Soldano Hot Rod 50+

The amp's features are not many but they are enough. I just bought this thing a week ago and I love it. I'm not sure when it was made though...it does have the black Tolex cover not the purple. It has 2 channels, an effects loop and some other stuff. I wish it had separate equalizers for both channels though it still works out just fine. The 50 watts are definately enough!! It scares women and children! I give it a 9 simply due to the lack of separate EQ's.

I use a Paul Reed Smith and the amp is BURLY! I love the crushing distortion unlike the metally high pitched sounding Mesa Boogie! It sounds awesome.

Just got it and haven't had any problems yet!! I've heard that Soldano is great!

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for a couple of years and have had weak amps! I had a Marshall Valvestate and a Fender Priceton Chorus and both of them are dwarfed by the awesomeness of this amp!!! If it were stolen I would get another one! I give it a 9 because of the one shared EQ.

Soldano HR 50+ non XL. 2 channel 50 watt head. Amp was made in approx 1992 (soldano looked this up for me from the serial #). It has a slave out (which is real nice for that 80's wet/dry sound & a crappy FX loop that makes drops my master output approx 50% (w/ use of my Alesis midiverb).

I primarily play LesPauls customs & Charvel model 5s. I am into the 80's metal (ratt, dokken, lynchmob, etc.) The dirty (lead) channel is tremendous. It does something very magical when gain is set at about 8 or so, and master is set at about 7 or 8. I went the route of the preamps (sp77s) and also went the route of the 100+XL, but none of them did it for me. The 50+ allows you to crank the amp (100 is deafening) and enjoy the tube saturation. Clean is nice (simple & round), the dirty again - is just tremendous. No wonder the pros use Soldano. My suggestions...save up the money & buy one. You will never want to own another lead / distortion channel again. Also - something about owning the head...you have the sound (pre amp & power amp) the way 'Soldano' wants you to hear the sound. Much better than mixing & matching. Let me tell you...Power Amp section has A LOT to do w/ tone!!! Bottom line is this...if you want an amp w/ 100 features, this is not the amp for you. If you want the amp for tone...you cant beat it.

well - i bought this used. It is a 92. Very well cared for - and it seems to be built like a tank. Very simple, very sturdy. No problems yet!

Bill is tremendous. So is Sean. Call for yourself & see.

Playing for 15+ years. I own a ton of boogie gear, marshall cabs, v30s, alesis fx, etc. If ever lost or stolen - I would have to replace it! I love that it is simple, and doesnt need ANYTHING to sound good. I hate that they are so damn difficult to try out in the local music store scene! Not too many retailers want to carry them b/c of the price. I wish the FX loop was more versatile & wish it didnt affect the output volume.

My Soldano HR 50+ is a new 2000 model. Its the basic black tolex cover, with 2 channels. Comes with a Soldano channel switching box. I feel that the Soldano is VERY versital for the types of music I play. I play mostly older Van Halen stuff (Thats where the Soldano really pays for itself), and some other 80's like Dokken, Cheap Trick, etc... The effects loops are cool. I can plug my SKB pedal board, with my stomp boxes( MXR flanger, Phase 90, Chorus, DS-1 distortion, Sus compressor, EQ,) into the loop, and get that Van Halenish brown sound, which I love. I pretty much use all the featureson the amp, because in the first place, its pretty much a bare bones, easy to use, straight forward, no BS, Rocking amp. With its 50 watts, it has more then enough power. I have actually had people come up to me after a gig, and want(BEG) me to sell it to them. No way, this baby is mine!! I have searched for 15 years for this tone, and I have finally found it. A/B ed with my Marshall JTM 45, thats all I need. I feel that I have the best of both worlds.

I am basically using 4 guitars. A custom made modified strat from WD parts, with a JB SH-4 in the bridge, and a reverse round hotrail in ther neck. A custom made GMW modified strat made from Charvel/Jackson parts, with one hum in the bridge and one volume knob, A Les Paul, and last but not least, an old 85 Kramer Baretta(hockey stick headstock with one hum, and one vol knob). With all these guitars, I can really get a great sound from the Soldano. The Soldano makes every one sound great. I can really get that Van Halen tone, or at least close to it. The clean channel is really nice, as well as the distortion. It tends to get a little muddy if you put to much bass in, but all I have to do is back it off a bit, and it really bites with pure tone.

I would for sure depend on this amp. I had to change the tubes out once, but I have been really pushing it. The Sovtek tubes are no good, so I replaced them with Groove Tubes. Made all the difference.... I would have to replace it if something happened to it!!!!

Soldano has been very helpful....

I have been playing for 15 years, and if anything ever happened to my Soldano, I would defenitly have to replace it. This amp is just to good....

This is an addendum to my previous review. I'd like to give the HR 50
a 10 in the features/versatility department, because last night at rehearsal I pulled a Twin/Super or some kinda 6L6-powered Fender tone out of it, no lie. Big, bright and shimmering. My drummer and I started goofing around and making up fake surf tunes. Maybe this is a really obvious trick that everyone else knows about but me, so pardon my naivete, but try this.
It helps if you have a treble bleed or "tone saver" cap on the vol. knob of your guitar, as well as hi-fi Wolfetone pickups, but you can probably just crank the treble and presence on the amp to compensate for any muffling that occurs as you roll off.
Keep the preamp vol. at 2, or thereabouts. I had the master at 9. Bass at 9, mid at 5, treble at 3, presence at 7. But your eq settings might vary. Back off the guitar volume til the tone cleans up. Mess with the tone knob to taste. Add some reverb. Presto! Instant Fenderesque, and
there's still some drive on tap when you bring the guitar volume back up. Oh yeah, my 4x12 with the Celestion 65s probably helped clean things up, but I'd imagine some squishy vintage speakers would round things out nicely.
Maybe you can't channel switch to this sound right in the middle of a set, but it's useful for recording. So you could play surf, classic rock, punk, metal and freaky-deaky art rock on this thing. I'd venture to say you could fake a country sound as well, using the above setting, mabye not well enough for the scrutiny of the studio, but certainly in a dive in front of a bunch of drunks.

Oh yeah, thought I'd mention that there's a lot of variation between preamp volume settings. From 1 to 5, things stay pretty open. 1 to 2 actually seem less trebly to me, then 3 gets trebly and crunchy. After 5, the sound gets more compressed and ballsier. I don't know if the amp kicks any true low frequencies in, but it kinda seems like it. Maybe it's another psycho-acoustic effect.

As most people know, this amp is not about features. It does have two very usable channels and the effects loop works very well. The best feature is that each channel has it's own preamp and master volume. The shared EQ is a bit restricting. I don't use reverb so that's no problem. I've upgraded the power tubes to NOS GE 6L6's.

I had the bass mod done a few years ago as the amp was a bit thin sounding before. I use the head with a Marshall 2X12 bottom and a Les Paul standard. My style is blues/rock. The only effect I use with the amp is an Japanese Boss SD-1 with the drive set very low. The amp has wonderful tone. I go light on the preamp gain on both channels and use the Boss for extra boost. The amp rocks. It has a rich warm sound that sounds better the louder it gets. The amp is very sensitive to guitar volume changes so it's easy to find the tone you want. In a band situation the amp is easily heard in the mix. Although my style doesn't use the overdrive channel very often, when I want to really push, that channel is great. And the amp produces the most harmonically rich feedback.

I've had the amp for about 4 years - never a problem.

I've never had an issue with my HR50+ but I did have a question regarding my Atomic 16 and the Soldano folks were very good at getting back to me.

I've overall rated it a 9 because no amp can do everything. But this is a great amp. I like it so much I bought an Atomic 16 for small jams. My other amp is a Fender Super Reverb. I've owned a few Boogies, Fenders and a Vox AC30TB. The Soldano is my favorite. It's simple and always sounds great.

This is an update to my review below.I received the part's for the XL upgrade in a week's time,kudo's to Bill Sundt and Soldano!!!!I thought that I would have to take the amp to my tech to upgrade it but not so.Looking at the layout and the part's Bill faxed and sent me,I thought.....I can do this......popped the amp open and got to work.Nice layout of the circuit board and very neat work guy's!!!!I has the mod done in no time and it made the amp's bottom end much fatter.Just opened the amp right up!!Fellow HR50+ owner's,you need to try this mod!

Dont know the year and dont care.It is versatile enough to play the cheap ass dive's where I play playing the usual classic,new get them dancing stuff.Two channel's with channel switching.The effect's loop doesnt do well with my cheap DOD delay pedal but,the sound man can fix that problem.Plenty of power.No need for a 100 watter in the dive's where I play,they whine enough as it is about volume.Maybe I should get another drummer.

Gibson Flying V with 500T in bridge and 490R in neck.Ibanez RG-750 with the same and a Fender single coil.G&L with two Texas Special's( neck,mid)and a JB Junior in the bridge.Suit's me just fine for the classic stuff that we play except for Stevie Ray Vaughan and the like.I have a Deluxe Reverb for that style.Nice and quiet,soundman like's it and the sound of it.The clean channel could stand to be a little cleaner but this isnt the studio and there are other amp's for that.The distortion is killer!I would personally like just a little more bottom end but that is why I ordered the part's to upgrade it to XL from Soldano.

Havent had any problem's at all.Dont expect to unless it is dropped or one of these dive club's with the usual insufficent power deal's fry's it.I keep my stuff in my house out of the rehearsel area until we practice or play out so that will help for reliabilty.When I got the amp I immediately dropped NOS 7581's and NOS preamp tube's after hearing the Sovtek's.This did make a huge difference.I wouldnt use any amp without a backup.I will give it a ten cause I have had zero problem's.

Bill Sundt at Soldano was very helpful.I emailed Soldano about the XL upgrade and Bill replied the next day.I called a few day's later and he was very nice to talk to and helpful.He didnt act like he was trying to get me off the phone.I will give this rating a ten also.Now I will wait and see how long it take's to get the part's.

22 years playing and emptying the wallet.I have a Marshall DSL-2000,Marshall DSL-401 and a 67 Fender Deluxe Reverb as far as amp's go.Wont waste your time telling you the other boring detail's of my equipment.I would trade for or buy this amp again.Wish it was cleaner but my Fender can do that job.No comparision's just wanted to try a Soldano and am happy I did.

New in 1998. I've had it for six months. Two channels with separate Pre and Master, but shared EQ. Presence knob. Series fx loop. Slave out with level. Two speaker outputs with impedence selector. Single-button footswitch for channel-switching (required to switch channels, a pain). Sovtek 5881 power tubes.
This is not a feature-laden amp. I also have a Rivera Knucklehead 55 which has separate EQ's, boost for each channel, Send and Return levels for FX, and in general, is a much more feature-filled amp. The boost feature I especially wish it had.
However, that's not what this amp is about, and after you play it, you'll probably be like me and say, who cares!

Use it with an Ernie Ball Axis, EB Silhouette, Gibson Les Paul Standard, and Fender Strat playing in a classic-to-hard rock cover band. Run it through a Rivera 4x12 loaded with Vintage 30's playing in small to medium clubs. Alternate it depending on my mood with a Rivera Knucklehead 55.
This is a _fairly_ versatile amp. The two channels share EQ but are voiced quite differently so you can get enough versatility to go from fat clean to wildly overdriven with a tap of the footswitch and judicious use of the guitar volume knob.
Channel 1 is the cleaner-voiced of the two. Very little compression and a very bright sound that sounds best when _slightly_ overdriven. Backing off the guitar volume can give you a very nice fat clean sound. Playing harder breaks things up nicely. Boosting this channel with a Tube Screamer-type pedal works _great_ for driving rhythms or blues solos.
Channel 2 is the signature Soldano sound. Awesome! I love this channel. Every now and then I'll see a someone describing the Soldano sound as buzzy, and I think they're crazy, or the person they heard had the pregain cranked to 11 and mids scooped. I describe the sound as thick, smooth, and responsive, with excellent note definition and sustain for ages. Note, this channel does not work well with a Tube Screamer-type pedal but responds well to guitar volume changes.
I usually have the following settings, pre #1-4, pre #2-4, bass-4, mid-6, treble-6, master #1-5, master #2-4, presence-7. These simple settings and a Tube Screamer can get almost any sound I could possibly require for classic rock.
The volume of this amp is much less than my Rivera K55, probably because the Sovtek 5881's are notorious for their low output. I haven't tried switching to another type of 6L6 for fear of losing _that_ sound. Not that big of deal for me, but if you need _lots_ of headroom, maybe look at the HR100+.

Have not had a problem with it in six months of moderate use. Had one preamp tube that had slight microphonics, but just switched it with another tube and all is well. Very sturdy and well-designed just like my Rivera. Cool-looking with the unique see-through grilles. I don't have any question about the quality of Soldano amps and I have no fear of gigging with this amp.

Have called Soldano a few times. They have been in general helpful but not nearly as friendly or informative as Rivera. No real complaints though.

This amp kicks butt. As stated before, I also own a Rivera Knucklehead 55 which is a great amp too. I am currently perhaps a little more infatuated with the Soldano because I haven't had it as long, but these amps are basically interchangeable, especially for classic-to-hard rock. They both nail the Marshall-thing equally well, and while the Rivera definitely has an edge for the Fender clean stuff and versatility, the Soldano may have the _ultimate_ rock-n-roll sound (as defined by me at least) and it cleans up pretty well.

50 Watt all tube head. 2 channels are footswitchable. Effects loop This thing is very loud!!! Distortion is nice, a little too fuzzy for yours truly, but nothing the BOSS MT-2 can't fix. Clean channel delivers some nice warm tones.

Suits my style (Heavy thrash metal) except for the fuzzy distortion, it's an excellent amp. Quiet, with some buzzing (May be my pickups, though) Like I said, this thing screams like nothing else! Would have enjoyed a little more low end, though.

This thing is built like a goddamn tank.

Never have, never will.

I would buy it again, but not at full price. I got it with the 4 X 12 Cab for $850. defenitely worth it. Check this amp out, It deserves it.