It must be nice to have close friends like Mike Soldano. James Burke, proprietor of Blues City Music and Commercial Jet Pilot (!) had bee receiving a multitude of requests from customers and his own damn self for a Soldano combo that featured the best of what Soldano had to offer, but was still reasonably affordable. James called up mike, described his dream amp, and now Blues City Music is offering the result of their brain-love: the Soldano 44 BMC.

The 44 BMC is and "Astroverb'-sized 1x12 combo" that pushes 50 watts through 6L6/5881 output tubes, 5 12AX7’s and a standard 3-band EQ + presence control tone stack. What makes the 44 BMC truly unique, however, is, as Mr. Burke says:

". . . that YOU, the customer, have 5 different options to choose from in regards to CUSTOMER upgrades. These include 2 choices of tolex color, 4 speaker choices, 2 chassis to speaker and 2 reverb tank harness choices, 3 Studio Slips custom cover choices, and 3 preamp configurations."

The specific options include:

• Tolex -- black or "Regency blue"
• Speakers -- Jensen Blackbird Jet Alnico, Celestion V30, Soldano-tweaked Eminence Legend or Jensen Neo
• preamp configurations -- Electro-Harmonix 12AX7-EH, JJ ECC 83S or Tung-Sol 12AX7s
• power cord options -- standard, Monster Cable MPL 300 , Solid Cables Power Cord

While technically a single-channel amp, the Soldano 44 BMC has separate, switchable Normal and Lead master volumes, acting like a clean boost. This makes the amp highly versatile, while still retaining the base tube tone.

The amp also comes standard with a velcro-mounted spring reverb tank that's vibration-isolated from the res of the amp chasis. The base price of the Soldano 44 BMC is $2170 US. Check with Blues City Music for a full quote, and order soon: they've only got 20 for their initial stock.