From Clean to Scream: The Tone King Reviews the Randall RT100

March 24, 2010

From Clean to Scream: The Tone King Reviews the Randall RT100

Marc Johnson for TheToneKing.com

At TheToneKing.com, we notice that players always make the best gear. Well, Joe Delaney is definitely a player. In between gigs with his band Joetown, Joe has joined Randall and is helping them design amps. One of the first projects that he’s involved with is the Randall RT100. 

The Randall RT100 is a 100w 3-channel amp with real spring reverb. The first channel gives you anything from a sparkling clean to a high overdrive; the second gives mild grit to full saturation; and the third gives a full hi-gain tone. Each channel has its own dedicated EQ with Bass, Middle, and Treble as well as a Bright switch on the clean. The back of the amp gives you a Series EFX Loop with its own level. But here’s the coolest part. The RT100 has a user-friendly bias section that allows players to replace, bias, and match the tubes. Basically you can pop your tubes in, test them, and then adjust the bias on your own. For those of us who have had to pay a hundred and fifty bucks and wait two or three weeks to get their tubes replaced, this is awesome!


Normally, the The Tone King is all about the rock. With this amp, though, it was hard not to want to bring out the metal. We even had to whip out the seven-string. The ominous blue glow and the badass metal grill definitely let you know what you’re in for; you’re about to get your face shredded off with a brutal sound. The second channel gives you a skull-crunching rhythm that works great with the low B on the seven-string. The third channel is for shredders only. Don’t venture into this neighborhood unless you’re ready to wail.

That’s not to say that the amp is a one-trick pony. The three dedicated channels allow you a range of sounds that compliment anything from Country and Jazz to Full Metal/Shred. At TTK, we were able to get a great dynamic of sounds pretty easily and didn’t have to spend hours trying to dial it in. The easiest sounds to get were definitely the gains, but, with a true spring reverb and dedicated EQ, cleans were pretty easy to find as well, even with the high-output pickups we were using.

Randall has always been known for great metal tones. Why do you think folks like Kirk Hammett, George Lynch and Nuno Bettencourt use them? But to simply call this amp a metal amp would be doing it a disservice. You can get just about any sound you want out of this amp, but we wont hold it against you if decided to tear it up every once in a while.

Watch the video review by clicking Play below :

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Filed Under: FeaturedReviewsAmps

About the Author: Marc published his first novel Becoming in 2010. It’s a kick-ass book with monsters and dreams and stuff, and you should buy it. Since then, he’s written thousands of articles for TheToneKing.com, many of which have been picked up for circulation by manufacturers and other news outlets. His next book, Drugs and Pancakes, should be available early 2014 if his alcoholic editor can find time to work on it in-between destroying his liver and screaming about punctuation. He graduated from Roosevelt University with honors, which means that he’s not as dumb as he looks. He’s been playing guitar for over 25 years, which is almost twice as long as most of his students have been alive.

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