Description

Soldano X88 – IR

The initial idea for a three-channel Soldano rackmount guitar preamp came from Bob Bradshaw, rack builder to the stars. According to Mike Soldano If not for Bradshaws request, the X88R would never have happened.

In 1987, Steve Lukather began using the new Soldano SLO-100 heads. Bob Bradshaw built Steves rack system and toured with him to ensure it always worked flawlessly. While visiting Bobs shop in North Hollywood, Bob discussed with Mike what a pain it was to haul around three amps just so Steve could get his various sounds. Steves complicated wet-dry-wet rig also needed heavy dummy loads to get a low level slave signal from the power amps output to run into the effects. This large rig generated extra wear and tear and expense, as shipping and handling those heavy amps and load cabinets required more truck space and crew labor.

Mike agreed that using his SLO-100 heads just to obtain a rack-system-friendly 0db output signal was inefficient. This was especially true because the SLOs revolutionary cascading gain design already provided all of Soldanos iconic tone in the preamp section.

Bob requested Mike to build an all-tube preamp with three independent channels, clean, crunch, and overdrive, that could be integrated with his switching systems and replace all that heavy gear. When it was done, Bob wired it into Steves rack, it was big smiles all around and history was made.

By the Summer of 1988, Soldano developed a production version of this preamp, the first of which was purchased by Warren Cucurullo. The X88R was the first of its kind, and the first truly professional stand-alone guitar preamp.

• Hand built in the USA
• Tubes: 5 x 12AX7
• Limited Lifetime Warranty
• Dimensions (2-unit rack space): 19 (W) x 10.25 (D) x 3.5 (H)
• Weight: 10 lbs.
• Purple Anodized front panel
• All ChannelsPreamp Level, Bass, Middle, Treble, Output Level and Bright switch
• Channel 1 (Bright switch and selectable Normal/Altered Mode) – Fender style Normal Mode – Boosted clean Altered Mode
• Channel 2/3Fat Switch, Bright Switch and selectable Crunch / Overdrive Mode
• Master Level Control
• Headphone Output jack with Level Control
• IR cabinet simulation (bypassable)
• 6 IR presets, individually programmable per channel /mode – Load your own IRs via the Software Editor
• Voltage selector switchMains Fuse must be changed (please read manual)
• USB (type B 2.0) connector to connect Software Editor
• Includes a 6 USB cable
• MIDI/Footswitch Input
• MIDI Phantom Power input jack
• ¼ Main Outputs
• Stereo XLR Outputs with Level Switch and Ground Lift Switch
• Ultra-transparent stereo series effects loop: Mono Send and Stereo Return jacks; Level Switch
• Easy to use USB Editor Software
• Save up to 128 MIDI presets
• Load and organize your IR library; Includes 12 IRs to choose from
• Midi Presets allows you to select: Channel; Channel mode; Assign different IRs for all three channels; Low-Pass and High-Pass Filters; Power Amp three position Depth Switch; Power Amp three position Presence Switch