Soldano ASTROVERB 16 Head Overview

[RobB]

I did a local trade of a Mesa Subway Blues combo for a Soldano Astroverb 16 head. The Subway was a good amp with some cool features, but I'm just not an open-back-cab kinda guy, I reckon. I'm pairing the AV16 with a 1x12" Bogner cube.

The Astroverb 16 is a 16w, EL84 head. One input, two (unrated) speaker outs, no effects loop. It features a very lush, 3-spring reverb tank. I rarely bring the reverb above 4. Anything more, you have to turn up the presence control to keep the sound tight. I was a bit distressed when I got the amp home from the store, as there was a noticeable hum as the reverb is turned up. "Noticeable", meaning "amp unusable", LOL! A new set of JJs helped a little, so I emailed Soldano about a fix.

Mike himself answered my questions in a very nice email explaining that the proximity of the output transformer to the reverb tank makes this problem hard to avoid (this is not a problem on the AV16 combos, as the tank is isolated at the bottom of the cabinet). He stated that each head is different in regards to the hum, which is why they place the reverb pan in a veclro bag so they can move it around the cabinet before securing it. I took the head to local tech, Hal, at Guitronics and he did a few things, including incasing the pan in a metal shield. It's MUCH better now, and only hums if the verb is really cranked.

In another thread, I posted I was using an OD box before the AV16. That didn't last long. At practice I had a chance to open it up and, holy crap, this amp has all the gain/balls I could ask for. Very tight "roar" that compresses nicely when the preamp is turned up. It cleans up beautifully by backing off the guitar volume, yay! The volume doesn't diminish, only the overdrive. I was able to coax some Vox-y tones out of this thing. Looking forward to winding up my 12str with the Janglebox through it.

In closing, this was an excellent purchase. It's very touch-sensitive and has plenty of volume. It's a bright amp so I rarely run the presence past "5" or so. I know "low-wattage" amps are trending these days, but I see the benefit of backing off the preamp gain and letting the power tubes bark. 

[ptm1diver]

Congrats,

I have a Soldano Lucky 13 100 watt combo.  The reverb howls, or feedbacks, when you crank it up.  I used longer cables from the amp to the reverb bag/tank and placed the tank outside of cabinet on top at first, then in a separate box.  No howl at all. 

Hope this helps.  And, I spoke to Mike, he is a super cool person do work with.

[Jeff R]

I gigged an Astroverb head driving a Boogie Thiele 1x12 cab for a while nearly 20 years ago. The magic dial-in for my tastes on the power amp is "6" and then I'd adjust gain and eq around that. Of course, that's if the situation can tolerate/deal with the volume. The amp ate EL84s like Cheetos with the power section burning like that, but man did it sound good. And that volume/tone was HUGE, HUGE, HUGE in the studio. I can't tell you how many times I laid an initial scratch track as a synch for drums, for bass, whatever, and the scratch dummy ended up as "the" track or the base coat on what ended up the final mix. Probably the best hard rock tones of my own I've ever captured on tape. If another AV head presented itself to me at a great price, I'd get it in a heartbeat even though I have no "need" for it anymore. That much of an MVP piece of gear.

Edited to add I never noticed any noise with the reverb, but I didn't seek surfy dwell/echos with it. Always very little if any.