misterwhizzy
Well-known member
I finally let my gear lust get the best of me and got a mint used pedal on Reverb.
Plugged it in hoping to hear all the Soldano glory and was slightly disappointed. Very thin, not enough gain, no bass at all. The cause? Operator error. I figured out that a bright, clean preamp just isn't what it wants. Going into the front of the amp, it acts like my Revv pedals do. They hate it.
Plug it into the effects return? Now we're talking. It's all there.
There's a lot of dynamic range on the crunch channel. Even with the gain at 3 o'clock, I can dial my volume knob back to those 70s Marshall tones where it really responds to picking dynamics, getting crunchy when I dig in. Roll back up, and it's in boosted JCM800 territory. I can easily get Rust in Peace tones there.
The overdrive channel is the stuff of legends, though. The added gain kills off some of the treble, but I think that's probably the design for a lead channel. There's more gain here than I could ever use, but using about half of it is a lot of fun. Still very clear, definitely a bit of noise, but that's to be expected. It's got a thick, juicy gain, very smooth for leads, plenty of palm-muted crunch if you want it. The last word I'd use to describe it is "dry."
The pedal also has a "deep" switch on the side, but I find it just adds mud and takes away treble. Not much there for me to use.
Here's its adopted family at the moment.
Wireless -> 95Q Wah -> Korg Pitchblack -> Soldano -> Saturnworks switcher.
Switcher Send -> SD-1 -> Friedman Smallbox -> Origin 50H preamp -> Origin 50H Send -> Switcher Return -> MXR Analog Chorus -> MXR Carbon Copy -> TCE HoF -> Origin 50H Return
The footswitches deserve a mention, too, because they have only the most slightly-audible click, much less so than any other pedal on my board but the SD-1. It feels like I got a brand new amp for just under $250.
Plugged it in hoping to hear all the Soldano glory and was slightly disappointed. Very thin, not enough gain, no bass at all. The cause? Operator error. I figured out that a bright, clean preamp just isn't what it wants. Going into the front of the amp, it acts like my Revv pedals do. They hate it.
Plug it into the effects return? Now we're talking. It's all there.
There's a lot of dynamic range on the crunch channel. Even with the gain at 3 o'clock, I can dial my volume knob back to those 70s Marshall tones where it really responds to picking dynamics, getting crunchy when I dig in. Roll back up, and it's in boosted JCM800 territory. I can easily get Rust in Peace tones there.
The overdrive channel is the stuff of legends, though. The added gain kills off some of the treble, but I think that's probably the design for a lead channel. There's more gain here than I could ever use, but using about half of it is a lot of fun. Still very clear, definitely a bit of noise, but that's to be expected. It's got a thick, juicy gain, very smooth for leads, plenty of palm-muted crunch if you want it. The last word I'd use to describe it is "dry."
The pedal also has a "deep" switch on the side, but I find it just adds mud and takes away treble. Not much there for me to use.
Here's its adopted family at the moment.
Wireless -> 95Q Wah -> Korg Pitchblack -> Soldano -> Saturnworks switcher.
Switcher Send -> SD-1 -> Friedman Smallbox -> Origin 50H preamp -> Origin 50H Send -> Switcher Return -> MXR Analog Chorus -> MXR Carbon Copy -> TCE HoF -> Origin 50H Return
The footswitches deserve a mention, too, because they have only the most slightly-audible click, much less so than any other pedal on my board but the SD-1. It feels like I got a brand new amp for just under $250.
