So I've been entertaining thoughts lately about a couple small Soldano amps, the Astroverb and Atomic, which are basically pint-size 20-watt SLOs. The only difference between the two is that the Astroverb has reverb. This was sparked when a guy from cyberjammin picked up an Astroverb mini-stack for something like $650. I didn't know anything about those amps and was surprised that one could have a Soldano, albeit used, for well under a grand. That got me thinking right away. With my plans to upgrade my studio gear and get more serious about writing and recording, I'd be very open to getting a recording amp such as an Atomic or Astroverb to compliment my Mesa rig and fill out my recorded sound a bit.

As I was pursuing teh intarwebs last night, I came across an interesting piece of kit announced at NAMM a couple months back: the Krank Rev Jr. mini-stack. (pictured) It's actually quite similar in concept to the Atomic and Astroverb: a 20w version of the flagship Revolution 100w head. The best part is the price: the halfstack (head and one 1x12 cab) will have a street price of $699, which is about what the Soldanos go for used. I've been impressed by the recordings I've heard of Krank gear, but there are no Krank dealers anywhere near here. Maybe, when the time comes, I'll just take a chance and order one. That won't be for quite a while yet, but still...the GAS fires are burning!