- Build Rating
Hey guys,
greatings from Germany!
My name is Till.
I build many stuff in the last ten years.
I started with cables, build some guitar pedals.
Then, when I got my first microphones, I started building studio stuff.
Preamps, mics and so on.
The last 5 years I was building lots of tube microphones and tube preamps.
After not building anything for over a year I searched for something, that was like "the last thing".
I'm not a guitar player, cause I play drums. So my guitar skill level would only cover a Highschool punk band on low level. These ones, who play first on every gig and just play, cause your band mates knows some guys from the other bands.
Anyway.
I searched for a project what fits the style of my Band. Which is mostly hard rock/ metal.
I know Soldano since I started playing drums and get in bands.
It was always a "mystic". I also wanted to build a Soldano SLO 100 when I was younger and started building my first guitar pedals. But this was like 2001/2002, when the first clones entered the Internet and my knowledge level was 0.2 out of 10.
More then 20 years later I was searching for an amp kit and I found Rosamp who offered a SLO 30.
Some people also build this amp and I was really afraid.
So I ordered my amp kit and started building.
With the knowledge I get in the last years it was an easy build, but as you may know, working with high voltages is always a risk and you should be careful as hell and don't do this if you just start soldering.
The build went smooth and started without any issues on first firing up.
The part quality from Rosamp is awesome. Except the cheap aluminium caps on the power board. They went right through to my junk and I changed them to some Europe Chemicon ones.
The PCB build was easy. Because, I do it so often in the last years. It was finished in less than an hour.
The biggest part was the cabling. I really took my time and I really try to reach the level from Mike Soldano, but I don't get it 100%.
Before soldering.
After Soldering.
Then the exciting Moment. The First firing up.
Firing up ... okay ... no smoke. Good. Checking the voltages. Good. Bias the tubes. Works well. Then I put a guitarcable into the amp and test everything.
I get sound, the send and return works. The foot switch worked and all potentiometers and switches. Awesome! Noise Level ... really low. When I compared it to the other tube amps we had in our practice room, these baby is one of the quietest.
Now I need a headshell. I've never done that before and I also never worked with tolex. I first searched for some headshell builders, get some quotes and decided, to do it on my own.
So I get some plywood and made the headshell.
Then I went to my buddy, who had a router and we made the outer edges.
After that, I start glueing the tolex.
I watched hours on YouTube on how to tolex an amp headshell and I also made a smaller headshell box just to practice the radius routing and glueing the tolex. I'm glad I made that, cause without that, the headshell wouldn't turn out like it turned out.
There are some parts, that are not 100% to my liking but for the first time I really gave myself a high five cause everything went really smooth.
The biggest problem was the Soldano style head grill, which I really love. I get it here in Germany from Frank Röllen at frontpanelshop.
He really helped me to figure it out and I get my custom head grill in Soldano style to my liking. It was not cheap, but also the amp kit was not cheap, so I was like, it doesn't matter anymore.
So the last photo is my fully functional and ready to record Rosamp SLO 30.
Sorry for my bad English. I hope that you could understand everything.
greatings from Germany!
My name is Till.
I build many stuff in the last ten years.
I started with cables, build some guitar pedals.
Then, when I got my first microphones, I started building studio stuff.
Preamps, mics and so on.
The last 5 years I was building lots of tube microphones and tube preamps.
After not building anything for over a year I searched for something, that was like "the last thing".
I'm not a guitar player, cause I play drums. So my guitar skill level would only cover a Highschool punk band on low level. These ones, who play first on every gig and just play, cause your band mates knows some guys from the other bands.
Anyway.
I searched for a project what fits the style of my Band. Which is mostly hard rock/ metal.
I know Soldano since I started playing drums and get in bands.
It was always a "mystic". I also wanted to build a Soldano SLO 100 when I was younger and started building my first guitar pedals. But this was like 2001/2002, when the first clones entered the Internet and my knowledge level was 0.2 out of 10.
More then 20 years later I was searching for an amp kit and I found Rosamp who offered a SLO 30.
Some people also build this amp and I was really afraid.
So I ordered my amp kit and started building.
With the knowledge I get in the last years it was an easy build, but as you may know, working with high voltages is always a risk and you should be careful as hell and don't do this if you just start soldering.
The build went smooth and started without any issues on first firing up.
The part quality from Rosamp is awesome. Except the cheap aluminium caps on the power board. They went right through to my junk and I changed them to some Europe Chemicon ones.
The PCB build was easy. Because, I do it so often in the last years. It was finished in less than an hour.
The biggest part was the cabling. I really took my time and I really try to reach the level from Mike Soldano, but I don't get it 100%.
Before soldering.
After Soldering.
Then the exciting Moment. The First firing up.
Firing up ... okay ... no smoke. Good. Checking the voltages. Good. Bias the tubes. Works well. Then I put a guitarcable into the amp and test everything.
I get sound, the send and return works. The foot switch worked and all potentiometers and switches. Awesome! Noise Level ... really low. When I compared it to the other tube amps we had in our practice room, these baby is one of the quietest.
Now I need a headshell. I've never done that before and I also never worked with tolex. I first searched for some headshell builders, get some quotes and decided, to do it on my own.
So I get some plywood and made the headshell.
Then I went to my buddy, who had a router and we made the outer edges.
After that, I start glueing the tolex.
I watched hours on YouTube on how to tolex an amp headshell and I also made a smaller headshell box just to practice the radius routing and glueing the tolex. I'm glad I made that, cause without that, the headshell wouldn't turn out like it turned out.
There are some parts, that are not 100% to my liking but for the first time I really gave myself a high five cause everything went really smooth.
The biggest problem was the Soldano style head grill, which I really love. I get it here in Germany from Frank Röllen at frontpanelshop.
He really helped me to figure it out and I get my custom head grill in Soldano style to my liking. It was not cheap, but also the amp kit was not cheap, so I was like, it doesn't matter anymore.
So the last photo is my fully functional and ready to record Rosamp SLO 30.
Sorry for my bad English. I hope that you could understand everything.
Last edited:
Love the purple tolex with black grill and white face-plate.
