Conference napalm::guitar

    Who designed Yamaha's G100-112 amp (combo)?  That was a nice amp!
    
    Mike

    	Soldano heads sound cool, but where do they sell them? Are they 
    sold only by the manufacturer, or can you test drive them at
    Sam Ash (NYC), Manny's,... etc???? What kind of price tag do they have? 
    $200k for the head? I don't know, just searching for more info.
    Will the Yami/Soldano heads sound the same, or do you think they'll
    hold the "best" for the Soldano brand and design a "close to it, but
    not quite" for Yamaha.              
    	How does Soldano compare to Marshall in tone? Or maybe it's the
    other way around?  ;)
    
    				Rock on,
    					Fred 
    
    
    P.S. Just attempting to start conversation on Soldano's....
   

    I heard Soldano used by Sonny Landreth with The Goners, the band
    that backed up John Hiatt on his Slow Turnin' album and subsequent
    tour. I was thoroughly impressed with the sound. I also saw Clapton
    using Soldano heads with Marshall boxes at the Knebworth (?) concert
    telecast on MTV. Listened to the show through my stereo. Clapton's
    guitar sounded really nice. Better than most other recorded
    occasions. I'd check'm out if I was in the market. Don't know about
    $$$, though.

    BTW, nice attempt at starting a discussion.

    --ron

    I saw Gary Moore using them on his recent tour video.  Seems like if
    your playing that heavy blues stuff you might want to check them out.
    
    Byron

    
    
    
    	Yes, Stevie, but isn't that "pup" Gary Moore using them because he
    saw my man Clapton wityh one??   [;^)

    I played one of the Soldano/Yamaha amps yesterday.  Here's my review:
    
    I went into the store for something else and noticed this amp sitting
    in the demo room and started looking it over.  Two channels, 50wt 1x12
    combo, seperate EQ and volume for each, common presence, seperate
    reverb controls.  Look in the back, nice looking speaker (Celestion, I
    believe, but I don't remember for sure) and WOAH, lookit all those
    preamp tubes!  How many?  1, 2, 3, 4... 5... 6... SEVEN???  This things
    gotta SCREAM, I thought.  
    
    I gotta play it...
    
    Turn it on, let it warm up, nab a nice new Ibanez USA custom off the
    wall and go at it.  Played the 'rhythm' channel first (green LED). 
    Nice warm clean sound, nothing spectacular but a pretty sound.  Pretty
    responsive to how you play and a very smooth kind of sound.
    
    Stepped on the switch and the LED changed to a red color and this BUZZ
    started coming out of the thing.  Not a pretty distortion, but a wicked
    buzzy dentist tool kind of tone.  YUCK!  Looked up and the EQ was all
    whacked on that channel, the mids were rolled all the way off and the
    bass was all the way up.  Ok, that's the problem I think.  Set the EQ
    flat to start.  It's ok, but still not what I expected.  And it still
    had that chainsaw kind of sound.  Rolled off the gain until the
    buzziness went away, it lost it about 2 when virtually all the
    distortion was gone.  It was fairly responsive to playing and guitar
    volume on this channel too, I liked that (ie you roll the guitar volume
    off and the distortion cleans up some).
    
    I played with the amp for about 15 minutes or so at various volume
    levels (and yeah, it gets very loud) and *sort of* got used to it's
    quirky sound after awhile.  I could probably use the thing, but I'd
    probably never be fully happy with it.  
    
    Going back to the 'green led' channel, I found it would distort
    somewhat if you cranked it's gain up.  It sounded pretty good.  This
    channel reminded me of the smoothness of my Kitty Hawk M3.  Kind of
    like a Mesa/Boogie with a clean tone.
    
    Synopsis:  I wouldn't buy it at half the price.  I don't like the lead
    channel much at all.  I kind of liked the rhythm channel, but it wasn't
    good enough to make me want to own the amp.  My Marshall JCM900 stomps
    this thing into the dust.  
    
    Greg

     
    
      re: -.1 ...not to mention re-tubing the thing would be a b!tch!
    12AX7's aren't expensive but seven of them? I wouldn't mind checking
    one of these out if I get a chance. Makes me wonder if there wasn't
    a crappy preamp tube in the lead channel of the one you tried Greg.
      Wait a minute! I better not check anything out. I already have 
    enough stuff! Right Mike?
    
    							-B()()M-

    One of the local Marshall dealers carries them now.  They run in the
    $600-$700 range.  No, I haven't tried one yet (not really interested).
    
    Mike

>      Wait a minute! I better not check anything out. I already have 
>    enough stuff!
    
    Well, I tell ya John, it was brand-y new and the guys in the music
    store seemed to think it was supposed to sound like that.  (but it was
    the only one they'd had)
                          
    I thought it sucked...
    
    Very good point about all the tubes when it comes to retubing it.
    
    gh

    Anyone out there heard about the Soldano HOT MOD?
    
    It's a little device which replaces V2 (I believe...could be V1,
    anyways...) in a std Master Volume model Marshall head (1959, 2203,
    2204, JMP MV series heads).  No heavy mod, just replace the current
    tune with this device, which holds a (I believe) 6C10 preamp tube.  The
    result?  A burning, churning, hot rodded Marshall sound in a flash! 
    The gain control becomes super-sensitive, and gives a very ballsy,
    un-colored (doesn't screw with the Marshall sound) modded Marshall
    sound.  EU Whurly's had these babies for around $125 last time I checked.
    
    I know people who had your basic Marshall head, but who didn't like it
    cuz it didn't have enough gain, who have retrofitted their heads with
    this replacement and now LOVE their amps!!  Coop, you may wanna tell
    Tom about this bugger!
    
    
    

I will !

Sounds very hip !

jc

      I spotted a Yami/Soldano combo in Music Workshop (Salem, NH) yesterday
    although I didn't have a chance to test drive it...   the price tag
    stopped me cold.  $850.00!!! Why tease myself since I didn't have that
    kind of money in my pocket. So I didn't try it out. Actually I was looking 
    for a Super Reverb at the time and saw it sitting there along with all the 
    other amps. The owner told me that I'd be better off with buying a new 
    Fender (super?) Twin instead of even looking at the Yami/Soldano (makes
    ya wanna go hmmmmm... ). Why would he tell me that? Anyway, he didn't have 
    anything I wanted (that I could afford) so out the door I went.
    
    			Gee...  that was easy!  :(
    
    					Rock on,
    						Fred
    

     I saw a Soldano SLO-100 head sitting in the House of Guitars in
    Rochester. Pretty heavy duty looking. It wasn't set up to play,
    other wise I might have tried to take it for a spin. This is the
    head that Clapton and others use, runs around $1,999 list. I should've
    asked what they were selling it for but they were busy.
    
    							-B()()M-

    
    	I know of a 60/120w all tube Soldano head for sale.  $600 
    
    	I have the name and number if anyone is interested.
    	-pat

    If those sound anything like the heads Soldano designed for Yamaha, you
    can all have them.  I think the sound of them sucks!  The distortion is
    all grainy, buzzy, and thin.  A disgusting sounding amp, if you ask me.
    
    gh

    
    
    But, if that Soldano head sounds anything like the ones used by the Allman
    Bros, it could be a sweet amp.  Warren, in particular, gets a wonderful
    tone through his.
    
    JMHO
    
    Kevin
     

    There was a used Hot Rod 50 around here (MA) for about $500 recently.
    These are the entry level models, kinda like Mesa's Studio 22's.  The
    full bore Soldanos are 100w and have more controls, channels, etc.
    The Hot Rod is a stripped down beast.  The only way this one sounded
    good was pretty much opened up and it only did one basic sound.

    The Hot Rod line is Soldano's plug at the lower end market.  It's a
    real basic amp.  There was a review in Guitar Player a few months back.
    As I recall, they weren't all that impressed with it. 
    
    Greg

    Question on Yami amps...
    
    A friend of a friend has a "Yamaha Fifty 410" series guitar amp for
    sale ($100,i figure the speakers are worth that much)Supposedly a 4 by
    10 combo, solid state with reverb. Any one familiar with this model.
    
    -kev