NAD: BAD SLO100 & Cab Question

[jasonP]

Randall Smith had the first cascaded pre-amp & master volume by 1970 before anyone else & M. Soldano designed the SLO after the MESA MK series amps.
To claim the MESA Rectifiers are a "rip-off" of the SLO is just not accurate but i hear it all the time.
Every demo i hear of the SLO II comes across super harsh like a cheese grate on chalkboard.
They all sound that way.
In any event thanks for taking the time anyway.

This was talked about in a tone talk episode between Dave Friedman and Mike Soldano.
If you have a look at the schematics a 2 channel Rectifier looks like a direct clone from the SLO. There are some differences in the circuit and iron that make them sound different from another. Mesa isn't the only one that has taken from the SLO circuit.

 

[Samhain]

yeah yeah disgruntled Mike talking how he was wronged, then right after that vid signs the Soldano name over to Friedman.
blah blah blah
Never saw Keef play an SLO.
Who made who man ?

40+ years ago nobody ever said Watson & Gillis ripped off an SLO.
All you fuggers born after 1980 gtfo.

 

[Mr. Willy]

yeah yeah disgruntled Mike talking how he was wrong, then right after that vid signs the Soldano name over to Friedman.
blah blah blah
Who made who man ?

Mike is far from disgruntled and is one of the nicest and most humble people in the amp business.

 

[Bad.Seed]

yeah yeah disgruntled Mike talking how he was wrong, then right after that vid signs the Soldano name over to Friedman.
blah blah blah
Never saw Keef play an SLO.
Who made who man ?

40+ years ago nobody ever said Watson & Gillis ripped off an SLO.
All you fuggers born after 1980 gtfo.

You sound like an old boomer edgelord. Anyways, I ain't beating the long dead horse in this argument any more.

 

[rstites]

Nice on the new SLO, first. I agree with the recommendation of G12-65's as a great match with it, but there are others.

Basic facts here:

The Recto lead channel is 100% lifted from the SLO. Anyone suggesting otherwise has gotten themselves into an anatomically difficult position.

The Boogies/MK's are totally different amps and have nothing in common with either for topology, so don't try comparing them.

All amplifiers, going back to the original radio and phonograph amplifiers, over 100 years ago now, use cascading gain. It's a common engineering term for how all small signal amplifiers work. This was understood before Randall Smith was born.

Randall Smith might be the first to intentionally create distortion from an amplifier. However, Marshall was doing custom work for people by 1970 where they cascaded one channel into the other, and fuzz pedals of the 60's work on the exact same principle, just with transistors rather than tubes. Give each their due, but let's don't pretend any of them made some massive step forward in the understand of amplification. It was minor and irritative.

Lots of respect for both Randall Smith and Mike Soldano for making great contributions to the guitar amplifier world. I have amps made by both companies. (No idea if Randall was doing any assembly by the 80's when my were made.)

 

[DeathbyButterslax]

Anyone can plainly see the similarities.

All I see is a Rev c and a reborn

 

[VESmedic]

Man... anyone that thinks the SLO sounds like a recto... I dunno what to say.....some seriously shot ears out there!

 

[Racerxrated]

Man... anyone that thinks the SLO sounds like a recto... I dunno what to say.....some seriously shot ears out there!

With some knob twisting you can get an older Triple to resemble a darker dialed SLO, but it’s far from obvious.
Both are killer amps.

 

[Norton666]

The absolute most overrated amp for metal I’ve ever owned, by far. Terrible low end, bloated mids, the saturation was all wrong... huge huge disappointment. I’m sure someone will come in and say it’s not really a metal amp, and I get it. I honestly am not sure I even liked it that much for leads... but, instead of lying to myself about how much I liked my 4K dollar amp, I got rid of it, and don’t miss it a bit. Huge nostalgia buzzkill.

I’ve owned an SLO on two different occasions, and I could not get along with them either. To me, they fall into the same category as a Recto...completely unusable for me without a boost. At any gain level. Just my opinion of course

 

[rstites]

I’ve owned an SLO on two different occasions, and I could not get along with them either. To me, they fall into the same category as a Recto...completely unusable for me without a boost. At any gain level. Just my opinion of course

I've never played any amp that didn't need a boost, at least for heavier tones. I've never thought of that as a limitation. It's all about the final product to me.

 

[NewWorldMan]

Reading through, and quick question. Why do people associate EVH with the SLO? We’ve established I’m not an EVH aficionado like some, but didn’t he only use the SLO partially on one album (F.U.C.K.) along with a couple of other amps, and then move on from it?

 

[godgrinder]

Reading through, and quick question. Why do people associate EVH with the SLO? We’ve established I’m not an EVH aficionado like some, but didn’t he only use the SLO partially on one album (F.U.C.K.) along with a couple of other amps, and then move on from it?

He liked it enough to base his own signature amps on it though.

 

[VanMalmsteen]

The absolute most overrated amp for metal I’ve ever owned, by far. Terrible low end, bloated mids, the saturation was all wrong... huge huge disappointment. I’m sure someone will come in and say it’s not really a metal amp, and I get it. I honestly am not sure I even liked it that much for leads... but, instead of lying to myself about how much I liked my 4K dollar amp, I got rid of it, and don’t miss it a bit. Huge nostalgia buzzkill.

Agree with this one. The new one was so messy sounding compared to originals. It felt very restricted. It’s like Soldano used Mesas design, Mesa copied Soldano by making the Recto and Soldano ripped off Mesa by rebuilding the recto lol

Terrible use of 4K.

 

[VanMalmsteen]

So, after 10 years of gear buying, selling, flipping and trading, I finally got a damn SLO100.

After playing my Avenger 100 and quite honestly, my Jet City JCA50H a good bit recently, coupled with the fact that Mezzabarba is sending me their amps to demo in the near future, I started getting the itch to finally track down an SLO.

I've always been curious as most of my favorite tones come from amps that were heavily inspired by the Soldano. I've always been a little nervous I wouldn't like it because the amp is typically not described as tight/fast and that's a big factor for me in bonding with an amp.

I also knew I wanted a BAD version, just because I wanted the depth mod installed and wanted all the components to be fresh and not worry about 30 years worth of aging if I bought an older one.

So anyways, here it is. So far, I like it a good bit. The low end could be tighter, and I feel the depth frequency is in kind of a weird spot, but tonally, wow. It just has this awesome harmonic content, especially in the upper mids that just makes it sound like it is sparkling, especially when playing big chords. There is also a good bit more gain on tap than I expected, and the brightness was much easier to control than I had read.

My question on cabs is: has anyone tried the new BAD made Soldano cabinets? The 212 looks really interesting to me, being oversized and it also has the Friedman style port on the back. Thought about grabbing one but wanted to see if there are any opinions first.

EDIT: Playthrough is live:



Pics to prove it happened


View attachment 78792View attachment 78794View attachment 78796

Congratulations I hope you enjoy it. I would go with a Bogner cab

 

[Donnie B.]

Sometimes I wish that the Mark Series and Rectifier Series were made by two different brands.
Unless you've played them side by side it's hard to appreciate just how different they are.


Me and buds got in the habit of using Boogie to refer to the Marks, and Mesa for the Recs.
Avoids the confusion like what happened a bit in this thread.

 

[NewWorldMan]

He liked it enough to base his own signature amps on it though.

That’s not true. At no point did EVH tell Peavey he wanted his signature amp based on a Soldano, nor was it based on a Soldano.

The 5150 was supposed to be based on a Marshall that Jose modded that EVH was going to provide, but the amp never showed up. He was looking for a company to put that amp into production at an affordable price. Signed a deal with Peavey, and they waited months for the amp to show up, but it never did.

Peavey finally had to get going after months of waiting, so they started the build based on the Peavey VTM (which EVH had tried and liked, which was oddly enough itself based on a Jose Marshall), added the Resonance/Presence features from their line of power amps, etc. Hartley (Peavey) suggested they try to make some tweaks based on amps they knew had at the time, and that’s where they tried to incorporate bits from the SLO, Marshall Super Leads, etc. But the platform was a Peavey VTM with some features from their power amp line.

Not sure where the internet rumors came from originally that he wanted some company to make him an SLO style amp, but it’s false.

 

[Donnie B.]

From the horses mouth.
James Brown didn't need to copy anyone.
Dude's brilliant.

 

[Racerxrated]

That’s not true. At no point did EVH tell Peavey he wanted his signature amp based on a Soldano, nor was it based on a Soldano.

The 5150 was supposed to be based on a Marshall that Jose modded that EVH was going to provide, but the amp never showed up. He was looking for a company to put that amp into production at an affordable price. Signed a deal with Peavey, and they waited months for the amp to show up, but it never did.

Peavey finally had to get going after months of waiting, so they started the build based on the Peavey VTM (which EVH had tried and liked, which was oddly enough itself based on a Jose Marshall), added the Resonance/Presence features from their line of power amps, etc. Hartley (Peavey) suggested they try to make some tweaks based on amps they knew had at the time, and that’s where they tried to incorporate bits from the SLO, Marshall Super Leads, etc. But the platform was a Peavey VTM with some features from their power amp line.

Not sure where the internet rumors came from originally that he wanted some company to make him an SLO style amp, but it’s false.

Gotta disagree my friend. Story goes that EVH was miffed that he had to pay for his 2-3 SLOs as he expected freebies. Mike was a small company and couldn’t afford to do that. When Peavey approached him to endorse(or maybe he initiated it?) he wanted the amp to be just like the SLO. Like the recto, the 5150 og preamp is very close to the SLO preamp.
I’ve never heard the 5150 was based on a modded Marshall. It’s really nowhere near a Marshall circuit wise. 6L6 power just like the SLO, same number of gain stages etc.
That’s what I’ve always read.

 

[VanMalmsteen]

Gotta disagree my friend. Story goes that EVH was miffed that he had to pay for his 2-3 SLOs as he expected freebies. Mike was a small company and couldn’t afford to do that. When Peavey approached him to endorse(or maybe he initiated it?) he wanted the amp to be just like the SLO. Like the recto, the 5150 og preamp is very close to the SLO preamp.
I’ve never heard the 5150 was based on a modded Marshall. It’s really nowhere near a Marshall circuit wise. 6L6 power just like the SLO, same number of gain stages etc.
That’s what I’ve always read.

Never heard the Marshall thing but I know the preamps are very close. Ed was using the SLO when he started with Peavey. Mike Soldano didn’t do freebies, not for Van Halen not for lynch.

 

[Racerxrated]

Never heard the Marshall thing but I know the preamps are very close. Ed was using the SLO when he started with Peavey. Mike Soldano didn’t do freebies, not for Van Halen not for lynch.

Maybe what NWM said is partially true; that Ed was waiting on a modded Marshall that never showed and in the end gave Peavey one of his SLOs. There are some differences but just like the Recto the 5150 pre is very close to the SLO preamp.