Groove Tubes Soul-o 75 Head

2 great channels + both at same time + effects loop switching = perfect for my needs. It also has a rack space, which at first I thought was retarded, but in the end, for gigs, it is really convenient.

Just like the other reviews, you get a Fender'esq clean channel and a lead channel is smoking. It's really tight without being laser focused like a boogie. It is harmonically very sophisticated. The EQ's on both channels are very sensitive. You can truly dial in a huge amount of tones. The amp is also very sensitive to speaker selection...so it will be important for the owner to select the right combination.

Built really solidly. The guts of this amp are way overbuilt...military spec. The tranny's are huge. -1 point on the cab. The tabs that hold the fan assembly are held on by long staples. Mine got banged into something and those tabs came loose. I expertly fixed it with gorilla glue and clamps. They could have build this with screws.

Just a tone monster. This is not a metal amp but a smokin' rock amp. Plus, you can get these potentially for under a $G these days...which is a good value considering you are getting a totally pro setup. I've played tons of gigs with this amp over the years (10 years now) and have gotten compliments whether playing punk, r&b or rock and roll.

I bought this amp for it's tone over the features.
two channel with the option of combining clean and dirty. Class A A/B, Gnarly, Normal settings. Fat tone switch. Bright switch for the clean channel. Loop. Foot switch to switch channels, combine, and turn loop on and off. Loud! One complaint. the loop is a little bizarre. I think it was designed for rack mountable effects. so it's hard to get the true sound of your effects pedal through it. It's supposed to be Parallel but it acts more like Series. Hard to explain but if you use a lot of effects this amp might not serve you well.

Like I said before.... I bought this amp for it's tone! Any type of music can be extracted from this amp. Almost every soundman has told me that it sounds F'n amazing with little to no EQ adjustment on the board. I use three guitars through it. A Gibson SG, Fender Tele, and a Peavey Wolfgang damnit! Sorry I get a lot of hell for playing a butt rocker guitar with a whammy bar. Single notes played in medium to high gain just sing with an overtone that has to be heard to understand. It's almost like an octave pedal sound. Even with the gain maxed you still get a reasonable amount of clarity in complex cords. But it's fun to really dial back the gain and just play big power chords. For me I leave most of the EQ at the 12:00 or 1:00 positions. It doesn't sound good with bass, middle or treble maxed like on a Marshall. Great feedback if you want it. Never in excess. I would say the distortion is similar to the "Brown sound" with not as much Presence. Just as a reference I have owned two mesa boogies, two marshalls, and used Matchless, Rivera, Vox, and some other lesser amps.

So far so good. I have gently placed in the back of a trailer for the better part of a year and driven around to out of state gigs and it's still going strong.

Haven't needed to contact them yet so no comment. I hear it's great.

I love this amp for so many reasons. One being that I feel like it's my own little secret. I have never seen anyone else gig with one and I don't know of anyone who has recorded with one (I'm sure it has been done) so it's that much more special to me. The fact that after a year with it I still get a big grin on my face every time I turn it on and crank it up says a lot. I loose interest very quickly in gear that's not just right.

I have an older version of this head-no bright switch. No matter. Clean channel with gain and volume plus low/mid/high tone controls. The same with the Scream channel. Also has a very nice presence control. I don't even miss the fact it has no reverb. I run JJ 6L6 tubes in it and the combined clean/scream channel has no comparison. You can get that nice, warm Bluesbreaker tone or a ripping Fender Twin distortion. I use either a 1961 Strat or a '69 SG Custom. I can achieve any tone I want with these. I do not use the effects loop, I only run a Vox Wah and a MXR Phaser one knobber! beautiful clean, sparkling tones with the gain at 7-8 and volume at 3-6.

Unmatched sound in my opinion. I played everything old and new before I stumbled onto this. I was becoming distraught over not hearing anything that jumped out at me. The Soul-o did. I first played it through a mesa 1x12 and was very impressed. I now run it through an old Marshall 4x10 with Jensens and it rings! the JJ tubes are a huge upgrade from the GT 6L6 GE's I first tried. Go talk to Bob at Eurotubes.com, he'll make your amp talk back.

Solid, solid, solid. Nice cabinet.

GT is a great company to talk with. Myles Rose is one of their tech guys-he know everything there is to know about amplifiers and sound. Have not had any issues that need addressing from GT. Mine is 10 years old now.

I have not heard the new ones GT are putting out. I will say this one does everything for me. Really the first of the "boutique" amps that everyone is making now. people may say that printed circuit board amps will never sound like a nice handwired old or new high end amp; but unless you really know what is up and are not just a hobbyist fiddling around-there is something to be said for the consistency of a PCP quality amp like Groove Tubes makes. I will say one negative thing in closing-adjusting the bias sucks. You basically have to dismantle the chassis and turn it upside down! Oh well-once you get a good tube supplier, it's not an issue.

2 channel amp - Clean and Scream. Gain, Treb, Mid, Bass, Volume on both channels. Overall "presence" control. Bright switch on the clean channel, and a Fat switch on the scream Channel. Will run in both Class A and Class A/B. Class A features selection for Normal and Gnarly (Vox AC 30) tube modes. Multi-speed cooling fan that can be turned off for recording. Amplifier is of a rack mount design and features an extra rack space to mount an FX unit. Parallel FX loop (no signal drop) with MIX and send level controls.

I use this amp with both my Schecter strat (emg's) and my Anderson Hollow T. Both guitars sound incredible. I compared this amp against all the usual suspects: Rivera, Matchless, Budda, Marshall, Fender. This is a very natural sounding amp. What does that mean ? I don't believe that it has a lot of the negative coloration that alot of other high-end amps seem to add to the sound. The clean channel is pristine. Barely any break-up, even with the gain at 10. With the EMG's in my strat, I can get a very bluesey, ballsy, tone by using the SPC control. The Scream channel "speaks" - again the EMG's almost sing with a bell like tone. My Anderson just kills with this amp. I use the clean channel with the Gain at 10 and the master at about 3. The scream Gain at 4 and master at 4. With these two channel setting I can get just about any sound I want by changing guitars / pick-up selections and volume. The amp is very responsive to changes in volume and picking dynamics.

Rock Solid

excellent customer support - very helpful, een if you just want to call and yack about tubes. These guys are very knowledgeable.

There is one nagging concern - My ART FX unit causes an unusual sounding harmonic thru the FX loop. I believe it is actually the microprocessor clock frequency being picked up by the amp. Weird ! Goes away if I put something else in the loop. I also purchased the matching GT 4x10 cabinet. Excellent.

The Solo 75 has 2 switchable channels. Like most 2 channel amps, one is clean, the other is distorted, with the ability to combine both channels. The amp is very versatile. It can accommodate a variety of tastes--I think. The power output is the same as other amps in its class. I haven't tried the effects loop. My opinion is that an effects loop in any amp of this kind (where the focus is on output tube distortion) is useless...you'll have to use a reactive load to better utilize your effects; unless of course, you want to add distortion to your effects.

My initial impression of this amp was that it was quite phenomenal. An excellent representation of a great tube amp. Very responsive to the touch with loads of sustain. A "driving" type sound. If I could give it a nick-name, I'd call it Sweet Power. The overall sound is noticeably tighter than a stock Marshall (800 series and earlier w/EL34s) which is due in-part to the stock 6L6's. It's not as bright as a Marshall, but if you want a brighter tone...than you might as well buy a Marshall. I don't actually own this amp, my brother does. I borrowed it from him recently and ran it through my pro setup: a GT Emulator,Rane PE-15, Peavey Classic 120/120 Tube power amp, and a pair of ADA Celetion 2x12's. I would have to say, under this configuration I still favor my Marshalls...could be due to the fact that I've had more time to dial in the tone. Nevertheless, this amp is bitchin. Extremely versatile. Try it out...if you like it...buy it!

This amp is built very well. I doubt that it would break down often.

The support at Groove Tubes is great. I deal with a lot of support people...not just for pro audio gear, but for computer related software and hardware...and I would have to say that Groove Tubes has one of the best, if not the best support staffs on this planet.

I don't think I'd ever buy this amp to replace my current amps; I'm quite used to the sound I get from my Marshalls. However, if Marshalls would suddenly be out-lawed, I would definitly buy one...and probably another.

Groove Tubes Solo 75 Head- all tube Class A or AB 2 channel non reverb head, triple chrome plated chassis using 4 12AX7 pre and your choice of 6L6, EL34, or other style output tubes. Channel 1 has gain, treble, mid, bass, master, bright switch (newer models), channel 2 has gain, treble, mid, bass, master, boost switch (newer models), there is a presence pot, footswitchable parallel efx loop with send & return pots (loop can be used serially or parallel), 2 parallel output jacks with output impedence selectable between 4,8,or 16 ohms, direct out, Class A or AB switch, and a "gnarly" switch (mimics Vox style class A). Interesting cosmetic touches also available.

Clean channel is superb, TONS of headroom, even hot pickups won't make it break up. If you want a meaty sound free of preamp breakup at any volume (within reason) here it is. Distortion channel covers the range from light breakup to full gain saturation. In both channels the tone controls remain extremely useable and interactive at all times. Toggle or optional footswitch allows both channels to run simultaneously, which lets you mix the cut of the clean with the drive sound. The class switch and gnarly switch add the characteristics of all class A designs to the output tubes sound, and the power is reduced correspondingly (20%-25%). Overall, this is a great R&R, blues, country, and jazz amp.

The amp has been rock solid, never even hiccuped. The original "old style" 6L6 tubes rattled, but replacements solved that.

Customer support has been great, and I'm 3000 miles away from them. These are some of the most enthusiastic tube amp fans you'll ever deal with (obviously since it's Groove Tubes).

I would buy it again. It doesn't do absolutely everything that I want but what it does do it does superbly. And, it is relatively light and small for an all tube head. I bought after comparing several other models at the NAMM show in '94, all high end "tweaks". It's pricey, as all the low production run hand made ones are, but it's the genuine thing.