Soldano Hot Rod 50 212 Combo

Made 08/1995. 50W single channel 2X12 combo. The speakers have Soldano logo, but I believe they're Emminence(?)Effects loop. Chicken-head knobs for Presence, volume, treble, mid, bass, and gain, and they all go to 11. Black and white boa snake skin. I wish I had me some pointy boots to match. Hi and low inputs. Currently has GT-KT66 #8 and 12AX7Ms.

This combo was built for rock music. I play Strats with single coils and humbuckers, and I tend to favor the humbuckers for this cat for about 75% of the time. Single coils work out real well for slide on this amp since it has some very nice natural compression/sustain. I've taken it to plenty of gigs with just a guitar, slide, and a cable and gotten nice compliments from other toneheads in the crowd. The lack of a clean channel is not that big of a disadvantage since it cleans up nicely with the guitar's volume knob. I hardly ever need to run the gain up beyond 4 or 5, but there's plenty of gain if you're ignoring your meds. I also own a SLO-100 that I run through a Bogner 412 or Marshall 1960TV, and the distortion from the Hot Rod is very similar. It is loud, articulate, and very smooth on the upper neck. Crunchy on the lower registers with good bottom-end. Nickelback to Police to Little Feat--pretty versatile for a single channel. I don't use the effects loop; I think it sounds better just going through the front end.

I have used this amp plenty of times without a backup. Not a good idea as a rule, but I do keep spare tubes handy. The only thing I've had to adjust in the last 2 years, besides changing tubes, is tighten some screws on the chassis. It is very well built and should be a great amp for more than my generation.

I've spoken to Bill a couple of times and traded a few e-mails. Nice people who care about musicians.

I've been playing guitar a long time, and have owned some pretty good equipment. This is the only piece of gear I've owned that the guys in my band have instructed me to never ever let it out of my hands. They love how it sounds. (They were happy to see me sell my Rivera K100R!) I like the simplicity and the tone of this amp. Someday I might change out the speakers for some Vintage 30's just to see how I like it, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.