Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
My MGAT-5 Sinvertek Real Amp Abstraction of the Soldano SLO-100 has landed - and Mr Wu has once again knocked it out of the park!
I’m getting somewhat irked by the people who criticise the appearance of this pedal - with some citing it as the worst design ever! - which is wholly unfounded and dangerously ignorant in the circumstances - the nature of the control topology is limited by the small format and the various internal elements that make up the circuit - the development of which is usually a series of compromises to fit within a prescribed form factor. If you can’t handle the enormous capabilities that come with this pedal - then move along, it’s not for you! - This pedal is akin to a Formula 1 Car - and you might feel just as alien in the cockpit of such a vehicle - but where every control has a key purpose and impact! If it’s too much for you - just stick to 3-knob devices, you have plenty of options for those - this an entirely more technical and granular class of solution which fully reprises and enhances a 3-Channel Tube Amplifier in its entirety. This is designed to be a complete amp replacement and to deliver every ounce of tone you get from the original source amp - the Soldao SLO-100 as in this case.
It’s amusing also to see that the main board for this pedal is wholly gooped! - so there is no chance of photographing the insides alas - I’m sure there is a magnificent circuit arrangement under all of that black resin - it’s a shame that we can’t see the full extent of all those mojo components! While I understand the ned for Mr Wu to protect his own designs.
The previous visual abstraction I did a few weeks ago was 99% correct - and came out quite a bit before the manual was released. I made a couple of errors and omissions - but got all the key aspects totally right. This pedal is singularly impossible to photograph well - and so I have had to adapt my original visual - to match it’s look to the the pedal that I now have in front of me. Mine is serial number #15 - so I seem to be dropping down the pecking order a little. My good friend Henry Kaiser got his a week and a half before me as is usually the case for these. Sinvertek mostly ships from California - while mine actually shipped from China this time around - which is a first for me as all the others throughout the years have come from California!
My key omissions were over the nature of the main SRAA Master EQ / Tone Density control - which I didn’t get exactly right - the manual sometimes refers to the amp you’e connecting to, and sometimes the output profile of the pedal - meaning you would use the ’Bright’ Mode if your amp was Dark and vice versa - so you can use the Bright word to either represent the nature of your amp or the output of the MGAT-5 - which is why my original labelling was somewhat confused - it should all be good now!
SRAA TO.DE Tone Density 3-way Control
- TO.DE Type I : Bright Output (for going into Dark Amps)
- SRAA Flat / Neutral Preamp Output (for most situations / default)
- TO.DE Type II : Dark Output (for going into Bright Amps)
There was also a little confusion with the Super ⚡ Charger Control (a saturating boost essentially)- which is controlled by a vertical toggle shifter - vs the horizontal one for the Channel Selection - it works in just the same way just in a different orientation. These are sling-loaded controls which default to the middle - and you press in either direction to engage the Boost for a particular Channel.
Channel Super⚡Charger
- For the Clean (Channel 1) you nudge it up to switch the secondary Clean Boost Mode [On or Off]
- For the Crunch )Channel 2) you nudge it down to switch the secondary Crunch Top Boost Mode [On or Off]
- For the Overdrive (Channel 3) you nudge up and hold to switch on the secondary Super Saturated Mode [On or Off]
The final thing I missed out on in my previous visual is the (A)(B)(C) SLO Frequency Range Reference Dots - the little green dots - which mark out the default SLO Frequency Ranges - so for (A) it’s 2 which means middle, (B) is 3 : right, and (C) is also 2 : middle.
Everything else is perfectly straightforward and intuitive.
Essentially the Channel Switch sets the core 3 channels - Clean, Crunch and Overdrive - and you can Super ⚡ Charge (Saturation Boost) each of those for a more potent secondary output option!
The 6 Channels (3 x Regular and 3 x Super ⚡ Charged) are as follows :
- CH1 : Clean
- CH2 : Crunch
- CH3 : Ovedrive
- CH4 : Clean Boost
- CH5 : Crunch Top Boost
- CH6 : Super Saturated Overdrive
I’ve explained these pedals before as being simply about shifting gears up and down to achieve different tonalities! You typically start with everything in the middle near enough - bar here the (B) option which needs to be set right to 3! And then you fine tune the output to suit your preferences and sensibilities. All relatively easy really - and you don’t have to adjust every control - it’s a matter of tweaking those parts of the profile you want to - so no different to any other advanced pedal - just with a few more fine-tuning options - to really nail every ounce of your desired sound!
I've split the 15 Controls into EQ and Gain Sections, as follows:
EQ CONTROLS
- VOLUME
- Channel 1 & 2 Bright Switch : On / Off
- SRAA / TO.DE Tone Density
- Type I Bright
- SRAA Flat / Neutral Preamp
- Type II Dark
- MID Frequency + 3-way Switch (B) ± [3]
- BASS Frequency + 3-way Switch (C) ± [2]
- TREBLE Frequency + 3-way Switch (A) ± [2]
- RESONANCE / Depth
- PRESENCE / Air
GAIN CONTROLS
- Gain Structure : High / Normal / Low
- Super Charger : ↑ Clean Channel On/Off / ↑↑ Overdrive Channel On/Off (up+hold) / ↓ Crunch Channel On/Off
- GAIN
- Channel Select : Clean > Crunch > Overdrive > Clean etc. and reverse!
- Channel State Lights up when secondary Super Charger has been applied to Channel
An improvement over the last MGAT-1 GE is that this one seems to be finally stateful - so it switches on to your last / previous channel setting while the previous GE models always switched back to the lowest channel option!
I already thought the MGAT-1 was the high water mark state of the art for this kind of amp replication - but then we had the even better MGAT-1 Golden Era. Mr Wu manages to eke out a little more magic with every sequential release - to deliver an even more perfect output.
This SLO Sinvertek Real Amp Abstraction sounds entirely like an SLO-100 - it's quite incredible how well it performs, and it has the most incredible dynamics and guitar volume gain cleanup.
It's also not quite as expensive as I though ti would be - albeit still pricey - but still less than the cost of a Chase Bliss pedal.
I've been on the Sinvertek Journey near enough from the start - I was relatively quick in discovering the earliest N5 variant - and I've picked up every major evolved edition since. Meaning this MGAT-5 is the 7th of the series for me.
I still think $369 is incredible value for one of these - it delivers simply the best and most comprehensive amp-like experience you can currently get in pedal format - there's no one else operating at quite the same level as Mr Wu. The full-fat Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE comes close to that sort of of fidelity - but is not quite as vibrant and engaging as one of Mr Wu's creations - it's still incredible in its own right!
I feel very proud to have gotten my hands on this one - it's a most magnificent pedal - a true weapons-grade / weapon of mass seduction - everyone will surely love one of these - that is to say those that like extended granularity - for everyone else there are the Soldano SLO pedals which are also pretty decent - but much simpler affairs.
A reason why I so love Sinvertek - is that there just isn't anything out there even vaguely close to it. Certainly not in compact format!
If you want the best Marshall Distortion Pedal out there - get the MGAT-1 GE, and if you want the best Soldano SLO one - then this should be your weapon of choice. Even the word magnificent doesn't seem to do it full justice - I'm such a big fan of these Sinvertek Pedals - they continue to surprise and delight, and each one is somehow better than the last - which was already a high water-mark.!
If you want one - the process is as before - to contact Sales Manager Tina at officialsales@sinvertek.com - she will then ask for your details and arrange payment and shipment. There is some urgency in getting in an order quickly as the very earliest pedals feature some extra special mojo components onboard (vintage transistors etc.) - which is often the case with these models - if you care about those - then you need to act quickly ...
I paid $369 plus $20 for shipping, and a further $56 for import duties - so a total of $445 or around £330 - which is so worth it! As I keep saying - no one else is making amp eplacement pedals as good as these - they really are in a class of their own!
We're fortunate also that there is a demo out already - as below - which gives you significant insights into how grand this pedal can sound!
Demos
