for!). Finally, I saw the little Hiwatt against the wall. One input. Hiwatts are generally rare no matter where you go to look, so I was rather excited. The guy in the shop didn't know too much about the head, but it didn't look like a warhorse from the '70s. He said, "Turn it up," so I did. I'll never forget how wonderfully throaty, clean, transparent, raw and LOUD that baby was. Rattled the windows and the walls. I took it right home for $350 and never regretted it for a day.

When I was using this in the '80s, for a live gig or two and a couple of days in a recording studio, I was using my '81 Paul Standard, sometimes a Hagstrom III to be all pseudo-indie and stuff. When I was playing out a bit a few years back in NYC, I was using a '69 SG Special and a '90s Jap-o-caster in the '60s vein (darn good pickups with vintage-y bite).

My early band was your basic alternative-type trio ... we channeled a relatively typical mix of Sabbath, Zep, U2,. REM, Priest, Maiden, Metallica, Aerosmith, Suicidal, Bad Brains, and whatever else was fresh and heavy and weird. As one reviewer mentioned, you do tend to get lost in the mix, even in a trio ? yet I was told to turn it down once in a club, for what that's worth. But that's what the slave out is for. I going to try running one (I own two of these) through a Mesa 395, and that should bring it forward nicely.

I would say the amp has two rather distinct sounds ... a woody, thick, compressed clean and a wonderfully open, raw distorted sound ? not modern/nu metal, not AIC, not Tool, but close. In the studio, I played it full on, and it holds its own as a metal amp ... I hesitate to call it purely a classic rock-type amp. I feel all the controls are quite versatile ... bass, mid, treble, and especially the presence ... it'll tear your head off. With pre volume dimed, you can hear discernible volume distinctions with the master volume up until about 7-8. That's where you need to slave it out to get that extra over-the-hump power. But it drove a Crate 412 with Celestions with authority. It can be tricky to play through at first because it is so naturally compressed that you have to be a pretty precise player ... if you're used to playing through tons of saturated distortion and letting that saturation carry your notes through, you'll have to buckle down and get your touch dynamics to a higher level. But it's worth it.

Back in the late '90s, I was playing with an ever-changing bass-drums/guitar/acoustic lineup with folk-rock singer-songwriter Meghan Cary (www.meghancary.com) at the Bitter End in the Village. I grabbed an old Marshall 410 (from those awful Mosfet setups of the '80s because I had to buy something in a pinch, and that was all the shop I got to had). The head filled the rather small venue nicely, and I got nothing but complements on the tone.

Amp has never broken down on me. I still want to record with the original one I bought in the '80s; I grabbed a second in the '90s and haven't really used it much. But whether or not they're wired in the same mil-spec fashion as the Reeves-era Hiwatts, they're durable as hell. I'm totally lax in replacing tubes (actually haven't in either of these yet, but they're still pretty brilliant sounding ... I'm eyeing some Ruby Tubes or other EL84s for the power section, and I'm sure this baby will jump!)

I've only ever brought one in to a shop to have the pots cleaned. There doesn't appear to be anything overly hard to handle in here. Trannys are small, plenty of room around the tubes and the chassis in the traditional squat Hiwatt box.

I've never played an AC30, so I can't compare this SG30 head (that's the Sterling Imports model designation) to the King of Brit clean, but it can make you stand out in just about any situation. I'm totally into Metallica, Slayer, AIC, Tool, Helmet ... and you can get the gist of those sounds out of this head ... true, not without the super-thick low-end that amps are being voiced to produce these days, but given a choice between my Mesa Quad preamp, or a Nomad or a Recto, I think I'd still bring this out to play because it's unique, and you can easily juice it with some clean boost and the Deep Extend mode on a SImul 395 or a Strat 500 or whatever other power amp you'd like (maybe even one of those gargantuan 200-watt Hiwatt heads!). This thing fires out gorgeous harmonics and overtones, super-crunchy tones, thick, meaty tones ... and all while letting the true character of whatever guitar you're using shine through. I prefer a brighter amp (maybe because I've got too much hearing damage). It's a no-nonsense amp ... not to knock Mesa's or anyone else's multiknobular (yes, I know that's not a word) units, but if you want to plug, rawk hard and get your audience (and yourself) going while the other guys are fiddling about dialing in their "tone," check one of these out. If you hanker for a low-headroom Class A killer for recording and smaller applications, you owe it to yourself to add one of these to your collection.

all tube head, 4 ECC83s, 4 EL84s. one input, bass/mid/treb/pres. FX loop, line out (1/4"), 8/16 ohm tap , 2 speaker jacks. Master Volume .
Amp has LOADS of volume for a 30 watt but is not quite loud enough with a loud second gtr. I joined a punk band and needed to buy a 100W head to compete with the singer's rhythm. still, plenty loud for small uncluttered groups. One sound and one sound only (see below)

I got this amp to replicate my favorite british records, and it excels at this. Clash, Who, early Hendrix, Cream, etc all spout nicely from any speakers you care to feed this into. I use a Les Paul Jr. for best results, Humbucker Les pauls work well too. (fenders sound a bit thin and tubby, especially neck p/up). This is a USA "Sterling Import" Hiwatt from the mid 80s, NOT the standard classic Hiwatt clean tone, but not heavy metal/grunge/modern thrash either. sounds like a nice classic Marshall tone to my ears. Again not very versatile, but tone and grit to spare. One trick pony and quite fucking good at it too! Just a bit thin in the bass but makes up for it with amazing mids which I prefer. Match it to a good cab and the bottom end is helped (I prefer my Marshall 4x10 with 25W Celestions) tremendously. Nasty squeals (Tea's ready!) if you try to peg it for maximum volume, so go for a 50 or 100W if you must be uber loud. If the 30 watt's volume at "7" or "8" is sufficient (which it has been for me in MOST cases), then no probs there. Best of all, it cleans up beautifully when you roll the guitar's volume back but still retains a lot of grit. For an old school player like me who prefers to work the volume from the guitar knob rather than stomp a box for solo/rhythm levels this is great because you don't get that abrupt nosedive when you back out of a lead and it makes for a smoother transition back to chordwork. NICE!

Never a problem in about 13 years of regular use (original tubes may be just starting to go!). It does seem a bit more flimsy than My British 70s Hiwatt heads and is Much Lighter (those DEFINITELY ain't Partridge Trannies in this MF!), which is not always a bad thing. I am told it does NOT have the famous Hiwatt miltary spec point to point wiring & The logos look a bit off but the case and tolex look authentic Hiwatt and have held up to years of gigging abuse extremely well. No complaints here.

This be tricky because Hiwatt gets tossed about a bit, don't they? If you have the energy to keep up with and chase after the ever changing current owners/distributers (Fernandes) and make the occasional UK phone call (Music Ground, nice guys!), you should be okay. Lots of Hiwatt lovers make for tremendous web resources, though you can be frowned upon for owning one of these and not a "real" hiwatt (sort of like rolling up at Sturgis on an AMF Harley). Keep fingers crossed on this one!

Been playing long enough to know when an amp sucks and when it doesn't and why & how. This is a head I bring to sessions where I will need THE classic marshall type sound. Sure I could buy a Marshall, but this is way cooler (and cheaper) in my estimation. I would definitely seek another if this was gone, though I would also consider another offbeat psuedo Marshall (Park, Orange etc). The nice thing about this one is it breaks up IMMEDIATELY, volume halfway up even, total crunch. So it's a special purpose amp and does its job perfectly.

I believe this amp head is an '84, and made in the USA. After putzing around the web I've found that this model was only made between '83 and '84 and under license from the original Hiwatt company when the rights to the Hiwatt name was in dispute. It puts out 30 Watts (I think it must be class A because this darned thing is SOOO loud), and I run it through a 4x12 Hiwatt cab from the same era.

This amp is a one-trick pony. But it does that one trick really well. That is: DIRT. When I saw this in the shop, I thought the only appropriate guitar to plug into it was a '65 Gibson SG Junior, so I picked up one of those as well. :) It has a pre gain and a master volume, treble, mid, bass, presence, with no reverb. I believe the power tubes are EL84(?), most likely with 12AX7 pre tubes.

The sound, when used with the SG Junior, is a cross between My Bloody Valentine and a bumblebee. You can very easily get that Daniel-Lanois -at-Sessions-on-54th-Street sound. It can make you crap your pants. If you keep the gains down (at say, 8 o'clock or less!) you can get a cool Angus Young sort of tone, and without a power soak is still much louder than your parents would like to hear. If you plan on setting the post gain knob past 9 o'clock, for the love of God please get a power soak! :)

It's perfect for noise rock but if you want a more versatile, more conventional or "useful" sound in an amp, this is probably not for you. It does however have a very interesting aesthetic, and really is everything that I could want in a high-gain channel.

After turning the master volume up past around 4 o'clock, the amp doesn't seem to get much louder as much as it simply distorts more. I keep both my pre and post gains at around 9 o'clock (with a THD power soak), and I run a Little Lanilei reverb pedal in front of it. Enough gain for everyone, nice balance between overtones and fundamental.

I've only had it for a couple of months, but I'm pretty sure this thing could make the long haul if it had too. If I gigged, I'd feel totally confident bringing it onstage.

This thing is just wicked. Very compressed, very dirty. Exactly what I need. :)