Just read through your detailed post in the Reeves thread...good info...I’m kind of liking that idea.
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Trying to get tubular....again....
- Thread starter COFFINMAGIC
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- strategy super bassman
Hi-Tone are intended to be accurate to the original Hiwatt designs. In contrast, Reeve includes some well thought out changes such as 2, 4, 8 ohm outputs instead of the original 4, 8, 16. I believe Reeves also made some minor changes to the tone stack.
Sound wise I would expect the Reeves and Hi Tone to be very, very similar. I have a vintage Hylight era Hiwatt DR201 (6xEL34 version) and it is voiced almost exactly the same as my Reeves 400. The scaling of the tone controls is slightly different, but the sound is essentially the same. I have done business with both companies and they were both awesome!
I highly recommend the Titan. Do ensure you get one that has all of the necessary factory technical updates! If the amp is out of warranty, the updates and shipping will run you close to $500. FYI, The same advice is relevant if you decide to buy a Mesa M9 Carbine.
OK so here is my only concern:
The Reeves 225 is a pretty loud amp, but I suspect you may wind up pushing the output section into distortion, and somewhere I seem to remember reading that the output distortion of Hiwatts is not the greatest.
IMHO, These amps are really designed for max clean power with just a touch of breakup available in the preamp, and I have never really pushed mine so I didn't know one way or the other. So I pulled out my 79 DR103 and hooked it up. (Sorry but my Reeves 400 would easily blow my speakers). The voicing of the DR103 sounded almost exactly like the Custom 225 demo I posted earlier in this thread, except a bit deeper bass cause I have some huge speakers ported in the high 20 hz region. When I cranked the amp up, the distortion did not come on smoothly or evenly across all frequencies. First low notes distorted, and as I increased the output the distortion went up the range of the instrument. The quality of the distortion was a bit buzzy right away. By the time sufficient volume was reached for the E (2nd fret D string) to break up, the open E string was pretty farty.
To compare I hooked up a 76 Matamp GT120, which has a similar deep low end response to the Hiwatt. The output distortion comes on really smooth with this amp. When the distortion first starts you barely notice it and it occurs pretty much at the same volume across the range of the instrument. As volume increases the distortion slowly becomes more and more gnarly.
So based on my little experiment, I am confident a Reeves 225 would be a fine amp with two caveats: 1. You like the natural tone of the amp demonstrated in the video posted earlier in the thread, in particular the amount of low mids in the sound as the Reeves/Hiwatt tone stack doesn't really boost low mids. 2. You have speakers that are large and efficient enough to meet your volume requirement without the need to push the output of the amp into hard clipping.
Despite the fact that my Hiwatts and Reeves amps sound very similar to each other clean, there is no guarantee their output sections will behave the same under overload. If you have pushed the output of a Reeves 225 into distortion and achieved different results than I did with my DR103 experiment, please comment.
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Wow. Totally appreciate you doing that little experiment! Hopefully someone else will get something out of it too. I definitely understand how you explained the difference between the way the natural distortion came in on the different amps. Does the Matamp use 6550s or 6L6’s? Would that explain it breaking up in a smoother way? Also do you use any kind of pedals in front of a Hiwatt or Reeves head? Curious if they produce an even distortion just getting slammed with drive.
Also....and I know these are worlds apart...I’m going to be either using an 8x10 or my 70’s Peavey 4x12 and 2x15 cabs stacked. I believe those will be enough speaker surface to use something like this without having to crank it into oblivion and buzz.
I finally got around to checking, and sure enough the 225 is switchable for 2, 4 and 8 ohms. In my partial defense, I don’t own any 4 ohm cabinets right now so I had forgotten.
Also, as Wasnex has implied above, the 225 is really not designed to produce usable distortion unless it is run pretty much wide open. The design concept is different - loud, clean and with a low end that simply must be heard to be appreciated. It is not an amp that I recommend for people who want to cop the overdriven sound that is associated with, say, an SVT, Marshall or even a Mesa Boogie.The Reeves is coming from the other end of the tube tone spectrum.
I use a Creation Audio Labs Grizzly Bass Overdrive in front of miy Reeves when I want to warm the sound up with overdrive. I see the irony of using a solid-state pedal to simulate the sound of tube overdrive with my all-tube Reeves 225, but whatever: it sounds great!
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This is definitely the amp that I will end up falling back in after I’ve investigated everything else. I see no downside to it and the price is fair. Only issue I have is(and I know some people will get mad for even bringing it up)that I have ZERO idea where they are made. Can’t find it online anywhere. I thought all Fender tube amps where made in Mexico but that head doesn’t say in the back and has a small amount of Chinese writing. Doesn’t really matter...just curious.
I do see the irony but I see no problem with it! An overdrive slamming the front of a tube amp is how you break it up right? Haha. So your Reeves does like pedals? I know it’s not meant to get that ‘SVt’ natural overdrive but it doesn’t fight you on slamming the input? No farting? Distorts well?
The DR103 and GT120 are both running EL34s. It would be interesting if someone could run the same experiment with a Reeves 225, but I think the results would probably be pretty similar. I think it relates to design philosophy rather than tube type.
IMHO, Hiwatts and Reeves take pedals exceptionally well. I haven't really experimented with slamming the front end with drive or clean boost. I believe the older circuits (mid 70s and earlier) do well with clean boost but the late 70s two hole circuit can develop blocking distortion and shut off for a few seconds if you hit it too hard. This is supposed to effect my 79 DR103, but I have never experience it. I don't know which year preamp Reeves based their design on.
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412 stacked on a 215 would probably do it. I love having speakers at ear level. I know people swear that an 810 is super loud, but I have always had a hard time hearing myself using an 810.
Do you know anyone with a big tube amp? Any chance you could do a demo to see realistically what 200 or 300 tube watts is going to do for you?
If you plug straight into the amp and push the gain to about 3 o'clock you should a bit of OD out of the preamp.
Dunno about em all. . But mine says made in Mexico on the back.
I've had zero issues with mine. . And seen very few reports of issues online.
Beast of an amp and that it's 20lbs lighter than the SVT-VR that I was gonna get ain't lost on me neither!
Wow...I cannot BELIEVE I forgot this. I actually own really old Mesa400 that was dead when I got it used. I took it to our local guy and we set it up with a brand new set of tubes. He determined everything worked but the circuit board was fried. He looked everywhere and couldn’t find a replacement. Offered to build me a new board from scratch I guess(I’m no electrician or expert on the workings of amps)but I didn’t want to pay what he was asking for that at the time. This was like 6 years ago and I had completely forgotten about it. Texted him today and he still has it. Haha. Anyone know someone or somewhere that would do this job and a ballpark price? My guy has since stopped working on amps.
Shipping a big amp like a Mesa 400 is probably going to run around $100 one way. If you can take some photos of the damaged circuit board, show your other local tech(s) and see what they say. I would also give Mesa a call. If I were going to ship the amp for repair, this is the only place I would send it.
If the card is not too severely damaged it's usually possible to bridge bad/broken traces with wire. Unfortunately if the card had a fire and suffered extensive heat damage it may be turning to powder. If this is the case, it probably won't hold a repair, so a new card is required. If Mesa can't provide a card that will work, a point to point solution must be built (big bucks). In addition, the amp will likely need a cap job and new tubes (unless the tech left the tubes in the amp). If the card is a total loss, the retail cost to get the amp running may be more than you would spend to buy a good used amp. I have seen a couple of near mint 400+s listed for around $900 recently.
If you are going to call Mesa anyway, have ur CC handy to go ahead and order that Titan you need!
I'm a massive fan of the new Super Bassman. Great purchase, bro.
