Blues City Music - Bringing You The Finest in Guitar Amplifiers - Soldano - Diamond - Splawn

What makes this business so different from others is that James operates Blues City Music as a passion, but makes his living as a Boeing 777 F Captain/Check Airman flying wide body jets internationally for FedEx Express and NOT by selling guitars, amps, or effects. This insures you'll ALWAYS know that our sales are based upon customer needs and NOT what we have to sell to pay the rent. The bills are paid, so let's concentrate on finding your tone.

Blues City Music has been a work in progress for quite some time. James has been playing guitar since 1976 and started this business in 2005 by flooring his product lines at a local Memphis boutique guitar and amp store. At that time, his lines included Soldano, Bad Cat, and Bogner guitar amplifiers with Samick acoustic, electric, semi hollow body, arch top, and solid body electric guitars. Due to issues that could not be rectified, James went out on his own, and hasn't looked back since.

As a authorized STOCKING amplifier dealer for Soldano, Diamond, Splawn, 65 AMPS, and Louis Electric Amplifiers, you have the ability to buy from a large selection of products, or can create your own amp from model, color, or modifications as per the manufacturer, with a simple custom order from Blues City Music. Custom is our specialty, so bring us any ideas you may have.

Regardless of application, we still see the Soldano SLO-100 as the finest amplifier ever produced, with the rest of their product line based upon this fabulous circuit. The Diamond Amplification line is by far the most intense and well versed hi end EL 34 amp available anywhere, the Splawn line is the most versatile "Marshallesque" style amp you can find for under $2,000.00, and the 65 Amps line offers a variety of products from cathode biased to fixed bias for those players looking for that vintage British vibe. With the recent addition of Louis Electric amplifiers, Blues City Music is proud to have acquired the exclusive rights to their 37 watt "Blues Breaker" 2 x 12" combo based entirely upon the original Marshall model 1962 "bass" circuit Blues Breaker amp.

Some may ask what kind of experience do we have with comparing other amp lines to the amp lines that we carry. That's a very fair question, so to answer it, I'll say, I've owned or played through Crate, Acoustic, Sunn, Lab Series, Marshall, THD, Star, SMF, Fender, Bad Cat, Bogner, Diezel, Wizard, Landry, Carr, Peavey, Budda, and a host of others. Regardless of application, we still say that the lines we carry for sale are the very best available anywhere.

Currently I practice what I preach by playing either my #001 or #002 serial numbered Soldano 44 Blues City Music Signature model combo amp as my main rig, or depending on venue size, I switch to a custom "one off" Soldano SLO-100 in proprietary burgundy/black snakeskin tolex, with the Warren Haynes, Mid Scoop, Depth, ½ power, and effects loop bypass switch options, through a custom "one off" Hermit Cabs 2 x 12" ATA Isolation cabinet loaded with a Warehouse Guitar Speaker 100 watt AlNiCo Black Hawk/Sennheiser MD 421, and a Warehouse Guitar Speaker 55 watt Ceramic Electric Lightning/Shure SM57 combination. I can also count on my Diamond Amplification "one off" Custom Shop serial #001 Spitfire II, housed in a 4 AAAA flame top maple head shell running through a Diamond Decada 2 x 12" cabinet with Celestion "Heritage" G12 H30's, and finally a Louis Electric Amplifiers Blues City Music exclusive "Blues Breaker" 2 x 12" combo loaded with either Celestion "Heritage" G12M "Greenbacks" or AlNiNo Golds.

All of these amps sound fabulous with any of my primary guitars including a Gibson Custom Shop Gary Rossington Signature Series 59' Les Paul, Tom Anderson Cobra S, DBZ USA "one off" Custom Shop "Royale", or a vintage 77' Fender Strat.

*** Guitar Player Magazine review of the Soldano 44 Blues City Music
Signature combo amp ***

*** Premier Guitar Magazine review of the Soldano 44 Blues City Music
Signature combo amp 5 out of 5 ***

Blues City Music’s owner, Lynn Burke, in front of his Soldano, Diamond, and Splawn demo rigs utilizing a custom “one off’ Bob Bradshaw 8 amp switcher, and Tone Bone Head Bone 2 amp switcher. This demo was held at world famous Ocean Way Nashville Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, for the audio engineer and school of music students at Belmont University.

Marshall 1969 original Super Lead Tremolo ST/A tweaked by Michael J. Soldano Jr., Blues City Music 44 combo, and Louis Electric 58’ tweed Twinmaster with Danny Gatton voicing.

Diamond Balinese, and Louis Electric KR 12, Blues City Music Blues Breaker, and Buster.