by Greg Grant [As reprinted from GUITAR May 1998]
A bout three years ago, Michael Soldano found himself at a crossroads. Known as a boutique maker of high-end/high-gain amps used by a number of professionals - including Eric Clapton and Lou Reed -- Soldano needed to expand his company's image in order to capture a market he had been missing. He wanted to build a handmade, all-tube 1x12 combo amp that would retail under $900, but also wanted to capture the sound his other, more expensive amps, were known for. Enter the Astroverb 16, an all-tube combo, which is just as comfortable practicing in the upstairs bedroom as it is rocking out on-stage.
The Astroverb 16 offers the same price and accessible features as the Atomic, while giving players the use of a tube-buffered Accutronics reverb. Housed in a seven-ply birch cabinet, the Astroverb 16 boasts 20 watts of all-tube power (shouldn't it be called the Astroverb 20 then?). Anyway, the amp's preamp section consists of five 12AX7A tubes with two EL84 power tubes. Soldano has chosen classic black stovetop-style knobs for its control panel and, yes, cats, like all Soldanos, the controls on this little guy go to 11. The amp incorporates simple to follow PC board technology for its circuitry, and the control panel consists of preamp, reverb, bass, middle, treble, and presence knobs with one 1/4" input. The rear of the amp has a three-prong AC power cord, a two-amp SIo-Blo fuse, two 16-ohm speaker outputs and a 12" Soldano speaker, custom made by Eminence to Soldano's specs.
Plugging into the Astroverb 16 with my vintage Les Paul, I soon found out that this amp was more rock-oriented than, say, country-oriented, since it starts to break up pretty quick and generate some cool overdrive sounds (hey, it's only 20 watts--if you want a "clean" amp with lots of headroom, go for something with a larger power section). That said, I was still able to push the clean sound a little bit further by plugging in a G&L ASAT and turning down the treble, so there are definitely a variety of usable clean textures with this amp. And although it's not going to generate as much stage volume as a 100-watt Marshall, you can still easily mic it up and use the Astroverb for gigging--plenty of players do it, believe me. Obviously, this pint-sized Soldano also lends itself brilliantly to studio work. But overall, it really shines in its ability to capture ballsy blues crunch and ripping metal overdrive--a longtime Soldano trademark.
Pushing the preamp a little past 3, moving the bass up to 7, while keeping the middle around 3 and the treble at 6, the Astroverb yielded a very "breathy" and "soulful" blues sound similar to a '60s 50-watt Marshall Plexi. I particularly liked the way the P-90 in my Junior sounded on this setting, but was equally impressed with the more nasal tone of the ASAT. Moving the preamp up to 8, while pushing the treble to 8 as well, yielded my favorite sound. Great for overdriven open chords and in tandem with a line boost or overdrive pedal for leads--a nice, heavy-duty rock sound.
Moving the preamp up to 11 and plugging a Marshall 1x12 extension cab into the external speaker output transported me to Meltdown City. The extra 12" speaker really opened up the Astroverb's sonic capabilities, making it sound much bigger and adding much more bass to the low end. This is especially nice for hardcore/metal applications using the easily movable drop-D chords. The amp's sustain was excellent, but the sound became a little thin sounding for my tastes anytime the bass had a setting lower than 7, especially at higher volumes. The presence control is also a nice feature. I preferred it at a lower setting, but pushing it past 6 gives an edgy, solid-state feel to the amp's distortion characteristics -- good for trying to achieve that Dimebag Darrell attack.
In closing, if you're looking for a very portable, all-American, all-tube, hand-built amplifier with reverb, but don't want to spend more than $900, the Astroverb 16 could be your dream machine.