Soldano Astroverb 16 Head

By now you already know the details, so I won?t repeat what?s been said.

I play original free-form blues/jazz/rock. I?ve been using a Laney LC50 for about 5 years with one extension cab or another, currently with a Bogner (ported) Cube and JJ 6L6 power tubes. Very sweet sounding. I was looking for a back up amp and came upon the Soldano Astroverb 16 Head, which was packaged with the Bogner Cube, and picked it up. Pristine condition and recently serviced by Soldano. The amp is actually more versatile than one might think, and yet childishly simple to use. You can get as rude as your teeth can handle with it, or, warm sustaining grace, and mostly everything in-between. The key here is, axe volume/tone control. Dirty rolls off to clean very nicely on this little amp. I have a set of Ei EL84 power tubes on the way to warm it up a bit more.

Initially, I wasn?t crazy about the tone. I was running it through the closed back Bogner, and it just wasn?t open enough sounding for my taste. I tried it in large Line6 open-back with just 1x12. Boutique guys can laugh if they want at this relatively ?cheap? cab used with a name like Soldano. It works and works really well. The bass is big and the Soldano is articulate enough to never muddy it up. Now, my Laney gets played less than the Soldano, but by Friday I?ll have an a/b/y switch to play though both at the same time.

Too new. Never had to contact them, hopefully never will.

N/A

I?ve been playing since 1966. Have done a share of recording and touring as an opener for some wonderful artists.

If the amp were stolen, I?d definitely want to replace it with another Soldano Astroverb Head. I?m really fussy about ?my sound?. Fenders are too mid-range and Marshalls are too ... Marshally? I like velvet with an edge. The Soldano is giving that to me.

This single channel amp was made in late 2001, and has the basic layout - pregain, bass, mid, treble, master volume, presence and reverb controls. It puts out about 20 watts of tube power from two EL84s, and has 12AX7s driving the preamp and reverb circuits. Very durable and build quality seems very high - this head is played hard, stays on about full volume and I haven't blown it up yet! There's no standby switch, so it goes through power tubes fairly quickly(about every four months if played hard and frequently). It has all the features I really need from an amp.

As for as noise goes, this amp is very quiet and sounds wonderful with the various strats I own. It also sounds great with my ever rotating collection of overdrive pedals(Route 66, TS-808, old boss SD-1, old marshall guv'nor, etc.), along with the other pedals on my pedalboard(incl. time based) - all through the front input no less! It shines in delivering great classic rock distortion tones and cleans up well with a quick volume adjust on my guitar - I love it! Some reviews have stated that the bass response is a little weak and it's not quite loud enough, but I think this depends on speaker/cab choices. Typically, I run this head through a marshall 4X12 loaded with a combination of celestion G12H 30 watters and vintage 30s - with this combo this thing rocks with plenty of volume for virtually any size club(this coming from a marshall freak)! Tone wise, this amp is very JCM800ish, with a little more complexity, detail and more sparkle in the top end. The reverb sounds great if you use the "less is more" approach - I typically don't use a lot of reverb anyway. My astroverb has withstood the test of time, delivered the goods and I am extremely happy with this amp - hats off to Mike Soldano!

I NEVER gig without a back up(if you've ever gigged with old marshall gear often, you understand! Don't get me wrong - I still love 'em!). This being said, my astroverb has never failed me - but if it ever does, I can always grab one of my marshalls!

Never had to deal with Soldano - that speaks for itself!

I've been playing and gigging for over 25 years and have used mainly fender strats and marshall amps(mostly jmp and jcm 50 watters) and the occasional fender and mesa boogie amp. When I bought this amp I used it mainly for rehearsals and to drive my voice box at gigs - until one of my marshall heads died during a performance. To save time and since it was already fired up, I hooked the astroverb up to my cab and I haven't looked back since! If it were lost or stolen I would no doubt buy another one!

Very simple amp. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but hell I get lost when an amp has 4 channels and 3 pedalboards to get it to overdrive. Control layout is about as easy as it gets. Very good response from the EQ section and you can dial in a full range of tones without having to manipulate controls for hours. This amp was NOT meant to be Fender clone, or a Marshall clone or any "clone" for that matter. This is a straight forward high gain head, with low power ouput to really push the tubes. Simple and easy to use. IMO it is perfect...I would change nothing.

Now the fun part. For those of you out there in ToneLand who care, you already know this.........this is for the rest of you still searching. YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO GET EVERY TONE YOU WANT FROM ONE AMP, JUST AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. I use a 2 amp set up and run in stereo, sometimes 3 if the room is big enough. This is my "dirty" amp. Rated at only 16 watts, but the beauty of this amp is that you don't have to worry about turning up a 100 watt amp to 10 to get the tubes to do what you want them to do........break up. This amp when pushed is a screamer. Nice, gritty but not too harsh distortion. Pure tube distortion is a beautiful thing. Listen to Santana or Sonny Landreth, or Stephen Bruton, and you will "get it". I either blend this amp with my Fender Vibrolux to get a good mixed tone or just use this one for dirty chording and solos. Again, rated at only 16 watts, but those are some serious watts friends and this thing is loud. I usually run a 2x12 speaker cabinet with it, loaded with one vintage celestion and one greenback. If the room dictates more sound, then I will run a custom cabinet that has 2 10's and 2 12's. Even though this is a standard size 4x12 cabinet, I wired it so the 10's are together and the 12's are together.....ala Lenny Kravitz. With the bigger cabinet you get a great bottom end, but the 10's let the high end and bite still come thru.....no mudd here. The Astroverb really shines here as pushing a larger cabinet makes the amp work a little harder....and drains the tubes a little bit sooner. I can turn the amp almost to 10 and get a very nice, clear distortion from it that is perfect for heavy blues, and rock. Try it, you'll like it. I am waiting for my first order of Tone Tubby speakers from A Brown Soun to see what they will make this sound like. From all indications it could be an organsmic experience.

Tank, nothing more to say here.

Mike Soldano is a great guy. He still answers emails in person when he can. Very knowledgeable and willing to educate you on what is what. I have never had to service the amp, but if Soldano's customer service is any indication, there should be no issues.

I have been playing for a long time and have been kept up nights searching for 'THAT' tone. I have A/B'd many many amps and when it really comes down to it, the tone is in your hands, baby. SRV sounded like SRV because of his hands and soul, not his equiptment. Yeah it helps to have a custom shop strat and a Dumble overdrive special, but not all of us humans can or ever will be able to afford that luxury. I shop for economical, great sounding gear and this amp fits that bill perfectly. If you want a great sounding amp that has a sweet distoriton and you can change speaker cabinets for different applications, get the Astroverb. If you want a clean amp that will play nice, get a Peavey Tweed classic 4x10 amp and run them together. You could get the Astroverb, the Peavey and a speaker cabinet for the astroverb for less than $1200. That is less than a few of the New Fenders or an original blackface deluxe. Remember, equiptment when used correctly can enhance your tone, but if you don't have the chops, desire, balls, and open mind to explore your INNER TONE, even the Dumble $15,000 (ridiculous) amp cannot save your soul. Its all in the hands - IT'S ALL IN THE MIND.

I find it hard to rate this one. Thiers amps that are packed with features and amps that dont have any but stick with one awesom tone. Thats the Astroverb.

Played with buckers and wah. I wanna address one thing really quick. Everyone on this page and the other Astroverb review pages jumped on the people who said its not loud enouph. Guess what. With a loud drummer, Its not. Period. You bedroom jammers or people who spend all your time in a band that just practices and doesnt play out shouldnt really rate volume or you should specify what your situation and style is that its loud enouph for you. I use it as a practice studio amp for my band. There, in a contained area, its loud enouph. My drummer can get loud as does the whole band live. So as much as I love this amp and as loud as class A power seems, I cant use it at giggs. I play the largest rock clubs from DC to Boston. My band is as pro as you get, not half rate musicians turning up to cover up bad playing. Were just a loud rock band. God knows those 2 things never went together. As much as I love it, 20 watts of class A just isnt quite there for loud rock. Especially at outdoor giggs. Theres a simple solution though. Stage monitors. It works fine for many people who like to use small amps live but I still prefer to use my SLO half stack. Then I dont have to rely on other people to hear myself. Its been my experience sound crews handle live guitar sound the worst of any instrument when it comes to monitors.

As far as the tone goes what can I say. I play an SLO and love it. I bought the AV16 and thought it was a very good version of the overdrive channel of an SLO in a small combo package with a nice class A vintage edge. Cleans up good with the volume knob. Cuts through. For home and practice I cant say Ive found a better amp. I could use an FX loop though but Im sure Soldano would do that for me for the right price. So for what I use it for its a 9. For live gigging Ill give it a 7 as a backup amp but doesnt get a 9 simply becouse I cant always hear it without relying on pro sound. And for home use or recording I give it a 10.

Considering the value you get for 450$ used. This amp is incredible. If you want an amp you can play live with this may or may not be it. It depends on the music your playing, the lineup and were you play at. For home, practice or recording this amp is worth its weight in gold. Thats why I gave it a 10 for fantastic value when It got less in every other catagory. For many people no sound is perfect or features, or reliability, etc... but for value this deal is unbeatable.

Amp isnt very versitile but thats not why i bought it, it seems to do rock VERY VERY VERY well. It has one channel and thats all i need since i have an AB switch and can just switch to my Marshall JCM2000 anytime i want to. No features that i actually wish it had because i bought it ONLY for the distortion sound so i can use my Marshall for clean and od, and my soldano for distortion. I use this amp in the bedroom and will eventually gig with it.

I use it with my Gibson SG and it sounds GREAT. Nice smoothe lead tone on the rhythm pickup and a great rock rhythm tone when using both pickups. Its pretty noisey but ill survive. I run it thru a Marshall 1960A cab and in the bedroom i have it on volume 5 with the preamp on 11 (*impersonating Nigel* it goes to 11 =) I get a great kiss, acdc, oasis, and other great rock tones. I like to think of it as the "american marshall."

I'm VERY happy with my purchase, i decided to get my marshall modded so its only 50 watts. I like how this amp is only 20 watts, thats a GREAT amount. I love the sound, i dont even give a shit about the lack of features, it has everything i wanted it to have (reverb, gain, and the basic eq controls). I didnt really compare it to anything. I knew i'd need something for a live situation for a gain boost andat the same time, i wanted a different tone than my marshall for variety and one day i played this a decided i must have it. I think this is a great amp for the studio, bedroom, and for gigs. I love it, its a wonderful amp, especially for the price

20 watts, about 18"wide, 9"tall, 10"wide. Nice and compact but don't let that fool you. Has reverb, pre,bass,mid,treb,master vol & presence. 2 speaker jacks on the back.

I play a les paul with emg 81&85 active pickups, run it thru a gt5 then thru the head thats plugged into a 2/12 cab.
Playing everything from bb king to alice in chains. This thing cranks. Its a very efficient (loud) amp.I wish it had 2 channels but its nice & simple. Great for allman bros type stuff. Not at all muddy like the mesa's, nice smooth tone that can cut right through the room. I pump the hell out of it with the gt6.

Built like a tank, High quality assembly. I don't expect any problems.
I use it without a backup.

I wrote them once & they got back to me the same day.

I think I finally found it. Well worth the cash, I wish I had purchased one before. I don't think you could go wrong, I tried a few mesa's & they were way to dark & muddy sounding. My other guitar player uses mesa. Great tone & lots of balls. Loud enought to gig with & small enough to get some serious meltdown. If you need anymore sound just throw a mic in front of it.*******note********expect a lot of complements******

As has been stated before. This is a single channel class A 20W all tube head with tube reverb.
The front plate:
input socket, preamp, reverb, bass, middle, treble, volume, presence, power switch.
The back plate:
power socket, a sloblo fuse, 2 16ohm speaker outs.

This is amp is based on the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid).

Plug in the guitar, tweak things until it sounds right, play.

Another channel would be useful, but I'm certainly not complaining. I'll buy another one and A/B it.

I play an Ibanez Jem 7Vwh, an old Larivee electric w/custom pickups and a yamaha tt-somethingorother. All tonally very different. I play a lot of guitar rock and blues. I have the head attached to a unbranded 4x12 cab loaded with Celestion Celestion g12-70s. Currently it's guitar straight into the cab.

I don't find the amp to be noisy at all, there's some hiss with the preamp at 11, but nothing beyond what you'd expect.

I'll try not to wax too poetically about the sound, but here goes:

This amp is simply THE sound I've been looking for. The 20W is loud enough for home, jams, small clubs - I play for fun, I dont need stadium filling 100W rigs here. I love that this amp sings with the master volume around 8 - a level that works well with the other band members.

It's a very responsive beast. With the Jem I get an excellent blues/rock tone, bright and full - the first time I played it with the group the other guitar player's jaw dropped and he wondered what I was doing to get that tone, he colored green when I told him it was just me straight into the head. The Yamaha has a far warmer tone and sounds great.

Tonally this amp is excellent for overdriven blues sounds (I dont do a lot of clean work) through to some modern heavy distorted sounds.

Due to the responsiveness of the amp it's very easy to set the preamp high and then control the gain from your guitar - this is most obvious with the Jem, this amp just works beautifully with it.

Using the eq on the head itself yeilds interesting results. They are very responsive and can drastically alter the sound. The amp seems quite bright to me, although I generally like a very fat low end and less highs than most (The classic Marshall tone has always sounded far too ratty and midrangy to my ears).

Considering the price you can pick these up second hand I'd suggest you check it out if you can. For me this is the amp I've spent 15 years looking for.

It's built like a tank. I trust it. Haven't had it long enough to make a sweeping statement about it, but I hold Soldano, the company, in the highest regard and their attention to quality and detail is obvious in their products.

I know everyone says this, but having done a reality check on the hype surrounding these guys I'd say its all true!

a) I called and asked some really dumb questions about tube amps and how they work, this being the first real reason I've ever had to buy one, and they always answered it in a way I could understand without patronizing me or making me feel any more stupid.

b) I called again and asked several questions about a cab that might have been made by them. When it turned out it wasnt theirs the guy gave me some tech advice anyway.

c) I bought used, I asked for a manual, it's in the mail.

I've been playing 15 years, I've mentioned the guitars, but I also have a Crate GFX-212 and a POD (now very retired).

Would I buy another if this one was stolen? I would hunt and kill the thief, but not until I'd bought a replacement. Actually based on this one I intend to buy at least one more (for A/B).

The amps tonally incredible. My only suggestion is to go find one to play through and make up your own mind. For less than $500 you can own a simply incredible amp.....plus, raving about a product makes no sense until you hear it.

I can't think of anything about the amp that I hate, the lack of another channel isnt much of a headache, I love that i can control everything from the guitar.

I checked out H&K, Marshall, VHT, Carvin Legacy and several other amps over two months and couldnt find anything that was *the* tone. I checked out the 1x12 Astroverb and loved it, plugging in the extension cab hooked me.

20W means being able to turn it up to 11 without maiming small children and animals, this was a huge selling point for me, why buy a tube amp if you're never going past 4 on the master volume????

Based on Soldano's customer support you should consider taking a look at their gear. There equipment is a little pricey new for most players, but second hand you can find Astroverbs and HotRods in the $400-500 range.

I was looking for something that didnt sound like a Marshall and had its own character and flavor, and something that would tweak my ears. The soldano is that amp.

Sorry if most of this review sounds like a marketing piece but I feel like Ive finally found *my* tone.

This is # 13 built in 98' according to the inspection and initialed paperwork by the builder due to the low serial number. I play in church praise and worship with varying styles of musical influences intertwined, rock, blues, alternative, carribean and country.I wasn't pleased with the sound when I first brought the amp home. out came the EI preamp tubes, After 3 days of testing tubes and tube combinations I ended up with a GT chinese 12AX/7 in the first socket and 2 nos RCA7025's in the following sockets and finally the new EH 12ax/7's in the remaining sockets. After changing the power tubes with GT EL84's #4's I went back to the original power tubes. I'm awaiting some nos GE's to replace these. I wouldn't mind if the amp had channel switching, but what the hey,for the time being it is doing what I require of it.

I've been playing 18 years and was an equipment freak,I've spent thousands of dollars on gear and now I'm down to this amp and a 75' stratocaster with stock singles in the neck and mid,with a dimarzio sd-1 in the bridge. I set the pre at 6 and the master at 7 with the treble at 7, mid at 5, bass at 8,rev at 3 pres at 4, excellent clean sound with plenty of headroom, preamp wide open cleaner and quieter than a boogie, I've owned 3 boogies, an early 70's mark I, a studio.22, and an mid 80's mark III. I've had this amp about 6 months and am still dialing it in, versatile for a single channel amp.

for as long as I've had it, the only problems I've had is a noisy preamp tube (nos) sylvania 12AX/7, I use it w/o backup due to the nature of nos tubes. I bring extra preamp and power tubes, as a precaution. The other is that the rattling of the tubes due to the vibration caused by volume that I play. I need to rectify it, this bugs me

I recently e-mailed Soldano about the rattling we'll see what happens.
To this point the unit doesn't need any servicing, This amp was built in 98'the warranty is no longer in place.The amp came from the factory with a one year warranty.

Since Soldano no longer manufactures this amp,I would replace it with another astroverb.
I no longer have to carry a 50, 60 ,or 100 watt amp to get the tone I require. I like the casters it came with. I don't know if that was a factory option or not. I may fit it with tilt-back legs so I can get feedback from the amp. When I purchased this amp I was considering buying a subway blues, I'm happy I got the Soldano. Now my next purchase is a Marshall studio 15, I'm in the process of going back to a multi-amp setup, but it looks to me I've found the main ingredient to base my system around. This may help, if you lay out a significant amount of cash for an amp,and you're not pleased with what you hear, start substitutng tubes, this is a lot less expensive than selling what you have for a loss. If you have buyer's regret over a purchase,next time make sure it is really what you want.

This is a 20 watt, single channel head powered by 2 EL-84 power tubes. It has 5 pre-amp tubes, two of which are dedicated to the reverb (as well as an accutronics reverb tank). The controls are: gain, reverb, bass, middle, treble, master volume, and presence. Taking a cue from Nigel Tufnel, every one of the chicken head knobs go to 11. It has 2 16 ohms speaker outs, and that's about it as for features. A VERY straight-forward head.

This is THE GREATEST sounding amp I have EVER played. I'm using this amp with a Gretsch Electromatic Jet II guitar and an Ampeg 4x12 cab, and I play melodic to heavy punk rock (i.e. Weezer, Fenix TX, A New Found Glory, Jimmie's Chicken Shack) with ska/ska-core overtones. This head suits my style absolutely perfectly. For cleans, this head is very clean, though not cleanest. However, it doesn't matter because the tone is in my opinion better than Fender cleans (warmer, fatter, spankier), so it more than compensates. But then, when you crank the preamp, you get the sickest distortion you'll ever hear. Perfect for leads, but still the most kickass rhythm sound you'll ever hear. Endless sustain. Warmth that Boogies and Marshalls just can't cut. While it's absolutely perfect for my style (sounds better than my favorite bands' amps) you can use it for nearly any application. Have fun with it! Also, because it's a low wattage head, you get really thick, full sounds at bedroom practice volumes.

I haven't had it for very long at all, but I can tell that it's NOT gonna fail me for a while... I'd gig with it without a backup. Not a problem... just don't go throwing it off your roof, and it won't break.

I have never dealt with Soldano, but I have heard that the man Mike Soldano himself often deals with customer support. I have also heard they have the greatest customer support on the planet. I hope for my amp's sake that I'll never have to deal with the sick people at Soldano, but if I do, I'll be glad it's them.

I've been playing for about a year and a half, but I'm obsessed with having perfect tone, and this amp got me there quickly. If this amp were stolen, I'd buy another one in a second... probably two. I love this amp's tone and its ability to sounds wicked kickass at low volumes. Only thing it's missing is an extra channel. If you want the tone of the Gods, go with this amp, man!

My head is a '99. This amp is a single channel all-tube head with
EL-84 power tubes. The controls are fairly simple: Gain, Treble, Mids, Bass, Reverb, and Master Volume. There is no efeects loop, only
two speaker outputs on the back. I have found that this all I need as
far as the amp goes. I have tons o' pedals for other effects anyway.

I usually use an '89 Strat Plus Deluxe with Lace Sensors or an '86
Japanese Telecaster with a Bill Lawrence bridge pickup. I play a wide
variety of rock: straightforward, jazz-influenced, psychedelic, crunchoid...and this amp admirably handles it all. There is plenty of
gain for just about any application except really extreme scooped-out
stuff.

This is an extremely reliable amplifier. The only other head I own that I consider to be sturdier is my old Ampeg V-4. Soldano DOES NOT
cut corners on quality! I would and have used it on plenty of gigs
without a backup. Don't even worry about it unless you're playing
underwater!

I haven't dealt with the company, but that's only because I haven't had to. Soldano has a reputation of impeccable customer support and
I go along with that. Chances are, however, you'll never need to call
them!

I own tons of other gear:Fenders, Ampegs, Marshalls, Traynors, etc...
and this thing kicks ass and takes names! I bought this from a music
store after trying out an Atomic 16 combo. I knew they would eventually come out with a reverb model, and I jumped at the chance
when they did. I ordered it in the very stylish black & white snakeskin(a FREE option!) and couldn't be more pleased. As to the previous review about it being not loud enough: ARE YOU DEAF?!? I
run it through a semi-ancient 8-ohm Music Man 4X12 with 75-watt Celestions and trust me-there is PLENTY of volume! Or maybe Mike
Soldano put a Sonic Mojo in mine, because the man himself autographed
the back of the head! Try one (or any other Soldano product)-you
WILL NOT BE SORRY!!!!