I have been Jonesing for a Soldano SLO and wonder if there is anything that can be done to achieve this before I spend $3.5K.
I already have a Mercury Magnetics OT installed, would replacing the PT and adding a MM choke get me closer?
thanks,
Technically... no. You might be able to dial in something that sounds close, but the two amps are actually more different than is sometimes claimed.
While it's true that the early preamp section (the first three gain stages) of the Dual Rectifier is an almost direct copy of the SLO, after that it gets quite different. Next, the SLO has two DC-coupled cathode-follower sections, in series. The first one drives the FX loop - which FWIW is a bad place to put the loop, since it's too early in the circuit, at too high a signal level and before a significant part of the distortion, which comes from the second one - but is in circuit all the time. The second is like the Mesa and drives the tone stack. The Mesa then has its (switchable) FX loop after this instead, which is a much better place for it - but where the cathode-follower is not DC-coupled and doesn't distort in normal settings.
IMO it's the cascaded cathode-follower stages which give the SLO a lot of its harmonic 'aliveness' and distortion-on-distortion but still with definition sound. The Hot Rod and Avenger do use them as well.
I agree that's a great thing to do, but was the whole loop section (including the tube) moved to after the tone stack, or just the loop jacks? IMO the best way to do it - and I can't understand why the amp was not designed like this in the first place - is just to move the loop jacks, leaving the two cathode-followers in their original arrangement... which of course doesn't affect the sound. The tone stack driver will handle driving the loop as well.I don't agree. I had my SLO modified. Now the loop is after the tone stack and vastly different from what it was before in order to handle pedals etc. Fortunately, the head still sounds the same as before the mod but now the loop is usable.
Removing the loop does not involve removing the cathode-follower section, it just means removing the connections to the jacks and probably wouldn't change the tone very much (though maybe a little).Secondly, a well-known SLO mod is to remove the loop alltogether and it makes it sound even better right away. So the tone doesn't come from the cascade cathode-follower/original loop arrangement.
I agree, which is why it's the cathode-follower section which is likely to be the biggest reason - it's the major difference between the two circuits. The Dual Rectifier is not a copy of the SLO - as is sometimes claimed - even though the early sections of the preamp are very closely so.Also, I have an older 2-channel dual rec and there is no way to make it sound like a SLO. Not even close. Not even in the same ballpark at all.
It's the loop driver that's part of the tone (that's the cathode-follower stage I was talking about). If you don't have the loop, the only difference will be that the signal path doesn't go through a small amount of cabling and the contacts in the jacks. It is possible that this will change the tone, but the only thing it's likely to do is make it a tiny bit brighter.To Jack Luminous and John Phillips.
If you get the SLO loop mod done or order ir without the loop will it defo sound the same? I always heard that the crappy loop was part of the tone![]()