Amp Comparison

[Dak]

Ok: Found a deal on either a very used Randall RH200 with cabinet
or a practically brand new Crate XT120R.

I am going to go and try to check em out tonight, still trying to get in contact with the seller.

Anyone with an opinion on these two?

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

Shame about the extreme conditions of the two, as I would never choose a Crate over anything else.

 

[Dak]

Why?

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

They always tend to sound like there's a bad pedal in front of them... like if you play through the metal tone of one of the second-rate emulating combo amps out right now, like some of the Vox ones, it sounds like that. Randalls serve a pretty basic, easy to please metal crowd quite consistently, similar to Marshalls but heavier.

If you go on YouTube there are usually a lot of demonstrations and/or reviews of music stuff that people do, and you can probably easily find some Crate and Randall videos on there to help you.

 

[Dak]

Well the Randall is a better deal IF it's in servicable condition, since its a head/cabinet (and 200w). Im going to look at both of them tonight.

 

[Dak]

So I bought the Randall, the head is fine but all the speakers in the cabinet are shot. It's a Carvin cabinet. Got the cabinet for free, the head was $100. Looks like it's gonna ballpark $200 to replace 4 12" carvin speakers.

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

Follow up when you get to hear it through a good cabinet. I want to make sure I didn't lead you to something crappy. Really though, Crates really are pretty poor. I know Randall has garnered praise from some pretty big names so although I can't find a good sample of it online it can't be that bad. One thing I did find out is apparently it *can* get kind of hot and if so a little internal fan might be needed to help cool it.

 

[Dak]

I assume that is running it full blast?

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

Probably.

Here's a bunch of reviews I found:

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar+Amp/product/Randall/RH200+Head/10/1

 

[Dak]

Thanks, I think I stumbled across a couple of those reviews earlier but not the whole page. Sounds like I got a steal lol

I see a lot of people saying you have to take the back cover off and the back cover is missing so that probably is why (the overheating).