Okay this amp is clearly awesome but your melodic and harmonic choices sound so incredibly excellent that I'm fairly sure I'd love the sound regardless of what you played through.
Rabea just playing a Soldano for 28 minutes? Count me in. And all the feels at 6:10 literally brought tears to my eyes. I was not expecting that. Fantastic content as always!!
There’s something about that black custom les Paul I love. It’s just got that thing. I would never put that thing down. It’s probably top 5 coolest guitars I’ve seen in a while.
I like how Rabea explains what he's doing but I have a lot of respect for how technical he can be but his picking techniques and Awesome feel blow me away!
While I appreciate all the new modern digital aspects in amps and thankfull it keeps the youngins involved in playing guitar in an age of video games at 59 i'm 2 old and 2 damn dumb to understand it all!😢. I guess i'll ride it out old school with just my guitar a cable and amp..jack it in and jack it up!!! Really enjoy the vids Bea!!!
We put EVERYTHING you need in the package. The amp, power cord, 4 button MIDI foot switch, 7pin cable and USB cable. Think of it as an all-tube amp that allows you tailor the channels to what YOU need. You don’t need the computer at all to do this.
@@woody2669 definitely a lot lighter. Also more affordable. I have a standing church worship service that I play every week and I leave a digital L6 processor there, setup and ready to go, I also have the same processor set up on my home. I have a klon clone and a walrus audio voyager in the front. Anyways dive in my friend the water is fine.
This demo sold me on this amp. Just received it and it sounds and feels absolutely killer and will keep up with a loud drummer, no problem. If you're on the fence, just buy it!
I'm old enough to remember the Soldano "Hot Rod 50" and "Hot Rod 50+" models made back in the late-1990's through the first decade of this century. The "Blue" and "Purple" gain stage configurations remind me a lot of those. I'm guessing that was intentional. I really want one of these, but I'd also like to see a "big bottle" version with 6L6's pushing 40 watts or so.
7:18 I love how you announce the next galaxy not knowing it’s Color, then looking behind you and making a slightly surprised expression when it turns out to be blue
A part of me wishes I could have a furnished warehouse where I could literally have every tube amp ever made on a shelf. There is so much good gear out there! My only head is an old Soldano Hot Rod 50 and it absolutely blasts. I may be going down the digital road moving forward though. Plus I need the money so selling this Soldano (😢) is most likely what I’ll be doing. But hearing Rabea sound so good through a Soldano amp makes me want to keep it! Love ya Rab!
@@joker57 what’s funny about it is that it’s either been modded, or it’s a boutique one off. There is an input jack to the far left on the front and I’ve never seen it on other Soldano models before. I even emailed the company themselves about it and they were clueless. My guess is the previous owner did the mod themselves and made it for a footswitch input jack from the front?? There’s one on the back already but I can’t figure out what it’s for exactly lol.
Don’t get this wrong! After 32 years of playing guitar, I say, if this amp inspires you, it’s worth any price tag whether you play it with your new music man or your old chapman guitar. If it doesn’t speak to you, it’s worth 0 Euro, whatever brand the name the tag features. Great playing as usual!!! 🙌🙌🙌
Don't know if you've seen it, but there's an X88IR in the works too - has all the IR gubbins, but also MIDI (yes!), stereo loop return, stereo outs, and both drive channels are switchable crunch/OD.
Extraordinary as always, Bea! Unfortunatelly there is a ton of white noise in the sections where you are speaking this time. Didn't noticed that in any other video of yours. It's pretty unbearable with headphones on. Other than that keep on the good work. I'm always excited when you drop another new video.
Hey! I love your videos a lot! I follow you for some time and you are a great inspiration for me. Every gear you touch sounds absolutely amazing every time. Listening to your music, it's clearly that you have a huge knowledge about creating tones. I would really like to see how your gear would fit in sort of a musical context. Maybe I'm not the only one that has this problem, but when I always create tones whiteout a context they sound great for my ear. As soon as I do a short composition whit those tones, they are sometimes completely garbage :))) I know it's a lot of work to do but can you try doing some demos with your gear by including them in some short complete mixes? Thank you and keep doing all this great stuff! ❤
Question: In a live gig at a medium-size pub with a loud drummer and NO mic on my speakers, could this Soldano Astro-20 watts keep up with a loud drummer in terms of volume? Next question: how does this Soldano Astro 20-watts compare to the EVH 5150iii 50-watts in terms of tone & volume?
You will need a new set of ears with the slo 100 it will make your ears bleed and stop working I know Mike is a good friend and my neighbor growing up I spent many days in his shop with my guitarist playin his slo 100 amp and all the others he had in the amp room and the power was incredible I think my ribs got dislocated lol
Great review and demo, as always, Rabea! One thing I've noted in all the demos i've seen thus far (yours being the best btw), there seems to be an inherent "boominess" in the bottom, even though the rest of the strings ring with great mid/highs...did you note this as well, and if so can it be dialed out at all or is that inherent? thanks in advance and cheers!
I’m gonna get a Soldano. Been saving for an SLO 30. Gonna use it for studio and my band. Then this came out…. It’s perfect for the studio and you make it sound great. You are my fav living guitarist. How do you feel about it vs the SLO.
This amp offers so much!! Check out this video I made on using MIDI to control a Soldano Astro 20, Torpedo Captor X, & Golden Boy with an Ampero Control (all on different MIDI channels): th-cam.com/video/R6382C0bDXY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Y90suiYDtDzCuWaV
Man,sounds killer even through the XLR out. Do you have an opinion on if the slo 30 is worth the extra cash over this? I havnt played either but ready for a new amp and the slo 30 has been in my sights for a long while. But now this comes out.
I think that depends on what you need. The SLO 30 obviously doesn't come with all those modern features. But as an owner of the SLO 30 I have to say I think it sounds a lot fuller and just "better" to me, than what I'm hearing in all Astro-20 demos so far. I do like the feature set, and that it now has 3 channels (kind of) - but I'm a bit disappointed that they went for a 20W power section... I've yet to hear a 20W amp that I really liked. I also don't really need the IR capabilities.. have a Suhr RL for recording (and prefer to work with IRs in the DAW for recording anyways) and if I were to take it out live, then I have other options for hosting IRs and send that signal to FoH that I prefer.
it took me a couple days to watch this whole video cuz you played blackest eyes and i had to listen to the original song and adhd kicked in and by the time i got done with all that i forgot i was watching this video
What can you tell me about this "tube screamer"? What is the term for them? Excuse my ignorance on the subject. I've been wanting to dive more into getting the tone I want with pedals but I don't know s*** about them.
Overdrive, You run it into the amp with tone at 12 o'clock, drive at 7 and output at 5, which saturates the input causing distortion to an overdriven amp/amp with mid gain.
Don’t know if I’ll ever get a response but I have to know: did you like this amp? From your reaction I’d guess that you didn’t care for it. Just curious
Each mileage may vary, but you don’t have to rattle your neighbors organs to get great tone or saturation compared to your 100s, even more usable volume than the 30. I haven’t tried all of my pedal rig through it yet, nor completely cranked, but the amp itself sounds absolutely huge with the Soldano 2x12 vert cab without any effects. Seems very very versatile which is a huge thing for me. I’m gonna ride back to ATL and try it with my full pedal rig and if it checks out, it’s coming home with me.
Amps don’t need them, just like the Friedman 20 watters. In smaller amps real estate is a commodity so the standby switch is the first thing to get rid of.
No one paid for this review. They asked. I’m friends with the guys. I was up for checking it out. Further more, if it sounds good and I vibe with it. I like it… go figure
There is no reactive load in this. When using IR's it's a digitally simulated power amp section and power amp in the amp is bypassed. Assuming same tech as Friedman IR-X for this.
Okay this amp is clearly awesome but your melodic and harmonic choices sound so incredibly excellent that I'm fairly sure I'd love the sound regardless of what you played through.
Agreed. As soon he dials in his pushed clean sound on anything it’s game on
Rabea just playing a Soldano for 28 minutes? Count me in. And all the feels at 6:10 literally brought tears to my eyes. I was not expecting that. Fantastic content as always!!
15:17 - that PT riff caught me off guard! Great demo as always.
Its by porcupine tree, blackest eyes
He played another PT riff before Blackest Eyes
@@shawnbrockert1649 Yeah I guess the riff just before is quite similar to Shallow, I have not picked that up before.
You playing is always killer.
This amp definetly sounds great.
beyond the tones, i like the space theme of it
Any time that Les Paul comes out it sounds absolutely immense. Always good to see it!
There’s something about that black custom les Paul I love. It’s just got that thing. I would never put that thing down. It’s probably top 5 coolest guitars I’ve seen in a while.
I agree. The headstock logo on the customs is one of the things that does it for me.
I like how Rabea explains what he's doing but I have a lot of respect for how technical he can be but his picking techniques and Awesome feel blow me away!
While I appreciate all the new modern digital aspects in amps and thankfull it keeps the youngins involved in playing guitar in an age of video games at 59 i'm 2 old and 2 damn dumb to understand it all!😢. I guess i'll ride it out old school with just my guitar a cable and amp..jack it in and jack it up!!! Really enjoy the vids Bea!!!
We put EVERYTHING you need in the package. The amp, power cord, 4 button MIDI foot switch, 7pin cable and USB cable.
Think of it as an all-tube amp that allows you tailor the channels to what YOU need. You don’t need the computer at all to do this.
I’m 63 and I couldn’t disagree more. Embrace digital and you may just be surprised at what you’ve been missing, sir.
would be a lot lighter!😁✌️
@@woody2669 definitely a lot lighter. Also more affordable. I have a standing church worship service that I play every week and I leave a digital L6 processor there, setup and ready to go, I also have the same processor set up on my home. I have a klon clone and a walrus audio voyager in the front. Anyways dive in my friend the water is fine.
@@sonny6string822 👍
Big heads are for big shows but good head is appreciated universally!
This demo sold me on this amp. Just received it and it sounds and feels absolutely killer and will keep up with a loud drummer, no problem. If you're on the fence, just buy it!
I'm old enough to remember the Soldano "Hot Rod 50" and "Hot Rod 50+" models made back in the late-1990's through the first decade of this century. The "Blue" and "Purple" gain stage configurations remind me a lot of those. I'm guessing that was intentional.
I really want one of these, but I'd also like to see a "big bottle" version with 6L6's pushing 40 watts or so.
Great to see more guys demoing the clean channel on this beast.
Bought one on the day they released and glad i did. Such a great amp.
That is some tasty crunch right there... and of course very inspiring and awesome guitar playing.
7:18 I love how you announce the next galaxy not knowing it’s Color, then looking behind you and making a slightly surprised expression when it turns out to be blue
Great demo! And even more great to hear you play Porcupine Tree!
Great playing, and awesome filmmaking. Very clean shots.
the one youtuber i was waiting to hear play this amp
This! Red Galaxy is stellar. Thanks Rabea and Happy Holidays!
Wow. Your playing always delights the ears. What reverb are you using? It sounds so rich and 3D.
Probably it's his Strymons -> th-cam.com/video/RT41cPOc1ng/w-d-xo.html
If he's using his full SA board it would be the Big Sky.
You make everything sound great my man! ❤
I bet he could make one of those small Altoids can amps sound savage!
Yes, thats the "problem"....
Love that Blackest Eyes riff you snuck in there.
Mine just got here from Guitar Center today! Haven't even unboxed it yet.... friggin' more stoked than ever tho now. Killer demo as always, Bea.
congrats man, hope you're loving it since you wrote this 4 months ago ;)
@@DavidJosephBoth Actually, yes indeed, I do! Killer amp.
The tone from this paula is amazing! This amp sounds great too,&rabeas fingers are the crown
In this soundkingdom,rockn rolly,bea!👍👍👍🎸🎸🎸
I've yet to watch one of your videos and think that it didn't sound good. always a pleasure to watch your amazing playing and equally great tone.
This is my amp!🎉
L❤ve your tone (and videos) bro... Much respect!!! 🤜🏾✊️🤛🏼
A part of me wishes I could have a furnished warehouse where I could literally have every tube amp ever made on a shelf. There is so much good gear out there! My only head is an old Soldano Hot Rod 50 and it absolutely blasts. I may be going down the digital road moving forward though. Plus I need the money so selling this Soldano (😢) is most likely what I’ll be doing. But hearing Rabea sound so good through a Soldano amp makes me want to keep it! Love ya Rab!
I’ll take the hot Rod 50
@@joker57 what’s funny about it is that it’s either been modded, or it’s a boutique one off. There is an input jack to the far left on the front and I’ve never seen it on other Soldano models before. I even emailed the company themselves about it and they were clueless. My guess is the previous owner did the mod themselves and made it for a footswitch input jack from the front?? There’s one on the back already but I can’t figure out what it’s for exactly lol.
In retrospective it’ll only be an amp issue if you play better musical ideas after switching. I keep my fingers crossed for you! 🤞
@LifeHawkeye The single channel Hot Rod 50 had a low and hi input from the factory... Are you saying that there's a third input on the front?
"Leslie" was giving me strong Superunknown Soundgarden vibes thru that thing... 👍🏻
Don’t get this wrong! After 32 years of playing guitar, I say, if this amp inspires you, it’s worth any price tag whether you play it with your new music man or your old chapman guitar. If it doesn’t speak to you, it’s worth 0 Euro, whatever brand the name the tag features. Great playing as usual!!! 🙌🙌🙌
Spot on!
I totally agree with you
Don't know if you've seen it, but there's an X88IR in the works too - has all the IR gubbins, but also MIDI (yes!), stereo loop return, stereo outs, and both drive channels are switchable crunch/OD.
What do you do with MIDI? Sorry for the noob question. 😅
The BlackBeauty sounds amazing❤️🔥
Can't stop drooling over your new guitar
That Porcupine Tree riff! Great review!
Love this guy! Killer style and tone..not only on the axe, but can sk8 pretty sweet as well🤟
Hell yea! Those Porcupine Tree riffs sound great with that Les Paul, thru that amp
Extraordinary as always, Bea! Unfortunatelly there is a ton of white noise in the sections where you are speaking this time. Didn't noticed that in any other video of yours. It's pretty unbearable with headphones on. Other than that keep on the good work. I'm always excited when you drop another new video.
Rockin amp! 🎸
Oh boy. This is about to be my workhorse. Cannot wait to get my hands on this thing.
I feel like Bea's vidoes deserve more likes! Awesome demo!
Hey! I love your videos a lot! I follow you for some time and you are a great inspiration for me. Every gear you touch sounds absolutely amazing every time. Listening to your music, it's clearly that you have a huge knowledge about creating tones. I would really like to see how your gear would fit in sort of a musical context. Maybe I'm not the only one that has this problem, but when I always create tones whiteout a context they sound great for my ear. As soon as I do a short composition whit those tones, they are sometimes completely garbage :))) I know it's a lot of work to do but can you try doing some demos with your gear by including them in some short complete mixes? Thank you and keep doing all this great stuff! ❤
Finally amp reviews where they focus on switching guitars and pick ups... Always great when you hear amp demos and never see the guitar :D
Great sounding amp. I’m using it on my FM9 almost every time.
That’s the prince clean sound
Channel 2 and 3 can be either Gain stage blue purple or red gain and master
I think you sound the best through a Soldano 👌🏻
Was already smiling when hearing that tone but then I lost it when you started playing porcupine pine
In Bea we trust! Sounds amazing brother
You just wanna play and we just wanna listen .. Cheers! 👽
Happen to do a capture of this on the QC? 😅
Question: In a live gig at a medium-size pub with a loud drummer and NO mic on my speakers, could this Soldano Astro-20 watts keep up with a loud drummer in terms of volume?
Next question: how does this Soldano Astro 20-watts compare to the EVH 5150iii 50-watts in terms of tone & volume?
I don’t think you’d have an issue, my Mesa 25w is loud enough so I’m sure this will do the job.
Oh yes. I've done it several times. And never got the master above 9 o'clock. It cuts through like a soldano should. Very sweet in the mix.
Sure can. Gigged mine for the first time Saturday night in a reasonable sized pub. Master volume still below half way. This one’s a keeper..
Nice Bea, very nice
I'd like to hear a comparison between this one and your SLO 100.
You will need a new set of ears with the slo 100 it will make your ears bleed and stop working I know Mike is a good friend and my neighbor growing up I spent many days in his shop with my guitarist playin his slo 100 amp and all the others he had in the amp room and the power was incredible I think my ribs got dislocated lol
Blackest Eyes! I was just listening to In Abstentia earlier today!
Great review and demo, as always, Rabea! One thing I've noted in all the demos i've seen thus far (yours being the best btw), there seems to be an inherent "boominess" in the bottom, even though the rest of the strings ring with great mid/highs...did you note this as well, and if so can it be dialed out at all or is that inherent? thanks in advance and cheers!
This thing sounds mighty impressive given the wattage. Feature rich too. Of course, you make everything sound good though.
@@mrcoatsworth429I think you replied to the wrong comment 😅
@@marcusdellow I did. What the hell😂
Isn't that the truth! Such a tasteful player is Rabea.
Sounds amazing! You look tired though my dude. Get some rest and happy holidays!
Hells yeah! "Blackest Eyes" from Porcupine Tree at 15:17
Porcupine tree, nice 👍
What the hell are you using for Delay/Verb on that LP around 12:00?
That’s the perfect mix and sound.
Seriously thinking about selling my toneking imperial and buying this amp
I’m gonna get a Soldano. Been saving for an SLO 30. Gonna use it for studio and my band. Then this came out…. It’s perfect for the studio and you make it sound great. You are my fav living guitarist.
How do you feel about it vs the SLO.
gotta ask. you tried both Revv G20 and the Soldano Astro. which one of them did you like better?
Lester is the name on Line6 variax for the Les Poul models.
Les Paul’s real name was Lester Polsfuss.
Well played sir.
Oh damn that Porcupine Tree Blackest Eyes Riff out of nowhere got me.. gotta listen to it now hahaha
Just one quick question
How have u connected Neural to the external amp for effects n IR
Astro has a XLR out you can use without a cabinet connected and you can bypass IR as well
Either this amp is badass and crazy ang for the buck, orthe music and playing is just badass. Donno what's better..
Your guitar, your name. Leslie sounds great.
Bear your Reverb sounds like Liquid Sonic Gold dang. What pedal or effect is your Reverb?
What's that reverb and delay you're using???
I miss the T shape guitars. But I guess it was time for a change.
did you say "reactive load"?
Sounds great 👍
This amp offers so much!! Check out this video I made on using MIDI to control a Soldano Astro 20, Torpedo Captor X, & Golden Boy with an Ampero Control (all on different MIDI channels):
th-cam.com/video/R6382C0bDXY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Y90suiYDtDzCuWaV
Man,sounds killer even through the XLR out. Do you have an opinion on if the slo 30 is worth the extra cash over this? I havnt played either but ready for a new amp and the slo 30 has been in my sights for a long while. But now this comes out.
I think that depends on what you need. The SLO 30 obviously doesn't come with all those modern features. But as an owner of the SLO 30 I have to say I think it sounds a lot fuller and just "better" to me, than what I'm hearing in all Astro-20 demos so far. I do like the feature set, and that it now has 3 channels (kind of) - but I'm a bit disappointed that they went for a 20W power section... I've yet to hear a 20W amp that I really liked. I also don't really need the IR capabilities.. have a Suhr RL for recording (and prefer to work with IRs in the DAW for recording anyways) and if I were to take it out live, then I have other options for hosting IRs and send that signal to FoH that I prefer.
Interesting that the software is identical to that of the Friedman ir-x software, made by synergy.
Well they are all made by the same company, Boutique Amp Distribution
This or slo 30? Just in terms of versatility feel and tone?!?
it took me a couple days to watch this whole video cuz you played blackest eyes and i had to listen to the original song and adhd kicked in and by the time i got done with all that i forgot i was watching this video
Hey Rabea!!!!!! amazing video!!!!!! what genelecs do you have?!?!?!?!?!
Procupine Tree - Nice
Have you been getting good results with recording those drums?
nice room.
What can you tell me about this "tube screamer"? What is the term for them? Excuse my ignorance on the subject. I've been wanting to dive more into getting the tone I want with pedals but I don't know s*** about them.
Overdrive,
You run it into the amp with tone at 12 o'clock, drive at 7 and output at 5, which saturates the input causing distortion to an overdriven amp/amp with mid gain.
I like it but it sounds too buzzy or fuzzy sounding for my playing.
Can you do a how to Ambient guitar video please?
Don’t know if I’ll ever get a response but I have to know: did you like this amp? From your reaction I’d guess that you didn’t care for it. Just curious
20 watts is enough for gigs?
That Paul tho Bea!
Rabea does the clean channel sound just like the SLO-100?
Each mileage may vary, but you don’t have to rattle your neighbors organs to get great tone or saturation compared to your 100s, even more usable volume than the 30. I haven’t tried all of my pedal rig through it yet, nor completely cranked, but the amp itself sounds absolutely huge with the Soldano 2x12 vert cab without any effects. Seems very very versatile which is a huge thing for me. I’m gonna ride back to ATL and try it with my full pedal rig and if it checks out, it’s coming home with me.
Any possibility that your delay is the Timmons? It's uncanny.
Knophler like tones
Fuckin hell this little guy is incredible. Thanks for the video Bea!
Wonder why there is no Standby switch
Amps don’t need them, just like the Friedman 20 watters. In smaller amps real estate is a commodity so the standby switch is the first thing to get rid of.
Dude loves every amp he reviews as long as the check clears!
No one paid for this review. They asked. I’m friends with the guys. I was up for checking it out.
Further more, if it sounds good and I vibe with it. I like it… go figure
So its Soldanos answer to the Marshall DSL 20 or 40
More to the Revv G20 and D20.
Leagues better. Through a phone doesn’t do it justice.
There is no reactive load in this. When using IR's it's a digitally simulated power amp section and power amp in the amp is bypassed. Assuming same tech as Friedman IR-X for this.
It’s a Lester Polsfuss, actually. ☝️🤓
Please do a proper video on the Friedman IRX.
Sounds epic, but for the money you could get a Quad Cortex and the Bea pack, and sound just as epic, and anything else on earth.