Soldano 44

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 Rock. Scott is feeling his inner head-banger.

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.

The Voodoo 5F2H Amp at Work

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.

Click here for the sound clip.

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.

The most important tube in your amp? The Phase Inverter!

Everything you ever wanted to know about the phase inverter tube in your amp. A very good article on tube amps.

Joe's Blues Blog

My buddy Joe Lempkowski from the East Bay has spiffed up his blues blog and posted some great new stuff. In this post Joe does a killer set at the Redwood City Blues Jam at the Little Fox Theater, showing off his good chops on a Sonny Jr. Cruncher amp. His regular gig rig is a HarpGear Double Trouble amp. Joe also posts a review of a Skip Simmons-modded Masco MA-17 harp amp. Go check it out.