Not that I needed another, but....

SG John

SG John

Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
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A couple of weeks ago, a DST amp was listed for sale by Bob D. He usually will list something on Facebook, as he's clearing out the basement of all the old unfinished amps that he finally gets around to finishing.

This one, I could not say "NO" to. I told him it was sold as soon as he listed it. A one of a kind Solera 50 prototype. It's a two channel amp that is foot switchable. It has a Hiwatt clean channel (that gets pretty gritty), and a Soldano Lead channel that is over the top. He built each circuit individually, and it has a stereo master volume knob that works with a trim knob on the Soldano side. Also, both sides of each 12ax7 is being used. He went all out on this one, and it sounds amazing. I haven't had a chance to plug it into my '71 Hiwatt 4 x 12 yet because my cellar is in a state of construction as I soundproof and finish it. I've taken inspiration from all those "Home Workshop" photos from 1950s era Popular Mechanics magazines. Once the basement is done, Bob said he'd spend a Saturday morning with me teaching me how to maintain it. He said he made it simple with each power tube having its own wide range trim pot so you could use any of 6L6, EL34, and KT66 tubes.

Gratuitous porn.





Solera_6.JPG

Solera_5.JPG

Solera_4.JPG

Solera _3.JPG
 
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This makes three DST Engineering/Soundworks amps that I own.

When I get some spare coin, I'll have to have Jeff Swanson make me a matching cab for this head and my DST U84 TNT head.
 
RVA, actually we're almost neighbors. He lives about a block away, and we see each other often. And we're friends on FB. I met him about twelve years ago, and have stayed in contact. He still does occasional repair work for some people, especially if you own his amps. Otherwise he's retired from the amp business.
 
SG John said:
RVA, actually we're almost neighbors. He lives about a block away, and we see each other often. And we're friends on FB. I met him about twelve years ago, and have stayed in contact. He still does occasional repair work for some people, especially if you own his amps. Otherwise he's retired from the amp business.
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Extra nice grab then!
 
I like the green tolex and the indicator lights for power and standby switch Let's see the foot switch. Does it have a effects loop. What brand of transformers ???
 
67plexi said:
I like the green tolex and the indicator lights for power and standby switch Let's see the foot switch. Does it have a effects loop. What brand of transformers ???
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Sorry for the slow reply. It has no effects loop. Everything goes into the high or low inputs in front.

The footswitch seems like a standard stereo cabled switch. The light turns on for the gain channel.

DST_Footswitch.JPG



The transformers are custom made for Bob, and he puts his name on them. I'm not sure where he gets them.

Power transformer:
DST_PT-50_1.JPG


Output Transformer:
DST_OT-50_1.JPG


6550s and 12ax7s:

DST_Tubes.JPG


A shot of some of the wiring. Pretty neat and organized.

DST_Wiring.JPG
 
Sunday night, I was able to play this amp at a pretty loud volume up against a heavy hitting drummer and loud bass player. I used my Burny SG with Gibson 57 Classic and 57 Classic+ pickups, and RS pots with Grey Tiger Caps. The head was plugged into a '70s Marshall 4x12 with early 2000s English made Celestion 25 watt Green Backs.

The rhythm (Hiwatt) channel is clear, punchy, and enormous. Even with the "modernish" English Celestion Green-Backs in the vintage cab, the sound was giant.
Although balanced fairly well volume wise, the Lead (Soldano) side of the amp seemed a little compressed when switching on the fly. It still has a really great overdriven sound that I may be able to get a little more headroom out of by swapping the pre-amp tubes.

But where this amp really shines brightly was the rhythm channel.

I had never heard some of the sounds out of my playing that I got Sunday night out of any of my amps. The sound was built around my SG's volume at about 6. It was very musical, and extremely expressive. Bright and even a bit jangly on the bridge pickup, and very full and deep on the neck pickup. When you roll up the volume, it gets a great crunch to it that smacks you in the face. The bridge pickup had a really good bite to it. I had to really step up my game playing, because there is no place to hide with this amp.

This may replace the Marshall JTM45 and two JMPs that I swap between as my #1 amp. Even my Hiwatt doesn't sound like this thing.

Now, to have Jeff Swanson make a matching cabinet (or two) after I'm done with training in Germany this summer.


A shot of Sunday's rig:


Solera and SG.jpg
 
SG John said:
Sunday night, I was able to play this amp at a pretty loud volume up against a heavy hitting drummer and loud bass player. I used my Burny SG with Gibson 57 Classic and 57 Classic+ pickups, and RS pots with Grey Tiger Caps. The head was plugged into a '70s Marshall 4x12 with early 2000s English made Celestion 25 watt Green Backs.

The rhythm (Hiwatt) channel is clear, punchy, and enormous. Even with the "modernish" English Celestion Green-Backs in the vintage cab, the sound was giant.
Although balanced fairly well volume wise, the Lead (Soldano) side of the amp seemed a little compressed when switching on the fly. It still has a really great overdriven sound that I may be able to get a little more headroom out of by swapping the pre-amp tubes.

But where this amp really shines brightly was the rhythm channel.

I had never heard some of the sounds out of my playing that I got Sunday night out of any of my amps. The sound was built around my SG's volume at about 6. It was very musical, and extremely expressive. Bright and even a bit jangly on the bridge pickup, and very full and deep on the neck pickup. When you roll up the volume, it gets a great crunch to it that smacks you in the face. The bridge pickup had a really good bite to it. I had to really step up my game playing, because there is no place to hide with this amp.

This may replace the Marshall JTM45 and two JMPs that I swap between as my #1 amp. Even my Hiwatt doesn't sound like this thing.

Now, to have Jeff Swanson make a matching cabinet (or two) after I'm done with training in Germany this summer.


A shot of Sunday's rig:


View attachment 14350
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John,

Where were you running your SG's tone controls???
 
Your comment about jangle/bright bridge pickuo in your SG is how I feel about the Gibson Burstbucker Pro's I just installed - although I can roll off the highs easily - with a 50's harness and K40Y PIO tone capacitors....
 
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