Let The Beatings Continue: Randall’s Mission to Pummel Eardrums Gets Two New Operatives

TheToneKing.com has a long and storied history of working with Randall Amplifiers, and throughout this history we’ve learned not to underestimate how far they’re willing to push the envelope.  This willingness to go beyond the expected is well-represented in the Randall Thrasher 50 watt and EOD88 amplifier heads.

 

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One of the stars of Winter NAMM 2015 was the Randall Thrasher 50 watt head.  Regular visitors to the TheToneKing.com‘s Tone Lounge (via video, of course) will remember the Randall Thrasher 120 watt head giveaway as part of 30 Pedals in 30 Days 2014.

Well, Randall took the earth-shaking tones of the 120 watt model and, with a few clever control tweaks to the clean channel, put the very same package into a smaller head cabinet producing 50 watts.  If you’ve coveted the gobs of gain the Thrasher series producer in a compact, lower wattage package that will get those tubes cooking quicker, Randall has delivered in spades.  The Thrasher 50 watt may be a “lunch box” type of head, but there’s nothing small about the tones it’s able to crank out.

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The Randall EOD88.  Readers, allow me a moment to get my brain together on how I’m going to discuss this amp.

OK, I think I’ve got it.  The Randall EOD88 specializes in tones perfect for your brunch-gigging jazz trio.  If that brunch is in Hell and the other two musicians have horns and wield pitchforks.

Seriously, this amp is the sound of a post-apocalyptic dystopian civilization.  And in such environments, there are no clean sounds.  So Randall told any and all clean tones within a five mile radius of the EOD88 to sod off.  This amp is 88 watts of pure grind from the time the switch is flipped, delivering a two channels of chunky, aggressive bite that can be fine-tuned for anything from driven classic metal tones to detailed, modern saturation.

But the EOD88 really burns everything to the ground with it’s third channel, which features a built-in fuzz.  This is not some buzzy, toppy, vintage-style fuzz chucked into the chassis to puff up the feature set.  In any other amp, it would be the sound of an impending warranty claim, but in the EOD 88 it’s pure Sabbath-slathered, stoner-rock bliss, especially if you’re using a 7 or 8 string guitar.  Is it any wonder that “EOD” stands for “Element of Doom?”

Joe Delaney and the folks at Randall continue to do right by the guitar playing community, which makes us extra-special proud to have had the opportunity to work with them on great events like 3P3D and cover them at NAMM.  Randall, of course, is the namesake company of Don Randall, one of the key figures in Fender Musical Instruments early success (which essentially put the company on the map for good).  Randall founded Randall Amplifiers in 1970, with an interest in further developing the use of solid state technology in amplifier design.  Obviously, that was a very successful move, and it’s great to see that the current iteration of Randall amplifiers is still carrying on with the same innovative drive and mindset that first powered the company to prominence.

And I bet Don would love the EOD 88.

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