Very unimpressed by "all-tube" Randall...

[Sunbane]

Just thought I'd give my 2 pesos on this...thing.

I visited a bigger town this weekend and went through a couple of music stores. I had a chance to try out a new all-tube Randall, namely the RG50TC - 50W all tube combo amp.

At moderate gain settings I got some Slayerish sounds out of it. That's not a bad thing in itself, but however much I tweaked the EQ knobs, the overall Slayer impression remained. It sounded sort of tired and uninspiring at all EQ settings.

The reverb was weak - you'd have to turn it up quite a bit just to hear it, and then it totally muddied down the sound.

As I turned the gain up, the distortion turned into some sort of electronic fuzz. I fiddled around with the EQ, amp volume and guitar volume to no avail. I tried both inputs, switched pickups, tried another guitar...same thing. When I backed the gain down, I was back at the Slayer sound. I don't know if maybe anything was up with the speaker or something, but this was a brand new amp in a store.

My personal verdict: A steaming pile of shit. My solid state ZOOM floor box going through a PA easilly sounds ten times better than this thing. At the moment it looks like I'll be shopping for a Marshall Valvestate head after all. At least I know what I'd get soundwise...

[Dave L]

Randalls are imho pretty easy to tweak right, and that leaves me kinda worried that these in fact sound no good. I´m not in the market for cheaper tube amps myself, but I think it´s cool that manufacturers like Randall and Peavey try to build good stuff for a price just about anyone can afford.

Brand new speakers can sound pretty bad, though... it might need some breaking in.

[Mordor]

Thanks for the review bro. Cheap tube amps are good, expecially for people that cannot afford expensive gear, but the good old rule "you get what you pay for" is always valid.

[lerxstcat]

That amp is part of Randall's new cheap Chinese line. Getting a full metal tone out of a combo (open-back?) with presumably cheap tubes and speaker is probaly not going to happen. It could be a bad one, or representative of the model. It's hard to tell based on just one, and Chinese-made amps are not known for great QC in general.

I would probably get a ValveKing if I were to get any Chinese-made amp. The Randalls look like a bunch of other Chinese made "house" brand amps, like I think Aussies would recognize the Ashton name? Look at an Ashton and the Chinese Randalls, same layout. Also similar to some Legion Sound and Madison amps, remember that controversy? Those are all said to be bad TSL clones.

[axeman81]

Funny you should say that, I -too- think Slayer sounds tired and uninspiring

[mantis]

Randall has released a George Lynch amp called the Lynchbox. Your suppost to beable to get his tone out of it. I didn't know he even played played randalls. I remember Marshall, Mesa and Solodano

[Dave L]

George endorsed Randall for a while back in the eighties, but I don´t know if he ever actually used them.

He´s gone thru alot of brands... Marshall, Boogie, Randall, Soldano, Bogner, Peavey, Genz Benz...

[Sunbane]

Getting a full metal tone out of a combo (open-back?) with presumably cheap tubes and speaker is probaly not going to happen.

Obviously. Let me just add that I have owned cheaper all solid state combos that completely obliterated this one. The Randall had just about the worst sound of any amp that I've ever played.

[kokostrollet]

Found this steller review of the RG50TC kind of interesting! Hey, seems this amp is really worth checking out nonetheless!

http://www.svenskmusik.se/pdf/Randall%20RG50TC.pdf

Sunbane,

Maybe there was something wrong with the one you tried?

[roodyrocker]

The Lynch Box from Randall is essentially the Randall RM 100. So is the new Kirk Hammett signature head. This is the Randall you ought to be looking at, not the RG series. The RM with removable pre-amp modules sounds good and is about the most versatile amp you can get. There must be at least 20 different modules available plus you can use the Egnater modules in it as well. All tube!