Mike Soldano confirms BAD buy, but he will still design amps

[Salos]

https://www.facebook.com/SoldanoCustomA ... tion=group

"Hi Everyone!

Since founding Soldano Custom Amplification 32 years ago, I’ve had to split my time between developing new products and operating a small business. I have reached a place in my life where I no longer wish to handle the business side of things and focus on what I enjoy most – designing and developing awesome amps and related products.

So, I’m excited to announce that I have teamed up with Boutique Amps Distribution to take Soldano to the next level. For many months now I have been seeking a company that can carry on my brand and Boutique Amps Distribution was the clear choice. They have the resources, talent, and passion to manufacture Soldano amps to the standard of quality both I and my customers expect, right here in California, USA. Together we will be bringing to life some of the products I have been wanting to make for a long time.

Many thanks for honoring me all these years with your loyal support and I hope you continue to do so as I transition to this exciting new chapter of my life. Stay tuned - Soldano is about to get better than ever!

If you’re attending the NAMM show, please stop by booth # 5238 to say hi! I’ll be there Thursday – Saturday.

Best wishes for a Happy 2019,

Michael Soldano
Going to 11 since 1987!"

 

[espquade]

Good for Mike and I am glad to see Soldano will still carry on in this form as Mike is interested in other projects.

Since B.A.D. works and builds for Friedman to his specifications I believe that there should be no reason why they can't carry on for Soldano and hopefully redesign the effects loop to work with pedals that are not just line level and after the tone stack without altering the famous Soldano tone.

This is exciting news that I'm sure many are looking forward too and hopefully the B.A.D. version of the SLO will live up to and possibly exceed all expectations!

Also this is great as people like myself who have owned SLO's in the past and were thinking of picking up another don't have too pay the ridiculous prices for a used SLO that some of the greedy people are now asking

 

[guitup too]

Does B.A.D. build Bogner?
Great for Mike. Interested tohear what new designs he mentioned.

 

[311splawndude]

Good luck Mike.

Don't own any of your amps but they sound good. I once saw an SLO with black alligator tolex and matching 4x12 and I had to excuse myself from the proceedings.

 

[gokart mozart]

Does B.A.D. build Bogner?
Great for Mike. Interested tohear what new designs he mentioned.

I believe that they build the Bogner pedals, but not the amps.

 

[skoora]

So he’s not retiring, just becoming a paid employee of his company...lol. I know there’s a lot more to it than that. Glad he’ll still be in the amp world. I don’t quite get how you run an amp company and running that company stops you from designing new product. That’s what office managers and accountants are for. I think running the company took up time he could spend on cars and then the time he spent on cars took up the time on designing new amps..lol

 

[Markedman]

http://www.boutiqueampsdistribution.com

 

[MistaGuitah]

Glad to hear Soldano amps are coming back in a new way. The Synergy stuff is amazing so I'm looking forward to what Soldano + Boutique Amp Dist. brings forth.

 

[Chupa.Cabra]

I personally feel a bit of sympathy and a bit of empathy (although I could never put myself in Michael's shoes) for Michael. In my opinion he never received the well deserved recognition that he should have back in the day. I remember Michael always striving to build first rate top quality guitar amps and I was fortunate at that time to own one of his SLO-100s. Stunning amp if simplicity and very impressive high gain crisp articulate tone is what your chasing.

I meet Michael before he relocated from Los Angeles to Seattle Washington. This was when Michael began modifying the Mesa Boogie Mark II amps. I believe and I seem to vaguely remember that the first three SLO amps Michael created were based on the Mark II and one of them became the Soldano SLO-100 released to market for consumers back in 1987.

It's been said and written that "In 1991, Eddie Van Halen used a SLO-100 (which replaced his famous Marshall 1959 due to technical issues) for the album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". Eddie would then go on to design the Peavey 5150, which was based on the Soldano." At that time is when the mythical conspiracy theory came out that when Eddie designed the Peavey 5150 he specifically based it on the Soldano SLO-100 model. Who knows for certain but Eddie and Michael?

Either way, the Soldano SLO-100 was and is a mean in your face very clean high gain guitar amp.

 

[gtr31]

I personally feel a bit of sympathy and a bit of empathy (although I could never put myself in Michael's shoes) for Michael. In my opinion he never received the well deserved recognition that he should have back in the day. I remember Michael always striving to build first rate top quality guitar amps and I was fortunate at that time to own one of his SLO-100s. Stunning amp if simplicity and very impressive high gain crisp articulate tone is what your chasing.

I meet Michael before he relocated from Los Angeles to Seattle Washington. This was when Michael began modifying the Mesa Boogie Mark II amps. I believe and I seem to vaguely remember that the first three SLO amps Michael created were based on the Mark II and one of them became the Soldano SLO-100 released to market for consumers back in 1987.

It's been said and written that "In 1991, Eddie Van Halen used a SLO-100 (which replaced his famous Marshall 1959 due to technical issues) for the album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". Eddie would then go on to design the Peavey 5150, which was based on the Soldano." At that time is when the mythical conspiracy theory came out that when Eddie designed the Peavey 5150 he specifically based it on the Soldano SLO-100 model. Who knows for certain but Eddie and Michael?

Either way, the Soldano SLO-100 was and is a mean in your face very clean high gain guitar amp.

Actually Peavey wasn’t the first to copy the SLO
Mesa pretty much stole it in the Rectifier and watching Freidman tone talk where they discussed it
I don’t think Mike has ever gotten past it . Obviously the fact that the Recto went on to become an iconic amp would be more salt in the wound

 

[CrazyNutz]

I personally feel a bit of sympathy and a bit of empathy (although I could never put myself in Michael's shoes) for Michael. In my opinion he never received the well deserved recognition that he should have back in the day. I remember Michael always striving to build first rate top quality guitar amps and I was fortunate at that time to own one of his SLO-100s. Stunning amp if simplicity and very impressive high gain crisp articulate tone is what your chasing.

I meet Michael before he relocated from Los Angeles to Seattle Washington. This was when Michael began modifying the Mesa Boogie Mark II amps. I believe and I seem to vaguely remember that the first three SLO amps Michael created were based on the Mark II and one of them became the Soldano SLO-100 released to market for consumers back in 1987.

It's been said and written that "In 1991, Eddie Van Halen used a SLO-100 (which replaced his famous Marshall 1959 due to technical issues) for the album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". Eddie would then go on to design the Peavey 5150, which was based on the Soldano." At that time is when the mythical conspiracy theory came out that when Eddie designed the Peavey 5150 he specifically based it on the Soldano SLO-100 model. Who knows for certain but Eddie and Michael?

Either way, the Soldano SLO-100 was and is a mean in your face very clean high gain guitar amp.

That was no conspiracy theory. Peavey ripped off the SLO100 to make the 5150 (and derivatives), as did Mesa with the Recto amps. I've been in all these amps, and have the schmo's. Now Peavey made some changes in the preamp to obscure the ripoff a bit. Mesa ripped it about 96% exactly same in the preamp OD section.

 

[lespaul6]

I wonder if the new SLO;s will have a more immediate response with the elimination of the LDR's???

 

[Chupa.Cabra]

That was no conspiracy theory. Peavey ripped off the SLO100 to make the 5150 (and derivatives), as did Mesa with the Recto amps. I've been in all these amps, and have the schmo's. Now Peavey made some changes in the preamp to obscure the ripoff a bit. Mesa ripped it about 96% exactly same in the preamp OD section.

Thank you CN!

You have now revealed yourself here in this public arena as a true card carrying member of the Peavy schizoid schmo suckin' conspiracy theory Moose Lodge brigade grand wizard commander in charge. Go getum' Sparky!

I will add, good for Eddie, cuz Eddie da man wit da plan!!!

Anywho, I can't stand plumber butt-crack dart board poking Peavy. They suck. They now produce only subpar products and their target audience is subject to your stereotypical hicktown honky-tonk redneck hillbilly trailer trash mountain folk to this day.

Yee-Hah Y'all!

 

[CrazyNutz]

I wonder if the new SLO;s will have a more immediate response with the elimination of the LDR's???

Was there talk about switching from LDR's to relays?

By immediate response, are you talking about a tighter pick response kind of thing?

 

[the4thlast1]

It's a good thing Peavey did what they did because the 5152 is possibly my favorite metal amp of all time .. I had an Slo for a while and for hard rock sure but if you want tight clear lowend for riffing the Peavey is hard to beat. Thank you Eddie and James Brown !

On a side note the Soldano Avenger I had was killer boosted , did metal in spades but at the time I needed a clean channel and an effects loop. Hopefully the new owners of Soldano do something in the vein of the Avenger with an effects loop design that doesn't suck. I'm sorry but the Peavey effects loop is way way more transparent than the Soldano stuff and yeah we have been through this before , lots of threads about it . Even Mike had recently decided to change the design on newer Slos as an option . Many say the shitty placement of the loop is part of that sound so it is what it is I guess.

 

[lespaul6]

I wonder if the new SLO;s will have a more immediate response with the elimination of the LDR's???

Was there talk about switching from LDR's to relays?

By immediate response, are you talking about a tighter pick response kind of thing?

Yes.. less lag after the picked note(s)

 

[Racerxrated]

I personally feel a bit of sympathy and a bit of empathy (although I could never put myself in Michael's shoes) for Michael. In my opinion he never received the well deserved recognition that he should have back in the day. I remember Michael always striving to build first rate top quality guitar amps and I was fortunate at that time to own one of his SLO-100s. Stunning amp if simplicity and very impressive high gain crisp articulate tone is what your chasing.

I meet Michael before he relocated from Los Angeles to Seattle Washington. This was when Michael began modifying the Mesa Boogie Mark II amps. I believe and I seem to vaguely remember that the first three SLO amps Michael created were based on the Mark II and one of them became the Soldano SLO-100 released to market for consumers back in 1987.

It's been said and written that "In 1991, Eddie Van Halen used a SLO-100 (which replaced his famous Marshall 1959 due to technical issues) for the album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". Eddie would then go on to design the Peavey 5150, which was based on the Soldano." At that time is when the mythical conspiracy theory came out that when Eddie designed the Peavey 5150 he specifically based it on the Soldano SLO-100 model. Who knows for certain but Eddie and Michael?

Either way, the Soldano SLO-100 was and is a mean in your face very clean high gain guitar amp.

That was no conspiracy theory. Peavey ripped off the SLO100 to make the 5150 (and derivatives), as did Mesa with the Recto amps. I've been in all these amps, and have the schmo's. Now Peavey made some changes in the preamp to obscure the ripoff a bit. Mesa ripped it about 96% exactly same in the preamp OD section.

I remember hearing from someone who worked for EVH in the late 80s/early 90s that Ed expected Mike to just give him X number of SLOs, because he was Ed. Lol. Mike told him he had to pay for them like anyone else, he wasn't a big enough company to give SLOs for free. Ed bought a few and gave one to Peavey to clone, as they were working out a deal. Mesa had already copied the pre circuit with the proto Rectifiers, and the Peavey 5150 was next up on the clone list.
When you watch the Friedman vid with Mike he mentions Mesa, with the Recto outselling pretty much everything in the 90s he's got a good reason to be irritated.

 

[Chupa.Cabra]

When you watch the Friedman vid with Mike he mentions Mesa, with the Recto outselling pretty much everything in the 90s he's got a good reason to be irritated.

Simple, Mesa Engineering's Recto is affordable and fairly priced out. Michael's quotient and MSRP is way too high for the average guitarist wanting to bust into the booteek amp arena. Considering back in the early '90s (~<30 years ago) when I purchased my first SLO-100 I laid out only $2,500 for it, good deal at that time. Specifically and considering that it was RTM in 1987 - a significant chunk of change back then. Michael hasn't changed anything in the SLO-100 over the years. Currently a SLO-100 is priced at (or around) $5,000 and nothing is different in the SLO-100 to this day.

In the end I can't think of the last time, or recently that I witnessed a Soldano SLO-100 in any band's backline, except Gov't Mule. Quite sincerely and unfortunately due to poor marketing practices Soldano obviously needs to revamp and a facelift otherwise Soldano will go down like Einstein, just another fuddy-duddy.

And Freidman, yuck! Every Freidman amp I've plugged into sounded like a tin can filled with drywall nails - no musical personality whatsoever. The preamp obviously was an after thought. And I'm specifically speaking to the Friedman BE-50 Deluxe 3-channel 50-watt Tube Head. There's no way I'd fork out ~$3,500 (or whatever they're currently going for) for a OTS wholesale wooden box, 2 Transformers & a bunch of R/C circuits.

Just saying.

 

[BackCrack]

So according to the FB video Mike posted today from the BAD shop, the SLO 100 will continue on. Also, a new SLO 30 is in the works. And the GTO will be made again, too.

 

[nightlight]

This is great news. Maybe someday I'll be able to get that SLO I always wanted.

The Avenger I have is bad ass, too damn loud for my matchbox house, but the louder it goes, the more brutal it sounds.

It's not a refined kind of distortion, very raw, organic and meaty, like pieces of flesh being gibbed off a chunky meat source and then bathing the user in blood.