The Two New HIWATT Leeds 50 & 25R Spring Reverb Amp Heads

[Dave Lewis]

Has anyone on hear heard or tried them yet ?

 

[DrewJD82]

No, but last night I was thinking about their smaller heads for a Gilmour living room rig.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

good for them for releasing new amps and I want HiWatt to thrive.

These look like seriously budget amps though, comparatively they make Blackstar or Laney look boutique. I don’t mind that for some brands but in my head HiWatt has always represented a really high premium quality and these look like the total opposite.

 

[bikescene]

Hiwatt has Canadian owners now, or at least these amps are from that ownership group. They've had low cost solid state heads and a low wattage tube head for the past few years. I don't know what resemblance these newer amps have to the classic Hiwatt have other than cosmetics.

I thought about checking out the low wattage tube head, the Hi-5, but passed on it in the end.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Didn't realize these were solid state. Got excited for a sec.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I was wondering how long it would take a valve amp snob to appear

 

[mbenigni]

Gilmour living room rig.

Right up there with "low wattage HIWATT".

 

[Dave Lewis]

Roger used Hiwatt Bass amps and cabs

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Yet another example of a different company taking over the original company's logo, doing things completely different and then hoping the original logo will carry the day and/or fool consumers.

That's not a good sign... usually.

This is a real HIWATT, and the mil-spec circuitry and attention to detail that made them famous:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

History of HIWATT:

MHuss Hiwatt Amplifier Pages - History

 

[FuzzyAce]

I was wondering how long it would take a valve amp snob to appear

I'm no snob , I have 3 or 4 ss amps too.
But a Hiwatt ss is not in the cards for me.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I’ve got both .
I had the 50 on pre order for a few weeks before it arrived a few weeks ago and grabbed the 25 last week .
Believe it or not both are really good heads.

 

[itchyfingers]

Let's be honest. Nothing sounds like a dimed DR103 except a dimed DR103. Have not tried the Leeds models, but I dig my lil Hi-5, 420 edition.

 

[bikescene]

Let's be honest. Nothing sounds like a dimed DR103 except a dimed DR103. Have not tried the Leeds models, but I dig my lil Hi-5, 420 edition.

What are the tones like? I saw some videos demonstrating it's clean tone which I thought sounded nice. I didn't really understand what the overdrive would be like. I was looking at them around the time they had that 420 edition.

 

[itchyfingers]

What are the tones like? I saw some videos demonstrating it's clean tone which I thought sounded nice. I didn't really understand what the overdrive would be like. I was looking at them around the time they had that 420 edition.

Pretty straightforward 2 channel amp, it's only 5 watts so you're gonna have some limitations, but its a perfect bedroom amp. Cleans are passable, it's definitely EQ'd to cut through a mix - I've got the bass cranked and the treble back around 11:00. It's not Fender Deluxe bloom, but decent cleans nonetheless. The drive channel seems to be what they made it for. Even though it's little, I would classify it as a hi gain amp. I'm definitely not a hi gain guy, so I keep it rolled back to around 10:00 and get a nice stoner rock / dirty blues drive sound, and hit the front end with a boost pedal for solos.

 

[dronerstone]

I’ve got both .
I had the 50 on pre order for a few weeks before it arrived a few weeks ago and grabbed the 25 last week .
Believe it or not both are really good heads.
View attachment 29858View attachment 29860

Dig the looks, of course - how do they sound, and how much volume is there on tap?
I love nice solid state amps, but the good ones usually come from the second half of the 1970's.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Dig the looks, of course - how do they sound, and how much volume is there on tap?
I love nice solid state amps, but the good ones usually come from the second half of the 1970's.

I gave the Leeds 25 Reverb a play through during a brake in the cricket earlier through a 2 X 12” Celestion vintage 30 cabinet .
It’s plenty LOUD enough to annoy the neighbours down the road if I wanted to.
Sounds good at low and high volumes.
It sounds great on cleans and dirty and the reverb is excellent.
I put a couple of pedals straight in and they sounded really good.
This is a lot of Head for £129.00

 

[Orvillain]

This is a lot of Head for £129.00

 

[Dave Lewis]

Just seen this is up.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Your a funny guy