Soldano SLO-100 Any Specfic Year or Specs More Desirable

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panhead said:
I never figured out those x1200 or whatever they are in Soldano cabinets. They sounded bad to me.
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I think those were Eminence speakers of some kind. I thought they sounded kinda bland. The construction of those Soldano cabs is kinda lacking, not the build quality but the design. They’re smaller cabs than normal. Front loaded too. Most guys using SLOs with Marshall cabs in the day were using Greenbacks, G12-65’s, or EV’s.
 
Well, I know this may get me thrown off Rig-Talk, but I went through the same thing and decided I’d rather have the new model (BAD version) than any of the old ones. Same sounds with all the cool mods as standard.
-Depth
-Awesome effects loop (with hardwire bypass)
-Channel switch on front panel
 
Wizard of Ozz said:
Some of the SLO nut-huggers... or collectors will claim that the earliest 1992 or whatever year such amps sound better, but they have all sounded the same to me? Some small circuit and parts changes over the years.
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Mine is serial # 90203, and while I absolutely adore this amp, I don't buy into any of nonsense either that all the good ones were from late 80s and early 90s. I haven't played a new one, but a buddy who has played mine thought the BAD models were every bit as good. YMMV.
 
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New 2021 BAD version. Killer amp. I run it thru a Boss Waza TAE.
The cabs are better. Rear-loaded w/ V-30s
 
Yeah the new ones seem to have good features with the upgraded loop and switches and relays. As someone else said, over the years many components have actually changed in the SLO due to manufacturers going out of business or ending product lines and components becoming obsolete. Not just filter caps, but resistors and signal/coupling caps as well. And surprise surprise... no real discernible change in sound (but I'm sure Soldano tested that out ahead of time).
 
One of the 3 I owned had the depth mod and if I remember correctly, it was out of the circuit when the master went up past 3 or 4. I kept it dialed out; I didn't feel I needed any more low end. I also had a HR100 with a fixed depth and it was mud city, no matter how I EQ'd it. Took that out and it was much better.
 
Racerxrated said:
One of the 3 I owned had the depth mod and if I remember correctly, it was out of the circuit when the master went up past 3 or 4. I kept it dialed out; I didn't feel I needed any more low end. I also had a HR100 with a fixed depth and it was mud city, no matter how I EQ'd it. Took that out and it was much better.
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Not sure how that's the depth mod works. It's out of the circuit when the depth control is on zero, though. But shouldn't have anything to do with the master volume control unless yours had a different kind of modificaiton.
 
FourT6and2 said:
Not sure how that's the depth mod works. It's out of the circuit when the depth control is on zero, though. But shouldn't have anything to do with the master volume control unless yours had a different kind of modificaiton.
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I remember not noticing it as I turned up the volume; but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. It doesn't sound right the way I explained it lol. I've never played an amp with one where the master affected it. Disregard.
 
Racerxrated said:
I remember not noticing it as I turned up the volume; but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. It doesn't sound right the way I explained it lol. I've never played an amp with one where the master affected it. Disregard.
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I seem to remember that the Warren Haynes mod was something like what you’re describing on the depth mod here. If I’m not mistaken, the WH mod had something to do with the gain being no more than 4 or something and it affecting the tone. I’m sure someone here can elaborate on that mod.
As an older SLO user, I would definitely prefer the newer loop over the older one. The older loop I have is useless for me. I’ve been using my Katana as a slave for a wet dry setup that I think sounds pretty good.
 
Mr. Willy said:
I seem to remember that the Warren Haynes mod was something like what you’re describing on the depth mod here. If I’m not mistaken, the WH mod had something to do with the gain being no more than 4 or something and it affecting the tone. I’m sure someone here can elaborate on that mod.
As an older SLO user, I would definitely prefer the newer loop over the older one. The older loop I have is useless for me. I’ve been using my Katana as a slave for a wet dry setup that I think sounds pretty good.
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The Warren Haynes Mod is just cutting the bright cap. Or throwing it on a switch instead of having it hard-wired. Cutting this cap shouldn't do anything to change how the controls work. If you want to have some fun, throw a bunch of cap values on a switch. One cap for on/off, or two caps for three flavors, or multiple caps on a rotary switch and go nuts.

EDIT: I should point out that with bright caps on all amps (like Marshalls), they become less effective as you turn the gain up. So really, the control is already "variable" in stock form. Removing the bright cap (the mod) doesn't change how any of the controls interact or work though.
 
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FourT6and2 said:
The Warren Haynes Mod is just cutting the bright cap. Or throwing it on a switch instead of having it hard-wired. Cutting this cap shouldn't do anything to change how the controls work. If you want to have some fun, throw a bunch of cap values on a switch. One cap for on/off, or two caps for three flavors, or multiple caps on a rotary switch and go nuts.
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I’m dumb. I have no idea what you’ve just said. It sounds really cool, though.
 
FourT6and2 said:
The Warren Haynes Mod is just cutting the bright cap. Or throwing it on a switch instead of having it hard-wired. Cutting this cap shouldn't do anything to change how the controls work. If you want to have some fun, throw a bunch of cap values on a switch. One cap for on/off, or two caps for three flavors, or multiple caps on a rotary switch and go nuts.

EDIT: I should point out that with bright caps on all amps (like Marshalls), they become less effective as you turn the gain up. So really, the control is already "variable" in stock form. Removing the bright cap (the mod) doesn't change how any of the controls interact or work though.
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So here's an example of the bright cap function NOT working like I assumed...in my 72 trem I have the stock 5K lemco. When I turn my treble vol up it goes to immediate heart attack volume at like .3 on that dial; but sounds amazing. The Bass side I have to turn it up to 5 to match it for a nice full tone. I clipped one leg of the cap to experiment with a better taper. But, while it did have a better taper I could not get the treble channel to sound like it did with the cap in...I always thought you would still be able to find the 'sweet spot' higher up on the dial but it wasn't there. After a few weeks I soldered it back in...just sounded too good totally stock even if I can't run it like that very often.
 
George Lynch said somewhere that the best SLO he ever owned was an early one that had no loop and was single channel.
 
paulyc said:
George Lynch said somewhere that the best SLO he ever owned was an early one that had no loop and was single channel.
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I don't remember it being single channel, but I think he had #006. Was that the same one that was stolen, and he got back a few years ago?
 
Idk, he had two at once, the single channel one he said sounded the best, actually, I think he said it was the best SLO he’d ever heard period.
 
paulyc said:
Idk, he had two at once, the single channel one he said sounded the best, actually, I think he said it was the best SLO he’d ever heard period.
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Makes sense to me....from my experience the less gizmos that are stuffed in an amp the better they sound (and feel)
 
Yeah my favorite SLO clip was a single-channel, no loop.
The SLO has inherent channel bleed and the loop has an affect on the overall sound as well.
 
+1 to all saying get the single channel SLO circuit with no clean channel. The clean channel in a SLO is in circuit but out of phase pre BAD, I actually prefer the sound of the single channel SLO as it’s closest to his modded Marshall tones early on.
 
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