Ketzer
Good news, everyone!
Soldano!
Swapped my E530 for a Modded SP-77 Series 2 with a guy on SS.org.
Took the amp apart, and fixed everything that was dodgy with it, switches, the jack, stuff like that, nothing serious. Fairly sure it's an MIJ, the USA Chassis is smaller, I believe.
The pre was modded by Egnater, added a 5th 12AX7 and increased the gain. The extra tube is photographed in one of the above photos. He also added a master volume on the back near the outputs.
first impression? This thing is loud as all hell. it can drive a 1x12 at bedroom volumes completely by itself. The clean channel is crystal clean, and the bright switch does what it's advertised to, but it's not really my style. the gain channel is to DIE for, though. Way more organic than the ENGL was, and with high-output pickups (and the mod) it easily gets into modern metal range. Gonna be running a tubescreamer into the front end, as well.
I need to work it into my rack, though. There's no rear input on the preamp, so I'll need to jury-rig something to hook up my ISP to it, but that's a minor snag. I might just install an auxiliary input in the back, the amp is already hacked up a bit so it's not like it'll hurt anything.
to add to the minimalist motif, I'm gonna dig up one of those old-school 90s labelmakers and use red tape. I can also make up some of my own names for the knobs.
EDIT: The amp jewel I found to replace the missing one is a bit too large. It's a replacement from a Triple Rectifier. Are all amp jewels the same size (forcing me to replace the pilot light assembly) or do different brands use slightly different specs?
Thanks a ton, Velocity! I've never owned a Soldano product before, and this has completely sold me on them.
Swapped my E530 for a Modded SP-77 Series 2 with a guy on SS.org.
Took the amp apart, and fixed everything that was dodgy with it, switches, the jack, stuff like that, nothing serious. Fairly sure it's an MIJ, the USA Chassis is smaller, I believe.
The pre was modded by Egnater, added a 5th 12AX7 and increased the gain. The extra tube is photographed in one of the above photos. He also added a master volume on the back near the outputs.
first impression? This thing is loud as all hell. it can drive a 1x12 at bedroom volumes completely by itself. The clean channel is crystal clean, and the bright switch does what it's advertised to, but it's not really my style. the gain channel is to DIE for, though. Way more organic than the ENGL was, and with high-output pickups (and the mod) it easily gets into modern metal range. Gonna be running a tubescreamer into the front end, as well.
I need to work it into my rack, though. There's no rear input on the preamp, so I'll need to jury-rig something to hook up my ISP to it, but that's a minor snag. I might just install an auxiliary input in the back, the amp is already hacked up a bit so it's not like it'll hurt anything.
to add to the minimalist motif, I'm gonna dig up one of those old-school 90s labelmakers and use red tape. I can also make up some of my own names for the knobs.
EDIT: The amp jewel I found to replace the missing one is a bit too large. It's a replacement from a Triple Rectifier. Are all amp jewels the same size (forcing me to replace the pilot light assembly) or do different brands use slightly different specs?
Thanks a ton, Velocity! I've never owned a Soldano product before, and this has completely sold me on them.
