# MANY pics of the guts of high gain amps



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I stumbled across this thread of pics of the guts of high gain amps.

If you are an amp tech, you will have seen/worked on some of these. 
For the rest of us, it is fun to see what is inside.

WARNING: It took forever to load on my computer...but worth the wait.
Rig-Talk â€¢ View topic - Highend High Gain Gut Shot Thread !

Cheers

Dave


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## starjag (Jan 30, 2008)

Pointy guitars and metal amps... your cup of tea my friend!!!


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Quite the difference from amp to amp. Some tidy handwired, some messy handwired, many PCBs, and half look more computer-y than amp-y with all those transistors and chips!


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## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

That Jadis Hi FI amp has the nicest looking innerds I've ever seen.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Thanks Dave, veerrrry interesting.


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## Cups (Jan 5, 2010)

Lots of fun looking at innards.


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## J-75 (Jul 29, 2010)

Thanks Dave.

That Bogner - ribbon cables, molex connectors, incorrectly mounted power resistors = all what plagues "commodity" amps like Fender Hot Rods, etc.
Splawn et al. - the dreaded molded PC mount phone jacks - bet I know where they were made! All that PC-mount hardware doesn't stand up to the repeated use that amps encounter.
Roccaforte - could they have squeezed in _one_ more cable tie?

The "pluses" - Tidy layouts, quality pots, ceramic tube sockets (some), good iron & caps (got to be, 'cause they're _orange_, no matter who made them), abundant heat shrink (esp. on sheilded cable terminations), autographs, did I mention tidy layouts? - more than makes up for the extra $000's they cost.


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

That Diesel appears to have so many revs. on it, they could have designed a new amp instead.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Nice to see that this thread is being enjoyed. 

Cheers

Dave


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## loudtubeamps (Feb 2, 2012)

I was always impressed by Hiwatt's, military spec wiring even in the early days.
The only issue is the use of various subterranean wiring which can be a big pain the butt when troubleshooting for service.
As far as build superiority, there is no comparing these
Hiwatt amplifiers gut shot - Google Search to alot of the hyped stuff being manufactured these days.

FWIW.
Cheers, d


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## Cups (Jan 5, 2010)

Handwired is nice but it's not the be all and end all. An amp can be perfectly hand wired and have crappy or inappropriate values for certain applications. There were certainly some beautiful examples of PCB work. And if you have MIDI and multible relays it's just common sense to use pcbs..Even when desinging a little Champ PCBs have there place.

Just because it's handwired it doesn't mean it sounds good or that it's well made

(just a friendly reminder- I'm not saying that's what anybody is implying)

I have to say I was shocked to see pcb mount pots and jacks on a 3000+ $$ amp like the Ecstasy. It did look like a reissue Fender and BLues Deluxe.


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Cups said:


> There were certainly some beautiful examples of PCB work.


I always thought statements like that were a bit of an oxymoron wrt a high-end boutique amp. ;^) 

Oh well - guess some builders have to resort to PCB construction when they're dealing with a head that has 20 controls or some such. Those don't float my boat one bit...


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