Soldano Astroverb

The Astroverb is Soldano's 20 watt, single channel, El84 based offering. The amp has onboard reverb and comes in a variety of tolex options. I owned a neon green version that looked stunning.

UTILIZATION

I found it very easy to dial in a number of great sounds with the Astroverb. The amp responds decently well with your guitar's volume allowing you to get both clean(ish) and high gain sounds from it's single channel design. I paired the head with both a 1x12 soldano cab as well as a 4x12 mesa cab with good results.

SOUNDS

Played through a Music Man Axis, Gibson Sg Standard, and a Les Paul Traditional Pro. No pedals.

The cleans are very chimey. The reverb can get a little out of control quickly on the dial but when set conservatively , added a nice flavor to chords and arpeggios. The amp enters Thin Lizzy territory around 11 o' clock on the dial. Pushing the gain past noon allows for some great 80's tones. I personally favored the amp at around 2 o'clock on the gain. Single note passages soared and had a near-magical quality in the mid range. The amp is very loud. At 3 on the dial (10 o' clock) the amp was already nearing giggable volumes. The amp seemed to lose a noticeable amount of it's clarity past 3. This was experienced on the 4x12 cab. The 1x12 tested seemed to sound a lot more articulate at low volumes but I did not bring the volume as high as with the 4x12.

OVERALL OPINION

The Astroverb is a very fun amp to play. It is extremely simple to dial in and sounds amazing at low volumes. I feel that if mic'd up properly, this amp could sound great in a live environment. but on it's own I feel it lacks clarity at gigging volumes. You can find the Astroverb for around $799 used. With the Mesa Rectoverb and the Marshall JCM2000 series in this same used price range (both of which offering multiple channels), the Soldano is not the strongest contender. Tonally speaking however, the amp is more than adequate.