Soultone

Soultone (full name: Soultone Amplification, Inc.), is an American guitar amplifier manufacturing company, based in Chandler, Arizona, and known for making hand wired instrument amplifiers using vintage and modern techniques, components, and features.

Soultone is exemplary of boutique musical instrument manufacturers.

Company History

The founder of Soultone was an amateur musician and DIY amplification enthusiast Michael Corrieri. Frustrated with modern guitar amplification offerings, he began producing modern variants of vintage amplifiers. Early success, owing to the short-supply and high-demand of top-quality products, led to a full blown business model and corporate identity.

Design Philosophy

While original examples of classic vintage amplifiers can be purchased for large sums of money, they are also reputed to exhibit unreliable performance. Vacuum tube amplifiers are susceptible to (and sources of) noise, and usually produce sound pressure levels only suitable for larger performance venues. Nonetheless, many purists believe that Digital Signal Processing will never be able to produce the dynamics (music), warmth, and complex harmonic distortion of vacuum tubes. Soultone advocated improved manufacturing techniques and materials, as well as carefully selected new old stock (NOS) and modern manufactured components, would produce modern variants of vintage classic amplifiers with greater reliability and significantly less noise.

With their modern power controls, Soultone amplifiers can reproduce stadium sized tube distortion sounds all the way down to recording studio, or even bedroom levels. Power Scaling is a power controlling technology, licensed from London Power / Power Press, that lowers the power tube voltages, including proportionately scaled bias voltages, in order to reduce the audible volume; the power amplifier itself is changed from larger to smaller with the turn of a knob.

By carefully crafting each instrument by hand, boutique builders like Soultone are able to retain a vintage character and flavor not found in mass produced products, even when using high-tech innovations.

Manufacturing Technique

Soultone is most notable for its sophisticated "modern vintage" manufacturing process.

New products are first blue printed using electronics fabrication test fixtures, that allow the easy replacement of components and component values. When a circuit design is arrived at, all components are fed into a modern 3D CAD/CAM system, in order to arrive at an optimum layout. Issues with component placement are removed early in the design process. Once a design layout is perfected, mechanical drawings are printed and code generated for sheet-metal production.

The actual circuitry is then built upon hybrid PCB/Turret boards, using the hand wiring techniques typical of smaller boutique instrument amplifier makers. A hybrid PCB/Turret board is produced with the supply circuit traces, and the remainder of the board is perforated for placement of turrets. The tone circuit is then laid out by a careful placement of the turrets, and then hand wrapping components onto the turrets. MILSPEC teflon-coated, silver-plated, aircraft control wire is then tinned, and wrapped upon each turret, making the final connections to power, ground, tube sockets, and controls.

These amplifiers are esteemed for the artistry of their wiring, their top-down engineering, high quality enclosures fabrication, hand wound transformers, NASA grade precision soldering, modern power features, and excellent sound.

Virtual business model

The internet and online forums have greatly aided boutique style manufacturers, by spreading word of mouth marketing directly to potential buyers, relying upon news group word-of-mouth, as wells as capitalizing upon the publicity generated by consumer advocates sourcing flame wars over old versus new methods of manufacturing. The new manufacturing model is favored by a virtual presence, out-of-state tax free internet catalog sales, online payment methods, and easy world-wide shipping, all available via the Internet. Savvy manufacturers can generate all necessary code for sophisticated metal manufacturers as far ways as China, greatly reducing their operating costs.

Mainstream Competition

With the success of this booming cottage industry in high dollar musical instrument amplification, the big four manufacturers jumped head long into the boutique manufacturing market. Marshall, Fender, Gibson, and Vox all currently offer entirely hand wired re-creations of their vintage products, often at costs lower than boutique competition. These products hold an even greater appeal to consumers, as they join the coveted hand-wired hype with household names and corporate longevity. While builders like Soultone have managed to survive this onslaught by combining modern and vintage processes, techniques, and materials, much of this cottage industry is quickly vanishing. Only time will tell if any of these new companies will remain viable, as the big four manufacturers become more responsive to potential buyer's actual desires, thanks largely to the internet. These larger companies have deeper products to dedicate to extensive market research, which could revitalize the musical instrument market with newer products that utilize the "modern vintage" approach. Boutique builders may in the end be relying upon their early reputation and momentum to sustain business growth.

Product Line

The Soultone line currently includes valve amplifiers from 18 to 45 watts, in head/cabinet as well as combo formats.

ee also

*List of guitar amp brands
*Guitar speaker
*Power attenuator (guitar)
*Distortion (guitar)
*Instrument amplifier
*Bass instrument amplification
*Electronic amplifier
*Valve sound
*Guitar effects
*Guitar speaker cabinet
*Re-amp

External links

* [http://www.soultoneamps.com/index.php Soultone's amplifier pages] — Manufacturer's web pages.
* [http://www.londonpower.com/index.html London Power] - Kevin O'Connor web pages.