Soldano Lucky 13 Head

This is a straight ahead, no frills head. It has no effects loop, no crazy boost switches. If you want that kinda stuff, look elsewhere. But what it has is monster tone. This is a two channel 50w (2 5881's) non-master volume deal, with a universal presence control but with individual eq and reverb for each channel. It's the model for elegance and simplicity. I thought I'd miss the effects loop, in practice it's just fine.

I play a '63 SG with p-90's, a '56 reissue with p-90's and '69 LP deluxe with mini-humbuckers. I play mostly emo/math rock/indie stuff with this. I was on my quest for "the tone" and was really into Riveras when I stumbled onto the Lucky 13. It had exactly what I was looking for. Pure creamy wet mids that sing from now till tuesday. Crystal highs and a fat bottom. I can stress how fat the mids are, it's beautiful. With a slight turn of the presence control, you can make this amp sizzle, yet still be smooth. It's amazing. On the low end, at first I was kinda put off, it didn't have the super tight compressed crunch that my old solid state roland blues cube had and I kinda missed it. But after a month of twiddling the knobs i've finally got it down. i also enclosed the back of the awesome soldano 2x12 cab and that help as well. The cab has eminince speakers, and I imagine if I slapped in celestions I might get more tight bottom. Also, look into the 100w version if you want more crunch. The 50w is exactly what I want, and this thing is super loud. I still can't drive it past 4 or 5 for any length of time. It sounds great both in larger venues and in small bars and definitely cuts through the mix. There is plenty of gain on tap here. I wouldn't say the death metal fans will love it, but for anything short of that and nu-metal, you should be fine. I've got the gain set on 10 (the knobs all go to 13) and to be honest, I don't see the compression that other people are talking about (read the 100w head reviews).
The clean channel is equally perfect, doing that fender kind of thing. It's smooth with twinkly high end. Not as buttery as say an Orange, but very nice.The clean channel stays clean.
Guitarwise, the Lucky 13 is an absolute dream with the minihumbuckers. It was less impressive with the p-90's, kinda shrill, but i'm still workin on it. But with humbuckers this thing is just a pure tone machine. The sound is fluid, it just kinda spills out of the cab and rolls over you. It definitely needs to be experienced. I spent the day at a boutique amp dealer trying all kinds of stuff and the moment I hit the Lucky 13 I knew that was it.

Built like a brick craphouse, as they say. Very heavy, nothing loose or hangy. We gig several times a month and I'm really rough on my equipment and I'm confident the L13 will pull through. It's a really heavy head.

The guys at Soldano were very helpful and timely in responding to my emails and offered lots of suggestions to my questions. I also got kick ass support from the dealer I bought it from, Don at www.petesamps.com. He's awesome.

I've been playing for over 15 years and this is definitely the sweetest amp I've ever owned. I've had marshalls, fenders, rolands, this thing is simply the best. I went in ready to buy the Rivera Qiana studio 4x10, but when I heard the Lucky 13 i was sold. My main thing was smooth creamy mids and sweet highs, and this head delivers. It just sings for days and days, sustain is unbelievable and when the feedback develops it's just as sweet. If you're looking for marshall dirt and grit, this isn't the amp for you. Yes, it's pricey, but you get what you pay for in this case.

One has to understand the concept Michael Soldano had in mind when he designed this amp in order to appreciate the beauty of it. This is NOT supposed to be a feature-laden amp. It is designed for pure simplicity in all the right places where a tone oriented guitarist like myself needs it most. Crystal clear and bright with a tight and sexy bottom clean channel, tasteful overdrive without the mid-rangy saturation and mudcaked mess of Marshall and Mesa, and gobs of tube driven gothic cathedral hall reverb. The well thought out, minimalist approach works well. If you want an amp loaded with frivolous, gimmicky features, than the Lucky 13 is not for you. If raw, pure and powerful tone is all you need to split the night air, then look no further. In this age of digital modeled and cyber intelligent amps out there, it is refreshing to find an honest, no nonsense, no computer chip embedded amplifier out there. Bravo Michael Soldano.

The balanced and wide range of tones this amp is capable of is incredible. Any style of music comes natural. Noticed a loud, 60 cycle hum when the amp is at idle. I notified tech support at Soldano and received an immediate reply on trouble shooting tips. In this case, it was suggested that one or more of the amp's (10!) tubes may have gone bad, and how to go about isolating the problem. I have yet to test this out and will follow up with the results. Otherwise, I liken the range of tones a guitarist can dial in to the broad spectrum, color palette of a French Impressionist painter. Lively, lush, and shimmery. This amp is completely unforgiving. It exposes any of your signal chain's limitations from strings, radio shack pick-ups, korean bamboo or mexican cactus bodies, "cable guy" cables to christmas morning alkaline effect tins. There should a red slashed circle painted on the solo input jack... "no minors served here".

This amp is built like a bank vault. It would take Thunderbolt and Lightfoot more than a howitzer to open this rig. It is always good policy to carry spare tubes when traveling with any tube amp. They are the most sensitive part of the eletronics loop and are susceptible to damage during movement.

My experience thus far is excellent. The people at Soldano care about their products in the field and are there for you no matter how small or large the problem. Very friendly and professional crew. This company isn't your mass produced consumer oriented operation.

A tone machine dressed in a tuxedo. This is the James Bond of guitar amplifiers. Sophisticated, powerful, unadulterated, and casino lucky. For guitar purists out there, bet on 13.

This is a follow up review. I began to feel the amp had too much sag..and was slowly dragging my playing down...it is then I remembered a friend of mine telling me that the Soldanos have a compression that kicks in after the pregain is above 7...I just set the pregain at 6, and it's shred city..no compression..great response tone and dynamics. I was really beginning to consider trading the amp in on a VHT CLX 100..which I would do if someone wants to make that trade.. Anyway, besides having too much gain for metal...but it's great for blues...any pregain settings over 7 lose that precise feel of playing...yet the tone doesn't really suffer. This makes it a great amp for lo-tech players, who need all the help they can get to get great sounds from their guitars...

It's a great amp...it's versitile as anything..the clean is great, the lead channel goes from slightly dirty to shred to a super molten, harmonically rich, blues lead ...too compressed and cluttered for shred playing, but great for heavier blues. This is something I really like..to make the amp really sing, and shred, with the pregain set below 7, requires one to have an exceptional guitar playing technique...this is a good thing..it keeps you practicing..so your guitar will scream and sing through any amp you play through.
Of course if you like super heavy gain..the L-13 will deliver, but it's not a fast responding amp..due to it's built in compression that is added to the pregain stages after the pregain is raised above 7. The amps dials read up to 13, so 7 is about the same as 4 on an SLO-100, in terms of gain. It's too expensive to be a fantastic value..but it's worth the money.

This amp was made whenever the Lucky 13 first came out, it's #oo25. Maybe 1999. The amp spits out 100 watts from 4 5881s. It has two channels with seperate EQs for each, and it shares a reverb yet has independant controls for it on each channel. It features no effects loop,and also no line out, an un-needed optional feature anyway. It is supplied with a footswitch that lights a red LED when in high gain channel.
I play a lot of styles of rock, and although this amp has about one third the lead gain as my Mesa Boogie, I can play all styles, from metal to jazz on the amp.
My friend needed a new amp, and I talked to him about getting a 2x12 combo L-13. He plays mostly jazz, both acoustic and electric. He thinks the L-13 is great for all of it.
This amp has all that I need for shows, rehearsals and recording, when I don't feel like hauling my rack stuff and I want to have more than a 50watt 1x12 combo. The 50watt Boogie is my at home practice amp and the one for spur of the moment gigs and jams.
100 watts is just the right amount of power, otherwise I would have gotten a 50 watt amp. As it is, I sold 2 50 watt amps and bought the L-13.
I only record the guitar miked through a loud amp. I've used other methods and there is no viable substitute. I don't use the line out or effects loops, and aside from the semi-annual use of wah, I don't use pedals, but I do use reverb yet only lightly. This amp is all and everything I need it for, that I would be needing to use an amp like this. I run it with a 2x12 tuned and ported cab.

I use a Gibson Les Paul with Fralins, a bunch of USA Jacksons and SanDimas Charvels with assorted pickups by Duncan, Evans, and Anderson, many of which are extensively modified by myself for improved tone and playability.
The amp sounds great. I play original music, in conventional styles like rock, jazz, metal,rock,rock,rock blues and rock.
The amp is mostly quiet on the clean channel and idles like a street racer on the hi gain channel. It's 60 cycle hum is potentially annoying but not really. Only a pansy would object to it.
Not all high gain amps are noisey, and this one doesn't hiss like the caps are going like most hot rodded Marshalls, but it's noisey, it's not quiet like my Boogie or my rack, and I never use noise gating ever, so I hear it when I am not playing the amp, or I switch to the clean channel or standby.
The clean channel offers a lot of headroom. The distortion is adequate, but that depends on your hands, it's not like PV saturation on a Bandit. No, you actually have to fret hard and pick hard if you want it to sing out like it would do easily if you were running an extra OD in front of it.
I like the amps high gain channel. You have to work harder to play fancy neoclassical metal stuff than you would on a Boogie or JCM-900, but it sounds damn good when you can do it.

I don't know, I have a friend who's known Mike Soldano for many years on good terms. I'd gig with it without a backup, I've never had a problem with any tube amp I've owned. I push the amps hard, and I've killed all the solid state amps I've played through. Tube amps are way more durable. Even the one's with notorious problems like the Musicman RD series. I had one of them for years, ran it dimed all the time. Practically only Bedrock amps actually break down more than solid state gear.

NA

I've been playing guitar since 1980, other music since 1970.
I own some other gear. About 12 guitars give or take a few and growing, mostly SanDimas Strat headstock Charvels(5) and USAJacksons(Down to only 2)A pair of Gibbys, one Warmouth George Lynch style.
I've lost track.
If it were stolen. Don't go there.
I don't love or hate material things, but I like the performance of the damn thing.
I didn't do any comparisons, I bought it because I wanted it. I have had other Soldano amps in the past. I already have Marshall and Boogie stuff. I needed a middle ground setup for gigs and recording and rehearsals. All of my amps are useable for everything. They do the things I need them to do.