HowieJams
Active member
I have had my Soldano Astro 20 for 2 weeks now.
I have not had as much time to use it as I would like, but it is nice to get 15 minuts to a half hour to mess with it.
What I have found is I like this amp without any pedals as a boost and it loves the Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master delay/reverb in the loop.
With four footswitchable channels/galaxies, I can set them with enough gain to cover any solo I need without a boost pedal.
I am sure a boost on top of the blue galaxy might be nice, but it is just too easy to footswitch to the high gain purple galaxy or higest gain red galaxy for leads if necessary.
I have run a boost on top of the blue and purple galaxies in one of my YouTube videos and I remember it sounding good, but the nice thing is if you don't want to boost it, it does not need it.
This is a lot different than my Friedman Little Sister single channel which actually sounds better with a boost, of course that does not have nearly as much gain as the Soldano. The Little Sister has a good amount of gain and sounds amazing, but a boost pushes it over the edge and sounds great. I alternate with a TS808 or Boss SD-1, both sound great.
My other Friedman is a JEL-20, on the lower gain Plexi channel 1 it needs a boost, usually with a SD-1.
Channel 2 is a modded JCM800 and that has its own built in pull boost which sounds great, but that is not always as convenient as stomping a pedal, I tend to like that channel better with a TS808.
I really need to get some time to solo over some backing tracks with the Soldano and see how it does with and without a boost pedal before a make a final decision, but I feel confident it will do fine without a boost.
I tend to like simple set-ups, so if I could just plug straight in with only a Delay in the loop I would be very happy and I think the Soldano should do that.
Here is a quick vid I did yesterday in a spare 15 minutes I had.
I have not had as much time to use it as I would like, but it is nice to get 15 minuts to a half hour to mess with it.
What I have found is I like this amp without any pedals as a boost and it loves the Earthquaker Devices Dispatch Master delay/reverb in the loop.
With four footswitchable channels/galaxies, I can set them with enough gain to cover any solo I need without a boost pedal.
I am sure a boost on top of the blue galaxy might be nice, but it is just too easy to footswitch to the high gain purple galaxy or higest gain red galaxy for leads if necessary.
I have run a boost on top of the blue and purple galaxies in one of my YouTube videos and I remember it sounding good, but the nice thing is if you don't want to boost it, it does not need it.
This is a lot different than my Friedman Little Sister single channel which actually sounds better with a boost, of course that does not have nearly as much gain as the Soldano. The Little Sister has a good amount of gain and sounds amazing, but a boost pushes it over the edge and sounds great. I alternate with a TS808 or Boss SD-1, both sound great.
My other Friedman is a JEL-20, on the lower gain Plexi channel 1 it needs a boost, usually with a SD-1.
Channel 2 is a modded JCM800 and that has its own built in pull boost which sounds great, but that is not always as convenient as stomping a pedal, I tend to like that channel better with a TS808.
I really need to get some time to solo over some backing tracks with the Soldano and see how it does with and without a boost pedal before a make a final decision, but I feel confident it will do fine without a boost.
I tend to like simple set-ups, so if I could just plug straight in with only a Delay in the loop I would be very happy and I think the Soldano should do that.
Here is a quick vid I did yesterday in a spare 15 minutes I had.