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Soldano X88-IR
- Thread starter Whizzinby
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ejecta
Shredder
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Dang it I didn’t need to hear this. Wanters kicked back in on this again.
Eagle
Rock Star
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View attachment IMG_4130.jpeg
What more do you need?.
What more do you need?.
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If it helps, it’s probably the funnest piece of gear I’ve ever bought.
Like I mentioned earlier, the whole rack thing was dying off before I got into playing, but I remembered seeing pictures of those racks in guitar mags as a kid and thinking “how cool!”.
So this thing hits me on some inner 13yo level, YMMV
That said, it slaps.
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I built a Tube Pre block mimicking the SLO power section and after shooting it out against the x88 power amp sim, it is largely a wash. The SLO has ever so slightly more low end girth, (that’s what she said) but the x88 sim has a touch more cut. (Probably from the slight bit less low end) I did a mix with them back to back and I doubt anyone would notice unless you told them.
I wonder what they used for the x88 power amp sim. (I’m assuming not the SLO since they said it was a 120w pa) In either event, it holds up.
I wonder what they used for the x88 power amp sim. (I’m assuming not the SLO since they said it was a 120w pa) In either event, it holds up.
SteveLow74
Newbie
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- 5
can anyone share the ir’s onboard of the x88-ir? Out of curiosity I would like to try the 4x12, cause in the videos they seem very good.
One advantage of the Axe is that you can dial in the impedance curve for specific cabs, and adjust the speaker drive, NFB, bias etc, where as the X88's PA is generic and preset.I built a Tube Pre block mimicking the SLO power section and after shooting it out against the x88 power amp sim, it is largely a wash. The SLO has ever so slightly more low end girth, (that’s what she said) but the x88 sim has a touch more cut. (Probably from the slight bit less low end) I did a mix with them back to back and I doubt anyone would notice unless you told them.
I wonder what they used for the x88 power amp sim. (I’m assuming not the SLO since they said it was a 120w pa) In either event, it holds up.
Did you try minimizing the preamp gain and going old school and crushing both power amp sims to check for any differences?
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jellodog
Rock Star
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So @hemmelight and myself have had an X88-IR for about 6 weeks now.
On the whole I've been enjoying it, but it was primarily bought for @hemmelight's high gain entertainment since I don't do high gain myself, so I'd never use the overdrive channel (which sounds fantastic, BTW). I've always had an appreciation for high gain sounds - especially lead, but it's just not in my personal style or skillset.
Anyway, I figured that I'd probably just use the clean channel at EOB and a little beyond anyway, and I do.
What surprised me though was the crunch channel, but not in a good way.
In retrospect, I should not have been surprised because I'd read plenty of reports that the crunch channel doesn't really do a "low" or "early" crunch tone.
But I thought, "surely it can't be that hard to lower the gain on the crunch channel to get a more chunky crunch?". Well it is. Even with the gain turned down low, it sounds like early overdrive or "high crunch" to me. This has been somewhat frustrating. There isn't a seamless progression from the clean channel through crunch channel, in my experience.
Which brings me to the
NPD part:
Whilst it does seem slightly dumb to have to use a pedal to drive the clean channel into a delicious Marshally crunch on a rack unit as expensive as this, I bought an Origin Effects Halcyon Blue (Bluesbreaker style) pedal and it is glorious when used in the "mod" mode with the X88! That, plus a Keeley Halo is just
It's fun to use some of my tasty pedals again.
So that's been keeping me happy and I've found the level of crunch that I was seeking. Still seems a shame to me that the crunch channel is so overdriven, but I suppose I'm just not the right person for that Soldano sound
.
What I like about the X88-IR is that it seems even more immediade and "present" than a modeller does, even if the power section is a capture. At least it runs at 96 kHz, so the latency is low for that part of the equation.
The other thing I like about this is that an analog front end has the headroom to take a good beating from boost pedal or turned up overdrive. This is something that I've struggled with with modelling for obvious reasons. It's especially been a problem for my Jazzmaster with Kinman pickups - they are pretty damn hot - hotter than the humbuckers in our Strat-style guitars.
TLDR:
Clean channel: lovely & satisfying
Overdrive channel: Awsum. Dripping in gorgeous saturated harmonic content.
Crunch: WAT ?
On the whole I've been enjoying it, but it was primarily bought for @hemmelight's high gain entertainment since I don't do high gain myself, so I'd never use the overdrive channel (which sounds fantastic, BTW). I've always had an appreciation for high gain sounds - especially lead, but it's just not in my personal style or skillset.
Anyway, I figured that I'd probably just use the clean channel at EOB and a little beyond anyway, and I do.
What surprised me though was the crunch channel, but not in a good way.
In retrospect, I should not have been surprised because I'd read plenty of reports that the crunch channel doesn't really do a "low" or "early" crunch tone.
But I thought, "surely it can't be that hard to lower the gain on the crunch channel to get a more chunky crunch?". Well it is. Even with the gain turned down low, it sounds like early overdrive or "high crunch" to me. This has been somewhat frustrating. There isn't a seamless progression from the clean channel through crunch channel, in my experience.
Which brings me to the
NPD part:Whilst it does seem slightly dumb to have to use a pedal to drive the clean channel into a delicious Marshally crunch on a rack unit as expensive as this, I bought an Origin Effects Halcyon Blue (Bluesbreaker style) pedal and it is glorious when used in the "mod" mode with the X88! That, plus a Keeley Halo is just
It's fun to use some of my tasty pedals again.
So that's been keeping me happy and I've found the level of crunch that I was seeking. Still seems a shame to me that the crunch channel is so overdriven, but I suppose I'm just not the right person for that Soldano sound
.What I like about the X88-IR is that it seems even more immediade and "present" than a modeller does, even if the power section is a capture. At least it runs at 96 kHz, so the latency is low for that part of the equation.
The other thing I like about this is that an analog front end has the headroom to take a good beating from boost pedal or turned up overdrive. This is something that I've struggled with with modelling for obvious reasons. It's especially been a problem for my Jazzmaster with Kinman pickups - they are pretty damn hot - hotter than the humbuckers in our Strat-style guitars.
TLDR:
Clean channel: lovely & satisfying
Overdrive channel: Awsum. Dripping in gorgeous saturated harmonic content.
Crunch: WAT ?
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hemmelight
Roadie
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- 618
Yep, I really like the X88-IR quite a lot. The clean channel is great and of course the overdrive sound is exactly what you'd expect.
I think the added options like the bright and fat switches really help refine the sound more than the original X88 would allow, and the feel of playing through this preamp is really great. Even when using the on-board poweramp sim and IRs it feels more analog and immediate / present than playing the Axe-FX (both through the same set of studio monitors). I can't wait to try it with a real poweramp and speaker cab at some point in the future, but I don't have the space (or gear) to make it happen sadly.
I do agree with @jellodog that the crunch mode is kind of a missed opportunity? It's a strange thing and sort of hard to describe.
The amount of available gain and saturation is certainly less when comparing it to the overdrive mode, but the voicing is mostly the same? The crunch mode basically sounds like a neutered version of the overdrive mode, rather than a true extra voicing option. It's like the overdrive sound but a little more "polite" sounding and with less presence. It's a little smoother, I guess, but that mostly seems to be because it's just darker.
Using the Origin Effects Halcyon Blue into the Clean mode helps bridge the gap for sure, it's just kind of a bummer that the crunch mode isn't what I was hoping it would be.
It does not sound like the SLO's crunch mode just with more gain than the original X88 - in my opinion. I think that is what many people (including myself) were expecting. I'd honestly prefer to have the crunch mode on this preamp behave exactly like the crunch sound of the SLO, instead of this weird "not quite either one" voicing they went with on this new unit.
I like the less compressed and more open and er.. crunchy sound of the SLO's crunch mode.
I wonder if it could be modded somehow to bring it closer? If it's as simple as swapping a resistor or something somewhere in the circuit I would happily void the warranty to get it sounding closer to my own taste. The other sounds are so good that it would ultimately be worth it to have an idealised 3-channel SLO preamp. Sparkly Fender Clean, Crunchy Marshall Bite and Chunk, Liquid SLO Lead and High Gain all available in one??
The new Tyler guitar is freaking perfect for this preamp, though. The switching options are awesome for getting exactly the right sparkly clean strat sounds and these pickups almost seem like they were voiced with an SLO in mind. Going full bridge humbucker into the overdrive channel and rolling in some of the Tyler mid boost is instant 80s Lukather it's kind of hilarious. It's almost a perfect recreation of the lead tone in Pamela. Like, it's spooky how close it is. I'd reckon that was 100% the "Puffy" guitar.
I think the added options like the bright and fat switches really help refine the sound more than the original X88 would allow, and the feel of playing through this preamp is really great. Even when using the on-board poweramp sim and IRs it feels more analog and immediate / present than playing the Axe-FX (both through the same set of studio monitors). I can't wait to try it with a real poweramp and speaker cab at some point in the future, but I don't have the space (or gear) to make it happen sadly.
I do agree with @jellodog that the crunch mode is kind of a missed opportunity? It's a strange thing and sort of hard to describe.
The amount of available gain and saturation is certainly less when comparing it to the overdrive mode, but the voicing is mostly the same? The crunch mode basically sounds like a neutered version of the overdrive mode, rather than a true extra voicing option. It's like the overdrive sound but a little more "polite" sounding and with less presence. It's a little smoother, I guess, but that mostly seems to be because it's just darker.
Using the Origin Effects Halcyon Blue into the Clean mode helps bridge the gap for sure, it's just kind of a bummer that the crunch mode isn't what I was hoping it would be.
It does not sound like the SLO's crunch mode just with more gain than the original X88 - in my opinion. I think that is what many people (including myself) were expecting. I'd honestly prefer to have the crunch mode on this preamp behave exactly like the crunch sound of the SLO, instead of this weird "not quite either one" voicing they went with on this new unit.
I like the less compressed and more open and er.. crunchy sound of the SLO's crunch mode.
I wonder if it could be modded somehow to bring it closer? If it's as simple as swapping a resistor or something somewhere in the circuit I would happily void the warranty to get it sounding closer to my own taste. The other sounds are so good that it would ultimately be worth it to have an idealised 3-channel SLO preamp. Sparkly Fender Clean, Crunchy Marshall Bite and Chunk, Liquid SLO Lead and High Gain all available in one??
The new Tyler guitar is freaking perfect for this preamp, though. The switching options are awesome for getting exactly the right sparkly clean strat sounds and these pickups almost seem like they were voiced with an SLO in mind. Going full bridge humbucker into the overdrive channel and rolling in some of the Tyler mid boost is instant 80s Lukather it's kind of hilarious. It's almost a perfect recreation of the lead tone in Pamela. Like, it's spooky how close it is. I'd reckon that was 100% the "Puffy" guitar.
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NinjaShredder
Newbie
- Messages
- 1
That is the exact same thought I had with my X99.
I got the SLOII Synergy module recently, and the tight switch on the crunch mode totally fixes this problem for me.
hemmelight
Roadie
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- 618
Interesting, thanks for the tip! Those Synergy modules are pretty attractive.
