Rackman
Well-known member
So in last month's episode, I figured out that the reason my X88IR rig didn't sound so hot was due to an insanely bass-heavy mojotone cab. https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/help-fix-this-x88ir-rig-hadicapped-by-a-bad-cab.335560/
Since then I installed a set of Man-o-Wars which are quite bright in the Mojotone, and it didn't totally suck. You could play a gig with it. But there was still something wrong - really hard to dial in, and just overall didn't seem to ever achieve "awesome" - just "acceptable". A $10K rack for "acceptable" isn't. So I had to either get it to sound good or sell it all and free up a bunch of cash. Since it's all Soldano, it stood to reason that a Soldano cab ought to match. And here it is.
...and... it seems to have worked. I haven't done much tweaking, but a few thoughts:
- This is quieter than the Man-o-War cab by a couple dB - in line with spec sheet efficiency. The SM100R is pretty beefy so no big issue though. It's still loud.
- This cab is *not* bass-heavy. If I had a deep knob on my SM100R I might use it. As-is bass above noon on high gain is fine.
- I was able to dial in a very good high gain sound in what I think of as the Jose/Cameron/Fortin vein with the bright engaged. This is not something I'm used to getting so easily on a SLO-type amp. Of course most SLO's lack a bright switch.
- There were lots of good Marshall to modded Marshall type sounds and they all sounded pretty good.
- The X88IRs design where you can move between crunch and lead or clean and pushed on a channel without a major volume hop is kind of genius with MIDI. They really worked on the voicings so that if one was good, the other would be good and nearly the same volume. It equates to 6 usable channels which is a big step up in terms of quality of life compared to standard SLO or old school X88.
- I was able to back off the power amp presence which seems unnatural when too high on SLO types, maybe due to the relatively low center frequency
- Other than getting the custom cables and assembling the pedal board, the rig is now gigable - good since I've got a new covers band starting up next week.
- The dispersion on the Soldano 4x12 is better than any cab I've ever owned - probably a combination of angled + front loaded.
- The somewhat light construction of the Soldano is helpful getting up/down stairs. I don't like moving it, but it's about 10-15lbs lighter than my Splawn cab was I think. I never had the X88IR and the Splawn at the same time so I don't have a direct comparison.
Since then I installed a set of Man-o-Wars which are quite bright in the Mojotone, and it didn't totally suck. You could play a gig with it. But there was still something wrong - really hard to dial in, and just overall didn't seem to ever achieve "awesome" - just "acceptable". A $10K rack for "acceptable" isn't. So I had to either get it to sound good or sell it all and free up a bunch of cash. Since it's all Soldano, it stood to reason that a Soldano cab ought to match. And here it is.
...and... it seems to have worked. I haven't done much tweaking, but a few thoughts:
- This is quieter than the Man-o-War cab by a couple dB - in line with spec sheet efficiency. The SM100R is pretty beefy so no big issue though. It's still loud.
- This cab is *not* bass-heavy. If I had a deep knob on my SM100R I might use it. As-is bass above noon on high gain is fine.
- I was able to dial in a very good high gain sound in what I think of as the Jose/Cameron/Fortin vein with the bright engaged. This is not something I'm used to getting so easily on a SLO-type amp. Of course most SLO's lack a bright switch.
- There were lots of good Marshall to modded Marshall type sounds and they all sounded pretty good.
- The X88IRs design where you can move between crunch and lead or clean and pushed on a channel without a major volume hop is kind of genius with MIDI. They really worked on the voicings so that if one was good, the other would be good and nearly the same volume. It equates to 6 usable channels which is a big step up in terms of quality of life compared to standard SLO or old school X88.
- I was able to back off the power amp presence which seems unnatural when too high on SLO types, maybe due to the relatively low center frequency
- Other than getting the custom cables and assembling the pedal board, the rig is now gigable - good since I've got a new covers band starting up next week.
- The dispersion on the Soldano 4x12 is better than any cab I've ever owned - probably a combination of angled + front loaded.
- The somewhat light construction of the Soldano is helpful getting up/down stairs. I don't like moving it, but it's about 10-15lbs lighter than my Splawn cab was I think. I never had the X88IR and the Splawn at the same time so I don't have a direct comparison.
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