The Very First Soldanos (and their owners: a list)

LeftyLoungeLizard

LeftyLoungeLizard

Roadie
TGF Recording Artist
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912
Starting in 1986.


Soldano's player list.jpg


And a little history from way back then:

Once upon a time, a young rock and roll guitarist moved from
Seattle to Los Angeles to try to make a go of it in the music industry. He may
not have made it to the top of the charts, but his name is now a household word
among many of the nations top rock musicians.


Mike Soldano, who runs his business, Soldano Custom
Amplification, from a workshop in Seattles Magnolia neighborhood, has watched
in amazement as his equipment has been adopted by some of the top stars, making
his name synonymous with quality in the world of high-gain (i.e., really loud)
guitar amplifiers.


When he first got to Los Angeles, however, he was just a kid
from Lake City who worked in auto repair shops, liked music and liked building
things.


He started out building his own guitars and amplifiers in
the late 1970s, his initial motivation being to make what he couldnt afford to
buy. And whats more, he wasnt satisfied with the sounds he got from
commercial amps.


I knew in my head what a guitar tone should be, but I
wasnt finding anything on the market for it, Soldano says.


Mesa Boogie amps were the pinnacle of high-gain amplifiers
at the timegain being a technical term describing how much boost the original
signal gets from input to output. Soldano liked their gain, but he says there
wasnt much string-to-string definition. Hit a weird chord like a D9 and the
sound turned to mud.


In the mid-1980s, however, he gained valuable experience
working as an amplifier technician at Stars Guitars in San Francisco, where he
specialized in customizing Marshall amplifiers. Returning to Seattle, he
finished putting together his first amp, which he installed in a spray-painted
plywood cabinet and dubbed Mr. Science.


Starting in the fall of 1985, he began taking Mr. Science
along when he played gigs around Seattle, and it got noticed. Soon, he had
three people who wanted to buy one.


Musicians being who they are, only one, his friend Tommy
Martin, followed through and made a purchase, leaving Soldano with two extra
amplifiers. So he threw Mr. Science and enough spare parts for another dozen
amps into his 1938 Chevy (along with a new motor), and drove to Los Angeles,
then center of the burgeoning glam metal scene with bands such as Van Halen and
Motley Crue.


Soldano admits to being naive, cold-calling the managers of
big stars such as Lita Ford, one of the first woman guitar shredders. He found
out that, if musicians were a flaky bunch, Los Angeles managers were even more
so.


For a year, he lived and worked in L.A. with a second cousin
in a former Oriental massage parlor, nearly starving along the way and
picking up odd jobs to make ends meet, until one day by pure chance while he
was in the famous rock and roll hangout the Rainbow Bar & Grill, he ran
into Howard Leese, the lead guitar player for the Seattle band Heart. Leese
invited Soldanoand his ampup to Rumba Records where he was recording.


He played with it and within two chords, he bought the
amp, Soldano recalls. Sales No. 3 and 4 were slower in coming. Another friend
purchased the third model, and the fourth Soldano managed to sell to Steve
Lukather, the guitarist from Toto and one of the most in-demand studio
musicians in Los Angeles at the time.


But by the end 1987, Soldano still hadnt been able to sell
enough to break out. He was broke, working in commission sales and as a roadie
for the all-girl metal band Vixen. He was considering returning to Seattle. But
coming in at 4 a.m. after a late show, he saw his message light blinking.


He was tired from the gig, he says. But for some reason, I
felt compelled to check my messages.


The first message was from Lou Reed. The second was from
Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard and Whitesnake. The third was Michael Landau,
another well-connected and in-demand studio player. Soldano thought a friend
was pulling a prank on him, but it turns out those callers were the real deal.
Lou Reeds purchase was his next big sale, and by the following spring, Soldano
had six months of back orders. He moved into a work space in Van Nuys and
started building more amps, now called the SLO-100, for Super Lead Overdrive.
Andy Brauer, a professional equipment technician and shipper who worked with
Steve Lukather, wrote the first review of the SLO in Guitar World magazine (from the amp that Lukather bought). And
most significantly, Soldano was hired by Yamaha Musical Instruments to design a
line of signature high-gain amps for the company. Yahama took out a two-page ad
featuring Soldano himself in Guitar World to promote the line. It gave him enough money to stick it out, but
also put him on the map as the pre-eminent amp designer of the day.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I'll never have one (unless I win Lotto) but i am looking forward to the Synergy SLO v2 module....

But that list is very cool. Big names lined up right away to get theirs...
 
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