HiWatt Maxwatt B20 practice amp

[Oxblood]

Recently I've been thinking about getting a small practice amp. The trusty old Peavey MicroBass (secondhand) is top of my list of possibles, but as I was in town today, I took a trip down Denmark St, where I saw the HiWatt Maxwatt B20. It looked quite pretty, so having nothing better to do, I thought I'd give it a try. Oh dear.

PRICE PAID:
It was on sale at two prices, depending on whether you want the old style case (£89) or the slightly bigger, boxier new one (£129).
Didn't buy either!

FEATURE LIST:
20 Watts (supposedly)
10 Inch Speaker
High and Low Sensitivity Inputs
3 Band EQ
Presence Control
External Speaker Output
Headphone Jack
Limiter

FINISH: 5/10
Looks quite nice.

SOUND: 0/10
Absolutely dreadful. This has to be one of the weediest sounding practice amps I've ever experienced. I've heard louder transistor radios. Any attempt to get it near to a usable practice volume (and believe me, I'm not talking loud here - just audible) results in it overloading horribly. The EQ section is a joke: the mid control has no effect at all! I tried both 'styles' of the amp, and both were equally awful.

RELIABILITY: n/a

CUSTOMER SUPPORT: n/a

OVERALL SCORE: 2.5/10 (on looks alone)

SUMMARY:
AVOID THIS PRODUCT. I could make a louder - and more attractive - noise by farting into a tin can.

Edited August 10, 2007 by Oxblood

[jwbassman]

so it's no good then

[Oxblood]

[quote name='jwbassman' post='43900' date='Aug 10 2007, 06:08 PM']so it's no good then [/quote]
Aww, now let's be fair: I didn't say that. I'm sure it would work very nicely as a door-stop.

[jwbassman]

that's one expensive door stop

[Oxblood]

[quote name='jwbassman' post='43908' date='Aug 10 2007, 06:27 PM']that's one expensive door stop [/quote]
LOL!
It's HiWatt, though: worth every penny.

[Oxblood]

Oh my Gawd, I've bin Wikkied!

[ZMech]

well I bought the B15 which I still have for i think £75. I'm not sure what you find so bad, its certainly loud enough to practice with, and is just about audible over drums, although not without the limiter intervening.

[Kev]

sounds to me like you tried a f***ed one

[BigBeefChief]

If you want sh*t, try the "Hiwatt Maxwatt Hurricane Bass Amp". Its a hefty 10watts which makes it almost totally useless for any sort of practice.

I've got one and I'd struggle to give it away.

[fekalizatorius]

I`ve had the Hurricane 10w version of that, and it SUCKS A LOT. The feedback on this boy is so ridiculous, that half the time i use my Zoom B2`s stereo output instead of that. Seriously, this amp was seriously my worst purchase in the music section. The only good thing about it, is that it does not take up much space. I was better off spending some more cash (50eu more ;((( What a pity) and getting a Laney which had 30w output, or even an Ashdown. The only music that it sounds good is heavily distorted metal stuff

[4 Strings]

HiWatt proper certainly is, anything with Maxwatt on is Eastern in all respects. Similar to the proper stuff in badge and colour only.