Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

[hippietim]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

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John what does it have in it as far as preamp tubes go?

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It has little glowing glass thingees.

[hippietim]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

Bah, before you spend another nickel on this setup, test the preamp with a few more power amps - any head with an effects return should work. Try plugging it into the return of that 3203, 5150, etc.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

I would tend to agree with this, too. That Carvin may be neutering the Soldano.

[Soloist1]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

Not all the little glowing glass thingies are built a like. Some can give you that canned ass sound mentioned above. Definitely try different power amps first though. If that doesn't work and you want to experiment put a 5751 in v1. I like the RCA ones. And Soldano's as I've found love Mullard's for some reason. v2-v4 would be good sockets for those. I usually don't recommend GT tubes, but the new GT12ax7-M is a Mullard copy that is pretty close at a lower price. You could probably get some off eBay even cheaper than GT sells them for. The EQ section of the sp77 just sucks. One tone knob always seems to have an effect on the other. Once you find a spot that you kind of like it's best to leave it there and make the changes on your EQ that is in the chain after the sp77.

[jgcable]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

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Not all the little glowing glass thingies are built a like. Some can give you that canned ass sound mentioned above. Definitely try different power amps first though. If that doesn't work and you want to experiment put a 5751 in v1. I like the RCA ones. And Soldano's as I've found love Mullard's for some reason. v2-v4 would be good sockets for those. I usually don't recommend GT tubes, but the new GT12ax7-M is a Mullard copy that is pretty close at a lower price. You could probably get some off eBay even cheaper than GT sells them for. The EQ section of the sp77 just sucks. One tone knob always seems to have an effect on the other. Once you find a spot that you kind of like it's best to leave it there and make the changes on your EQ that is in the chain after the sp77.

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Great suggestions and I will be trying all of them.

[kennslp]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

John,


The SP77 currently has Electro Harmonix 12AX7's all around. I'd be interested to hear what she sounds like with other tubes, as I put those in when I first got her.

-Kenn

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

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I never thought of that preamp as having a ton of low end. That wasn't exactly the focus at the time it was designed and it does what was going on at the time pretty well. Nothing some creative EQ-ing won't help a bit. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I hear you on that. I am going to start researching good EQ's both parametric and graphic. I was also thinking that BBE might be worth looking into. I have room for 2 more 1RMS units.

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Not a fan of the BBE's with quality amps like this. They never seem to do positive things with them. Their corrective abilities seem to do best with lesser equipment and hinder the better equipment (IMO).

I've tried a LOT of Paramtrics. As I've mentioned afew times, TC-1140 and Furman PQ-3s are where I have ended up at. With the TC being a cleaner, quieter, more transparent unit, and the Furman being noisier, and posessing a unique character that it imparts upon the signal even when turned of in some rigs! haha... Can be nice, can be not that nice, just depends.

I can say that the Behringer was a horrible pice that I could happily recommend against.

[Soloist1]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

I definitely have to agree with John on the BBE's. I love them for SS gear. But I bought one and tried it with the sp77/mesa2020 rig and couldn't stand it there. It really makes the tone sound to over processed.

[jgcable]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

I am bailing out on this rig for a while. I need time to retube and research and figure out what the heck I am doing. I can't gig with this set up yet.
The main reason is a flubby bottom end that I can't seam to dial out. Here is what is happening:
The more I turn up the power amp the more midrange and highs I get. The more I turn up the Soldano the more bottom end and punch I get. When I find a happy medium between the 2 the bottom end is too loose and flubby. Palm muting sounds like canned ass. I tried tweaking it with the 31 band EQ but had no luck. I tried removing the 31 band EQ but it still isn't cutting it. I'll figure it out but as of right now with a gig tomorrow night I am defaulting to my road proven GT-6 which kills bugs dead night after night whether I am at home, at practice or at the gig.

[Soloist1]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

A KT tubed power amp might help that John. If you feel like doing a lot of de-soldering and soldering adding metal film 1% resistors helps also. But that's a huge pain in the ass. I did it to one of the ones I had to fix some half ass mod someone did. The metal film also helps fix the EQ section a bit. One knob change doesn't seem to affect the others as much.

[hippietim]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

Hmmm...I ended up selling my SP-77 but I can honestly say that with a 2150 it wasn't hard at all to dial in some very good tones. I seriously think you need to just pop that sucker into some other power sections.

[jgcable]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

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Hmmm...I ended up selling my SP-77 but I can honestly say that with a 2150 it wasn't hard at all to dial in some very good tones. I seriously think you need to just pop that sucker into some other power sections.

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Tim, I tried it with the 3203 and it did sound different. I wish I had other power amps to try.
What would you suggest regarding poweramps in the $300-$400 range used?
Another thing Tim... how is that Triple Giant? I heard a clip of one on the Voodoo website and it killed. Thats the tone I'm talking about. I read an article stating that Hafler did a crappy job copying the original Bogner Triple Giant but the clip I heard of the Hafler was KILLER.

[hippietim]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

The Triple Giant is very good stock - I think it is an absolute steal in the world of rack preamps. Put it to you this way, I was going to sell my SP77 and JMP-1 and use the Hafler. Then I got the Brunetti and it is just stellar. Oddly enough, I've decided to keep the JMP-1 and use it for the straight up Marshall tones along side the Brunetti. I am getting a switcher router that will allow me to run these in parallel or series or whatever.

I am considering sending my JMP-1 up for the Voodoo mods. We'll see.

[hippietim]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

BTW, I liked the Triple Giant better with the Marshall 9200 better than the 2150.

[jgcable]

Re: Soldano SP-77/Carvin T100 review..

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BTW, I liked the Triple Giant better with the Marshall 9200 better than the 2150.

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Thanks Tim. That T3 would sure look good in my rack and I have exactly 2RMS left for it! hmm...