Holy cow!!!! When did Soldano SLO100's get to be $4149 new?!

[AmpliFIRE]

BTW - I get beat up on the price of the Cherry Bomb and that is the only reason I made that joke in this thread. As far as I'm concerned, any company can charge whatever they want for the gear they put their blood, sweat and tears into creating. Some will want it and some will say they get the same tone for half the price...

What people fail to realize is that small builders do not have the economies of scale of bigger guys and hence the products are more expensive to bring to market. We're hand wiring stuff with high quality components in small quantities and it is a different model. Look at an SLO chassis or a Cherry Bomb chassis - bulletproof! Powdercoated and silk-screened. This is very expensive for low production. You are either willing to pay for that attention to detail and the unique tones these amps deliver or you aren't...

It's all good either way, but the facts are that small run amps made by small builders are necessarily more expensive...

Steve

I would pay more for your amp than I would pay for an SLO...true story

 

[Shiny_Surface]

 

[IntenseJim]

My SLO from 1990 has never hiccuped once in 23 years.

Would I buy an SLO new for $4k? I dunno. If I wanted it my way and was going to keep for 20 or more years if not my entire life....possibly yes.


People may spend much more than that on a 1 week family vacation and there's no guarantee the vacation will be the bees knees and it's lasts only 5 days if you exclude traveling time. But one definitely do not need to spend thousands of dollars to do what we all hope to enjoy and accomplish:

-have good tone
-be inspired to play
-have fun playing guitar
-get laid
-go skiing


I ascending order of importance of course

 

[gbsmusic]

IMO, the SLO is no benchmark. It's a sound. I've owned 8-10 since '92. It always comes down to the same thing. I prefer other amps. The Clean ch is ok, the Crunch blows, and the Lead w/ the gain past noon starts to get muddy and undefined.
The amp remains the same. 80's tone. No refinements of which could have improved the amp immensely. Nope, same old misplaced loop and dated tone.

When I first got my Landry, I plugged it into the same cab I had been using w/ my SLO. It was a revelation and the SLO got shitcanned.

Why spend 4K? Look what you can get nowdays w/ 4K if you wanted to buy new.

There's your answer. You don't know how to dial in an amp.

 

[thiswaythatway]

BTW - I get beat up on the price of the Cherry Bomb and that is the only reason I made that joke in this thread. As far as I'm concerned, any company can charge whatever they want for the gear they put their blood, sweat and tears into creating. Some will want it and some will say they get the same tone for half the price...

What people fail to realize is that small builders do not have the economies of scale of bigger guys and hence the products are more expensive to bring to market. We're hand wiring stuff with high quality components in small quantities and it is a different model. Look at an SLO chassis or a Cherry Bomb chassis - bulletproof! Powdercoated and silk-screened. This is not only about tone, it is about craftsmanship and build quality that is going to last you a lifetime (really, much longer). This is very expensive for low production. You are either willing to pay for that attention to detail and the unique tones these amps deliver or you aren't...

It's all good either way, but the facts are that small run amps made by small builders are necessarily more expensive...

Steve

With the average time an amps spends being owned by a Rig-Talk member the thing better last at least 3 weeks.

 

[shredi knight]

Mesa had high gain before Soldano with the IIC+ and III, both of which I'd use before an SLO.

Yes, but would you play a Mark V (first production run) before a SLO?

 

[carlygtr]

IMO, the SLO is no benchmark. It's a sound. I've owned 8-10 since '92. It always comes down to the same thing. I prefer other amps. The Clean ch is ok, the Crunch blows, and the Lead w/ the gain past noon starts to get muddy and undefined.
The amp remains the same. 80's tone. No refinements of which could have improved the amp immensely. Nope, same old misplaced loop and dated tone.

When I first got my Landry, I plugged it into the same cab I had been using w/ my SLO. It was a revelation and the SLO got shitcanned.

Why spend 4K? Look what you can get nowdays w/ 4K if you wanted to buy new.

There's your answer. You don't know how to dial in an amp.

Yeah, what do I know? I guess I couldn't find my tone w/ all of it's few knobs. Fact is, I couldn't dial in what I wanted to hear. The amp was lacking, not my ears. Great if it works for you but like I said, my Landry destroys it as does my other amps.

 

[RSRD]

Do you think they would sell it for that price if they thought the company would fall on its face and go bankrupt? They price it at what they think makes most sense for THEM as a COMPANY. They have costs to recover and they would like to make a decent living. I don't get why people are so up in arms about this. If you don't like the price then move on.

Maybe Mr Soldano can come over to you all at burger king and yell 'what is this shit? you call that flipping a paddy for $8.00/ hour?

 

[jcj]

Do you think they would sell it for that price if they thought the company would fall on its face and go bankrupt? They price it at what they think makes most sense for THEM as a COMPANY. They have costs to recover and they would like to make a decent living. I don't get why people are so up in arms about this. If you don't like the price then move on.

Maybe Mr Soldano can come over to you all at burger king and yell 'what is this shit? you call that flipping a paddy for $8.00/ hour?

Really?

Just because someone doesn't want to pay 4k for an amp, doesn't mean they can't pay 4k for an amp.

FWIW, I have no issue with the pricing of Soldano amps; he's still in business due to demand, so obviously plenty of people find them a good value.

 

[steve_k]

Damn, the SLO butt-hurt cracks me up. May need to break out a box of manpons for a few of the guys today.

 

[Shark Diver]

IMO, the only thing iconic about the SLO was the lead tone...could care less for the rhythm tone, clean, crunch or loop. To each their own...

And I get that - but a lot, I mean a lot (or at least enough that you shouldn't just dismiss it), of major artist have used it for their rhythm tone. And they get along with the loop just fine.

Wait...we are comparing a late 60's Camaro, 59' LP and early Apple Stock with a Soldano SLO? Last time I checked, an SLO hasn't gone up in value nearly as much as the others. The market for early SLO's is probably limited to Shark Diver and MAYBE 5 other people worldwide.



PS: I'm just busting balls

Not comparing, just stating that if Mike would have made the amp for 3 years and then stopped, it might command stupid Dumble prices- who know's? I'll take an original Klon for $1,800 please... So being in production for 25+ years has kept the market honest. What would a Mesa CII+ be worth used if Mesa had being putting them out exactly the same for the last 25 years? Or the Camaro? Or Gibson quality never changed?

And me and those 5 other people are cool, and know stuff the rest of you obviously don't


If you don't like the amp then of course you wouldn't pay that. But as said I don't see people crying over a $4,500 Diezel VH4s. Or a $4,100 Herbert with 10 different versions of it - Peter updated mine at least 4 times while I had it. At least with a SLO you know what you are getting new, or used.

I'm guessing a lot of guys here wouldn't buy a new Aston Martin or Ferrari either. They aren't really "worth" a quarter or half million dollars - right? Used ones go for less than 1/2 of retail and there are several other cars that would work for much less. But I'm buying a new one and breaking her cherry. If all you other guys are cool with sloppy seconds, whatever.

 

[duesentrieb]

IMO the new price is ok. He's the godfather of booteek and didn't copy like 99% of today's booteek guys.

 

[stratotone]

Did you guys notice how much new Marshalls are now? At least the SLO is handbuilt, and lifetime warranty. And if you have a pot go bad, it can be swapped out in 10 minutes instead of having to take ribbon connectors and PCBs out of your amp to replace a plastic shaft pcb mounted pot. I want an SLO, but I'd just profile it and then sell it again. I need to find somebody local with one.

 

[glpg80]

Did you guys notice how much new Marshalls are now? At least the SLO is handbuilt, and lifetime warranty. And if you have a pot go bad, it can be swapped out in 10 minutes instead of having to take ribbon connectors and PCBs out of your amp to replace a plastic shaft pcb mounted pot. I want an SLO, but I'd just profile it and then sell it again. I need to find somebody local with one.

That are hard as fuck to find because the shitty PB pots are a non standard 16mm shaft

SLO's are great amplifiers. It reminded me of a mil spec 5150 without a resonance knob but unlike 5150's you cannot get a bad tone out of a SLO having any knob from 0 to 10. Cant say the same for my amplifiers.

I would love to get my hands on one and update it. MIDI, tube buffered effects, etc. and drop the purist persona that follows that amplifier.

 

[RG955TT]

Lots of butthurt around here lately for anything costing high $$, Suhrs, Andersons, Gibson, Now Soldano. Get the F over it, if you can't afford it or don't see or appreciate the value fine. But some of us do. I just bought a new American Strat to bash around on and thought maybe gig with it instead of my Suhr Pro's in some places. It cost a little more than half the price of the Suhrs and while a very nice guitar the little things that I took for granted on the Suhrs arent there on the fender so for me (key phrase here) the Suhrs are much more to my liking and worth it to me becasue some of those thing can't be changed on the fender. Same with amps, go ahead and rag on the Friedman BE too while your at it for $3500 or how bout a somewhat cheaply made marshall JS amp at $2600 or a Diezel at $4000. even the a new Bogner 20th XTC is over $4k now. If they keep printing money like they are and the dollar keeps heading downward expect these to be $6k before too long.

 

[AmpliFIRE]

Butthurt? I think it's more like LOLZ

 

[rp108]

Butthurt? I think it's more like LOLZ

Pretty much how I feel. It's laughable. Instead of developing a better business model just pass the cost right onto the consumer. No thanks. They are pricing themselves in a market that I don't really know what the target it is. I make a very comfortable living and I would not pay that kind of cash for one amp unless it's something like George Lynch's Plexi from Under Lock and Key.

I will say though it's not just Soldano. Engl line has gone up and Bogner last year. I literally waited a couple of months to get my Uberschall and it went up $400 retail. Almost didn't get it.

Also, pricing themselves this way is certainly setting themselves up for failure. At that price, the amp better be perfect. I already know the SLO isn't perfect. The effects loop could be a lot better and the fact it's not footswitchable certainly is an issue for me.

This also hurts the used market even more. The person that takes that hit and tries to dump will be selling at a huge loss. Which means we will see less amps on the market because no one is going to want to lose that kind of money unless they are just gear flippers.

 

[joepete77]

Thinking something is overpriced and not being able to afford it are two different things. I am sure that many of us who post here can easily afford a new slo but can't really justify it and would rather pick one up used and save 1500-2k and still have lifetime warranty, especially being that most guys who buy these new don't log too many gigging hrs so the used slo's are usually pristine condition. What would some of the slo fans find rediculous 6k, 8k, 10k? When would you fall off the bandwagon? It doesn't mean you don't think it's a great amp, it just means you think he is getting over with a HUGE markup.

 

[Shark Diver]

I would love to get my hands on one and update it. MIDI, tube buffered effects, etc. and drop the purist persona that follows that amplifier.

That was actually in the works up until about a month ago. Major players contributing. But it has fallen through for now. And Price point was a major factor.

 

[Atropos_Project]

you can get like 7-8 used 5150 for that money

I could get an entire wall of Gorilla's for that sort of coin.