Randall RT50 and Peavey Triple XXX...

[AndrewB]

I've been looking for a new amp head, and I've decided between getting a Randall RT503 or a Peavey Triple XXX. Does anyone have experience with either of these? Are there any major differences that I should know about. I've been looking for miced clips of the Triple XXX, and I haven't found any, but I've seen Premier Guitar's miced demo of the Randall, and it sounds pretty good, especially with a TS.

 

[Trevoire520]

I've got the XXX. No experience with the Randall though.

XXX is a pretty good amp. Not quite got the same low mid thickness as the 6505, but you can get it sounding pretty close. XXX is a bit leaner overall.
Clean sound is VERY good.
Can be a bit difficult to dial in at first as it has an active eq. You soon get used to it though.
Crunch and Ultra channels sound practically the same by the way. Ultra has a bit more bottom and top and a wee cut in the mids compared to crunch. But the basic gain sounds identical.

I would offer up some clips but I don't think I have anything that's just XXX. 6505 tends to get more use lately as it's really the metal standard tbh.

 

[AndrewB]

So have you tried dialing in some more vintage classic rock/blues type tones with it? Or do the crunch and ultra channels sound like ass with the gain down?

 

[Trevoire520]

To be honest there's far too much gain for stuff like that. I normally don't run it higher than about 9 o clock or so.
You can lower the gain by swapping out the ecc83's for ecc82's, changes the character a bit and makes it more retro sounding, less aggressive. I've never personally tried to get rock/blues tones out of it though.