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Soldano Hot rod Mod fopr marshall -fender on the fleabay
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:21 am
by MRX2099
http://cgi.ebay.com/Soldano-Hot-Mod-For ... dZViewItem
anyone tried this or know what is under that tube , does it actually do anything special?
for that price it beter do something good
Jeff
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:05 am
by hot_tube_tone
I have never used one of these, but it sounds like a good idea for a low gain amp that you are wanting to be able to push into braking up. I heard that they are good in some of the Fender amps like the Bandmaster which does get into distortion until about 9.5 on the dial. Here is a link with a little bit of info:
http://mordak.freeshell.org/soldano/Sol ... t-Mod.html
For what ever it is worth Soldano stopped making them. I don't know if it is people stopped buying them or other reasons. They also stopped making the Hot Rod amp line which I thought most people liked.
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:26 pm
by Necrovore
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:27 pm
by NMV
The Soldano Hot Mod is an interesting device. The base of the Hot Mod has a few electronic compents, allowing you to use a 6K11 tube instead of a 12AX7. It basically adds a ton of preamp gain. Soldano stopped making these sometime in the mid 90's. Mike Soldano has stated that he never made much money off these, as they were time consuming (read expensive) to manufacture. (I personally also think that if you could slap one of these in a MV Marshall, why would you spend the kind of coin an SLO goes for? Just a thought)
I've used one of these for years in an early JCM 800 2204 running 6550's. One of the most brutal metal type sounds I've ever heard (Think Zakk Wylde, if not even heavier).
It's not for everyone, as it not only adds gain to an amp, but also some compression. (and that's why I only like the Hot Mod with a cleaner tube, aka 6550 or KT-88).
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:17 pm
by Necrovore
NMV have you ever tried to source one of those KV11 tubes? They aren't too pricey, but hard to find. Doesn't the Hot Mod just run the three triodes in series? Which, without getting into too much theory equals the same gain stages as in the SLO(5 incl. the driver). I also heard these little guys add substantial noise to the signal, is this true?
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:55 pm
by PlexiMan
They do add some hiss..i'm guessing mainly because of the gain increase..i had two of these at one time and they added tons of gain..main reason i ended up selling them. i had a little more versatility using a pedal to kick off/on when needed. The distorsion was kinda compressed but to me didn't have that low end chug common in metal today..i was running it in a 79' JMP MV and an early 80's JCM800 both with el34's..maybe 6550's would have tightened it up a bit..not sure
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:07 am
by novosibir
Necrovore wrote:Doesn't the Hot Mod just run the three triodes in series?
That's inside the device:
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:09 pm
by NMV
The tubes were actually easy to find. I remember Vibroworld was selling some NOS (GE I think) for fairly cheap $$. Usually can find them on Ebay as well.
I like the sound of the Hot Mod, but only with a cleaner type tube that has more headroom, aka 6550, KT-88. The low end with my 2204 running 6550's is bone crushing. (I would love try it with some KT-90's)
EL34's were indeed a little to soft/mushy with the Hot Mod.
Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:43 pm
by dm
novosibir wrote:Necrovore wrote:Doesn't the Hot Mod just run the three triodes in series?
That's inside the device:
It splits the cathode follower and adds a gain stage in between it. You still have a cathode follower, after the gain stage. It shuffles everything around.
It does hiss though.. I use it with both el34 and 6550 with some other tweaks. Perfect for kreator 80s type stuff..
NMV is right, the hotmod and a few component changes, and you got a SLO
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:51 pm
by The Radium King
i did some looking into this thing. as previously stated, it substitutes a 12ax7 in a gain/cathode follower configuration with a 6k11 in a gain/gain/cathode follower arrangement. reading an interview with soldano, he states that this thing was devised before he designed the slo, etc., and doesn't incorporate a cold bias stage. so, as someone else posted, it just adds an additional gain stage, which can be quite outta control (feedback, etc.) especially if you don't have a volume control after it (like if you used it in a bassman or early marshall).
the typical slo configuration is gain-gain-clip-recovery-cf. the cold bias clipping stage needs a largish signal at the input (hence the two gain stages before it) and a recovery stage prior to the cf. so, to properly simulate the slo with a hot mod, you would have to revise the hot mod to turn the first gain stage into a clipping stage. pretty much impossible, as it is potted in epoxy.
the solution - build your own. all you need is the 6k11 tube, a 12 pin compactron socket, a 9 pin base (or you can disassemble a 9 pin socket saver) and some resistors and capacitors to copy the slo circuit. the result would work a lot better in most amps, as the added triode wouldn't add gain (and feedback, etc.) just shape the signal - asymmetrical clipping.
Re: Soldano Hot rod Mod fopr marshall -fender on the fleabay
Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2022 3:04 pm
by uiovbged332