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NAMM 2022: "Time has a way of changing one's opinion about things," says Mike Soldano of his decision to design the company's first solid state guitar amp, something he admitted would have felt inconceivable ten years ago. But now his classic valve amp has arrived as a 30-watt mini head, at a price that's faaaaaar less than the original.
Mike was the designer of the Super Lead Overdrive 100 watt tube head in 1987, the SLO-100 is now accepted as a classic high-gain amp and blues rock amp for any era, used by players including Mick Mars, George Lynch, Warren DeMartini and Heart's Howard Leese for its drive channel, while the bluesy crunch channel was favoured by Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Warren Haynes, Gary Moore and Lou Reed.
In the video above Lynch and Mike Soldano talk about their history's with the SLO and the new SLO Mini. The Crunch/Overdrive mode switch, Normal/Deep voicing switch and controls for gain, level, three band EQ and presence seek to retain the calling cards of the original.
"This sounds like a real, honest amp and it cleans up, it does all the things dynamically you would expect from a tube amp," says Lynch.
"Its the same cascade of gain stages, in the same configuration as it is in the tube amp," adds Soldano. "The EQ stack and all of its components are the same values of what the tube amp is."
The 4lb Mini features an effects loop and a travel-friendly 24V universal-voltage power-supply. The demos we're seeing sound very promising indeed. And it's $249 MAP… far less than the $4k big bro.
More info at Soldano
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