My bandmate in Roadhouse Joe, guitarist Scott Mishoe, bought a very cool little amp from Soldano sold only through Blues City Music near Memphis. The Soldano 44 is a 50-watt 1x12 amp, driven by two Sovtek 5881 power tubes and five (!) 12AX7 preamp tubes. Needless to say, this is one high-gain puppy.
He opted for the matching extension cab, so this rig is a neat little stack. The tone is Marshall-ish to my ear, and very musical and colorful. The dynamics are exceptional.
I was helping Scott dial the amp in when I recorded these short clips:
Soldano 44 Blues. Scott noodles around with some blues licks, trying various guitar settings. Nice tone; no effects.
Soldano 44 Harp. I plugged in without changing any settings, and the result was nasty. I do not mean that in a good way. Great guitar amps don’t always make good harp amps.
Here is a short clip of the 5F2H amp at band practice. The drummer took a break and the guitarist started jamming on some slow blues. You can hear me asking what key.
In this configuration the 5F2H amp has the Mojotone speaker and a TAD 6L6WGC STR power tube. It's not mic'ed and I'm not using any effects. The recording was made with the Zoom H4 field recorder in the corner of the room.
My 5F2H amp came with a Mojotone MP12R alnico speaker installed, a fine guitar speaker but not my favorite for harp. I removed it and ordered a 12F125-O speaker from Weber, the shallow ceramic magnet giving a little more room for the big KT66 power tube hanging down behind the speaker.
I installed the Weber speaker and heard some really ugly ghost notes, so I discussed this with Ted Weber and he suggested a slightly beefier ceramic speaker with light dope on the cone surround. This speaker too had some really obnoxious overtones. Take a listen here. Ugly, eh? Ted said he didn’t know what was causing all this. He immediately offered to refund all my money including shipping costs.
I took the amp to a pro tech who could not find any ghost notes on the scope. When I tried other speakers in the cab it sounded fine. When I played it through my 2x10 cab with two Weber alnico speakers it sounded great. It must be something about ceramic speakers combined with that amp, my mic, and my honking playing style. Weird.
So I put the Mojotone speaker back into the amp and took it to band practice. Here is a short clip of the 5F2H recorded with a portable Zoom H4 digital recorder sitting off to the side in the rehearsal studio. The amp volume is on 9 (out of 12) and the tone is darkened, maybe on 3 or 4. Line out to the PA; you're hearing both the amp and the PA.
-The recording (and the playing) does not do the amp justice. The tone is tremendous… warm and hairy.
-In this recording the amp is using a 6L6 STR power tube, since the KT66 won’t fit behind an alnico speaker. I’ll try a 6V6 soon. I’ll also try the KT66 with a GZ34 rectifier when I find a good ceramic speaker that works in this amp
-The line out on this amp sounds very good. I tried it into the PA and it had all the dirt and character of the amp. Impressive. (I don’t think the stock Weber 5F2H amp comes with a line out.)
-The line out is a good thing because at 8 watts the amp is just not loud enough for gigging unless you are playing in a low-intensity ensemble.
This 5F2H differs from the standard Weber kit because it has a bigger 5E3 cab and a 12-inch speaker. I’ve played the standard amp with the smaller cab and speaker and it is an exceptional harp amp. I recommend it without any reservations. The alnico Weber fits in the original cab and sounds perfect. The configuration of my particular 5F2H has some voodoo in it. But, hey… It’s a tube amp with a primitive circuit. A little voodoo might be a good thing.
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In this pic you can see the Copper Cap 5Y3 SS rectifier on the left, and the 6L6 STR power tube nearly touching the Mojo magnet in the center. The 10-inch speaker in the standard 5F2H does not extend back so far, so there are no clearance issues.
