scramble a bit, wondering if maybe it was rocking some oddball
power tubes I hadn’t heard of before. I was certainly in no mood
to pretend I know what a KT96 is. But once I determined the
SoHo was equipped with EL84 power tubes, and had an EF86
running in pentode mode up front, I assumed this amp would
have a vintage, Vox-y vibe. Boy, was I wrong. The best way to
describe the overall vibe of this amp is Class A EL84 until things
start breaking up; that’s when it begins imparting more of an
EL34 vibe while retaining the EL84 chime.
The SoHo alternately has tons of clean sparkle and headroom
or convincing, musical crunch at baby’s-in-bed volumes with the
Master switched in. It’s even capable of old school, crank-it-up
raunch, no Master Volume needed, thank you. In fact, this is where
the SoHo and I got along best. Rolling in the Bump’s Tone control
adds even more schizophrenic prowess to the SoHo, going from
various English-flavored tones to a more brown, then eventually
blackface, vibe. The Level control is included in the Bump circuit to
add even more tonal flexibility, giving you the option of how much
of the circuit is fed into the signal. There seem to be enough tonal
options to hang yourself, but even I was unable to create any
truly crappy sounds, regardless of where the knobs and switches
landed, which I consider to be a laudable achievement.
P-90s and humbuckers both sounded great through the SoHo,
but, to my ears anyway, this thing seems tailor-made for Strats. It
can create a wicked sound at any range of the gain settings, from
sparkly-but-never-hurtful chime to a delightful medium grind, all
the way up to full-on thick and tasty crunch. The clean sounds
have an appealing thickness about them, never allowing the
bridge pickup do that thin, brittle thing Strats are wont to do, and
the medium grind tones are amazing; great, thick textures that
are responsive to volume knob input, cleaning up better than Nick
Nolte after a weekend stay at the L.A. county jail. Strats aren’t my
first choice for balls out distortion, and the most distorted sounds
from the SoHo are about a thousand miles away from typical
modern, high-gain fare, but will do quite nicely for that slightly
ironic cover of “Woman from Tokyo.”
To put it another way, I am unable to comment on how the SoHo
deals with pedals. Why? I never even thought about using them
while reviewing this amp. The clean sounds were thick and sparkly enough to keep me from ever contemplating plugging in a
compressor or my trusty CE- 2. The overdriven sounds were so
dynamic and toneful that placing an overdrive pedal in front would
have been unconscionable, like slapping a coffee-can exhaust on a
Lamborghini.
The Final Mojo
If you play alt-country, originals, or classic rock tunes in a band
graced with a either a reasonable drummer or competent sound
guy, this could be your next amp. If you’re ready to step up to a
boutique amp, but it needs to cover home, recording, rehearsal
and gig duties, this is your next amp.
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65 Amps
MSRP $2895
65amps.com
