Now, set the RAH with the tone controls set around noon, turn the Gain up to 3:00 to 5:00, Volume around noon
or so, and play your favorite Zep riffs while exploring different volume, tone, and pickup settings on your guitar.
You should be rewarded with great clean-up when rolled back all the way to a nice singing, articulate crunch
when all the way up!
THE CONTROLS
The RAH features a 5-knob layout with a three-knob
tone circuit and Volume and Gain controls.
Treble, Middle, & Bass
As mentioned, these three controls represent the
exact circuitry of the Jimmy Page Hiwatt and will act
the same and provide the same tonal response. As
with most “passive” amp tone circuits, the three
controls are highly interactive - changing the setting
of one may affect the behavior of the other knob. For
example, you will notice that the Treble control seems
rather subtle in its sweep. But try cranking the Bass all
the way up and the Middle all the way down - now the
Treble knob has a more apparent effect. (Incidentally,
this is a setting that Page probably never used, but it is
a completely valid setting for folks who like scooped
guitar sounds.) This is the nature of passive amp tone
circuits and is completely normal. Tone circuits like
these are NOT active circuits designed to function like
your home theater, car stereo or PA. Tone circuits like
these are designed to provide fine tuning over the
range of the guitar spectrum as well as being the actual
voice of any specific amp.
There are no rules regarding how to set the tone knobs but, as mentioned above, try starting with them all set
at noon and going from there. You will notice that fine-tuning the Bass and Middle knobs will allow you to really
hone in on the tonal sweet spot.
The Hiwatt three-knob tone circuit is unique and is different from the tone circuit found in typical Marshalls and
Fenders. We find it offers a nice cutting attack while still remaining punchy in the midrange and never too heavy
on the bass response (unlike the typical Fender and Marshall tone circuits!).
Gain
This control corresponds to the “Input Volume” control on the actual Page amp. The sweet spot for this control
is from 3:00 to max for the best Zep-like response. But for a cleaner response or if your guitar has really hot pick-
ups you may want to try lower gain settings.
Master
This controls output volume. For best response, set it just past unity volume - usually around noon. (Unity
volume means the volume with pedal on is about the same as with the pedal off.)
