Soldano Decatone

I bought this amp new from a store here about 6 months ago. I mostly play classic/hard rock music as much as my wife hates it. There's like 40 reviews here describing all the features so to keep it short, I'll just explain my rating of "7". Basically this thing cost me approx. 3000 dollars canadian, with no reverb or other options than you could get cheaper on a boogie or such.It has loads of power for me, too much for her.

I use an assortment of Ibanez guitars through this amp, all have had pick-ups changed out to seymour duncan's and DiMarzio's. Honestly I can give a 10 rating here and mean it because like I said, I've tried every other amp tailored to hard rock in hopes that I would like one just as much as this amp and save some cash. Didn't happen. I've never played an amp so sensitive to your touch, feel, and agression like this one- it inspires you to play, and inspires you to be better. The first time I tried it out I imediately took it home with me. Seriously turn it up. The louder you play it, the better the sounds that come out of it are. I enjoy the crunch channel the best, to my ear it is the most versatile. Clean channel is truly that- clean, overdrive gets downright nasty, great for harmonics, tapping, legato and the sort. There are no traits you have to 'settle' with. Everything sounds great.

Only been gigging with it for 6 months, no problems at all yet. Can't imagine anything other than happening other than a certain bandmate smashing it (or my wife).They're both pretty jealous for different reasons.

The store gave me one year warranty, tubes and all. Soldano I've heard is pretty good about everything.

I've been playing guitar for 20 years. Am pretty proficient at it, had lots of gear as well. I consider myself to be lucky every time I plug into this whore. If it were stolen I would cry. I can't afford another one. If I could I would definatley buy one. You're absolutley paying the extra dollars for craftsmanship and tone here, If you honestly play this amp next to any boogie or that godforsaken Krank, you would say the same.

I bought a new head (from the factory, not a floor model) in 2005. I've played for 25 years, including semi-pro and rock oriented church worship bands. I've owned 10+ amps including several Mesa Boogies and this is the best amp by far. The clean, crunch, and gain stations are all wonderful. And all the dials go up to 11. This isn't just to be like Nigel; the power amp is powered (pardon the redundancy) such that you can turn the dials up to 11, wheras most amps start feeding back at 3.(all 3 channels have their own power knob, plus a master power). The depth knob is cool-sort of like a subtle bass feature.

I play classic rock, jazz fusion, modern blues, and Baroque. I use a PRS Singlecut (a Les Paul) and a PRS McCarty Soapbar (like a vintage strat with only 2 singlecoils). I run it through a 4X12 Marshall 1960 with 75 watt British made Celestions. Depending on what channel and pickup/channel combo I am using (3 pickup sounds x 2 guitars x 3 channels = 18 sounds) I can get any sound imaginable, including Henrdrix, SRV, Frisell, Mclaughlin, Page, Slash, McLaughlin, or Al di Meola. However, this is not a rip-off amp, in that Soldano has its own distinct sound, rather than that of a Fender Twin, a Marshall Plexi, or a Mesa Rectifier. You won't get the SLO gain sound, but you get a great crunch AND clean, which the SLO does not have.

I've only have it for a month.

Again, this is worth the premium price. I can't imagine ever getting anything else after this. It goes with me to my grave, if I were not a Christian, I'd worship it.

The one complaint I have, is the way both the front and back grills are attached. In order to access the tubes, you have to remove 2 screws from the plywood siding. It takes several minutes to unscrew them, and its semi-difficult to do so. It seems the screws will start stripping soon, and the holes in the wood may get disfigured. If construction had a rating, I would give a 7, and is why I don't give it a 10 overall.

2003 Soldano Decatone 3-channel 100w head, 3months old, from ebay. This is a VERY versatile head! I play in a classic rock band, and this thing blows away the Peavey XXX head I had before it. An effects loop bypass would be nice, and maybe a line out jack, but it works perfect and has no flaws whatsoever. The construction/wiring inside is so neatly laid out and the wires are perfectly and symetrically bundled, as if it were going to be judged from the inside for some neatness contest. I use this head atop a full Marshall 1960a and 1960b stack when gigging and with one cab at home. The power output is just right for playing clubs pretty loud at that "sweet spot" volume of 8 or so. Comes with Sovtek tubes...

I play Les Paul copies that are all mahagony and Dean USA Hardtail Pro guitars and use a wah pedal. I prefer anything with humbuckers, but this amp sounds great with anything. The distortion, sound, and sustain are all heavenly. The thing is, like any tube amp, you can change the sound a lot by swapping in various preamp tubes (the Mullards sound pretty cool) and the output tubes somewhat. I switched to J/J output and electroharmonix preamp tubes. However you have this thing set up, it always sounds SOLID and unified. Not the saturated mess you get from say, a Peavey xxx. When I had some money, I went and got a couple of Marshall 1960 cabs which sound way better than the Peavey cabs I had been running. Different cabs will change the sound a LOT! I don't know how the Soldano cabs sound now, but I didn't want to get them because they no longer come with Celestion speakers. Marshall may have cheaped out on most of their amp heads somewhat, but their cabs still rule.

Very reliable- I gig every weekend, and the only time I had a problem was when a tube went, but I put a LOT of hours on this thing. That was normal wear and tear. I invested in a flight case for it, since it is a $2500 head. I couldn't believe it when I got the thing on ebay for so cheap. It was BRAND NEW. The previous owner was real nice, and honest. Nice to find people like that. She got a Mesa Boogie instead. Her loss, my gain.

Oh my God! I have never seen anything like the customer service I got from Soldano. I spoke to Mike for like 45 minutes or more on several occasions. I got advice and tech info on how to hook up the head, what tubes, etc. I also told him that it came with a very short cord for the footswitch. He sent me a new one at no charge! I guess that's what you pay for, but in a lot of cases you can spend a fortune and get garbage (My recent Gibson purchases, and returns, come to mind), but with Soldano you get what you pay for and more.

I've been playing guitar for 20 years. If this head were stolen, I would want another one, but I probably would be in jail for killing the bastard who took it! I love the quality, reliability, and TONE of this amp. The other guitar player in my band has a Mashall TSL and when he played my Soldano, he decided he wanted to change brands. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a couple grand right now, so he is upgrading the transformers and modding his TSL to try and make it sound like the Soldano. When you compare the two heads, the quality differences are amazing. The soldano has the best transformers, neater wiring, rugged inputs. The TSL can't even run a full stack without burning itself out. You have to get it modded with an upgraded capacitor or something first(a defect). The soldano is ready to rock one or two cabs right out of the box. The TSL's footswitch jack is a cheesy affair. It's only held in place by the solder joints, which guarantees it will fail, which my buddy's did. All the money he's spent fixing and modding the TSL, he almost could have bought a new Soldano Decatone. When people say "you get what you pay for," they mean Soldano.

I believe this amp was made in 2001. I'm sure you already know the features, but in a nutshell there are three very different channels, a parallel/series effects loop, bright switches on each channel, shared 3-band EQ (read below), presence and depth knobs, and a global volume. Honestly, this amp is so well made and sounds so good that I can't see needing a single thing that it doesn't have. The only thing I do wish it had was a button to hard-bypass the FX loop from the footswitch. But other than that, the features are basically perfect. Not as many little buttons as a VHT, but you seriously don't need them, it's nearly impossible to make this amp sound bad!

I use a 90's Gibson Les Paul. This amp sounds absolutely amazing. The key thing about this amp is that each channel could be a single amp on it's own! I owned a Marshall TSL a long time ago, only for a couple of weeks. What a piece of garbage! The Decatone is 100 watts of pure tube tone, and each channel is a QUALITY channel, not a single mediocre channel to be found! My assessment:

Clean channel - can do anything from a beautiful fender/modern marshall clean, and you crank the gain you can get into Hiwatt territory. Sounds absolutely beautiful.

Crunch channel - the perfect hot-rodded Marshall sound. But it doesn't really stop there... It's got the Soldano sound. It's hard to describe, but it's basically more of... everything. The perfect distortion sound, for me personally.

Overdrive - Very similar to the SLO circuit. Screaming leads, endless sustain. Ultra harmonic. Super hard on... haha

Again, the key thing is that every channel is different, but voiced to work together perfectly with the shared 3-band eq. You won't need any additional EQ, trust me.

I play mostly rock music. My influences come from the early 90's west coast bands, mixed with some progressive rock influences from the last 5 or 6 years. I've always been a Marshall guy, owned a VHT for a little while, but was never completely happy with any of them. Now, I've found my perfect amp.

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, the overdrive circuit is very similar to the HR50 and SLO, but not exactly the same (all of their amps are slightly different, of course). But that same basic vibe is there, but with it's own character.

Soldano is known for making great stuff. Mine is new, but I doubt it will be needing any service anytime soon.

I've called Soldano a bunch of times, both before I bought the amp, and afterwards. Beforehand, I called for advice. Afterwards, I've called to order a t-shirt and ask about speakers, etc. Every time, the same guy answers the phone, (Bill Sundt I believe) and he's very nice and helpful every time. Top notch!!!

I've been playing about 10 years. If it were stolen or lost, I would buy another one. I could not live without this amp, it is absolutely unreal.

I did compare the amp to a Bogner Shiva and a HotRod 50. I liked this one better overall, especially from a features standpoint. I purchased mine with the Soldano 2x12" Semi-Open Back Cabinet. It came with Eminence Legend speakers. I am in the process of trying some different speaker configurations. But, let me recommend that if you try any of the Soldano amps, use them with various speakers, because at the store, I also plugged it into a Marshall cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30's. This sounded MUCH better than the Eminence Legends. It is probably largely a matter of taste, but speakers will have a HUGE impact on the sound of an amp!!! Know this and get used to it. I will probably end up running 1 V30 and either one Legend or one G12H30, which is a popular config these days.

Anyway, overall I give the amp a 10. It won't be for everyone, but for me it was the best choice. Let me give one last word of advice. I have owned many amps, and I can say without a doubt that the best way to find the best amp for you is to make the trip to the store (no matter how far away) and spend a LOT of time playing on various amps. Do this as many times as you need to until you are REALLY certain youve found your amp. You can read user reviews until you're blue in the face but they won't help much, I promise. I bought a VHT based on HC user reviews once, and I was sorely disappointed. So, get to the store and start playing! And don't be afraid to crank them up!

3 distinct channels,Single EQ, bright switches for each channel. Series/ parallel effects loop. Presence and depth controls. Etc.

Running a McCarty and numerous Andersons through this amp yields unbelievable tones. The CLEAN channel is VERY Fenderish. It is so sweet it sounds like it has reverb. (In a live situation - you will never miss the reverb.) When maxed, the clean channel can get a great edge/pushed blues tone. The CRUNCH channel took the most getting used to (mainly because we've been brainwashed by the larger amp companies as to what good tone is). This channel can go from Plexi/AC30 land to an incredible custom Marshall sound. Punchy and ballsy on all settings. The bright switch on this channel is like having two different amps. As great as the other channels are - the OVERDRIVE channel is the best channel on the amp. Pure SLO overdrive... The most ballsy, ripping tone soaked overdrive in the world. There is no pedal in the world that can reproduce this sound. The harmonics, the sustain, the cutting drive. I love this channel so much that I couldn't reserve it as a lead channel only. I learned a great trick after about a year of using this amp. I use a BOSS GE7 EQ pedal in the effects loop as a lead boost for all channels. The loop has the mix all the way up (serial loop). Use a true bypass loop pedal to add it to/ remove it from the effects loop because otherwise the pedal colors your tone when it's off. The GE7 is set to boost the med/highs and med/lows when engaged. This amp takes to any Tubescreamer type pedal well. By using the TS and the GE7 I have a 4 channel amp with an EVEN lead boost across all channels. Clean (channel 1 only), Edge (channel 1 w/TS), Overdrive (channel 2 only), Distortion (channel 3 only). Both the Overdrive and distortion settings create unique and incredible lead tones. Simplicity and tone for days... It's like having a Fender Twin, A hott-rodded Marshall, and Mesa on steroids (with tone) all in one box.

This thing is built like a tank. HAven't had a problem yet.

Called/ emailed with questions. They always resonded quickly and courteously with valuable information.

I've been playing about 30 years semi professionally. I thinked I've owned almost everyting. Do you remember the day you figured out that your dad really did know more than you? That's what happens with this amp. It's so simple, you second guess everything. Then one day you realize, that Michael probably does know more about amps than anyone else on the planet. He's dedicated his life to the endless pursuit of tone and quality. It took a little while for me to figure out that my perception of tone was wrong. I now realize I have the best tone I've ever heard and it's not generic. This amp is in a class by itself. It is both transparent at times and can beautifully color at others. You can distinctly hear the changes in guitars and playing nuances. This is not a bedroom amp - this thing was designed for live performance. People like different tones, but if there were no endorsement deals, 80% of the rock guitarists in the world would be playing SOLDANOs. If Soldano ever wanted to sell out and sacrife the quality of their products - I think they would be the best selling rock amp in the world. I glad they haven't sold out. I have searched for years for this kind of tone. If you're looking for one amp to do it all - this is the best I've seen. LOVE IT!! Wouldn't trade it for gold... God Bless !

Three channels all tube head plus Soldano 4x12 slant cab. I only feel the need of a good tube reverb, especially for the clean channel which is extremely good but a reverb could add a little more deepness to it just for those dreamy jazzy chords. Crunch and gain channles are perfect at a point that you don't need it !!!Incredible!!

I already wrote a review for this amp. That happened few days after I got it. I was already happy with it, but now that I know it better, I feel the urge to add something more. This amp, for me, gets 10 in every sense. Mike is THE amp guru. I don't really need nothing more from an amp. Maybe just a good tube reverb (as I said before) for the three channels. Nothing more. Talking about the sounds this amp can produce they are UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE !!! They're just perfect for my style. I play Jazz and shred fusion. This amp gives you an incredible hi gain sound which is a sort of liquid distortion, simply fantastic. It has sustain for days, harmonics to die for, and it allowed me to play every legato run I can imagine. It is one of the best purchase I did in my life. Crunch is ... how do you spell MAGIC??? And the big surprise is the clean sound. No high gain head on the market gives you a better clean sound. In the clean department only some Fenders could have a better clean sound. When I turn on my Decatone I simply can't put the guitar down. It is amazing. I play different guitars, some high end Ibanez, some vintage stuff from Gibson. I couldn't be more happy with an amp. Probably it has been the best choice for me still in the Soldano catalog ... Slo for example is a one trick pony (pony ..????), Lucky 13 does not have all the features of the Decatone, .. I've been lucky. Sometimes I try some other guys's amps, Marshall, Mesas,.... each time something disappoint me in those brands products. This does not happen with Soldano. In my opinion they cannot even be compared. My Decatone is like a Ferrari. That's it.

It is built like a tank, like all Soldano's products, and I expect it to last forever.

All the guys says the best of the Soldano's customer service. I wrote them two emails from Italy in the past and I never had a reply. Can't understand why.

I started playing in 1987 and since then I owned every imaginable amp vailable in Italy (maybe with the only exception of Bogner). To me Soldano is the best. Anyway surely there are some good amps out there (some Mesas, Bogner, some Peaveys) but noone come close this marvel. I love it.

I recently picked up a used Decatone on Ebay. I've looked for these in the past and once i had a chance to grab one for around $1,500 I decided to go for it. It is in great shape and came with a soft cover.
I highly prefer a three channel amp that is controlled by my MIDI effects. Another big plus is the effects loop with dry/wet control.

I primarly use a Jaros custom guitar with Seymour Duncan humbuckers. My backup is a Hamer Archtop Studio again with SD hums.
As has been said, this amp delivers the good on all channels. I am used to having more EQ control per channel, but I really don't miss it with this amp. It is just designed that well!
The clean channel has a great ring and can just start to break up if you max the gain (but I don't), Crunch channel is exactly that with rhe right amount of chunk to is. The lead channel is pure Soldano heaven.

Too new to tell, used it on two gigs so far and practiced quite a bit with it. Seem to be overbuilt like most Soldano gear.

I've taled with Bill (?) at Soldano in the past. I had a n early Atomic combo for practice a few years back and also used a Yamaha T50 combo. I was impressed the the Soldano factory would do work on the Yamaha product that Mike designed.
From all indications Soldano is a top notch outfit!

I've got 25 years under my belt and played in bands more often than not. I wish I had bought this amp earlier when I first considered them. The Decatone is a perfect fit for me. I miss taht third channel anytime I use a two channel amp.
I plan on using an axess-elextronics CFX-4 to control the channel swtiching on this monster.

ALL TUBE three channel 100 watt, factory foot switch for changing channels (uses standard midi cable, cheap to replace if needed), shared EQ (Mike Soldano did a great job of balancing the channels so they work perfectly together. Believe it or not, you won't miss having separate EQ's for each channel), parallel effects loop (adjustable), bright switch on each channel, adjustable speaker load, presence and resonance controls.
Generally speaking, extra "features" (more channels, more EQ's, more effects loops etc., may give greater versatility, but they degrade tone. This amp offers the most versatility without robbing your tone.

I mainly play a Wolfgang through this amp and it's the best combination I've ever heard. I finally found MY sound! This amp really shows the character of each guitar you play through it. The clean channel stays clean even at high volume. The crunch channel is unbelievable (with bright switch on, think Marshall 800 with more gain available and MORE tone). The Overdrive channel has that harmonically rich screaming gain of the SLO.
You can get a good scooped sound if that's what you want, but this amp's midrange is what other's just dream about. Don't be afraid to turn that mid knob. On this amp, it's your friend.
Hey......it goes to 11.

The gorillas from that brown shipping company did their best to destroy this amp before it hit my front porch (the box was all but destroyed). I took the amp to my amp tech and other than some bent transformer brackets, the amp checked out perfect. I've been playing this thing hard for over two years now without a glitch. You'll see people selling other amps saying how the amp was never played at high volume. That's because a lot of other amps use cheap components and crap out when you push them hard. This amp is made to run wide open for as long as you want. Open up a Decatone and look inside. It's all top grade components......... built to last.

I've never had to have any factory service, but they are great about answering emails. Everybody raves about Soldano's customer support.

I've been playing for 25 years and I've owned gear from all the major brands and several "boutique" manufacturers. Nothing else sounds like a Soldano. If it were stolen?.........That aint gonna happen. Well, I'll put it this way. I live in Utah.......... we love the 2nd Ammendment.
I think the best compliment I can give is "I'll NEVER sell this amp!".

Three channels head with a single equalizer, three bright switches, one for channel (usuful) and without the reverb. A little less than what every guitar player may need. It's a little compromise. One single eq for three channels is not that much onestly. Sure if you tweak a littlle bit you can find good sounds anyway due to the extremely overall high quality of this instruments, but it is still a compromise. Moreover I can't understand why Soldano didn't put here a spring reverb. It is a good kind of vibrato that doesn't cost too much and give a sort of completeness to the amp. I think it is a sort of snob attitude. Anyway, features is not what this amp is about. You don't buy a Soldano for the features at this point, but for the quality of the sounds it can produce. These are truly amazing.

Sounds are great, no doubt about it. You can tweak forever on this amp and never meet a bad sound. Each setting seems to be able to show a different side of your playing that you didn't discover before. It is so good it's ridicolous. This head contains a zillion sounds: all you have to do is move a little bit the controls and zap, you find a new amazing guitar sound, bright, dark, closed, opened, brilliant, sad, clean, crunch, hi gain. I try this head with a Fender reverb, the one shaped like an amp head. And obviously with the head's dedicated cabinet, 4x12. That was it. The guitar was a Yamaha Mike Stern Pacifica. Lovely Seymour Duncan pick ups, bad woods. But it worked fine for this test. The amp is so good it defeated the bad woods in the guitar.
Clean channel: absolutly faantastic. One of the very best clean sounds I ever had the pleasure to play through. Extremely consistent as a jazz sound, closed or opened. Perfect articulation and dynamics, astonishing bass response, strings different sounds, all the notes and nuances of the chords are extremely udible, even with a bad wood guitar. The dark jazz sound you can obtain here is so good you seem to play legato even if you play only with your pick. With the bright switch on you have more attack, a more aggressive jazz sound, less meditative, more staccato. Still brilliant sound with great body! If you play clean comping pop arpeggios the sound is clean and bright as crystal. Clean vote 10
Crunch: Really really serious crunch. Extremely mellow, creamy, perfect for rhythmn parts or Jimi Hendrix solo kinda thing. Like Stevie Ray Vaughan on Little wing. These type of things are not my cup of tea, but soon they will become. This crunch sound is too inspiring.
Hi gain lead: here is something marvellous. If you pump up the gain you obtain a lead sound to die for. A kind of modified pumped Marshall with impressive attack and power. High, mids, and lows come out like jewels from this amp. Stopped rhythmn parts, solo phrasing, bends, all come out perfect. The dynamics are magical. If you pump up the mids and take away a little bit of highs and lows you will discover a nice emulation of the Mesa Rectifier. It's one of the limitless possibilities of this amp. You can't stop playing this thing. I definitly love it.
Overall vote is nine and not ten only because I'd like a little more compression on the hi gain sound. I know that you can resolve this problem with a little compressor, but it is simply than TEN would means that I found this amp perfect for my taste. It is but I feel a little less of compression in the hi gain sound. Anyway it really is near perfection for my taste. 9.5

I think it will lasts centuries. It is built extremely well. I love every part of it. The tone knobs are wonderful: it is a joy to operate them. They are very precise, smooth, and silent. They affect the sound deeply. All is perfectly constructed and the parts chosen are the best.

Never dealt with them.

9.5. Almost a perfect amp. It's not very powerful in my opinion. I was expecting more output power from this kind of head, a completly hand made hi gain moster. Instead it is medium power (for what I am concerned). I didn't had the chance to crank it up the volume at five in front of it, five with master volume, with full gain i could play comfortable in front of it. Probably the more you pump the volume, twice the projection grows. It is very quiet, which is a great thing, almost no hiss and fuss, even at hi gain settings. The best thing was finding the unbeatable clean sound of this amp that came completely unexpected to me. So it's almost perfect. A fantastic clean, a lovely creamy crunch, and a moster very personal hi gain sound. I can't ask more to an amp. Just a little bit of gain compression....and probably a reverb. In the end another plus: this head is light, light, light. Easy to move around. A nice surprise. Uh, unfortunatly the price is extremely high, expecially here in Italy. Sure the best always costs a lot. 9.5

Not sure when this amp was made, but I just got it brand new today; the salesman said he had it a couple of months. I just traded a Mesa Boogie Roadking for this beast; and I have to say in all of the years I've been buying, trading,and getting my ass reamed looking for the amp that works the simplest and has the sound, versatility and feel I'm looking for, has finally become a reality and dream come true! This Head has three distinct channels which share the same EQ, (which I have never liked until this Baby came into my life),each channel,(clean, crunch, and overdrive) has it's own bright switches,Pre amp control and channel volume, and there is a master volume,presence, and a very handy depth control which are a global function controls. On the back is an effects loop with a mix control, two speaker outs with an impeadence rotary knob control. This amp is 100 watts, featuring six JJ 6L6GC power amp tubes along with I guess five chinese 12Ax pre-amp tubes. Mine is an Orange color which is reminisent of the British Orange Amp colors.

I play everthing from country to heavy metal and I currently play in a Classic Rock, cover Band and this amp is going to be everything I want it to be for me. Sure there is some noise but nothing you would'nt expect from any amp in the high gain arena, and this amp is'nt only capable of delivering high gain sounds, it has a beautiful clean channel along with a gorgeous crunch channel. This is not a rectifier type of amp, sure you can scoop it if you want but it's more like the modified marshall sound (which I love) with it's own distinct tone.

Don't know yet, I just got it, it appears to be built pretty durable.

I also have no experience with this company yet, but from what I've read, they treat their customers pretty professionally and they sound competent.

I have been playing for 30+ years and I have finally found an amp I really like that is all tube, the Marshall TSL100, which is one I have, has been pretty good but this one is more magical. I also own a LINE 6 Flextone 3 XL which is the coolist one they have produced yet(see my review of that one)As far as the funny, but not funny, question of what I would do if it were lost or stolen( I laugh my ass off at the responses)all I've got to say is, I watch my equipment like a HAWK! and if some uncontrollable situation occurred, oh well, I won't dwell to long on it and just be glad that I have a knowledgable starting point to replace my gear. This amp does'nt need anything more for me, I am REALLY HAPPY with this one!