Dean Markley RM-80-SR

The Dean Markley, RM-80-SR head is a two channel, clean and overdrive, 80 watt amp with a tube driven preamp. The tube, of course, is a 12-AX7 and can be replaced by taking the amp out of the rack box it comes in and removing the five screws which hold the top sectiion on. The amp is meant to be output into 8 ohm speakers. Should you decide against this, you do so at great risk. It's EQ consists of bass, mid and treble plus the addition of a prescence control which enables the user to obtain a wide scope of tonal voicings. On the back of the unit there are inputs for preamp out, power amp in, a mono effects loop plus a jack for the global reverb and another for channel switching. There are also two speaker outputs. It would have been a bit more convenient to have some of these jacks located on the front of the amp as it can become quite awkward when connecting the necessary cables. There is also a ground switch on the front panel and that's a feature that can help to eliminate most of the hum. A standby switch is also included and I feel it is absolutely necessary for this head to warm up for at least 15 minutes before playing through it.
This is the amp I use for most of the work I do and I've found the output to be more than enough for any size venue.
The Dean Markley RM-80-SR head has been out of production for a number of years. All they make at this time are small practice amps. There is no information about it on the company's web site. I got in touch with customer service and they were kind enough to give me the name and number of the gentleman who designed the head. His name is Terry Laul. He lives in Kansas and can be reached at (316)537-6301. He knows just about all there is to know about this amp and is more than willing to do repairs on them should the need arise.

I'm primarily a rhythm guitarist and use a Telecaster or Les Paul Standard. My band plays mainly originals which, for lack of a better term, one could call alternative. I don't really play on any certain pickup. I switch as needed for the sound I'm after and this amp is versatile enough to sustain a well ballanced sound no matter what guitar or pickup position I happen to be using. The amp itself isn't really too noisy considering most of the time we're playing with improper grounding and a lot of flourescent lighting. It does catch a bit of a hiss when I'm using an effects pedal but I've been to successfully take care of that with a Hush Unit. Sometimes all I have to do is flip the ground switch. I'm currently running the head into a RedBear 4X12 slant bottom, equiped with Celestion speakers. I'm certain that helps the overall sound as well. I usually use the clean channel and depend on outboard effects for any signal processing. But that isn't to say the overdrive channel lacks for anything. In fact, the overdrive is one of the clearest that I've heard. No matter how hard I push it I can still here the underlying sound of my guitar. Another nice thing about this amp is that it doesn't break-up at high volumes. It gets louder of course but there is very little harmonic distortion. The overdrive channel, when used without effects, is able to produce anything from a slight crunch to a very intense distortion. It does, however, fall a bit short of what's called thrash metal but that's not what I'm after anyway. We do a few songs with C & W stylings and the Telecaster played through the clean channel produces one hell of a good quacking bite.

I've had no problems with it at all. I did change the tube after I bought as it had a cheap, weak brand inside. I do perform regular cleaning.(Blowing out the pots and checking the tube.) Since it comes in its own rack case there's really no need for a cover. You can tell by handling the amp that it was made to be road worthy. I do, however, take a backup with me at all times as one can never predict what will happen.

As I mentioned earlier, this amp has been out of production for quite a while and, besides the gentleman I spoke of, there is no such thing as customer service when it comes to this particular unit. It would be a nice gesture on Dean markley's part to at least include some documentation in the archive portion of their web site. As for the gentleman in Kansas, I've only spoken to him. He was very courteous and seemed quite happy to answer my questions. I have no idea what the quality of his workmanship is but I would assume, since he designed the amp, he would be the perfect person to repair it.

I've been playing guitar for twenty years and I own too many instruments to list. I do prefer my Telecaster and Les Paul. This is a hard amp to find but if it were lost or stolen I would do everything I could to find another one. Through the years I've owned many different amps and I have to say I like this one just about the best out of them all. I've had two different "British" amps and find them to be grossly over-rated. The RM-80-SR, paired with a decent multi-effects unit, comes close to reproducing the sound of most popular amps. Notice I say, "Comes close." I don't care how hard companies try to emulate different amp sounds. If you want the sound of a particular brand of amp then go out and buy that brand of amp! The RM-80-SR has good tone, great output, is reliable and is built well. What more could one ask for.

This amp is I believe 80 watts though the I bought it used and the guy I bought it from said it had a 100watt head. In any case it sounds like 100watts. It's a 2-channel amp with a global eq and reverb, meaning that both channels share the same settings, but I haven't had a problem with this so far. The head also has a mono effects loop, a preamp out, two foot switch jacks on the back for channel switching and reverb switching as well as the two speaker out jacks. The guy who sold it too me told me that it had a tube preamp, which I have yet to verify, but it does have a standbye switch even though it has a solid state output section(no power tubes). The cabinet is a Dean Markley slanted 4x12 cabinet loaded with celestion speakers.

Even though I'm not sure whether or not it has a tube preamp, that is a moot question. This amp ROARS with BALLS. It's not a super high gain amp so it's not the best amp for heavy metal unless you have a good pedal, but with my Guild electric guitar (Flying V) on the neck pickup, I can get a tremendous SRV blues tone that sounds so heavy, you can actually use it for hard rock and heavy "chugging". Plug in a Gibson Les Paul, and STAND BACK! As for the clean sound, it to is pretty good. Not the best, but a good descent dependable sound that I use for recording with good results. The reverb also is fairly good and sounds very natural. Only gripe is that it does produce a little bit of hum, which fortunatly does not get much louder as you crank it up. The 4x12 cab sound? Hey they're celestions...nuff said. Overall awesome sound for a non-all-tube amp. Plus its very loud. Put the master volume on 4 and it'll shake the house.

I bought it used so it was already several years old. But I've had it for several months now and everything works just fine. I'd take it without a backup any day.

N/A havent needed them yet.

If I saw this amp for the twice the price I paid for it, I'd buy it again. I can't say whether it's better or worse then other similar amps. It simply has a beautiful, rich, and powerful vintage type sound and when I plug in my SansAmp GT-2, or Metal Zone distortion pedals,it gives me massive Heavy metal/Death Metal sounds. Just wish the amp had a little more gain so I wouldn't have to use those pedals.