Took a few days off work last week and made my rounds through the local music stores. Been saving up for some guitar gear. What, I don't know. I have all I need but since when has that stopped any of us from getting more gear.
So I am in Sam Ash Trying out an ESP Eclipse 2 (great guitar). They had a JCM800 in there so I go plug into that. Unfortunately, I didn't have the nerve to crank it as loud as I would need to to get a good tone out of it, so I only played around with it for a couple minutes. I could imagine that one of those would sound sweet cranked with an OD on the front end.
So I come up on a Peavey 6505. Have played them in the past. Good sounding amp. Very tight distortion though I suspect there was some diode clipping going on (not a dig, just an observation). Sounded very distortion pedalish. Regardless if one of those came on Criaglist for a great price I would probably pounce on it. The pre (distortion nob) is unusable past 12:00. For me actually it was unusable much earlier. Good amp nonetheless.
So they have a Randall V2 sitting there going through a Randall XL series cab. I owned a Randall way back in the day and I have tried there MTS stuff and thought it sounded very good so I plug in and give it a whirl.
This thing floored me. I mean wow! This was a metal amp like no other I have ever played. It just had a very different tone then anything I had ever heard.
It was very compressed sounding, and I say that in a good way. If you are looking for an Angus sound, you would not like it. But if you are into tight, thick, chugga muted palm metal, you have to try one of these.
I can't pick a band they sound like (I guess I could go on the Randall website and list whomever plays them). It was a very different tone. But it was killer in my book. I know it is a hybrid and not straight tube, but I have to give Randall some credit on this one. I played it the rest of the time I was there.
As far as build quality, I have no idea. I guess it could fall apart on the way out of the store. But the tone was out of this world. And I was plugged straight in. I think the only nob I messed with was the volume.
I might have to grab one of these if the price is right.
So I am in Sam Ash Trying out an ESP Eclipse 2 (great guitar). They had a JCM800 in there so I go plug into that. Unfortunately, I didn't have the nerve to crank it as loud as I would need to to get a good tone out of it, so I only played around with it for a couple minutes. I could imagine that one of those would sound sweet cranked with an OD on the front end.
So I come up on a Peavey 6505. Have played them in the past. Good sounding amp. Very tight distortion though I suspect there was some diode clipping going on (not a dig, just an observation). Sounded very distortion pedalish. Regardless if one of those came on Criaglist for a great price I would probably pounce on it. The pre (distortion nob) is unusable past 12:00. For me actually it was unusable much earlier. Good amp nonetheless.
So they have a Randall V2 sitting there going through a Randall XL series cab. I owned a Randall way back in the day and I have tried there MTS stuff and thought it sounded very good so I plug in and give it a whirl.
This thing floored me. I mean wow! This was a metal amp like no other I have ever played. It just had a very different tone then anything I had ever heard.
It was very compressed sounding, and I say that in a good way. If you are looking for an Angus sound, you would not like it. But if you are into tight, thick, chugga muted palm metal, you have to try one of these.
I can't pick a band they sound like (I guess I could go on the Randall website and list whomever plays them). It was a very different tone. But it was killer in my book. I know it is a hybrid and not straight tube, but I have to give Randall some credit on this one. I played it the rest of the time I was there.
As far as build quality, I have no idea. I guess it could fall apart on the way out of the store. But the tone was out of this world. And I was plugged straight in. I think the only nob I messed with was the volume.
I might have to grab one of these if the price is right.
