Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo's

[charveljunkie]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

dinkyjacksonman & Firebird V,
Thanks guys [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
well its off to work till noon then I will head over and get the head.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Can't wait!
[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[charveljunkie]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

O.K. Were do I strat?
Got the Slo wired throught my set-up and turn it on
This was a 1999 head-if thats makes a difference I do not know? Anyway the amp sounded very good and tight but to me as I increased the gain it turned real muddy-hey just like a hot mod-anything past 5 or 6 sound like crap in my marshalls
Played around with the presence and treble,bass etc..
found a happy medium-the head is a little more bright/raspy than my marshalls-over-all the amp is a great amp-just not my cup of tea-now for guess what-A twist in the Marshall story
pulled out the rack searching going from one cable to another and so on finally the last thing I checked was the speaker cable coming from my power amp in my rack and low and behold the positive and negative leads were touching and shorting out on the metal amp chasis-well reseated the leads fire up the 800-its back [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]
well I did get to check out a killer amp and I probably will get run through the ringer but I a/b the heads and my Marshall has the same amount of gain but had a more rounded sound with better bottom end-the Marshall was more smooth and less-(I hate this word)-chainsaw sounding
it could just be me but I only worked with the slo for 4-5 hours and I found some great sounds just not what I was looking for.As for the carver power amd that things history and I will be replacing it with what Bob told me to get in the first place a Vht 2/90/2 1/4 inch input and outputs-no more stripping the wires twisting them around the post and locking the screw down-crappy design in my book
Oh yeah-I did put the other (smoked) hot mod w/ a new 6k11 tube in it and it still is dead [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
But for now the 800 is back and breathing fire [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
I will still be looking for a different amp-maybe Bogner etc.. Just to have as a different flavor-who knows
[img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[Chuckracer]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

It got muddy? SLOs are well known for their articulation at high gain settings.
Sounds like it needs tubes to me.

[charveljunkie]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Chuckracer,
just when the gain was yanked on 10-hot mods do the same I was talking about the distortion get to mushy?-is that a word? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

cool review charveljunky [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] I think I can understand where you are coming from. If you use the JCM 800 as a base for everything else, other amps are harder to get used to and take a lot of time. The punch and clarity is usually what comes to my mind. The higher gain amps seem to have too much hair (for lack of a better word) around the lead tones. I can only speak from my experience but other stuff that I have and tried out I initially tried to make it sound like a JCM 800 to begin with [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] when the only thing that does is the real thing. I end up using the different amps for what I do like about them individually after spend some time and getting used to them. I actually get away from A/B'ing them because I won't find true voice of the other amp [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] once I did that and I started to love the tone of other amps (VHT and Mesa).

I'm really liking the Bogner clips of the Shiva and XTC's, that would be my choice if I were spending SLO kinda moneyt right now tho [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[charveljunkie]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Shawn Lutz,
The slo is a great amp just not my pleasure.
After finding the short the 800 came back to life and sounded fine.My buddy brought the slo to me ended saying hell the Marshall sounds bet-just as good no need spending the extra cash-we both agreed [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[parntz145]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Now all you have to do to get the ultimate tone is send it off to Cameron for the mod. I dont know chuchracer, looks like my ears are not to tone deaf afterall.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

I'm not suggesting you're deaf to tone, Paul, but I AM suggesting that this used SLO tested here may need tubes before you dismiss it.

BTW, anything over 7 on the preamp is silly. You don't need to crank it.

[parntz145]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Hey Chuck, im just messing with you. Figuerd I throw a little comment back at you. I know they are great heads, just not my taste.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Charveljunkie!
Nice review.
Glad you tried it and tested it.
Everyone has different opinions and that is normal.
Only the way to find out is to try by yourself.

Good luck!

[charveljunkie]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

dinkyjacksonman,
Thanks I was giving the amp my honest ear an honest take on the heads [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
I was kinda of hesitant to post my reply because I figured I would get slammed by the soldano guys,but the soldano is a great amp just not for me [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

If you love your Marshall amps, I would say stick with them and maybe good idea to try different Marshall amps.
That would be better than trying somewthing completelly different.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Well, I'd swap the tubes out for new SED Svets for sure before getting too bummed out.

As well as bearing in mind that a new amp isn't always plug and play no matter how simple it may seem. When I bought bought my CAE3+se, I was really bummed with it and both Bill and I considered it as being a bad purchase and that it would never sound good for our needs. It was flubby and dull sounding. Well, after a while of playing with it, changing tubes etc, I found it to be the best thing I've ever heard in person. Just took some dialing time, and they are certainly different animals than the Marshalls, so the general dial in stuff that always works for a Marshall may not necessarily work well with the SLO.

Also, these high end amps are EXTREMELY interactive in the controls (especially between preamp and output etc) , much moreso than with a lesser priced amp, and these things can take some time to sort out sometimes. But, the payoff can be great.

Then again, you just may not really like it after all! But, don't be hasty and give up on it too quickly. I almost did with my CAE, and I'd say if I would have ditched it too soon, I'd have really missed out on the best tone I've ever had.

Good luck!

[Firebird V]

Re: Hot Rodded Marshalls vs. Soldano slo\'s

Sounds like you liked it to me but it just did not justify spending the extra scratch... Good honest review from your perspective. I would not think the few of us that are SLO users would flame you for not liking something. Most of the kats that hang out around here don't crucify you for not liking something that they think is the be all end all.

Hopefully the wires crossing was the reason for the Hot Mod frying on you. Maybe you can open it up and see what fried. It Might be an easy fix... It can't get any more broken so...