Soldano X88-IR 3-Channel Tube Rackmount Guitar Preamp

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Soldano X88-IR 3-Channel All-Tube Stereo Rackmount Preamp The Soldano X88R is considered by many guitar players as the holy grail of rack mount tube preamps. From its inspiring Soldano tone to distinctive purple anodized panel, the X88R is one of the world’s most sought-after pieces of vintage gear used by countless professional musicians including Peter Frampton, Warren DeMartini, Michael Landau, Steve Lukather, Lou Reed and Lee Ritenour to name a few. The new X88-IR continues this legacy by preserving every ounce of Soldano’s legendary tone, with updated modern features tailored to meet the needs of today’s professional players. To fully appreciate the new X88-IR, we must first look back into its history. History of the Original X88R 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 Bradshaw’s request, the X88R would never have happened. I thank Bob Bradshaw for his idea and for his trust in me to make it happen.” Here’s the story In 1987, Steve Lukather began using the new Soldano SLO-100 heads. Bob Bradshaw built Steve’s rack system and toured with him to ensure it always worked flawlessly. While visiting Bob’s 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.  Steve’s complicated wet-dry-wet rig also needed heavy dummy loads to get a low level “slave” signal from the power amp’s 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 SLO’s revolutionary cascading gain design already provided all of Soldano’s iconic tone in the preamp section. Bob requested Mike to build an al