Soldano SLO 30

Dominic

I think Brian Wampler covered this amp very well in his review although it was a little bit fawning.
He basically called it the best amp ever as far as he was concerned.
I wouldn't go that far.
It does a lot of things and realistically is powerful enough for anywhere that isn't a Stadium. It's very loud but not as loud as the similar powered AC30 or Matchless DC30 .
Very Solid build .
2 channels footswitchable BUT the clean has a toggle that has the option CLEAN OR CRUNCH .
The Clean setting is weirdly quiet ......the crunch becomes very loud quickly.
The mistake (or probably difficulty ) was not making this footswitchable too.Quite important for a normal rock player ....you need clean and you need a good 70s/80s Crunch or lead tone which would be ideally footswitched......Wampler used a boost pedal as a work-around.
What is the Dirty channel for then you ask ?......Well, it's for dirty but a certain kind of dirty.........it's very quickly into the seriously heavy metal realm and then the 7 string ,drop D ,tight Bass Djent type thing....aka modern metal / Scandi Metal which isn't what an old fart like me wants or needs. Somewhere in there you can find a really strong drive for serious rock solos with loads of sustain and squeel harmonics before it all goes seriously metal but it's a very fine bit of tuning in especially with modest output HBs.

ALL IN ALL ;
Yes it's a great amp because it does a very good ,high headroom clean..which is full and fresh but never brittle ;if anything it can be a bit dark .
The Heavy Crunch is where it really excels........a tad dark but a great sound .
The super-monster Heavy Metal.........it's a Soldano ......performs like a Ferrari on a racetrack ....it's what it was invented for .
Obviously it hasn't got quite the bass thump as the 100w but who really needs the weight,aggro, stack,noise menace that goes with a 100watts of modded Marshall Monster .......answer ;a few pros ,big name bands playing huge venues .

Really great amp , great master vol ,presence doesn't do a lot (do they ever) ,Deep switch works a treat and the Masters for each channel work really well but still needs to be above bedroom level to get cracking and sound big ....detached house level tho' not as loud as small gig level.

I would like to think 'the best amp ever ' (Wampler ) had a bit more to offer .......like a bit more Fender type sparkle on the clean.

Winny_Pooh

I vividly remember trying yours, what a crunch sound! Alot of oomph

Nerine

First dibs...