Soldano X88-IR -- Should I get one?

Spaced Out Ace

Spaced Out Ace

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I don't plan on using the Power Amp sim + IR function at all, as I would use it with a Fryette Power Station PS-2A. The cabinets I use are Mojotone British 412s with various Celestions in X patterns.

I am not sure if I should get one, as the Soldano SLO II module I bought when they were released was not a positive experience; I thought it was kind of muddy on the overdrive setting, and the crunch was okay. My hope is that the X88-IR would be better suited to my tastes.

Alternatively, there is a Langner preamp clone on Reverb, but $1400 is a bit of coin for something of unknown quality/sounds. Also a Tech 21 PSA 1.1 (new old stock from Tech 21).

Genres: 70s and 80s hard rock/metal, bluesy rock, stuff like that. Pickups: H, HH, HSS, HSH, and SSS loaded guitars (EMG humbucker and single coil pickups, Seymour Duncan humbuckers, and Lace single coils).
 
The X88-IR is killer.

I only use it with the power amp sim occasionally, just generally preferring to mix it with my own power amps.

Clean channel is very good. The altered mode gives a great scooped pushed variant. Some of the beast cleans/pushed cleans of any SLO. IMO

The Lead channel is great as you’d expect. It’s the SLO lead. Thick and aggressive.

The only point of contention is the Crunch channel. It is not the same as the amps. It’s way more gained up, almost exactly like the lead channel but thinner, as if it’s the lead but minus a gain stage. It goes from near off to gained up within the first quarter of the dial. I absolutely adored the Crunch mode on the amp, so this caught me off guard. But, after settling in with for a bit I actually started to like it, almost like a variant of the Lead channel versus the classic crunch. Whereas the Lead channel always wants to eat with that thick blanket of gain, the Crunch mode on the X88 can get some really great snappy rock tones. Very articulate since it’s not wallowing in gain. There is a fairly simple mod some have done to the Crunch channel to get a little more play with the gain knob. I think @jellodog did it. I ended up not doing the mod myself as I just ended up liking it as is.

There are a lot of ways to get the SLO tones, (digital and analog) but plugging in to the purple rack is a vibe all its own. 🤘
 
The IR features on the unit are fantastic as is the power amp modelling. I have had mine for more than a year now and it is one of those units that I will keep because it sounds amazing! Again, I use it direct and into an EV PXM monitor. I don't need it to run into a cab because I have the SLO-100R for that. However, this would no doubt sound great in that format!

As Whiz pointed out, the crunch channel is not like the amp's crunch channel. On the opposite end of Whizz..., I don't like the crunch channel on the amp as much as the overdrive channel whereas on the X88IR, I love all of the channels.
 
PBGas said:
As Whiz pointed out, the crunch channel is not like the amp's crunch channel. On the opposite end of Whizz..., I don't like the crunch channel on the amp as much as the overdrive channel whereas on the X88IR, I love all of the channels.
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Whizzinby said:
The X88-IR is killer.

I only use it with the power amp sim occasionally, just generally preferring to mix it with my own power amps.

Clean channel is very good. The altered mode gives a great scooped pushed variant. Some of the beast cleans/pushed cleans of any SLO. IMO

The Lead channel is great as you’d expect. It’s the SLO lead. Thick and aggressive.

The only point of contention is the Crunch channel. It is not the same as the amps. It’s way more gained up, almost exactly like the lead channel but thinner, as if it’s the lead but minus a gain stage. It goes from near off to gained up within the first quarter of the dial. I absolutely adored the Crunch mode on the amp, so this caught me off guard. But, after settling in with for a bit I actually started to like it, almost like a variant of the Lead channel versus the classic crunch. Whereas the Lead channel always wants to eat with that thick blanket of gain, the Crunch mode on the X88 can get some really great snappy rock tones. Very articulate since it’s not wallowing in gain. There is a fairly simple mod some have done to the Crunch channel to get a little more play with the gain knob. I think @jellodog did it. I ended up not doing the mod myself as I just ended up liking it as is.

There are a lot of ways to get the SLO tones, (digital and analog) but plugging in to the purple rack is a vibe all its own. 🤘
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Eh, that makes the crunch option seem kind of pointless and is kind of a GAS killer for me. The first quarter of the pot statement sounds like poor design as well. ie, like it'd be a pain in the ass to actually dial in something in the middle between a bare clean sound on channel one and the overdrive's compressed high gain.

That plus my less than impressive experience with the Synergy SLO II module has me leaning towards saving my $2500.
 
Spaced Out Ace said:
Eh, that makes the crunch option seem kind of pointless and is kind of a GAS killer for me. The first quarter of the pot statement sounds like poor design as well. ie, like it'd be a pain in the ass to actually dial in something in the middle between a bare clean sound on channel one and the overdrive's compressed high gain.

That plus my less than impressive experience with the Synergy SLO II module has me leaning towards saying my $2500.
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The crunch is good, just different from the amp.

In a lot of ways that’s why the X88 is cool. The clean channel with the altered mode is way better than the OG amps (the Reissued amps have a good clean, but no Altered mode) and the Crunch is different from the amps. So it has a little bit of unique character over the other variants.

The Lead channel does what the SLO lead channel does (eat) but if you’re chasing specifically the amp Crunch, this doesn’t have it.
 
Whizzinby said:
The crunch is good, just different from the amp.

In a lot of ways that’s why the X88 is cool. The clean channel with the altered mode is way better than the OG amps (the Reissued amps have a good clean, but no Altered mode) and the Crunch is different from the amps. So it has a little bit of unique character over the other variants.

The Lead channel does what the SLO lead channel does (eat) but if you’re chasing specifically the amp Crunch, this doesn’t have it.
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Not necessarily that, just that the lack of a medium gain channel between the clean channel and the compressed high gain overdrive channel is probably a no go. That in addition to not liking the Synergy SLO II module leads me to feeling like I'd be wasting my time.

Anyone want to suggest anything else that is currently in production and available in the US like maybe the Langner clone I mentioned earlier or the Black Widow MGP-1A preamp?
 
To me the crunch is perfect. It's more a rock rhythm than a just breaking up kinda thing. However, the clean channel in altered is a great replacement for Crunch.

I discovered two thingsabout the X88IR:
It's picky with cable length and buffers. I ended up getting one from Axess Electronics and love it.
Not well documented but when using power amp sim the channel volumes are relevant. I think it can get mushy when beyond noon.
 
hunter said:
To me the crunch is perfect. It's more a rock rhythm than a just breaking up kinda thing. However, the clean channel in altered is a great replacement for Crunch.

I discovered two thingsabout the X88IR:
It's picky with cable length and buffers. I ended up getting one from Axess Electronics and love it.
Not well documented but when using power amp sim the channel volumes are relevant. I think it can get mushy when beyond noon.
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Nothing much left to this.
I modded my crunch channel (it’s literally adding one resistor) to SLO and took it back out because I much prefer the stock X88ir crunch.
I spent more time on the crunch channel than the other two.

I love the altered clean, although I’m not sure about some of the info about the SRV mod that’s out there.
First off to me altered is not scooped. Also the info about the SRV mod on the SLO is kinda weird.
He goosed 800Hz with a Tube Screamer. Supposedly his original SLO altered switch cut upper mids right above 700Hz. The upper mid push. And active in all channels.
And in the handful that are out in the wild that switch it’s working only on the clean channel.

Guess I should just measure it and find.

The lead channel is exactly what you’d expect. It only mushes out when running the channel volume high. Instead of the global master.
It has more gain on tap than I use. Which is more than my Mesa T-Verb had.

If you don’t need 3 channels look at the Fryette GPDI-Ir
 
There is apparently an X88-IR on TGP for $1750 with the Crunch channel mod. I'm potentially going to go for Synergy preamps instead, though. Just mentioning if anyone is interested.
 
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Ed DeGenaro said:
I got the x88, and just decided to add the Syn2. They can happily coexist.
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Cool. I just don't think the crunch channel would suffice, and I had an SLO II module previously which I did not gel with. Maybe I didn't give it enough time, but it was pretty disappointing to someone who had wanted an SLO for quite a long time up til that point. Then I played the module, with my reaction being, "oh... that's kind of, I don't know, just okay?"
 
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