Soldano Atomic 16

Very straight forward. 1 input, 6 knobs (pre/bass/mid/trebel/vol/pres), 1 on/off switch and 2 speaker jacks on the rear. 1 channel and a 12" speaker. No loops or headphone jacks. The only thing I wish it had would be a standby switch. Being what it is, I feel no need to rate this in this paticular category.

I use an LP Junior and an LP Standard. I play mostly bluesy inspired rock (no high gain stuff). The amp is a one trick pony as it only has 1 channel. This is the combo so it's not overly huge with bass response, and mine sounds a bit upper middy/edgey but not in a bad way. It can get fairly loud for an amp pushing around 20w, and can drive larger cabinets fairly well too. You can get from classic blues/rock sounds all the way up to thick heavy overdrive. I don't feel that it would be so good for newer heavy metal styles or jazzy cleans though. Great rock sound in my opinion.

Seems reliable, most Soldano stuff is. This one is used, so time will tell. I think Soldano should have used some type of clip retainers for the valves though, I just don't like the way they hang there. The circuit board is very clean and all the joints are solid, solid construction. Rating based on limited time with the amp.

I've e-mailed them a few times, they have been fairly helpful. I asked about the bias setting once, but didn't get a clear response. No biggie though, they do answer your e-mails which is more than some other companies do.

I've been playing for about 14 years now and have owned many amps in that time. Some people compare the sound of this to an 800 series Marshall. Having owned one of those I'd say that fairly accurate, but I believe that this Atomic can get a bit more gain that the 800 (eventhough I don't go super high gain). I also used to own a Marshall Studio 15, and in all honesty I would have to say that this Atomic sounds closer to the Studio 15 than an 800. Most likely because they share similar cbinet sizes. I had this in the head variation a few years ago and have always kicked myself for selling it (along with the Studio 15). I though since I'm downsizing my gear this would be a good amp to have. I see no use keeping all my larger stuff when I don't gig or play out anymore, so this fits the bill. You can get great sounds out of it without blowing the roof off. The only thing that was annoying was that the tolex was peeling off. I took care of that with some contact cement and a Sunday afternoon. My only real complaints are, no standby switch and no tube retainers. But if you keep the contacts in the tube sockets snug, the tubes won't fall out. A great no frills amp, it's all about tone! They don't make these anymore (just the Astroverb) so get one before the prices skyrocket when this achieves "legend" status.

Soldano stopped making these amps a few years ago. I bought this amp brand new a year ago. It still had it's tags and about a 1/4 inch of dust on it. It sat in the backroom of the music store until someone discovered it. Basic features as mentioned by the other reviewers. Single channel, three 12AX7 preamp tubes, two 6BQ5/EL84 power amp tubes, 16 watts,12" Soldano designed speaker, bass, mid, treble, presence, preamp gain, and master volume controls. Wish it had reverb but then that's what sets the Astroverb model apart from the Atomic. I looked at an Astroverb and it was several hundred dollars more. I wasn't willing to pay it. Just wanted a cool no frills practice amp. I would of loved to have found a used one at the prices of the other reviewers but couldn't find one used. I'm glad I bought this one. It was worth every penny.

I originally intended on buying an Orange AD-15 with Reverb amp for practice. I thought it would be cool to own an Orange amp (solid state). The Orange amp sounded OK but while I was playing it I kept looking at the Soldano sitting next to it. I had to try it out. This definitely was a far superior amp. Of course it was much more money. If you like to rock out this is your amp. What I liked most about this amp was that you can get great gain tones at bedroom levels. I do weekend jams with my friends with this amp and it sounds great. You need to crank it to about 9-10 to be heard over the drummer. Luckily the volume goes to 11! I love tube amps. I think there are alot of good solid state modeling amps out there but tubes amp are still superior in sound. The Atomic 16 is no exception. It has a warm, smooth quality sound. At low volumes the amp cleans up well and you can get nice jazzy tones. This amp is mainly for guitarist looking for bluesy to high gain tones. I have miked this amp and it sounds huge!

Built like a tank. I take care of my amps. Expect to have this amp for many years.

Only contacted Soldano regarding amp covers. Bill Sundt e-mailed me with information regarding amp covers. He said they never made them for Soldano Atomics but that Studio Slips could make me one. I got a very cool Blue Paisley amp cover for this amp. Studio Slips already knew the measurements.

I own alot of great amps. Matchless, Marshall, Mesa/Boogie, vintage Fender, etc. This amp is a classic. I paid more than the original price for this amp (about $500). I don't regret the purchase. I'm happy I got a new one. This is a very nice amp. It's well built, looks great and most importantly sounds fantastic. If you can find a used one I recommend buying it. There are not that many amps at this price point at the same level of quality as a Soldano. I wish soldano still built smaller combo amps.

Features are limited to volume, bass, middle, treble, presence and pre gain. It is a 20 watt amp with a 12" Soldano Power speaker. the tube complement is 2 EL84's and 3 12AX7's. It is Class A/B made with hand wiring.

The sound was great and loud for a 20 watter. The amp has an open back and the 12 speaker utilizes limitless resonance to get a warm bottom end and a tight high end - very warm sounds. The gain was classic, much like the Boogie "Mark" series. It was a little noisy at the 7-10 pre gain level but nothing too bad. Incredible tone and response from the tone controls.

I replaced the tubes with Groove tubes. The breakup was smooth and the tone was pronounced. It has not broken down in 2+ years. Not much of a gigging amp unless it is a very small venue.

Never used them.

I have been playing for 13 years and just wanted a practice amp with good sound. I tried the Electar 10 tube and the Fender Sidekick and the Kustom 10 watt tube. This Atomic 16 blows them away quite handily. Again it is more of a practice amp, BUT, it might be able to be used in the studio, especially with the 12" speaker. I would get another if this were stolen. Soldano puts out great products.

Not many features - Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle & Treble and Presence. This is a straight ahead basic amp built with a 12" speaker, which is unusual for a small amp. Most have 8" speakers.

I use Kramers (old and new), Fender strats, Ibanez RG and EX series as well as a Gibson SG and a variety of strat style guitars. Preamp is a little noisy at very high settings, depending on guitar. The tone was incredible especially at high settings coming through the 12" speaker. Clean is clean and high gain is classic. The tone controls respond very well. Plug in some effects and you have ultimate versatility. Again the tone is incredible. You can play jazz to blues to classic rock.

So far so good for 7 months. Have only used it in practice sessions with a band.

Bought it used and only have 1 year warranty with local dealer.

It is a great amp for practicing and small venue gigs. You can use foot pedals and the response is incredible without much noise or hum/hiss.

I gave this an 8 because I would of liked a slectable impedance for different cabinets. I talked to Bill Sunt at SOLDANO and he said it wasnt needed that the amp would push a 16,8,4ohm load just fine . Still I had to call to find out .If you want reverb,EFX loop, channel switching than this amp is not for you. The controls are Gain.Bass,Middle,Trebble,Master Volume,Presence. Two speaker jacks. And thats all youll need

I currently use my Fender AMERICAN Standard strat (stock pickups) alot but I have an Ibanez Rg with a Screamin' demon (Bridge) & Invader (neck). This amp gave me exactly what I was looking the HR 50 sound in a 1x12 combo to play in the house. If you are looking for "death metal" "grindcore" look elsewhere this amp gives "TONE" not noise. I have played Country,Classic rock,Blues with this amp and it has deliverd. I t sounds good at all volumes I was really pleased with the sound at low volumes. I played a couple of gigs with it I used an ol' sm57 sounded just like my HR50. I would like two of them one for rythm and one for lead. The clean is ok but if you want to play Joe pass jazz get a DR.Z. I you want to play Death metal get a MKIV yes they are better than the rectos. This amp is a solid blues, country, Hard rock amp I played SOLDANO amps for over ten years now and achieved tone in every situation possible.

Havent had any problems all SOLDANO'S are solid

I have e-mailed Bill Sunt the head tech at SOLDANO several times and I get a quick response every time. His brother is currenlty working on a pre-amp in MOD on my HR-50 so I can use my SP77 as the pre-amp and the HR50 as the power amp. I had Bill s brother install some new tube in my HR50 and he said that one of the caps wasnt up to par so he replaced it. These guys are great

Like I said I have been playing SOLDANO's now for over ten years so I knew what they were about.I have had this amp for a year now and it is my main amp now. Man I'm tired of lugging halfstacks around (LOL). This amp is a versitile portable amp that is sound good at low volumes for the house and will crank up for a gig ( you need to mic it man) I dont use reverb or effects.I use the volume on my guitar for level changes the pickups aswell so this amp fits me. I gave it a 9 because as you increase volume you need to make some minor EQ changes not a bad thing for me but I thought you'd want to know

First year amp, I believe it was 1995 or 1996. Purchased new.
I give this amp a 4 for features becuase it is quite simple. No reverb, no effects loop, no line out, etc. Very straightforward single channel amp. Exactly what I was looking for at the time, or so I thought.

I used PRS Guitars mostly through this amp because I my strat sounded like shit through this amp. The PRS sounded decent, but not one nice clean sound was available at a usable volume. The distortion was very bright and lacked bottom end, due, I believe, to the open back cabinet. I did enjoy the range of sounds available at low volumes, the high volume sounds were not to my approval. When cranked, the amp sounded like it wanted to give up. All meaningful low frequencies promptly departed. High volume sounds were limited in the tone department. Just when you get the power tubes to break up, and sound starts to get nice, the amp lets you down.
So - I bought a Soldano 4x12 with Celestions.
What a difference the closed back cabinet made. Took the sound to right where you want to be on a high gain amp. Still no clean sounds, but who cares when the distortion sounds like that! Complex with rich harmonic balance. Even tonal response and sensitive to picking dynamics.
I understand an open backed combo will not sound like a 4x12. However, I also understand that you should not have to buy a big ass cabinet to make your combo sound half decent. That's why I bought a combo, so I wouldn't have to haul a big ass stack around with me.
I ended up buying a big ass stack anyway. Rating is for combo. Combo with 4x12 gets a 9.9 without a doubt.

No problems with reliability. Ever. All Soldanos are solid.

10.
Used them 3 times. Spoke to a real live tech every time. No hold time. Very nice peolple as well.

Overall, I am going to hit this thing pretty hard due to its design. In my opinion, Michael had no business building this amp with an open backed cabinet. A lot of money for NOT a lot of USABLE performance.
I have 2 other combo amps, with open backs, that simply smoke this amp in terms of tone. One says Marshall on it, and the other says Fender. Neither of these amps wuss out when turn up the wick.
Needless to say, I recently sold this amp to my new best friend on ebay that helped me make a lot of money. I sold for way more than I paid for it new. I guess these are hot right now.
One more point of qualification, this amp friggin smokes in head form through a closed back cabinet. My review only applies to the 1x12 combo. One bit of advice, don't pay too much for one of these.

Single channel, three 12AX7 preamp tubes, two 6BQ5/EL84 power amp tubes, 16 watts RMS into a 12" Soldano X-12000 custom designed speaker, bass, mid, treble, presence, preamp gain, and master volume controls. No effects loop, no reverb, no extra channels, just simple, the way great amps usually are.

As with most simple amps, the sound is very dependent on how hard you drive the amp. With the master volume set low, you can get warm, but grindy clean tones up to AC/DC crunch tones. With the master volume set high (don't let the 16 watts rating fool you, this baby keeps up just fine with my power hitting rock drummer), you can get decent clean tones, but more importantly (as this is what the amp was designed for), you can get very rich, sustaining distortion. Not death metal, but plenty heavy for Van Halen/Dream Theater/Satriani/Vai tones. And the distortion is very dynamic. I use a PRS custom 24 w/ "10" top, and with the preamp set to 11 (mucho "cool" factor) and the guitar volume set to 3-4, I can get very "textured" clean tones. It's a clean tone, but the tube breakup adds extra harmonics that sound great. If you really want to be impressed with the tone this amp gives, and most Soldano's from what I hear, use it with a band. That "way too bright" sound people complain about works wonders with the band. The sound blends so great with a band, without having to kill your ears with volume, like most Marshall's and Boogie's I've used.

Super reliable. I had the amp shipped to my house in NJ from CA by those brute UPS guys, and then sent from NJ to Miami FL by those same brutal hands. When I got it, some of the tubes had been knocked out of the sockets (poor packing by sender), and I was kinda worried. Using my clean shirt, I put the tubes right back in place, powered it up and was blown away. No problems. I don't think many amps can survive such torture without breaking in some fashion.

Great support, answers to my emails usually come back in 1-2 days. Very nice.

Soldano amps are magical. That's my new slogan. Ever wonder why people pay $3200 for SLO 100's? Listen to one some day. Clapton, Van Halen, Vai- they have great ears. What else do they have in common? They use Soldano's. All Soldano's have the same basic gain structure. And because Soldano builds amps with such tight component tolerances, they all sound virtually identical. They all sound incredible with a band. What else can I say? I love this amp. Great, simple, all tube, portable combo for around $600 new. I'd recommend looking into this amp if you like tone.

Controls are basic - preamp level, bass, mid and treble, volume and presence. I can't understand why there is no standby switch. No effects loop - I don't need one. Basically not tons of knobs to tweak but the amo sounds so good - who cares

I LOVE the sound of this amp. I use a Les Paul and find this amp gives me classic R&R tones. Great for both lead and rhythm. I used to say there is no clean on this amp but if you set the presence full up, the tone gets very tight and sounds clean.

I don't do much playing out these days but everything on the amp has always worked 100%

I've never had any problems with the amp but everytime I've contacted Soldano for information, they have responded quickly and with the requested info.

I bought this amp because I really love my Soldano HR50+. I thought the Atomic 16 would be a great, lightweight, portable amp for jamming. I was right. It weights nothing and has a ton of tone. A jamming buddy of mine is the manager of a big music store that doesn't carry Soldano. He was VERY impressed by the amp when he heard it.

1996 1x12 combo. 2 el84, master vol, presence, high, mid, bass, one chanell, pretty straight foward, nothing too fancy.

This sounds great. The best High gain el84 amp made. Can get great old school mid range tones with nice power tube break up, or high gain pre amp scooped mids distortion sounds approaching the death metal world of tone with some help from hot pickups. The most versatile tone machine I own and I own a lot of amps (Vox, Orange, Matchless, Fender, Marshall).
It does not get a grat clean tone but how many master volume amps do?
It is also not loud enough for some places. (Hint Hint Mr. Soldano! Offer us a 35-50 watt atomic with 4 el84s so I can show this off in front of big crowds!)

Had it for almost 2 years and no problems but the occasional power tube replace. I play this amp about 20 hrs a week. Use it mainly for recording and practice. Very solid, great parts. Soldano can run with any of those "high end" amps.

Communicated with Soldano via email a couple of times. Answered all questions pretty quick.

Been playing for 15 years. Was introduced to this amp by accident. It was the only amp available when I was trying out a guitar. Put the guitar back and walked out with the amp. The amp is a cross between a Vox AC15 and an 80's Marshall JCM.
I would get another one without a second thought.

This is an update by Mark from the last review. I now have the good forture of living near amp guru Bruce Collins of Mission Amps and dropped my Atomic off for his inspection. As you might have read I tried to tame this amp a little by replacing the speaker and preamp tubes. Big mistake!. Bruce took one quick glance at the chassis and discovered it was an exact copy of a Marshall 800 but with EL-84's. Bruce checked the rating and it produces 18.9 watts with the volume on all the way and the preamp at 6. The rest of the controls at that point are strictly for tone variation. The Groove Tubes that I installed were supposedly a matched set but couldn't have been further apart. After Bruce biased a new set of EL-84's for me it made a huge difference in that tube dimentional tone everybody loves. So the moral of this story is , no matter what the box the tubes come in says, have a qualified amp tech rebias them for you . The Mojo Tone speaker I had installed was too flappy for this amp so Bruce plugged the Atomic into a cab with a Celestion Vintage 30 in it and, Wow! Anybody who has one of these Atomics owes themselves this speaker or the equally fantastic WeberVST C12B. I had also tried using 12AT7's in the preamp section instead of 12AX's to tame the harshness of the amps drive and was informed by Mr. Collins that by doing so the AT choked to work harder and therefore defeated my intent. The second two 12AT's aren't critical as they more or less idle along. So I've revitalized my appreciation for the Atomic 16 thanks to Bruce Collins. One last note; I was told by a reliable source that the Atomic 16 are discontinued. So, if anybody out there likes the sound of a Marshall 800 but wants it in a small package, keep your eyes open for a used Atomic 16. I'm interested in what you have to add so feel free to contact me at the e-mail address below.