Like many amps by Mesa/Boogie, Rivera, Egnator, Bogner, Budda, and a handful of other top-shelf high-gainsters, Soldanos are built on printed circuit boards (PCBs), though assembled by hand even so. In short, you could call the SLO a high-concept modern design rather than a modified vintage circuit, and Michael Soldano certainly burned some midnight oil to get this one sounding its best.

Simple tonal descriptions are more apt, and players tend to be drawn to the big, thick, creamy drive, which can also be plenty nasty and aggressive as desired, while retaining musical highs and firm, chunky lows. Our star this issue is from the very early days of the company, a 1990 SLO 100-watt head with no effects loop, and is a really primo example for an amp with 21 years of rock mayhem under its belt.įor sonic references, you might call the SLO kind of Boogie crossed with Marshall crossed with hotrodded Fender crossed with… well, by the time you stir that pot and season liberally, the stew is gonna’ taste like something original enough to not require any specific references in the first place, so we can pretty much leave it at that. The SLO’s ability to churn out searing lead tones with a certain sonic depth, clarity, and dynamics that some other high-gain monsters might have lacked at the time made it a quick favorite with several big-name players, and the likes of Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Lynch, Gary Moore, Vivian Campbell, Lou Reed, and Joe Satriani – to name but a few – have all flown the Soldano banner at one time or another. Soldano released his first production model, the Super Lead Overdrive (SLO-100). One of the leaders of what we might call the second wave of high-end high-gain tube amps, Soldano has been making a big noise since 1987 – the year Michael J.

Fender banjo models