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Hi guys,

I have never played a real vintage Hiwatt which makes me quite curious.
Has anyone ever compared the Triwatt with a vintage Hiwatt (like a DR504 or DR103)?

If so, how does it acutally compare?

I have a Hylight era DR504 from ‘80. I’m waiting on my TriWatt kit to arrive (hopefully will be a Christmas build).

I’ll post some comparison clips once I get it dialled in.

I’m a lifelong Hiwatt player (been using them, off and on, for almost 40 years) and also design and build my own amps.

Allright cool! I am very curious how you compare it to the classic Hiwatt sound you are (apperently) very well known with.

Looking forward to your clips and good luck with your build! Take it slow and steady! ;-)

Hey GertJan2411! Just following up, my amp kit didn’t arrive in time for a build during the Christmas break as I was hoping. So that gave me the idea to take my time and do a build video series since I wouldn’t be able to blast through the build. I’m getting close (ish) to completing the build and will be doing a comparison between my DR504, the Triwatt and a pedal platform design of my own once the build is complete. I’m hoping that will happen by mid-April.

If you want to follow along with the build series you can find it here, https://youtube.com/user/TheJagJones.

Cheers

Wow, very cool!!

I'll be watching those videos soon!

Yes, keep us posted !!

Will do!

I’m going to push through and hopefully have the amp built and ready for testing next week.

When I started the build series I thought, “This should be done in about a month”. Sure didn’t realize how much filming and editing would slow me down LOL. I’ve sure learned a lot about creating and editing content. It’s finally starting to flow smoothly.

Next Winter, I’m thinking of doing another series, now that I know what it takes and what I can do better on terms of showing the process. Not sure if I’ll do another kit or source parts myself. I’m pretty sure I’ll do a Plexi style amp though.

FYI guys, while developing the Triwatt, I was given the use of a genuine 1970s 100W DR504 Custom Hiwatt to compare with. So the Triwatt sounds real close, provided you don't engage the Biacrown-style boost stage.

I'll need others here to confirm if we got it right.

_________________
Great tones come in small glass jars!

I should have the build ready for tech testing next Friday. If that goes well, I’ll do sound tests and head-to-head comparison video with my ‘80 DR504 the Friday after!

Just doing a quick follow-up!

I got the final build video done and have done all the tests to make sure it's working. I know this is later than I said it would be but I had other things conspire against me!

If you want to check the series you can find it here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mAiI2a ... EX4JDk_d3g. This is also where the play-through and shoot out will be posted.

I will be shooting the play-through tomorrow and should have it up on my YouTube page early next week!

The shoot out between the Triwatt, my vintage Hiwatt and one of my own designs should be up in a couple of weeks.


Jeez, this YouTube thing sure threw a monkey wrench into it! I have never had an amp build take more than two weeks. Filming, editing and making sure I made sense (mostly) extended the build to just over three months! LOL

Just posted a more comprehensive demo of the Triwatt build!

https://youtu.be/lMC9Zw4XL-U

Sounds great. What IR are you using with your Captor X? I have one as well and will hopefully start building my Triwatt kit this weekend.

Most of the tracks were using the Watt Fano DynIR but I also used a Celestion Greenback 4x12 DynIR and, I think, a Deluxe IR. I’ll look it up tomorrow and confirm back here.

Sorry, I was wrong (was going from memory).

I just checked and here's what I used in the Captor X

Clean Tones - FastBack 25 with a bit of Cathedral Reverb
Low Gain Tones - Watt FanC no reverb
Mid-Gain Tones - Free Rock 2 with a bit of Crypt Reverb

I don't usually use the stock DynIR's but I just stopped whenever I liked the tone and tweaked until it fit.

I've been using a Captor 8 and CAB M for a couple of years and just got the Captor X a day or two before I shot the video. I was a bit under the gun and didn't have time to load in my usual suspects . I'm pretty impressed with how the stock DynIr's worked out!