Soldano SLO 30

mrn1989

DanR said:

https://m.thomann.de/gb/soldano_slo_30_classic_head.htm?o=4&search=1593187312 

£2399

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/200129354965008--soldano-slo-30-classic-30w-head

£2199

Looks like GG have changed their mind up to £2599.00 

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/200129354965008--soldano-slo-30-classic-30w-head

Twinfan

digitalscream said:

Jack's on the case...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_346gInYrE

Yep, but he's wrong about the loop being used a solo boost live.  It's not footswitchable, unlike on the SLO-100.  That's the only difference though aside from power.

I hope GG get mine in soon, it sounds great to me!

PeachyJack

Twinfan said:

digitalscream said:

Jack's on the case...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_346gInYrE

Yep, but he's wrong about the loop being used a solo boost live.  It's not footswitchable, unlike on the SLO-100.  That's the only difference though aside from power.

I hope GG get mine in soon, it sounds great to me!

Hey guys! Yep, my mistake on that front. The video has since been corrected. 

The amp’s a little beast! Just wanted to point out that they are in stock with us right now, at a competitive price! ;-)

rockmonster

£2500 for the 30watter! Not for me I’m afraid!

digitalscream

I've got to say...it's slightly amusing that in all the interviews, Mike Soldano lists the new features of the SLO design...and it's basically a list of all the mods that folk have been doing to his Jet City designs since about 2010 - DC heaters, depth control, sensible effects loop, front panel channel switch.

Gulliver

digitalscream said:

I've got to say...it's slightly amusing that in all the interviews, Mike Soldano lists the new features of the SLO design...and it's basically a list of all the mods that folk have been doing to his Jet City designs since about 2010 - DC heaters, depth control, sensible effects loop, front panel channel switch.

Get other people to do your R&D for you?  Sounds like a winning business move to me...

Twinfan

GG now have the SLO-30 in at £2599.

Mine should arrive on Monday and I got it for the pre-order price of £2199 - I'm very glad I paid my deposit as soon as it was advertised on their site  

digitalscream

It still boggles my mind that there are only three demos of the SLO 30 on YouTube - Jack's, Ola's and now Henning's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n1kZvaxTs4

Apparently Bea's got one too, but I don't know whether that's the 100 or the 30.

rockmonster

Bah! Emperors new clothes! 

Twinfan

Well I think mine's going back. Too much bass for my liking making it flubby - I think the stiffer 100w power section would suit it better. I think this is an amp that doesn't scale down that well.

Unlike my mini-Jube which I think trounces the mini-SLO.

I guess I'm just a Marshall guy...

rockmonster

Twinfan said:

Well I think mine's going back. Too much bass for my liking making it flubby - I think the stiffer 100w power section would suit it better. I think this is an amp that doesn't scale down that well.

Unlike my mini-Jube which I think trounces the mini-SLO.

I guess I'm just a Marshall guy...

How do they compare volume wise?

DanR

Twinfan said:

Well I think mine's going back. Too much bass for my liking making it flubby - I think the stiffer 100w power section would suit it better. I think this is an amp that doesn't scale down that well.

Unlike my mini-Jube which I think trounces the mini-SLO.

I guess I'm just a Marshall guy...

Out of interest are you running through an attenuator?

None of the demos have seemed clubby and not seen anything with the bass knob at weird positions.

Twinfan

Volume wise I think the SLO would be a little louder when cranked up a bit more than I can do at home.  I wasn't using an attenuator but as my neightbours were out I was playing fairly loud.

I had the bass and depth on 0 otherwise I found the amp too boomy.  This was with a 2x12 with V30s or a 4x12 with Greenbacks.  I play pretty heavily though and use a very chunky sounding PRS 408.  I think it would be better with a superstrat which is probably what the amp was designed around?

I just feel there's way too much going on in the pre-amp gain-wise for the power section, like there's way too much signal flubbing out the voltage starved power valves.  It might be OK if the amp was wound right up, but then what's the point of a 30watter if you can't turn it down a bit?

tekbow

Have to say, @Twinfan, the impression I've been getting is of a squishier low end.

Then again.. that is the point I think. The HR25 was directly inspired by EVH's variac'd Marshall which Mike worked on.

Try backing off the preamp gain?

Twinfan

I had the crunch channel gain on 6-7 and overdrive on 2-3: still waaay too much bottom end.  If that's the point, I don't get it.  Why take away what makes the SLO the SLO and ruin it in the process?

I really don't know what they were trying to achieve.  The whole point of the SLO is it's all pre-amp gain with a non-squishy and non-breakup power-amp section.  Having truck loads of gain into a flabby power output just makes it boomy and 'orrible!

digitalscream

@Twinfan - if you haven't sent it back yet, could you try a couple of things and post the results?

1 - Put the bass at noon (or slightly below), mid and treble at 3 o'clock, depth at 9 o'clock and presence at 2 o'clock.
2 - Try cutting the low end before the amp, if you've got any pedals that'll do it.
3 - Both of these things.

And, of course, don't forget that with these amps...the gain always increases the bass out of proportion to the rest of the signal, so any increase in gain needs a corresponding (but smaller) decrease in bass and depth.

Twinfan

It's not my first rodeo, I've used valve amps before  

I had bass/depth at 0, presence and treble around the points you suggest with mids matching treble.  I also used a KoT and Klone before the amp to boost it a bit to see if that tightened it up.  It maybe did a hair, but I don't have a Tubescreamer with its clear bass cut to try.

For comparison, I run my mini-Jube with the bass on 10.  With the SLO on 0 it had more bass than the Marshall at 10.  That's how much of a difference there is.

It may be a modern amp thing - I found the same with the 65 Amps Empire and Stone Pony, the Marshall Origin and to a lesser extent the Victory Sheriff 44.

digitalscream

Twinfan said:

It's not my first rodeo, I've used valve amps before    

That's not what I was trying to say What I'm saying is specifically related to the Soldano preamp circuit.

Those settings above are exactly what I used when I had a JCA22H with depth mod and the bright cap removed (so, essentially the same preamp circuit and settings, and a power section with even less headroom).

When I use those settings with my JCA100HDM and a boost in front (again, essentially the same circuit as the SLO), I have to significantly cut the bass on the guitars with chunkier pickups in before it even hits the amp, otherwise it gets flubby (cutting it in the tone stack is too late in the signal path, and the flubbiness actually happens in the initial gain stages).

Unless you were running at full-on gig volume, I can't see how anything you were doing would push the power section past the point of being clean. I'd put a lot of money on the flub being somewhere in the preamp section.

Twinfan

Well I'm not adding a pedal to cut bass before it even hits the amp, that's just a ridiculous state of affairs for a high gain amp.  Fine if that's an add-to-taste thing but just to get it useable on a £2k+ amp?  Sod that for a game of soldiers.

The issue in my opinion is that the SLO pre-amp is heavily dependent on the original super-stiff 100w power section to keep things tight and in control.  WIthout it, it's just too gainy and flubby as you seem to have found on the Jet City amps too.

tekbow

Twinfan said:

Well I'm not adding a pedal to cut bass before it even hits the amp, that's just a ridiculous state of affairs for a high gain amp.  Fine if that's an add-to-taste thing but just to get it useable on a £2k+ amp?  Sod that for a game of soldiers.

The issue in my opinion is that the SLO pre-amp is heavily dependent on the original super-stiff 100w power section to keep things tight and in control.  WIthout it, it's just too gainy and flubby as you seem to have found on the Jet City amps too.

Actually, a super popular way of using the crunch/normal is to boost it like a 2203, then use the OD as an actual lead channel.

I'd back off the MV a bit. SLO's sweet spot to me is between 5 and 6, even the 100 gets significantly darker and saturated past that point. It also puts out enough wattage to attempt to KO my Reload.

The amps main issue is the shared EQ, but if that was changed, it wouldn't be an SLO to many people.

I'm the biggest Soldano Fan boy you'll meet. I only owned Soldano amps for 10 years until I got my Gower. But even I accept some will like it, some won't.