Next in our series, I’m going to skip to
the opposite end of my signal chain to one of my favorite amplifiers.
This would be my trusty Soldano® Astroverb. Michael Soldano is best known for building
such fire breathing, high gain masterpieces as the SLO-100 and other amplifiers
for the likes of Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits fame), Lou Reed
and even the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Soldano is always on the quest for the ultimate in guitar tone by using
the best parts available and a near obsessive attention to detail.
I know most of you are saying to
yourselves, why would this idiot use a high gain amp for church music? Well, you could blame it on the fact that I
grew up musically in the ‘80’s and everyone that I ever wanted to emulate as a
guitar player used some kind of high gain amplifier and being the sinful, but
forgiven, human that I am, that is what I chose. Honestly, when I bought it, I never thought
that God would bring me to a place as a guitar player that would put me in
front of a congregation playing with a worship group. As God’s providence would take over, my
choice of a high gain amplifier for use around my home turns into a very
flexible and useful amplifier for use in a worship group setting.
The Astroverb itself is a 20 watt,
single channel amplifier powered by two EL84 power tubes with four 12AX7 preamp
tubes and a fifth 12AX7 to power the spring reverb. My example is the 1 X 12 Combo with the
12inch Eminence speaker and white snakeskin cabinet covering (it goes back to
the ‘80’s rock child in me). It is also
available in a 2 X 12 combo and head version.
On the front panel following the input jack from the left hand side are
black, chicken head knobs that control the preamp (gain), reverb, bass, middle,
treble, volume (master) and presence; listed from left to right. All controls are labeled clearly in black
screen print on a white background and range from 0-11. There is a single power on switch on the far
right past the presence control. This
was one of the first of the newer generation of smaller, low wattage tube amps
to come out, I believe, that bring versatility to the genre. Before this would the mainly amps like the
Fender Champ, Princeton, Deluxe Reverb, the Vox AC-15 / AC-30 or the early
Marshall 18 watt, all great amps even in their reissued forms, but most have
their limitations (all amps do) or their quirks in tone that don’t endear
themselves to my ears. Mostly is that
their design requires you to crank the volume to force the amp to generate its
trademark tone, this can be a drawback in a worship setting.
The preamp and volume controls are the
meat of where this amp gets its versatility.
The key is combining the two controls in such a way to get the desired
amount of distortion from the amp.
Setting the preamp gain high and the volume low, gives you a tone
reminiscent of the mighty flagship SLO-100 with lots of gain and distortion
that is harmonically rich an stands well with its hard rock breeding. Setting the preamp gain low (around 2) and
the master volume around 9 or higher presents a nice clean tone more along the
lines of a Vox® or lower powered Marshall® amplifier.
Very smooth and almost glassy, but with a warmth and mild note of gain
when pushed with a humbucker equipped guitar.
With a single channel amplifier there is a give and take when setting
the gain on this little beast in that there is limited headroom in the amp’s
circuit before the tubes generate distortion or overdrive (a common compromise
in any small tube amplifier). Some will
say to set the amp toward the overdriven side and use your pick technique and
the guitar’s volume to back off the input and clean up the amp tone. Unfortunately, I have not been able to master
these techniques well enough to use them effectively on the fly. My alternative is to set the gain and volume
as clean as I can given the situation and use a boost or overdrive simulate a
second channel for the distorted tone.
My favorite tone from the Astroverb at
this point is with the preamp set at 2 and the master volume at about 6 or
7. This setting gives me a warm clean
sound with humbucker equipped guitars and a sweet clean tone with single coil
guitars that still has a note of gain to it and it responds well to the gain
boost from the Visual Sound Route 66 overdrive on my pedal board. Since most of my guitars seem to be a little
heavy in the midrange frequencies, I tend to set the tone controls slightly
scooped with the bass and treble set to around 6 and the middle to about
4. Then I add a little brightness to the
overall sound with the presence control set around 5 to 6, generally five for
single coil guitars and six for humbuckers.
While this is a great amp, very
versatile for many styles, there are a few things that I do feel could make
this piece better for my tastes. One
would be the addition of an effects loop which would allow someone to run their
effects post the preamp section of the amplifier and provide for a cleaner
effected sound versus driving them through the preamp. This is not to say that the Astroverb does
not take well to pedals, but that I prefer the sound of some pedals (chorus,
delay, phase etc) after the preamp gain.
Another change that I would like to see is a two channel version that
would allow clean and distorted sounds to be preset and foot-switchable without
the aid of an overdrive or distortion pedal.
The natural sounds from this amp are really sweet individually and being
able to switch between them would really increase the overall flexibility of
this amp for playing styles such as mine.
Lastly, I would like to see the addition of a standby switch to put the
amp in idle mode between sets.
Overall, this is a fine amp for the
worship setting. It seems to live and
thrive in the tones that are not completely clean and not raging thrash metal
distorted. The lower power rating keeps
the stage volume down to a manageable level, it mates up well with most pedals
that I have used with it, it works well with both single coil and humbucker
equipped guitars and it puts out a great sound reminiscent of a small 18-watt
Marshall or early Mark I Boogie.
Next
time we will start the trail from the guitar to my amp through the pedal board,
and explore the effects and settings I use for creating textures through sound.
At the end of the day, the one thing
that really matters is that your daily worship points those around you, not to
you, your wisdom, your glory or your greatness; but to the redemptive work of
Christ on the cross.
·
Psalm 89:1 – “I
will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever:
with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.”
God Bless,
D.K. Sears
Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)
Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works
