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Randall guitar amps


Robert J

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My son is will be completing his 3rd year of private guitar lessons this June. His 11th birthday is in May and I told him he could go electric after he'd been on the acoustic for awhile. He has a baby Taylor and is coming along nicely.

In his last recital he played his teacher's electric - a Godin LGX-SA

http://www.godinguitars.com/godinlgxsap.htm

quite a nice guitar. It was his first public appearance with an electric and he's hooked.

I'm looking at getting him an SD, at 379$ CDN

http://www.godinguitars.com/godinsdp.htm

because the neck is shorter and he's still a growing boy. Plus he doesn't need the bells and whistles (synth out, etc) just yet.

My question is about the amp. I was going to do a samll practice amp - Marshall or Randall, but then I saw a nice 30W Randall that has a good combo of features - 12" Celestion, 16 built in effects, pedal, EQ, headphone (!) and CD input. I can pick one up here in Toronto for 299$ CDN. This should last him about 5 years whereas the smaller 10W practice amps probably wouldn't let him jam too well with others.

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--RANRX30D

Anyone use Randall products? They seem really solid.

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That looks like a good beginner's amp; I have a cheap Marshall that is a 20 watt model and this looks better than that (and the Marshall is okay). . . . The Randall looks rugged and more than he'll need for some time to come. (Just don't let him discover TUBE amps! I have never fully warmed up to my Marshall in part because I know how much better tube amps sound!)

I've never heard any Randall amps, but a penpal of mine has said they are good value for money amps.

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I think for your purposes, a Randall would be a fine amp. I played a with a Randall amp about 20 years ago that worked just fine. It was very solid. My Randall would best be described as a Marshall style amp. It was good for loud rock music.

There are a lot of modeling amps out there and they'll probably last as long as the next one. I'm interesting in checking out the new Vox AD30VT Modeling Combo Guitar Amplifier (30 Watts, 1x10 in.). I love the Vox AC30's and if this gets close, I'll be happy.

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--VOXAD30VT

I mainly play old fender tube amps now. My old Champ amplifier is a great sounding practice amp. Though, it wouldn't cut it in a situation with drums very well (if they're very loud).

I think your choice of the Godin guitar is a good one. I have had a few of the Norman brand acoustic guitars that the makers of Godin put out and they were very high quality guitars for the money. They used good woods and they were built well.

Good luck!

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I have used a Peavey Classic amp for several years. I have the one with 4 10s that is based on the old Fender Bassman, but they make a smaller one which I have played and it sounded nice as well. It's a good option to get a good tube tone for not a lot of money.

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Holy Crap! Nevermind!

I just went to the Peavey site and the model I have now lists with an MSRP of $999.99! I think I payed just over half that when they first came out!

You might could find a used one. Even the little 30 amp model is $600+

(What are they putting in their crack over at Peavey?)

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Hmm... when Joe logs in maybe he'll tell us what he paid for his Peavey Delta Blues... that's a nice amp.

He also used a small Peavey combo this summer on a tour. The tour manager had it. I think it had two 10" speakers in it. Sounded really good. Tube.

Peavey's solid state amps are bogus, but their tube models compete with anyone, imho.

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I think I paid $450 new for mine. The one I used on the Scully tour last year was just like the one I have, but for a 12" speaker instead of a 15. Only problem: they are tube eaters. Other than that I've been happy with it.

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Thanks everyone for the input.

I think for where my son is at now with his Baby Taylor - he's gone through the Belwin method and the You're in the Band stuff as well as the usual stuff a conscientious teacher would give him (his teacher is also a huge Greg Alman fan), a tube amp may not be on the plate just yet. He only recently discovered overdrive!

Plus my son's listening habits are still geared towards rap because that's about the only thing a 10 year hears, it seems. Though he's probably unconsciously picking up some of the tunes I play. I don't worry, he's got older cousins into rock and metal, who also stared out with rap. I've tried to point out the guitar lines whenever possible (though rap has so few guitar moments; more in the R&B pop tunes and old Public Enemy). His teacher gives him more rock things to do on the guitar, though he's patient with the rap phase (there's a rap tune out that uses Ozzy's Osbourne's 'Crazy Train" riff so Justin learned that and it gave me an opp to plug Randy Rhodes). In a year or two, my son will have the benefit of my extensive LP collection once he gets the "call" :tup (that is if he figures out how to use my turntable).

As for the amp advice above, I still may go with this Randall model for a few reasons. The 30W element is strong, the Celestion speaker is a plus, it has built in o/d etc, the EQ and the digital effects. An external multi-effect unit will still run around $150 to start if I had to buy a practice amp without one, and he's not going to be doing any Frippertronics just yet (though I hope). The headphone jack will be good for nighttime jamming and he can input his CD as well to do some play along stuff. I like the cabinet structure of the Randall's - they seem more secure than the comparable Marshall's. I've been told, but not sure if it is true - that Marshall uses a ply in the cabinet, whereas the Randall is a solid peice. Not sure if this would make either a sound or durability benefit - anyone know?

My brother has a Champ amp like the one AB mentions, so if Justin needs to use a tube amp, he can borrow that one to compare sound. As for Peavey - that was my first amp I ever owned, c.1985. A big monster 8 channel powered head and huge woofer/horn combo cabinet. I used this for my Fender Rhodes and Moog, though it was overkill. I think my band ended up plugging into the unused chnnels for some of our mikes! while it was solid, in hindsight I don't think it was the greatest sound for what I was doing. But back then dedicated keyboard amps were rare and expensive.

The Delta Blues amp looks good. I forgot that guitarists can (usually) out-talk (out-drool?) gear compared to the keyboard players. Even the B-3ers!

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The Delta Blues amp looks good. I forgot that guitarists can (usually) out-talk (out-drool?) gear compared to the keyboard players. Even the B-3ers!

Funny aside: I've noticed you can always gauge the current state of popular music by instrument placement in musical instrument catalogs. For instance, back when I first started getting those catalogs, keyboards and synthesizers were up front. This was in the 80s (surprise, surprise). As we got into the 90s, keyboards were relegated to the very back and guitars and guitar amps were on the front pages. Now home recording gear is up front (mics, digital recorders, software, etc.) and guitars are second, and then MIDI stuff like keyboards. Poor drums are all the way in the back! :)

I think it's interesting.

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This was in the 80s

I used to look forward to Keyboard magazine each month to drool. I had this imaginary studio I would build for all the gear I would somehow afford to buy. This was the 80s as you say. Plus new advances in sound echnology each month created some cool gear, and some flops as well. Then around 1992 I stopped getting it as the tech started to solidify into certain defined areas: FM synthesis, PCM, etc etc. Keyboards started getting boring, in my opinion. All that promise of syntheseis and then the keys started sounding exactly like acoustic instruments. Plus after my DX7 phase, I realized I would never actually use 5000+ sounds. I sold my Rhodes for it, and during gigs I was playing the DX7 Rhodes sound about 80% of the time! As for recording, I did not become the Brian Eno I hoped to be. Now I use my Roland digital piano for 1 or 2 piano sounds, an organ sound, left hand upright bass, and maybe strings at weddings. No ideas what the Keyboard mag does now, probably all home studio as you say.

Poor drums are all the way in the back!

(What drummer would read a catalogue anyway?) :g

Edited by Robert J
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Yeah, synths started getting pretty boring by the late 80s. I had a DX7. That was my first synth. Great little box. Now I play a Yamaha EX7, but just like you I only use it for piano, strings, electric pianos (wurli and rhodes) and horns. Maybe the occasional nutty lead synth line if I'm feeling frisky. Of course I use a real B3 for organ! :)

The future is soft-synths. Have a little laptop and a keyboard controller and you have massive sampling at your fingertips, like GigaSampler. Amazing stuff.

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As for Peavey - that was my first amp I ever owned, c.1985. A big monster 8 channel powered head and huge woofer/horn combo cabinet. I used this for my Fender Rhodes and Moog, though it was overkill.

That's interesting -- I currently use a Peavey Blues Classic 50 (a 50W combo with one 15" speaker) for my Rhodes (not at all the same as the beast you've described) but I've found it to be nearly ideal for my purposes, especially compared with the higher-powered powered monitors I use for acoustic piano and a few other keyboard amps I've tried it with (including one of the Yorkville combos -- I think the 300 or some such model).

Lots of love for Peavey's tube gear here -- nice to see, I guess.

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Since I'm a guitarist, I had a different view of the DX-7. I hated that thing.

I played for a while in a band that had a DX-7 weilding keyboardist. Man... everytime he'd play, it sounded like the frickin' "Final Countdown" by Europe. I couldn't take it and left the band. The 80's gave me a headache. ;)

It took me YEARS to appreciate keyboards after that... :P:lol:

I LOVE keyboards and synths now.

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Now of course I can't stand the DX7 Rhodes sound because it was on so many late 80s tunes - crappy Chicago ballads, Billy Ocean etc. I sold the DX7 in 1994 and bought an acoustic piano - they never go out of style. Funny how you can listen to a radio station that plays retro 80s and I can pick out all the different keys available at the time - there's the DX7, Juno/Jupiter 6, Oberheim, Korg DW6000, Ensoniq, etc. The tech really drove the tunes and the solos. Think of Cindy Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun loopy sounding key solo - no one would do that nowaday.

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