Soldano Retiring

webrthomson

Just read that acording to Blues City Music in the US Mike Soldano is in the process of retiring and once he does so he's shuttering the company:

https://www.facebook.com/bluescitymusic 

Sad day the SLO100 is quite something to play!

timmysoft

That’ll be SLO prices skyrocketing! As soon as he produces the last one, they’ll be going for £10k

richardhomer

Why would you not just sell the brand? I’d imagine there are plenty of big guitar or amp businesses who’d want it under their roof as a ‘house’ brand.

joeyowen

It's half noble to take the brand with you, but at the same time it is a bit strange.

It would make ok money to sell, and would make people happy who want to buy them.

It could of course be a marketing ploy to shift some stock.

webrthomson

Yeah I guess the control freak in Mr. Soldano worries about what other manufacturers would do with his amp designs once he was no longer in control!

I wonder what is happening with the lifetime warranties on the SLO’s too?

It's a sad day indeed!

p90fool

I can understand perfectly why he'd want to take his brand name into retirement with him. If he's done reasonably well financially, why cheapen it just for the sake of greed? I'd rather leave a strong legacy than that whole "is it a REAL one or a later one?" thing behind. 

He has already put his name to a great line of cheap, Chinese-built Jet City amps very successfully, there's no need to do it again with his core models.  

Collings

I had heard that boutique amp distribution may continue with the name and build the amps.

ICBM

p90fool said:

I can understand perfectly why he'd want to take his brand name into retirement with him. If he's done reasonably well financially, why cheapen it just for the sake of greed? I'd rather leave a strong legacy than that whole "is it a REAL one or a later one?" thing behind.

+1

In all honesty it wouldn't surprise me if demand has fallen a lot already. They were the must-have hard rock amp in the late 80s-early 90s, but I don't think they ever became mainstream - partly because of the high prices, but partly because the world just moved away from that sound to a great extent*. For the people who want them, there aren't going to be any fewer any time soon - they're incredibly well-made and won't fail in ways that can't be repaired for decades at least, if not longer.

(*And it must have infuriated Soldano that it did, because what replaced it was the Mesa Rectifier sound, and the Rectifier is to some extent a SLO copy in some areas - although there are many differences too.)

Collings said:

I had heard that boutique amp distribution may continue with the name and build the amps.

I hope not. It would be a shame if they became just another generic brand from the same factory that makes all the other ones. I genuinely don't see the point in doing it - they will inevitably not be the real deal, and will end up on a downward path of either reducing quality or changing the circuits ways that Soldano himself wouldn't have done.

There are thousands of Soldanos out there, it's not like Dumble where the sheer rarity drives the demand. If Mike wants to shut up shop, it's his choice.

octatonic

Wow- that is going to see prices go nuts for sure.
Time to stock up.

Will be interesting to see what happens when guys like Tom Anderson and John Suhr hang up their hats.
They must be both in their 60's now.

Haych

ICBM said:

In all honesty it wouldn't surprise me if demand has fallen a lot already. They were the must-have hard rock amp in the late 80s-early 90s, but I don't think they ever became mainstream - partly because of the high prices, but partly because the world just moved away from that sound to a great extent*. For the people who want them, there aren't going to be any fewer any time soon - they're incredibly well-made and won't fail in ways that can't be repaired for decades at least, if not longer.

(*And it must have infuriated Soldano that it did, because what replaced it was the Mesa Rectifier sound, and the Rectifier is to some extent a SLO copy in some areas - although there are many differences too.)

They weren't just a hard-rock thing though, were they?  I thought they were a bit more versatile than that, after all the likes of Clapton and Knopfler used them as their go-to amp for years and they're hardly in the hard-rock genre.  I heard somewhere SRV was about to acquire one too, but I'm not really a SRV fan so don't know if that's just rumour.

Given the choice between a SLO100 and a Mesa Rectifier I know which one I'd choose.

octatonic

Haych said:

ICBM said:

In all honesty it wouldn't surprise me if demand has fallen a lot already. They were the must-have hard rock amp in the late 80s-early 90s, but I don't think they ever became mainstream - partly because of the high prices, but partly because the world just moved away from that sound to a great extent*. For the people who want them, there aren't going to be any fewer any time soon - they're incredibly well-made and won't fail in ways that can't be repaired for decades at least, if not longer.

(*And it must have infuriated Soldano that it did, because what replaced it was the Mesa Rectifier sound, and the Rectifier is to some extent a SLO copy in some areas - although there are many differences too.)

They weren't just a hard-rock thing though, were they?  I thought they were a bit more versatile than that, after all the likes of Clapton and Knopfler used them as their go-to amp for years and they're hardly in the hard-rock genre.  I heard somewhere SRV was about to acquire one too, but I'm not really a SRV fan so don't know if that's just rumour.

Given the choice between a SLO100 and a Mesa Rectifier I know which one I'd choose.

Warren Haynes too.
They are loud as fuck though.

Aidanspaghetti

Lovely amps - Was on my dream list and a pal bought one and kindly lent it to me. Fantastic amps and would still love to have one but a Friedman SS put heed to all my amp GAS now... I actually got the OK from the wife to bid on Gary Moores SLO when it came up for auction but it went for about twice my actual budget lol....

nick79

I've often wondered what will happen to Mesa Boogie when Randall decides to retire. Seem's like too big of a company to just stop trading, but from what i can gather it's Randall himself that designs all the amps?

Haych

Aidanspaghetti said:

Lovely amps - Was on my dream list and a pal bought one and kindly lent it to me. Fantastic amps and would still love to have one but a Friedman SS put heed to all my amp GAS now... I actually got the OK from the wife to bid on Gary Moores SLO when it came up for auction but it went for about twice my actual budget lol....

Slightly off topic but a friend of mine owns Gary Moore's old Marshall, or one of - I assume he had many.

nick79 said:

I've often wondered what will happen to Mesa Boogie when Randall decides to retire. Seem's like too big of a company to just stop trading, but from what i can gather it's Randall himself that designs all the amps?

Yeah good point - I often wonder the same about Paul Reed Smith too.  He seems a bit of a control freak so wonder if he stays awake a night worrying if PRS will be sold to Fender after his death lol

ICBM

Haych said:

They weren't just a hard-rock thing though, were they?  I thought they were a bit more versatile than that, after all the likes of Clapton and Knopfler used them as their go-to amp for years and they're hardly in the hard-rock genre.

Not just, but that was definitely the core market I think.

The Mesa Rectifier is a lot more versatile than nu-metal too for that matter.

octatonic said:

Warren Haynes too.

They are loud as fuck though.

But not in a bad way - unlike most other amps of that sort of power, the sheer quality of the tone makes them less painful to listen to, not harsh at all.

The guitarist in my band had one, and unlike the Marshall Super Lead he had before it, he could crank the Soldano to the point of power amp overdrive and it was surprisingly tolerable, even in fairly small venues.

Haych said:

Slightly off topic but a friend of mine owns Gary Moore's old Marshall, or one of - I assume he had many.

He did, including a '67-'68 Major. Which I may happen to know something about...

Haych

ICBM said:

The Mesa Rectifier is a lot more versatile than nu-metal too for that matter.

This is true, I do believe this is a Strat through a dual Rec, it gets very interesting about 3:54:



Apologies for the slight thread hijak 

FelineGuitars

The preamp section of a Dual rec is 100% the same as a Soldano SLO - this was recently confirmed by Mike Soldano and Dave Friedman. 

I did wonder if ETI/Boutique Amp Distribution was going to continue the line..think I heard a whisper of that on ToneTalk

ICBM

FelineGuitars said:

The preamp section of a Dual rec is 100% the same as a Soldano SLO - this was recently confirmed by Mike Soldano and Dave Friedman.

They would say that, but it isn't true. It certainly has some substantial elements in common, but it's not identical - definitely derived/evolved, but not a straight copy.

The Mesa also has a completely different - and far superior - FX loop arrangement.

And a bit pot/kettle anyway, since the SLO is derived from a Marshall 2203 in about the same way .

(If you're interested, I could send you the schematics...)

Moe_Zambeek

The SLO100 I tried for about 10 minutes is burned into my memories forever as one of the best sounding amps I’ve ever tried. Amazing. 

Very few boutique amps live up to the hype, the SLO is definitely one of them.

Haych

Right y'all, stop this now!  At the rate everyone is waxing lyrical about the SLO100 I'll have ordered one by the end of the day, and I cannot afford it, I don't need it and I won't use it to it's full potential.  So please, for the sake of my credit card balance and my marriage, please stop????

ICBM

Haych said:

Right y'all, stop this now!  At the rate everyone is waxing lyrical about the SLO100 I'll have ordered one by the end of the day, and I cannot afford it, I don't need it and I won't use it to it's full potential.  So please, for the sake of my credit card balance and my marriage, please stop????

Just buy a Jet City JCA50. 95% of the sound for 5% of the cost.