by Chris Gill [As reprinted from Maximum Guitar]

SOLDANO'S LEGENDARY SLO-100 amplifier is to guitarists what a Rolex is to a businessman. Functional, reliable and elegant, both are symbols of taste and success. This amp has found its way into the rigs of the world's greatest guitarists, legendary players such as Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Gary Moore and Mark Knopfler, and has permanently established Michael Soldano's reputation as a world-class amp designer.

As you might expect, that outstanding tone came at an out-of-this-world price. But over the last few years, the company has concentrated on making the stellar Soldano sound available at a price that mere mortals could afford. The Hot Rod 50, a single-channel, 50-watt head, was the first such enterprise, and recently Soldano introduced a few low-wattage combo models that broke the $1,000 price barrier while still providing that priceless Soldano tone. But Soldano's newest model, the Decatone, is their first amp that can go head-to-head with their top-of-the-line model in terms of sound quality, versatility and, most important, cost.

Whereas the SLO-100 is a two-channel amp, the Decatone head has three channels. Lately, three-channel amps have become the workhorse for performing guitarists who want a lot of different sounds and control on stage but don't want to bother with hauling around a complicated arsenal of equipment. But whereas many three-channel amps look more like a command center for Mission Control, the Decatone features a simple, uncluttered array of knobs and switches. There are separate preamp and volume controls and a Bright switch for each of the three channels (Clean, Crunch and Overdrive), a single EQ section (Bass, Middle and Treble), and Master Presence, Depth and Volume controls. All three channels share a single set of EQ controls, so the Decatone won't exactly allow you to dial in drastically different sounds for each channel. But because each channel has a distinct character, it's easy to approximate the sound you want by carefully adjusting the channel's volume and preamp controls.

The heart of the Decatone is its four 5881 power amp tubes, which provide a healthy 100-watts of output with ample headroom--even at exceptionally loud volumes. These tubes are noted for their crystalline clean tone as well as rich, supple distortion characteristics, enabling the Decatone to generate a wide variety of desirable tones. These include a punchy, tight, clean sound that rivals a mid-Sixties Blackface Twin; a honking blues tone with all the warmth and fullness of a Tweed, 4x10 Bassman (but with tighter bottom-end); a snarling, roaring crunch similar to a plexi Marshall; and the bold, harmonically complex distortion that is the signature of a Soldano amp.

In addition to each channel's Bright switches and three EQ controls, the Decatone features Master Presence and Depth controls. While most guitarists are familiar with the treble-sweetening characteristics of a presence control, depth is a feature that only recently started appearing on amps. The Decatone's depth control does for bass what a presence control does for treble. You can adjust the amp's overall bass response to be as tight and focused or loose and diffused as you please. This feature is particularly useful since it allows you to get a consistent sound even when you're using the amp with different speaker cabinets.

The Decatone's back-panel controls are as straightforward those on the front. There are two speaker output jacks, an impedance switch with 4-, 8- and 16-ohm settings, a jack for the amp's Decatrol footswitch controller and an effects loop section featuring send and return jacks, and a mix control. The effects loop is parallel, which means that you can mix the processed signal with the amp's dry signal. This provides greater tonal definition than serial loops, which send the entire pre-amp signal through the processor, potentially degrading tone. The volume controls for each channel are used to adjust the effects Ioop's send level.

Individual push-button selectors for each channel make the Decatone extremely simple to operate. The amp also comes with the Decatrol footswitch controller, allowing you to select channels in any order you please. Additionally, the footswitch controller and front-panel buttons are illuminated with LEDs (separate colors for each channel), making it easy to distinguish which channel is engaged.

We auditioned the Decatone though two different closed-back 4x12 cabinets--one with 30-watt Celestions and the other With 70-watt Celestions. The amp sounded great through both, but the 70-watt speakers were best suited to high volume clean tones and tight, bassy, metal rhythm playing. The 30-watters, on the other hand, supplied outstanding blues and distorted, single-note lead tones. The amp's midrange is impressive through both cabinets, providing a vocal-like, focused sound that's sure to cut through the thickest mix of instruments. While many amps sound good in a solitary context, the Decatone is voiced to sound its best with a band.

Although the Decatone may not be the most feature-laden three-channel amp on the market, it makes up for its lack of bells and whistles with its exceptional sounds and ease of use. Its three channels basically provide three outstanding sounds with varying degrees of distortion. Whereas many three-channel amps seem designed for musicians who play in Top 40 bands and need a reasonable facsimile of numerous sounds, the Decatone is better suited towards guitarists more concerned with sounding like themselves than someone else. It's a perfect example of why Soldano amps have found their way into the rigs of some of the world's most original and distinctive guitarists.