Fractal Audio AMP models: SOLO 100 (Soldano SLO-100)

Something not mentioned here is, the clean channel is always on. It gets attenuated when 'crunch' is activated, but it's always there. And its signal is 180 degrees out-of-phase to the crunch, so you get some phasey stuff happening.
 
AdmiralB said:
Something not mentioned here is, the clean channel is always on. It gets attenuated when 'crunch' is activated, but it's always there. And its signal is 180 degrees out-of-phase to the crunch, so you get some phasey stuff happening.
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Wow, that's a weird design choice for the "best amp in the world". :)
 
It makes sense. Many of my 'dirty' patches have two amps - the main overdriven amp, and then something like an AC30 or Fender set totally clean, and at a very low level. You don't hear the clean sound as such, but you do notice something change if you mute it.

Adds a little definition, maybe.
 
AdmiralB said:
It makes sense. Many of my 'dirty' patches have two amps - the main overdriven amp, and then something like an AC30 or Fender set totally clean, and at a very low level. You don't hear the clean sound as such, but you do notice something change if you mute it.

Adds a little definition, maybe.
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Yes, I get that, and it can be a great definiton aid for sure.
Just puzzles me that in a real amp this is a fixed setting.
 
It's not totally fixed - the normal channel volume does have some effect, although it's minor.

Another thing that's unusual about the SLO is the effects loop - it's in front of the tone stack, and it's not at all transparent - if you excised it - say, built a clone but omitted the loop altogether - it would sound significantly different. That's not terribly common.
 
AdmiralB said:
It's not totally fixed - the normal channel volume does have some effect, although it's minor.

Another thing that's unusual about the SLO is the effects loop - it's in front of the tone stack, and it's not at all transparent - if you excised it - say, built a clone but omitted the loop altogether - it would sound significantly different. That's not terribly common.
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This is the one feature that my HR50+ that always makes me scratch my head; any idea why it's pre tone stack and of any other amps share this feature?
 
yek said:
Because, when writing this write-up, I came across a lot of negative comments on the clean channel of the X88R and X99. People generally preferr(ed) the CAA 3+'s clean.
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FWIW, this has been my experience as well. Volume control on the guitar does very little to break up the dynamics of the amps. Unfortunately the X88 and X99 I have not been able to gel with unless I am going for a specific tone. The SOLO-100 however is incredibly dynamic from my experience. Thanks for the write-up Yekkety-Yek!!!
 
2112 said:
This is the one feature that my HR50+ that always makes me scratch my head; any idea why it's pre tone stack and of any other amps share this feature?
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I don't know, obviously, but I assume he liked the sound of the overdriven cathode follower. The SLO has two CFs - one driving the loop, and one driving the tone stack. You would have to run the loop level pretty high to overdrive the latter, but the first will get fairly clobbered at any decently high level of input gain. I don't know of any non-Soldano amps that do this.

The overdriven CF is a big part of the tweed Bassman/tweed Twin/Marshall 'thing'. It's the major (IMO only significant) difference between the Komet 60 and Concorde; the latter has a CF right in front of the phase inverter, which is a place you'd normally have no reason to use one. It's there simply to be overdriven.
 
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I've always liked this amp for when I really want to cut in a mix. Frankly, for me, it has been hot/cold/hot/cold based off of FW upgrades... (But tonight she shall be mine again...)

It does sound glorious tho. And regardless of 'stage tone at bedroom volume', this just sounds better stoopid loud.
 
I had a good run with this one tonight - I used my favourite factory cab (146 in Ax8), MV high and input gain fairly low on the lead model did the trick for me - I find it very dynamic. And on some notes, I find it has almost a phasey character (maybe due to the normal channel blend described above), which I find very cool.
 
The SLO lead preset has been on my main row of IAs ever since I first played it. Spot on for later Santana stuff, and fits in a surprising number of genres. Among my very favorites.

By the way, for those discussing other Soldanos, I used to own an X99 which was also a great preamp. The odd thing about the clean is that you had to turn it 75% or more towards wide open to sound right, but it did stay reasonably clean even at that setting. It was a great amp, and I had the purple Soldano power amp with it. Wish I'd have kept them, they cost a fortune now!
 
Smittefar said:
And on some notes, I find it has almost a phasey character (maybe due to the normal channel blend described above), which I find very cool.
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That's the way some people describe it - IIRC Ritchie Fliegler mentions it in his amp book. I don't use the model that much, and I've never owned a Soldano, so I can't really speak from personal experience.
 
Smittefar said:
I had a good run with this one tonight - I used my favourite factory cab (146 in Ax8), MV high and input gain fairly low on the lead model did the trick for me - I find it very dynamic. And on some notes, I find it has almost a phasey character (maybe due to the normal channel blend described above), which I find very cool.
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I found that cab 146 quite nice as well. Hadn't tried it prior to reading your post. Thanks!
 
Thumbs up on cab 103, it sounds really nice to me.

I'm finding the clean is awesome, and the lead is amazing, but I can't dial in a crunch rhythm tone that I like with the rhythm model. Its ok, but not in the same league as the lead.
 
StickMan said:
but I can't dial in a crunch rhythm tone that I like with the rhythm model. Its ok, but not in the same league as the lead.
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Maybe try a Blues OD in front of the SLO-100 Clean with very minimal gain (Drive 2 / Tone 2) to break it up a little bit.
 
ibanezfreak4 said:
Maybe try a Blues OD in front of the SLO-100 Clean with very minimal gain (Drive 2 / Tone 2) to break it up a little bit.
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Something like that was going to be my next attempt. Alternatively, I could just put in a second amp block, with a different model, to handle rhythm duty.
 
Love the SL100 it is the amp model in one of my two main presets I'm using for all our summer shows. (Bandcommander is the other.)
 
Anyone have any SLO suggested settings and Cab for the Gary Moore – Still Got The Blues (Live) version? The Axe factory preset 120 reflects a Marshall.
 
Doubleneck said:
Anyone have any SLO suggested settings and Cab for the Gary Moore – Still Got The Blues (Live) version? The Axe factory preset 120 reflects a Marshall.
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If I recall correctly, he used the crunch channel with of pedals, not the lead channel. I seem to recall him liking Greenbacks as well.
 
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