Soldano Hotrod 50 Plus XL

I think the amp was made in 99'. This is a cool SIMPLE amp. Obsessive knob tweekers go elsewhere! It has 2 channels the clean is really an crunch channel but can clean up pretty good, good enough for most rock and blues player but it doesn't pull the fender chime. The overdrive is great, not QUITE SLO-100 great but great none the less after I had the XL/depth mod pulled! Before the mod was removed it was slop and mud city. I was scared that it was gonna suck but get the mod pulled ($50) and you will be so much happier! I play mostly metal with this and it kicks ass! Cut through the mix to the BONE! Plenty of power but you have to push it just hard enough to USE the tubes to get the great tone out of them. In my opinion, this makes it better than the SLO-100 for most local gig applications. The effect loop is line level so forget using your line 6 DL-4 delay unless you know something I don't (which I'm sure you do!)

The distortion is the upper midrange cut I NEED! It's like heroin. Once you get it in a live situation and you hear yourself stand out in a mix like you never have before, it's addictive and you can never go back! The amp is whisper quiet at all volumes at the most extreme settings. I wish the clean were more brilliant but that's just my opinion.

I've used it at least twice a week for the last several months and not even a glitch but I haven't had it too long, to really know.

Soldano is great! They were totally helpful when I asked about removing the factory depth/XL mod. They talked my tech through it. Very cool....

Been playing almost 17 years (yikes!) I've got some mesa/boogie stuff, some marshall, fender, even a line 6 spider jam (for practice) with a Cornford on the way (the meccah) I like this amp pretty well for a thousand bucks. It's solid has great tone and the blue light is cool! If it were lost or stolen I'd be bummed but unless I got one for $800 or less, I'd probably let it pass just because I like a more brilliant, versatile clean sound and a versatile effect loop even though I don't use em' much, plus a solo boost would be GREAT like my mesa Stiletto but tone wise, this amp is a very solid pick.

Made in the mid-90's. Versatile... compared to a modeling amp, no. It is what it is, a nice, 2-channel tube head with shared tone controls. I wish the tone controls were separate. Most people that buy a Soldano, Bogner...etc know what they are getting.

I use many different guitars. A couple of Parker Niteflys, Guild Bluesbird and a few others. I like overdrive that has a bite and that is why I like Soldano. The normal channel can be clean although it doesn't have much headroom. I don't push the preamp over 3 on the clean channel otherwise it will start to break up.

It sounds nice, bottom line. I don't like too many knobs, there are only 10 on the front panel. The XL Depth mod was added later. It is totally variable which is great because I hate it at higher volume and love it at lower volume.

All military spec stuff. powder coated steel chassis. The power tubes get plenty of air. The footswitch is solid and uses a standard instrument cable.

Very smart design.

Bill Sundt is a great guy. Friendly, excited and willing to help.

All warranty work is done at the factory.

Pretty good amp. Can't beat the tone for $900. Built really well. I don't like the Depth XL mod except on lower volumes, thank god it is varible. Really it is lighter weight than a lot of heads I own.

Thanks Soldano, nice amp. 50watts is just enough for me.

This is the only thing somewhat lacking on Soldano amps. The features are really basic here, typical tube amp stuff, 2 volume 2 overdrive knobs for your overdrive and normal channels. Then bass, middle, treble, and presence. It's pretty straight forward for that section. Of course, there are some players that like the no bull, have to take 1hr just to fiddle with the knobs. Unfortunantly I'am one of those players lmao, I love to fiddle with the knobs and get the right tones for certain parts. But this is fine:). I can live with straight forward playing.

It has 2 channels through 1 input jack. 1 channel for your clean sounds and 1 channel for your overdrive sounds. This is WHERE SOLDANO AMPS EXCEL! The tone of these babies is the BEST IN THE WORLD! Reason being is Soldano is a no nonesense dealer that does not care about mass production of guitar amplifiers, they go with the small quantity-the best quality approach, and it pays off:).
You can get any sound you want out of this amp, as bad as you want to be it's all there. One thing I love about this amp, the amp actually responds to your pickup selector on your guitar! That sounds hilarious, but you would not believe how much guitar amps I have played where you flip the selector of your pickup's, expecting to hear a sounds change, and there is none at all! Those are always signs of bad amplifiers. But on Soldano's, you go from a dark to to a light tone in 2 seconds when you flip that switch! The sound difference is amazing!
Clean tone's rival any other brand of guitar amp out there. They are farrrr better than Mesa Boogie's or Marshall's clean tone (nasty on Marshall's) and the prescence knob helps bring out the high's.
The overdrive is awesome, you can make that bad boy as loud and nasty as you want it to be. You can have that mild-retro sound, or the new in your face modern distortion. IT's all there.
To put it simple...BEST TONE YOU WILL EVER GET OUT OF A GUITAR AMP!

Mine's is used, had it for a year or two. Hasn't given me any probs yet :).

Since my amp is used I cannot say that I have a warranty. But I know on Soldanot Hot Rod 50 +XL models there is garunteed a 1 yr warranty. I have heard on that for anything that cost more than this, it's a full lifetime warranty;). Soldano people are great...talked with them a couple times before. They will tell you anything you want to know, and if you need repairs on your amp, or modifications, they are more than willing to do it:).

I love this amp, probably will never get another amp ever again. If I did, would be another Soldano! But would have to get the dough again to buy it:P, they are highly expensive, but hey...you get what you pay for. If I lost it, I would be conflicted with getting a Soldano Hot Rod 50 again...or a Soldano Decatone maybe, but FOR SURE IT WOULD BE A SOLDANO!
BEST GUITAR AMPS OUT THERE! BAR NONE!

If you're reading this, you didn't get here by chance - you know what features this amp has! 50 watts, (2) Channels (can only switch between channels with the footswitch) - "clean" and knock your socks off throw your back against the wall overdrive! For a 50 watter this beast ROCKS! Turn it up to (10), and the dials go to (11) by the way, and this thing will throw you against the wall like Michael J. Fox in "Back To The Future"! There's also a presence control and I recently added the XL mod. There's an effects loop as well - that's all folks! No fancy built in effects, no stupid dials that you would never use anyways...just straight forward and SIMPLE! The only bummer to the amp is the lack of reverb but that's my personal taste because you can actually get a warm jazz tone out of this monster and reverb would have been the icing on the cake. There's also a presence knob that actually REALLY works (imagine that).
This amp is an expensive investment, but well worth it. If you're gonna be a cheap bugger look at something else. If tone matters and you have the $, buy this. If you're not sure consider a used one and even look at the single channel Hot Rod instead. It's not as slick as the Hot Rod plus but you still get that great Soldano tone at a more affordable price. I bought mine used WITH the 4 x 12 cab for a real steal of only $1500!! This rig new would easily go for $3,000 new.

Here's the part where all of us guitar players like to bragg about our axe's. I play mostly Fender and Gibson. 'Got a Clapton Strat (the most recent version), '84 Bowling Ball Strat, Les Paul Standard, and a customized Gibson Pat Martino for the jazzy stuff. Not one of these guitars sounds bad through this amp. The strats are just incredible through this thing (and by the way, I'm using a Soldano 4 x 12 straight cab). The Clapton Strat sounds good with just about anything, but particularly good through this amp. With the noiseless pickups and the OD channel cranked, it still doesn't buzz! In fact, my buzz laiden '84 Strat is still noisey, but not as with this amp. I couldn't believe it. Most amps I've played the '84 through spits out that typical single coil hum/buzz. Not the Soldano, it still hums, but not as loud. Says something about the good components they use in these things. With the Les Paul - ooooooooo - baby! With the Paul plugged in the OD channel and the preamp only turned to about 3, look out! This combo produces thick, lush, and CREAMY OD. In fact, it sounds SO good that it makes me want to have a smoke after I'm done playing it, and I'm not a smoker! Plug the Martino in and roll back the presence on the amp and on teh guitar and you have a pretty close sounding Wes Montgomery sound. Pretty amazing for a high gain amp.


The "Clean" channel: and I say "Clean" loosely. If you want to get a loud, clean Fender sound with this thing, forget it! It can get to a respectful volume level of clean, but it starts to break up after a certain point and becomes picking attack sensitive - which is actually quite nice. Dig in and it starts to break up a little, back off on the picking attack and it cleans up again - Jekyl and Hyde in one channel. I don't play at a real high volume setting anyways in live situations so the clean breaking up at high er volumes isn't such a big deal. Put your preamp volume past 4 and turn the post up and it will start to break up. Better to turn the preamp down and bring the post up to almost full, which is what I do. The OD channel has the most outrageous OD ever known to man! Channel (2) - You metal heads out there will LOVE this amp. It's also addictave for rock heads, chicken pickers (you country guys), jazz heads (if you tweak it right), and somewhat blues heads although you may find the gain on this monster to dish out a little more than you prefer. You'll find that the OD on this is tremendous even at 3 (and all the dials go to 11). From 3 - 5 on the preamp you get more than enough violin sustain and crunch. From 5 - 8 you get some tremendous compression and violin sustain, go past 9 and it starts to turn to 'ala mush. The bottom end gets a little sloppy, otherwise it is tight. If you want less OD you need to work the preamp carefully because this thing is is a fire breather.


My guitar buddies that have played my half stack all drool over the tone and they are blown away by the crazy amount of gain this thing spits out. The gain is heavy but it's buttery, creamy smooth - rich, thick. What more do you want? I played the other brands. In fact, the day I bought this, I was literally at 4 previous music stores and played somewhere between 25-30 amps that day, the Hot Rod blew the doors off from every one of them. It made the rest sound like toys. I played my share of Marshalls (used to own 1), Mesa's (almost bought one...*whew*...that was close), Fenders (used to own 2), Line 6 (*cough* what a joke these little toys are), Vox, Randall (p-lllll-ease!), Tech 21 (pretty darn good little amp for a solid state),VHT's, and a few others that I would be embarrassed to say I plugged in to. When the Soldano was fired up it was in a class by itself - I was amazed. The best of the bunch were the Mesa's and the Marshalls and this ate both of them for lunch. Unreal. Big, Full Sound. I bought it on the spot along with the matching cab. Besides the great sound of this rig, it also looks

never a problem

Very good and they answer all questions either by phone or e-mail..Number 1!

Clean channel, well, pretty good...very Fendery type. OD channel, it makes everything else out there look bad. Tone? Please, don't even go there - closest thing to heaven on earth. AND, this amp doesn't even breathe hard at high volumes! I sold both my 5150 and JCM800 to get this amp...


I've been playing for 30 years and been around the block a few times with equipment and guitars. Guys/girls - I'm tellin' you - spend the extra cash on a really GOOD amp - it's worth the money. With a good amp you'll sound better and play better. A $4,000 guitar will sound like the butt end of a cow through a substandard amp (believe me, I was there...not at the cow's butt end of course...). Likewise, a $200 guitar can sound like a million bucks through a really good amp (get the picture).

If this amp were ever stolen, I'd replace it with another Hot Rod 50+XL,
Keep this in mind - the person who went amp shopping with me was a session guitarist in the TRI-STATE area for many years and the Soldano dropped his jaw. That should tell you something about this amp. BUY ONE.

Straight forward 2 channel Soldano amp with XL or "deep" option. What I was looking for in this amp was the SLO lead sound (my favorite) and a reasonable clean sound. I was also hoping that the XL option would give me a credible "heavy" sound in dropped D tuning. This amp does not claim to do everything and I didn't expect to much from it in terms of fancy features.

I run a small recording studio so I have a ton of amps around and people I record bring in their amps too. I had a bunch of people in one day and we decided to do a comparison of the amps we were using for the session. Using Gibson, Fender, PRS and Suhr guitars, we tested everything through a Marshall 1960av. Compared to the Boogie, Bogner, Fender and Marshall amps, the Soldano sounded thin and the high gain very noisey. Very disappointing! I believe the SLO 100s are excellent. But this amp really failed to generate any really useful tones.

Well Made and not problems with operation

No experience

1997 Model. One of the best quality and solid built tube amps you can buy today! Mine is the 2 Channel 50 Watt Model with the
XL Mod..for a fatter, bassier crunch! It has an FX-loop, Very Loud
used both live and studio enviornment!...Like the 5150 both channels
share the same EQ. Which is a bit of a problem live! I would have scored it a 10 but the shared EQ, These amp heads are like 1850.00 new at musicians friend plus shipping and taxes...not cheap at all, butr you pay for what you get, there quality parts are awesome!.....taht being said, it deserves a point deduction!

Clean is CLEAN...Period! I can play funk, reggae....and sound very extremely close to a Twin reverb! With a little overdrive it can give top of the line Fender "Blues Tone", Mine has Ruby 6L6GCSTR just like Santanas Amp. Sustain is awesome, very fat and fluid...You can get the EVH brown sound from this AMP without a problem, As well as most of your Favorite Metal Sounds of the 80's very Easy(Scorps,Def Leopard,Maiden).....providing you take the time to really work with it. It is a really remarkable head if you get to know it good! I don't know about other soldano's but mine is not noisy like my 5150 or JCM800. The FX Loop is very, very good!I am using Dan Dimea Jackson Strats threw this amp......the tones I am getting out are excellent. I don't bother looking for any other amp anymore!
I am using it with a Marshall 4x12 JCM 900 (1960A) cabinet. With 2 digitech 256XL Multi-FX units....a Cry-Baby, a Marshall SE-100 Speaker Emulator/attenuator(I recommend this unit to any body....if the find it to buy it immediately, this is a serious piece of gear). I have tried this head with a Mesa 2x12 cab....it also blew me away! I find it blows away the 100W Marshall TSL Head, as well as the 5150. The lead channel is reminds me allot at times of the old Mesa Mark II heads! I decided to put in JAN7581A miltary tubes in it and the amp..
became holy grail! If you can get a second hand used one, go for it...
mine was practically brand spankin new....saving 400 bucks makes me happy.

Nope never a repair except tube changes, Amp is 100% stock and is incredible! I use it all the time and NO BACKUP, which is not a bright thing to do, but I have yet to this day needed one.......this is going 4 years now. Awsome!! I do have spare tubes & fusses with me when gigging all the time, rule of thumb!

needed tech info on the amp, these guys are number one!

25 years, This amp is the best investment I have made! I would replace it without any consideration. This amp has replaced my Twin reverb and 5150 Heads.....The tone on this amp is worth every penny and believe me, you will need lots! As stated before, you pay for what you get and they are not cheap!

My amp was build in 99. I play blues/rock and a bit jazzy. 2 channels. The only thing I miss is seperate tone controls for the channels. This is a minor inconveniance though as they are OK matched.

I use a Gibson Les Paul with Burstbuckers. The amp sounds fantastic with it. You can play all kinds of styles with this amp. The sound I would discribe as very open and direct. Also dynamic when playing with
the volumepoti. This is the best distortion I ever heard. It makes my trousers flurting. The normal channel is very bluesy and with the overdrive channel you take of ...

It's build very sturdy. Had no problems with it. Make sure you use the right tubes and change them on time. Mine have Groove Tubes 6L6 B.

The best I experienced so far. I mailed them with technical question and Bill Sundt was very helpful and professional. They know what they are talking about. Becomes rare these days.

I would by it again if it was stolen. Absolutly!. I've played Marshalls, THD, Fender. This monster sound the best for me. Plug in and Rock !. Don't need other gear with this amp. You can make all tones out of it.

The HR50+XL goes from sprklie clean to massive grinding VHT/Marshall-like distortion with ease. I found that the clean channel has a nice break-up blusey distortion with the gain cranked a bit while the drive channel can get some real Santana-like sustain. There are two features I would have liked to see: reverb -I bought an outboard Fender spring reverb to suit my playing, and separate presence contols for each channel. Other than the 2 channels features are pretty basic and down-to-earch on this unit. There are not a lot of extra buttons and knobs, but who really needs them anyway?

I usually use my a Fender American strat and a Soldano 412 cab. This combination sounds great through the HR50+XL. It really beefs up the typically thin-sounding single coils - even with the bass knob below 5. I also use a Gibson Blues Hawk with P-90's through my Soldano. It gives blues or classic rock sounds new depth. I've used a friend's Gibson LP through it. I think the higher-gain pickups sound excellent if you crank down the amp gain a bit, too much gives a very grainy distortion - not smooth at all, but maybe some of you (Mesa-lovers)like it that way!

Seems to be built rock-solid. No problems. I'd gig with it without a back-up.

I emailed Soldano twice - just for advice and recommendations on changing tubes and knob settings, etc. In both cases a tech got back to me within a day. They are knowledgeable and friendly. I can't say that about most companies I've dealt with.

I've been playing for the better part of 35 years. I have owned Fender, Peavey, Crate, Marshall and Mesa amps. This is by far the most reliable and versitile of them all. I'm not a great player, but can hold my own and have fun with it. I bought the Soldano because of reputation and the great sustain and harminic overtones its capable of. I am not disappointed. Bought it used for half the list price. If I ever want to sell it I know I can get at least that out of it.

no reverb, but all that you need is there, line level effects loops, impedance selector, tone for days. a non-global eq may have been nice ( although it may have sucked some tone)as the normal channel seems a little too much "trebley" when the gain channel is eq'ed to perfection.easily rounded off with a simple turn of the guitar's tone pot, though. mine is the combo version, and i use it as such with country or poppy or blues gigs, but i use it plugged into ext cabs for hard rock and metal. the gain channel is PURE SLO in a 50W package, which works much better for me in MY real world of playing stages smaller than 20X40 in rooms holding 1500 or less. the way for me to find MY tone is to GET THOSE POWER TUBES TO HUMPING AND PANTING. with a "hunnerd-watter"... i would be tossed out of these rooms on my arse at precisely the same instant that i found my tone-zone. yeah 50W is the way to go for me, as well as most other working slobs w/o some deviated form of penis envy. the xl mod will give you enough bass (even in combo form) to make the hairs on your scrotum vibrate when standing close, and the entertainment factor of that alone is worth the price of the amp on slow weeknights in a crappy dive, when you are basically getting paid to practice.

i have done everything from country gigs to full blown heavy metal using this amp,southern fried,classic rock, pop, whatever...and the HR50+XL shines well in all situations, i have used Mesa amps for years, and although they are great amps themselves, i find the soldano to be MUCH more lyrical and, dare is say, musical... even when it reaches the "bonecrushing" stage in the gain channel. i have used a stack of strats, a tower of teles, a plethora of paul reed smiths,a tom anderson cobra S, and LP classic and standards through this amp, minimal(by most's standards) effects, Klon Centaur, Expandora, Boss dimension c, Boss cs-2, and Boss rv-3 for effects. i have also used a menatone foxy brown with the amp for lead boost which adds a somewhat raspy and nasal-ly character to me leads, kind of putting me in mind of blackmore's strat tone on a good day.

no problems yet and i have played it loud and long.it has taken some long rides too, some of them bumpy, and i have yet to have any service issues with the amp.if they were persnickety ( like my mesas always were, don't get me started), i dont think you'd find soldano onstage with some of the world's busiest and best artists/guitar heroes.

never had to.

this amp cooks, plenty of sparkle when dialed up clean, and gets meaner than a pitbull with a festering boil on it's ass when called upon to do so, but never ratty sounding,like can happen with mesa gear. if something were to happen with this amp, i would definitely be looking for it's direct replacement as soon as i had sold a kidney to scrape up the money.

Not sure of the year, but it's almost brand new. This category is relative to the player, but for me the features are almost perfect. Someone who is used to a Mesa Triple Rec. will think there is a distinct lack of buttons, but for those of us who hate fooling with all that crap and just like to plug in and jam, the Hot Rod is great. I only deducted one point because I wish it had a seperate presence switch for each channel. I don't miss reverb at all with the great sound this head has.

I use a PRS EG that has been "hot-rodded" by yours truly. It has a S&D Distortion hum. in the neck position, a DM Fast Track 2 sigle coil in the middle, and a DM Super Distortion hum in the bridge position.

I play the Hot Rod 50 through a 4x12 Avatar speaker cab with 2 G12H30, a Greenback, and a V30. This setup blows away everything I've ever pressed the frets on. I wish I could compare this amp to a VHT because these were the brands that I was torn between. In the end though I bought the Soldano without even trying a VHT.

I can compare it to Marshall's, Mesa's, Fender's, and Peavey's. It's not really even close. This amp just blasts great sound. You can call it tone or whatever you want, but it makes you smile.

The clean channel is very versatile but never gets that chimey Fender sound (thankfully). It can be very bright and crystal clear. This is a rock amp. The lead channel goes from warm overdrive to cutting, searing distortion.

I was worried it might not be able to get that saturated distortion sound but as you turn the presence up it delivers a very pleasing high gain with saturation. Not Mesa sloppy, not Marshall mud. But that's just my opinion.

Haven't nad it long enough to rate this category, but it is built very solidly.

I emailed once and they got back to me with in a few hours. So far, great.

I've been playing for 10 years now, but I'm only 22. No Skynard on this amp! I guess this head could handle it, if your were to try it though. I play guitar in a trio and this is all I need for leads and rythem. I love the way pick attack affects volume and breakup. It gives you versatility. If it were stolen I'd save up a little more and buy a SLO 100 because I like these Soldano's, but I'm a good shot so it wont get stolen.