The SLO GOAT (in my opinion) is George Lynch, his work on Wicked Sensation is dripping in tone. Ever since the first time I heard that album I have lusted after an SLO 100. Truly one of the most ridiculous tone machines EVER created.
I’m REALLY considering one these because they knocked it out of the park with the feature set, price and form-factor. Good move on Soldano for making a much more accessible version of his stuff while also making the deal sweeter with all these modern features. Honestly, I’d love to see the the big boy SLO evolve into something similar. Most of all, what keeps me from owning an SLO is the lack of access to all 3 of its channels on the footswitch. The crunch channel is so underrated.
x2 on the request for a 100 watt version. A direct out with IRs and three channels along with the effects loop switching available on the footswitch would be great. A lack of clean channel on the footswitch is what keeps me from owning an slo also.
Great demo as always Michael. Thanks for the Clapton tones too. Some may hate on that Clapton era but I saw him on the August tour with Mark Knopfler playing rhythm-both using SLOs and a bunch of times on the Journeyman tour and the shows were great.
Nice tones! and I'm glad to see Mike is going for another sound/package other than an SLO in a different set of cloths! There are people out there that don't like the SLO (i.e. me) and thought the Hot Rod line of amps had a better voicing. I've ordered my Astro!
Love it. Also think back to early 90s Allman Bros - Dickey and Warren were playing through SLOs with ENGL and Marshall cabs and maybe a hint of Lexicon verb live. So good.
Lots of great tones in this amp. One of the things the purple galaxy IR seems to do really well is the Lenny Kravitz ‘Are you Gonna Go My Way tone’. Nice crisp top end
How heavily are you EQing the DI out in your DAW? I have this amp and the DI sounds so BOOMY. Knobs and switches all FLAT. Originally I connected straight into my UA Apollo 16 and hated it. I eneded up going into my Vintech pre and EQing the life out of it. I'm shelving -4dB at 300hz and rolling off at 80hz to make it sound useable. Thoughts?
This is a marvelous amplifier. The IR cabs sound way better than most anything I've heard coming from other brands that feature this. It sounds more in line with ML Soundlab, Bogren Digital, Captor X and Own Hammer. Can't wait to pick this amp up. Appreciate the overview and hard work 💯
The only guy I want to hear demo a Soldano aside from George Lynch himself! Sounds glorious Michael! So funny, here I am thinking to myself, I wish Soldano would collaborate with him and sure enough you designed the I.R.'s. Haha, congratulations!
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?
Thanks for this Michael. In the 128’presets option. Does is save the EQ seeing along with the Chanel volume and gain level ? Or does the EQ default to what is dialed up on the front ?
I think the Legend cab might be the SOLDANO cab with V-12 Eminence Legends, which is what he used in his cabs for years. Great speakers with a SOLDANO BTW, although Dave F says V 30s sound better with the new ones. Love your vids. Make me want to come hang out
*What a killer, and SMART, video, Michael. We're what....2 generations now into players who have no idea what the signature Soldano tone is. Or, think you can't get those tones out of this amp.* You could listen to damn near ANY hair band recording from the 80's, and hear "THE" guitar tone. I don't know about you, but the #1 complaint I have with the TH-cam generation is that they use WAY too much gain, and it completely mutilated all the demo's of this amp (and most of the others for that matter), and the rhythm tones become muddy, and lose articulation. *A couple of 80's albums for those interested are Great White's Once Bitten (GREAT blues/rock album), and Wild Side Under The Influence (recorded at 5150....another GREAT melodic hair band album), as two examples among hundreds. Another demo of that tone showing off the plexi/crunch channel is of a guy by the name of "Cragginshred" (he shows off that tone on the 30 and 100).....I'd encourage you to check that video out Michael. He's not your caliber of player, but he's a genius at dialing in those killer punchy, percussive plexi tones with boutique amps out of the box. I only point it out in this video because of the sea of SLO demo's on TH-cam, I think I've only seen 2, maybe 3, to where that tone was dialed in astonishingly well.* Great follow up to the first demo you did... Well done.
Such a pleasure to see a great player doing this magnificent amp"s demo !!! so sad when you see great gear demo by a mediocre player at best !!! great job Michael !!!!
Don’t forget Mark Knopfler, guys ! He was one of the first to use one. Check Dire Straits On The Night for his tones. Everything from awesome clean to crunchy leads.
The amp will not pass a clean guitar DI. It's pretty easy to split off your guitar signal and record 1 channel of DI into the DAW and 1 channel of amp sound.
@@BigHairyGuitars My Fractal unit allows me to arm two tracks, one with effects and then one that’s a dry USB / DI. For the Astro, would one need a separate Y cable or a direct out box (Radial)? I’m curious how it would be accomplished. Thanks much, your content is always great. We have similar histories and influences. 😎
If you have not interest in DI and plan to just run it on a 2x12 and play in the bedroom would you choose this or the SLO30...money is not a factor...just tone. Looking for that 80s hair metal sound...
I would go SLO30. The only problems potentially with the 30, is that it's 1 EQ setting for everything. It's not really refined as a multi channel amp. BUT, if you want one AMAZING gain tone (with some channel switching), the SLO is incredible.
The direct out bypasses the power amp, and uses digital power amp emulation into the IR section. IMO it sounds really good that way. ALSO, you can run the power amp into a load box (if you prefer) and use the Soldano IR's in the DAW, or a separate IR loader. Also sounds really good that way.
Mike I do want to know if the Astro is as bright as other Soldano's, if so can it be dialed out, I tried a 30 and it seemed a little to bright for me, somebody told me it could have been my cabinet at the time, it is really hard to tell through a video, could I tame it through the treble and presence?
I'd say it's similar. It was common to have either the presence or treble knob down around 9:00 on a SLO. Then use the other knob for treble/tone. The Astro can do the same thing. The tone knobs are very forgiving.
I LOVE the Blue Galaxy doing clean sounds too. It's pretty cool that you can setup the Astro as a 3 ch clean machine. Ch1 CLEAN (green), Ch2 CLEAN (blue), Ch3 LITE BREAKUP (blue). It's a really great compliment with the 6v6 power tubes.
@@BigHairyGuitars oh wow, i didn't even think of that haha. I'm going to see if i can find one and try it locally. I prefer getting distortion/overdrive from pedals. Even higher gain stuff. Anyway, pretty cool.
Best demo of the versatility of this amp. I was wondering if you could bypass the IRs to run as DI out , so I can use Two notes or UA for speaker sims. Great job as always 👍
@@BigHairyGuitarsloved that super clean you got out of it. Other demos I have seen it still breaks up on the green channel. I like it clean no breakup to talk about. Nice to hear that you got that.
I’m not completely sold on the tone of this in comparison to the SLO 30 which sounds amazing. It’s a shame because it has amazing features, but it’s missing some of that SLO thickness.
It's definitely not intended to be a SLO, which are renown for that thick massive tone. It's in the ballpark, but for certain things only a SLO will do! 💜 Sometimes, the SLO tone wants to just take over the track because it's SO big. That's a nice balance that I think the Astro strikes. It's Soldano sounding, but is a little easier to fit into a track cooperatively (from a sonic sharing perspective). That SLO30 is a real masterpiece though.
I thought that too, but Bob Bradshaw said it was a combination of things JUST before the X88 came in. (He MIGHT be wrong about the timeline though). He said it was Mesa for the Cleans, Marshall and Mesa for the crunch and Soldano for the leads. There are quite a few different tone on that album though, and a lot of clean DI guitar as well. So, who knows.
Holy cow, hearing that just made me realize how bad Ed’s tone got with Van Hagar! That Chorus is just awful!! Nothing beats the old Marshall tone he got in the early years!
I played it once with the amount of chorus that I *thought* it had. Then listened back to the original recording. WOW! It had waaaay more, so I went back and laid it on thick 😂🤣
The micropitch thing sounded too much (for me) more likely I'm wrong but that George Lynch tone seemed closer to the early 90 VH tone...2-4 cents down on one and not changed on the other works, almost double tracking tone
@@gwynbleiddroach2589 No I don't but I agree. I have been playing the Neural DSP Soldano X and it gets plenty tight. One of my favorites at this point.
The SLO GOAT (in my opinion) is George Lynch, his work on Wicked Sensation is dripping in tone.
Ever since the first time I heard that album I have lusted after an SLO 100. Truly one of the most ridiculous tone machines EVER created.
That's my favorite album and tone, from Lynch 🤘!!
I’m REALLY considering one these because they knocked it out of the park with the feature set, price and form-factor. Good move on Soldano for making a much more accessible version of his stuff while also making the deal sweeter with all these modern features. Honestly, I’d love to see the the big boy SLO evolve into something similar. Most of all, what keeps me from owning an SLO is the lack of access to all 3 of its channels on the footswitch. The crunch channel is so underrated.
x2 on the request for a 100 watt version. A direct out with IRs and three channels along with the effects loop switching available on the footswitch would be great. A lack of clean channel on the footswitch is what keeps me from owning an slo also.
Lynch's Soldano sound is my favorite tone of his! That era was his best, on all levels 🤘
The G. Lynch tone you dialed in is just amazing! I suspect Mr. Soldano will make a 100w version of this amp down the line 👍🏻
I've only ever played one Soldano amp. It was the SLO he built for SRV. What an amp!! Thanks for sharing my friend!!
The dry tones are actually my favorites. They are all incredible.
every item you demo sounds fantastic. you're such a fantastic player!
Thank you Tim! That's very nice of you to say! I appreciate you!
Great demo as always Michael. Thanks for the Clapton tones too. Some may hate on that Clapton era but I saw him on the August tour with Mark Knopfler playing rhythm-both using SLOs and a bunch of times on the Journeyman tour and the shows were great.
Oh wow! I would love to see / hear that!
Waiting for my Astro to arrive is more nail-biting than waiting for Christmas when I was a kid! 😩😬
Sounds Fantastic, great playing. Have a Great day. Thanx
Thanks, you too!
Bro that was freaking awesome!
Wow, what a cool demo! Killer playing and writing dude. If they release a 50w or 100w, I’d be all over it
A 50 would slay. But this 20 is also pretty wicked
Nice tones! and I'm glad to see Mike is going for another sound/package other than an SLO in a different set of cloths! There are people out there that don't like the SLO (i.e. me) and thought the Hot Rod line of amps had a better voicing. I've ordered my Astro!
Every amp overview of "legendary" amps should do exactly this!
Thanks!
Enjoyed the video. If you ever do a follow-on, you must include Nuno on III Sides. Some of the best Soldano tones ever recorded!
Love it. Also think back to early 90s Allman Bros - Dickey and Warren were playing through SLOs with ENGL and Marshall cabs and maybe a hint of Lexicon verb live. So good.
Lots of great tones in this amp. One of the things the purple galaxy IR seems to do really well is the Lenny Kravitz ‘Are you Gonna Go My Way tone’. Nice crisp top end
Yeah, it's the most classic Marshall vibe of the galaxies.
How heavily are you EQing the DI out in your DAW? I have this amp and the DI sounds so BOOMY. Knobs and switches all FLAT. Originally I connected straight into my UA Apollo 16 and hated it. I eneded up going into my Vintech pre and EQing the life out of it. I'm shelving -4dB at 300hz and rolling off at 80hz to make it sound useable. Thoughts?
I love your channel and I love your taste in tone. Thanx.
This is a marvelous amplifier. The IR cabs sound way better than most anything I've heard coming from other brands that feature this. It sounds more in line with ML Soundlab, Bogren Digital, Captor X and Own Hammer. Can't wait to pick this amp up. Appreciate the overview and hard work 💯
Thanks! I worked hard on creating the IR’s for the Astro so that they really complimented the tone of the amp in a really Soldano way.
@@BigHairyGuitars I'm very impressed. Looking forward to picking up the amp sooner than later.
Thinking about ordering one but waiting to see if Suhr comes out with the pt50
Man on a mission…bravo sir 🤘🤘🤘🤘
The only guy I want to hear demo a Soldano aside from George Lynch himself! Sounds glorious Michael! So funny, here I am thinking to myself, I wish Soldano would collaborate with him and sure enough you designed the I.R.'s. Haha, congratulations!
Man On A Mission is completely underrated.
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?
Gary Moore late 80-ties, Martin Barre in Jethro Tull 80-ties and 90-ties and many many more used the SLO 100.
Wonderful video. Thank You! 💙💜❤️
Thanks for this Michael. In the 128’presets option. Does is save the EQ seeing along with the Chanel volume and gain level ? Or does the EQ default to what is dialed up on the front ?
That Lynch tone was my favorite of the bunch.
For the Clapton SLO tone, you really need Lace Sensors with that TBX boost (or whatever it’s called). Still sounds great, though.
I think the Legend cab might be the SOLDANO cab with V-12 Eminence Legends, which is what he used in his cabs for years. Great speakers with a SOLDANO BTW, although Dave F says V 30s sound better with the new ones.
Love your vids. Make me want to come hang out
Clapton also used a Soldano on the From the Cradle album.
I'm considering sending back some gear and selling a few things for money to put down on one of these amps
*What a killer, and SMART, video, Michael. We're what....2 generations now into players who have no idea what the signature Soldano tone is. Or, think you can't get those tones out of this amp.* You could listen to damn near ANY hair band recording from the 80's, and hear "THE" guitar tone. I don't know about you, but the #1 complaint I have with the TH-cam generation is that they use WAY too much gain, and it completely mutilated all the demo's of this amp (and most of the others for that matter), and the rhythm tones become muddy, and lose articulation.
*A couple of 80's albums for those interested are Great White's Once Bitten (GREAT blues/rock album), and Wild Side Under The Influence (recorded at 5150....another GREAT melodic hair band album), as two examples among hundreds. Another demo of that tone showing off the plexi/crunch channel is of a guy by the name of "Cragginshred" (he shows off that tone on the 30 and 100).....I'd encourage you to check that video out Michael. He's not your caliber of player, but he's a genius at dialing in those killer punchy, percussive plexi tones with boutique amps out of the box. I only point it out in this video because of the sea of SLO demo's on TH-cam, I think I've only seen 2, maybe 3, to where that tone was dialed in astonishingly well.* Great follow up to the first demo you did... Well done.
Love this! Thanks
Such a pleasure to see a great player doing this magnificent amp"s demo !!! so sad when you see great gear demo by a mediocre player at best !!! great job Michael !!!!
Don’t forget Mark Knopfler, guys ! He was one of the first to use one. Check Dire Straits On The Night for his tones. Everything from awesome clean to crunchy leads.
I don't need more amps but I am buying this. Super versatile amp.
Great. Can you simultaneously record a DI track to reamp later?
The amp will not pass a clean guitar DI. It's pretty easy to split off your guitar signal and record 1 channel of DI into the DAW and 1 channel of amp sound.
@@BigHairyGuitars My Fractal unit allows me to arm two tracks, one with effects and then one that’s a dry USB / DI.
For the Astro, would one need a separate Y cable or a direct out box (Radial)? I’m curious how it would be accomplished. Thanks much, your content is always great. We have similar histories and influences. 😎
@@meungawa Exactly. LEHLE P-SPLIT III is a good choice. Super high quality at a good price. Radial is also a good choice.
Hey Michael! Can you please do a video on how to get Soldano (Luke) lead tones out of jcm 800?
Definitely read somewhere that Nuno used a Soldano on III Sides, can't remember which model though!
Ah, yes, he used a HotRod for the rhythm tones on III sides. VERY Soldano sounding.
If you have not interest in DI and plan to just run it on a 2x12 and play in the bedroom would you choose this or the SLO30...money is not a factor...just tone. Looking for that 80s hair metal sound...
I would go SLO30. The only problems potentially with the 30, is that it's 1 EQ setting for everything. It's not really refined as a multi channel amp. BUT, if you want one AMAZING gain tone (with some channel switching), the SLO is incredible.
Do they have short hand talking you should find out!
Are the Soldano IRs available for purchase?
So with the direct out, is it zero watt thing, or does it still require a load box?
Good tones btw
The direct out bypasses the power amp, and uses digital power amp emulation into the IR section. IMO it sounds really good that way. ALSO, you can run the power amp into a load box (if you prefer) and use the Soldano IR's in the DAW, or a separate IR loader. Also sounds really good that way.
Mike I do want to know if the Astro is as bright as other Soldano's, if so can it be dialed out, I tried a 30 and it seemed a little to bright for me, somebody told me it could have been my cabinet at the time, it is really hard to tell through a video, could I tame it through the treble and presence?
I'd say it's similar. It was common to have either the presence or treble knob down around 9:00 on a SLO. Then use the other knob for treble/tone. The Astro can do the same thing. The tone knobs are very forgiving.
I like the seventh one album getting some love!
How different is the sound of this amp and the modern SLOs?
MICHAEL LANDAU put this amp in the scene 😁 Then Luke and the others
I dont like Soldano overdrive/distortion tones but I LOVE the clean sounds. I kind of wish I could get a Solano with only a clean channel.
I LOVE the Blue Galaxy doing clean sounds too. It's pretty cool that you can setup the Astro as a 3 ch clean machine. Ch1 CLEAN (green), Ch2 CLEAN (blue), Ch3 LITE BREAKUP (blue). It's a really great compliment with the 6v6 power tubes.
@@BigHairyGuitars oh wow, i didn't even think of that haha. I'm going to see if i can find one and try it locally. I prefer getting distortion/overdrive from pedals. Even higher gain stuff. Anyway, pretty cool.
I've always wanted a Soldano with just the clean/crunch channels of the SLO
Best demo of the versatility of this amp. I was wondering if you could bypass the IRs to run as DI out , so I can use Two notes or UA for speaker sims.
Great job as always 👍
@@BigHairyGuitarsloved that super clean you got out of it. Other demos I have seen it still breaks up on the green channel. I like it clean no breakup to talk about. Nice to hear that you got that.
Mick mars also used the slo.
Ah yes!
Not sure if your monitors have too much bass/treble but you use waaay too much midrange. Still sounds good but jeez.
or perhaps YOUR monitors have too much midrange? 🤣
Can the Astro Deep switch positions be saved/programmed to the footswitch for different channels?
No, that's a power amp control, and is only switchable globally from the hardware.
@@BigHairyGuitars Ok, thanks for the info
Prince used soldano amps as well
Does it come close to really matching SLO 100 tones?
Yes and no. 20w 6v6 vs 100w 6L6 will never sound the same. Both are killer. There are differences for better or worse in each amp
I’m not completely sold on the tone of this in comparison to the SLO 30 which sounds amazing. It’s a shame because it has amazing features, but it’s missing some of that SLO thickness.
It's definitely not intended to be a SLO, which are renown for that thick massive tone. It's in the ballpark, but for certain things only a SLO will do! 💜 Sometimes, the SLO tone wants to just take over the track because it's SO big. That's a nice balance that I think the Astro strikes. It's Soldano sounding, but is a little easier to fit into a track cooperatively (from a sonic sharing perspective). That SLO30 is a real masterpiece though.
im still adamant we should of got a new Lucky13 - not a REVV competitor
It's nice, those Lucky 13's are still pretty easy to find used out there.
Why's nobody trying Warren Haynes style tones. That would be interesting!
IT sounds like the SLO-30's dorky little brother
The Seventh One was a Soldano x88r
I thought that too, but Bob Bradshaw said it was a combination of things JUST before the X88 came in. (He MIGHT be wrong about the timeline though). He said it was Mesa for the Cleans, Marshall and Mesa for the crunch and Soldano for the leads. There are quite a few different tone on that album though, and a lot of clean DI guitar as well. So, who knows.
@@BigHairyGuitars I saw Luke at The Baked Potato while they were recording the album he had it in his rack.
@@jaycareaga9929 ❤🤘❤
Not SLO tones to my ears. The Astro 20 has some great tones, but it's very different than my SLO.
Fantastic Video but no Still got the Blues and no Calling Elvis?
Holy cow, hearing that just made me realize how bad Ed’s tone got with Van Hagar! That Chorus is just awful!! Nothing beats the old Marshall tone he got in the early years!
I played it once with the amount of chorus that I *thought* it had. Then listened back to the original recording. WOW! It had waaaay more, so I went back and laid it on thick 😂🤣
The micropitch thing sounded too much (for me) more likely I'm wrong but that George Lynch tone seemed closer to the early 90 VH tone...2-4 cents down on one and not changed on the other works, almost double tracking tone
Luke 89 album to me was almost anything SLO
Gary Moore... Red House. TH-cam it. Soldano Slo ultimate.
I named my kid Luke as an homage to Steve Lukather.
That sounds nothing like the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tone.
They sound very similar.
For over 2 grand they can keep it. My ENGl kicks its ass for less money
Engl makes great amps. They sound like Engl.
Oh I spotted a Powerball one near me for sale for €500, probably get it for less .. it's tugging on my bank account
Only tones you need
First!! Let’s go🤘🤘🔥🔥🤓
I was going to buy one til I heard this ,, all top end and sounds terrible
Check out the SLO30. If that has too much top end for your... actually I don't think it will. The SLO can be really fat and warm.
I want to hear a solid death metal/black metal sound on it.
Ha! It’s not really that kinda amp. I guess if you put the right boost in front and EQ in the loop 🤷🏻♂️
Too squishy and soft feeling. Maybe with the right overdrive to tighten it up and of course your hands, it could work.
@@HighPriestVaticanAssasindo you have the amp? It geys very tight. I play alot of heavy metal, including death core. This amp isbgreat for it lmao.
@@gwynbleiddroach2589 No I don't but I agree. I have been playing the Neural DSP Soldano X and it gets plenty tight. One of my favorites at this point.
Nope.overpriced overrated.PLEASE SHOP AROUND BEFORE YOU WASTE YOUR MONEY.
Should do an A/B with the Neural DSP Soldano plugin.