By Miguel Hernandez
Posted 07/09/2025
Let’s take a look at the Soldano SLO Super Lead Overdrive.
To understand this pedal we have to go back for a moment and take a super condensed look at the humble roots of its predecessor, and how this pedal came into being. Its creator Mike Soldano began his career in the amplifier industry in the 80s, repairing and modding amps with Stars Guitars in San Francisco. While working there, he built his first amplifier, which was a clone of aFender Bassman. Mike then shifted his focus to modding Mesa Boogie MkII amplifiers, which ultimately became the inspiration behind the Super Lead Overdrive 100 (SLO) amp design, which was the foundation for all future products in the line such as the Soldano rack mounted preamp to the pedals of the future. Soldano was instrumental in putting the SLO design on the map by getting them into the hands of players such as Howard Leese of Heart, Lou Reed, Michael Landau, and Vivian Campbell. Soldano officially released the SLO 100 in 1987 and sold amps to Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, George Lynch, and Gary Moore, to name a few. The SLO 100 became and is still the benchmark by which many amps would be measured against. Its powerful cascading gain, along with its rich and nuanced tones, still hold guitarists in awe and have stood the test of time.
The Pedal
Here it is right from the horse’s mouth. Soldano says:
“The SLO-100 is famous for being one of the most detailed-sounding high-gain guitar amplifiers of all time. Until now, it’s been challenging to capture the amp’s nuanced character in a pedal format. The new Super Lead Overdrive pedal changes that, with the perfect balance of gain, sustain, and touch response the SLO is known for.”
Being a proud owner of this pedal, I can honestly say that this is a very accurate assessment. These days, the SLO 100 amp is a rare and expensive beast that us mere mortals cannot afford to add to our gear stables, so it was a relief to obtain this incredible tone in a small portable and affordable design.
Tech Talk
The SLO Pedal sports cascading gain stages just like its parent, the flagship SLO 100 amplifier. The house is a small pedal enclosure that will fit comfortably on almost any pedalboard. Note: you never want to exceed 9VDC or you risk damaging the pedal.
Controls
- Volume: Controls the total output volume
- Presence: Filters the output’s high end
- Gain: Adjusts the total amount of gain that is applied, turning this control clockwise will increase the amount
- EQ Section: Classic Soldano three band EQ; adjusting each clockwise will increase the output of the relative frequency ranges
- Deep Switch: Adjusts the overall output low-end punch
Playthrough and Tones
I ran this pedal with my dual humbucker Seymour Duncan-loaded Stratocaster which has the hot rodded set, a custom in the bridge position and a Jazz model in the neck.
For our demo, the signal chain is as follows: the SLO pedal directly into the Boss IR-2 running a clean amp IR, into my Tascam 2488 NEO 24 track recorder/mixing board, which is plugged into my Focusrite 2i2 interface.
Moving from the initial clean test tones and kicking in the pedal at low gain, we were greeted with thick, creamy warm tones that retain a clarity and articulation not common in most gain pedals. There was no fizziness or buzzy bees. This is a function of the pedal’s cascading gain design and powerful interactive EQ, which I should mention, upon initial setup was set to 12 o’clock. This is generally a great starting point for most gain pedals. The SLO pedal was no exception. Now as far as interactivity, the guitar and the SLO pedal also played extremely well together.The guitar felt very much alive and fun to play under your fingers, no matter the eq or gain settings. Mid drive tones were great, and as the drive increased to higher gain settings, all the greasy goodness reared its head and made it really hard to put the guitar down. The high gain tones were harmonically rich and full of powerful mix-friendly overtones. Pinch harmonics were a breeze, and searing leads were easily attainable.
Summary
The SLO pedal, like its SLO 100 parent, sounds incredibly complex but very clear at all gain levels – the rhythm tones have plenty of chunk with tons of clarity and articulation, and the lead tones have meat and sustain not typically found in other offerings. This was a fun one! Go out and demo one, you’re likely to walk out with it, and a huge grin on your face. Take care and we’ll catch you in our next demo.
