Lovers of supremely saturated amps have long employed (or lusted after) amps built by Mike Soldano, like the classic SLO-100 or the many variants that circuit has spawned: the SLO-30, the SLO Mini, and the stompbox-ified SLO Pedal.
Today, Soldano enters a new frontier with a brand new amp design: the ASTRO-20.
The all-tube, 20-watt, made-in-USA amplifier has three channels (Clean, Overdrive 1, and Overdrive 2), and four Galaxies.
Now, we know what you're asking: What are these "Galaxies"? In line with its celestial name, the ASTRO-20 offers these extra sonic shapers. The Green Galaxy is a high-headroom, Fender-style circuit attached to the ASTRO-20's Clean drive. The bluesy, sparkly Blue, higher-gain Purple, and the hotter-than-SLO Red Galaxies can be assigned to either of the Overdrive channels for different character and levels of breakup.
The versatility and user-choice of the ASTRO-20 doesn't stop there. Available as a combo, standalone head, or head-cabinet stack, the ASTRO-20 also features impulse response (IR) cabinet simulation.
There are six onboard IR slots, which can be assigned to channels and Galaxies independently, whether you're playing the amp through a cab, directly into a live PA, or into a recording interface.
The ASTRO-20's full features and specs, according to Soldano, include:
- Cascading-gain preamp design
- Tubes: 2 x 6V6, 4 x 12AX7
- Clean Channel – the Green Galaxy: Ranges from crystal clean to pushed crunchy tones
- Overdrive 1 and Overdrive 2 can be independently programmed to the Blue, Purple, or Red galaxies
- Blue Galaxy ranges from bluesy cleans to fat and sparkly hard rock tones
- Purple Galaxy ranges from hard rock to punchy high gain drive with a tighter response
- RED Galaxy with the famous sought after SOLDANO lead overdrive tone
- Low Latency IR Cabinet simulation (bypassable)
- 6 IR presets, individually programmable per channel (or load your own)
- Included 4 button programmable MIDI foot switch pedal
- Cab-less operation and headphone output
- USB Software Editor
Enter the next frontier of Soldano's high-gain explorations with the ASTRO-20. Order yours on Reverb now.