by Greg Grant [As reprinted from GUITAR May 1998] 

About 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. 

This comment was borrowed from Harmony Central. It was in reference to a 2 x12 Combo but the author also owns a 1 x 12 Combo.

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The basic concept for the Astroverb goes back to the 50's to the era of simple 1 channel amps, and using your volume control and pick to thin or fatten the tone you use. Astro's are one of the best small club gigging amps ever made. They will run a 2X12" extension or a 16ohm 4X12" cabinet like a dream as well. If you need more sheer volume, mic it, but for all out tone, note definition, and soul these little gems are very hard to beat. Simple means simple! Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Reverb, no loop, no line out (other than the spare speaker out).

If you play heavier rock-visa-ve "Metallica, et-al" the stock tube configuration will suit you just fine, and all you need to do is just use the pre-amp gain and master to dial in the basic crunch tone you want. If you are like me, I play the blues almost exclusively and I prefer a cleaner tone at higher volumes. The stock tube configuration is lacking a bit in this style of music with an Astro, so what you need to look at is replacing the 2nd through 5th 12AX7A tubes with 12AT7's. Personally I like the NOS Phillips tubes, but hey! everyone has their favorites right? Leave the 1st. 12AX7A in place. It drives the first gain stage and maintains the overall preamp gain.

What you get using this configuration is alot more clean headroom and a smoother gain from the preamp section for the style of music. If you have the tubes to play with, try this and you'll see what I'm talking about. Soldano amps are like no other amp out there. Mike is good at what he does, and if you are a competant player the first thing you notice about these amps is that they are NOT a practice amp. Don't let size fool you. The voicing on all Soldano amps is extremely precise and non forgiving. If you play sloppy and miss notes the amp will not cover for you with the traditional "basement overtones" that most amps have. You're all alone and your gonna stick out like dogs balls from the rest of the group because the articulation is so clear with a Soldano amp.

Bottom line is this, alot of you have checked out an Astroverb Combo, liked it, hated it, or thought it might not be quite enough power for clubbing - whatever. I suggest that you dig yours out of the closet, or go visit the friend you sold yours too and check it out again with the above tube configuration. I've been gigging with one for 4 years now and I'm really pleased with every aspect of this little amp. I just had to figure out what tubes worked best, and practice rolling my volume knob to increase or reduce the crunch I needed. Too bad they are not being made anymore, but they were extremely expensive for Mike to produce in the price range they were in, and with a lack of creature features (which most of us don't use anyway) it was a tough niche in the market to be in. I'm happy to let my Astro's quietly become a collectors item, and continue to get hours and hours of trouble free gig time in.

Written by: Mike - 04/02/2001

Below are some comments taken from the newsgroups.

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Soldano Astroverb 16

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I'm looking at the Soldano Astroverb 16 and would appreciate any comments. I don't play out. I jam with a band once in a blue moon. I favor high gain tones and play a PRS Custom 24.

The amp is excellent... Lots of crunch with the preamp set to 8+, more power than you would think and tone controls that do make a difference... Very well made... I use with a PRS Soapbar and they work well together.

The Astroverb delivers the hi-gain tones you seek. In my opinion, it is a "very" loud little amp. It's also TC (too costly) but judging by your guitar that wouldn't seem to bother you.

Clunky-looking cube. Solid. Good overdrive sounds. Mine has a greenback, haven't heard the stock speaker. I run it pretty dirty and run the variable slave output (optional) into another amp for clean sound. Reverb is good. Good info in the Harmony Central database.

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Anybody have any opinions/suggestions regarding Soldano's EL84 based amps, (The Astroverb has five 12AX7A tubes in the preamp section with two EL84 tubes in the power section) like the Atomic and the Astroverb. I'm actually looking for opinions about the heads specifically. Do they really sound like lower power/volume Marshall plexis?

I have the schematic here for the Atomic 16, it doesn't look to me like it would sound anything like a Plexi. Too many gain stages and too many differences in the circuit.