JAKEB SMITH reviews the SOLDANO ASTROVERB 112 and LUCKY 13 50w 212 COMBO amplifiers.

I like reverb, perhaps more than any grown man should [he’s not kidding – Ed]. But the founder and president of Soldano Custom Amplification, Michael J. Soldano Jr. is perhaps even more fond dreamy cathedral sounds than even me. Needless to say, playing his Astroverb and Lucky 13 Combo at Guitar Brothers is the best way I’ve ever spent a morning out of bed.

I started with the Astroverb, a modest 20watts of all-tube, handmade (by the one person from start to finish), reverb-laden combo. Running initially through an American Telecaster, I found the Astroverb to be quite responsive, the presence control provided more than enough attack to absolutely drown my signal in reverb. The bass, mid and treble controls were particularly powerful, responding to my sometimes ridiculous tonal requests and providing them while still remaining musical.

At 20watts the Astroverb doesn’t have a great deal of headroom on its single channel if you want to play loud and clean. Setting the gain to around 3 starts a noticeable (though admittedly sweet sounding) break-up. Winding the volume knob to 11 makes the amp loud enough for a small venue, and if you’re after more drive then setting the gain higher will garner enough decibels for the amp to be mic’d in all but the most high-end environments.

At its heart this is a blues/moderate rock amp, but with the right pedals the Astroverb can be whatever you like, as long as you remember the inherent limitations of compact 20watt combos.

After mucking around with the Tele for a while I switched to a Les Paul Custom, and it was heartening to see how well the amp responded to the change in character. Between the Les Paul’s natural sustain, and the Astroverb’s Accutronics reverb chamber, there were notes lingering in the small practice room long after I’d finished playing.

After a little debriefing with Guitar Brothers owners Craig Claxton and Reece Specis, I headed back in to try the Lucky 13 Combo. At 100watts, this amp has a great deal more headroom, and the clean channel is like glass up past what was comfortable for my ears, and then some. I didn’t hear any natural tube break up, but apparently it does happen in the very upper ranges.

Switching to the overdrive channel I was extremely impressed with the Lucky 13’s tone. Any level of overdrive and gain is available at any volume, and the break-up is extreme. The amp does blues gain to unadulterated metal and everything in between, while still managing to remaining musical. At no point did the tone sound overdone. Every twist of a knob created a sound that while always remarkably different to the last, would sound perfectly reasonable in the right genre context. This amplifier makes distortion pedals largely irrelevant.

I had almost forgotten about the Telecaster by this stage, with the Les Paul playing so well. But when I switched back I found the single coil pickups to be a little lacklustre by comparison, though admittedly the LP is a much more expensive instrument.

The Lucky 13 features a gorgeous Accutronics Ruby 3-spring reverb unit. As most amplifiers usually only carry single spring, it is certainly the lushest thing I have ever heard. At 13 (all the knobs go to 13) the sound was phasing-out so much I had completely lost aural orientation.

Hypothetically, this sensation is achieved via noise cancellation. A single spring/single chamber reverb unit adds an additional signal to the original, which cancels (phases) the other out to a small degree (the same concept as noise cancelling headphones). This makes it difficult for your ears to discern the direction the noise is coming from, creating an aural disorientation that can be quite appealing. A 3-spring/chamber reverb adds three waveforms to the original, increasing the chances of phasing exponentially to the point where you can feel the sound more than you can hear it. I swear I could also hear the reverb modulating. Though I’m not entirely sure how that works.

Soldano are by far the best amplifiers I have ever played. There’s a reason why they are so coveted, and why they need never sponsor musicians: they are one of the best, if not the best amps on the market. They are expensive to be sure, but every inch of them is of the highest quality, and every combination of tonal settings is guaranteed to be not only musical, but sweet on the ears as well. Even if you could never afford one, I’d suggest heading in and trying one out, just so you know what the top-end is. It really opened my ears.

RRP$2999 SOLDANO ASTROVERB 112, RRP$6499 LUCKY 13 50w 212 COMBO. Visit www.guitarbrothers.com.au for more information.

Comments (12)

11. Written by Holty, on 15-12-2007 20:22 I have just started a dirty relationship with a Soldano Decatone 100w from Guitar Brothers. I was going to buy something standard, until I played the Lucky 13, then I found I could have even more. Unlike some other amps that sound like Fran Drescher on steroids, the Decatone gives you sonic options and no matter how offensive your tone, it still has purity and clarity. The three channels are perfect because there are no EQ jumps between channels. With the Decatone’s Clean channel you can easily move to dirty while the, “look at me I’m soloing - no one else matters” channel; can go back to clean just by using your guitar controls. The dynamics on tap with all Soldano’s remind you that those nipples on your guitar have a purpose, tweaking. From the kitchen to the bed room this amp will make you very happy. The only down sides to this amp are it is addictive and the government does not currently fund re-hab. Yes it does cost as much as my penis extension, but with the Decatone other people will get pleasure from it too. Thanks Reece and Craig!!

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