Randall Century 170

1993 Randall Century 170 II. Two channels, clean and overdrive. All controls shared except volumes. Effects loop, Reverb. Gain voicing knob is useful.

The choice of pickups you play through this amp make a huge difference. This amp sounds much better with very tight/focused pickups. This especially applies for droptuning. The shared EQ is sort of a pain if you want to be switching back and forth between channels, but the clean in itself is surprisingly good. The overdrive channel definatly has character. This is the certain type of sound you have to be into to like this amp. To get an aggresive modern sound, It needs a little more bite, and with an EQ it will shine. Run straight through, the channel is can go old school to real fuzzy, depending on where you turn the gain voicing. Good amounts of Bass/Mids/Treble, but does require a lot of tweaking. One thing Im somewhat confused about is the volume. Its labeled 150 watts, but it sounds 1/3 the volume of my Randall RH100. The volume doesnt really kick in much until you reach the upper extremes. Id say it sounds more like a 50 watter than a 150. Then again, maybe theres just something wrong with my amp. Giving it a 7 because its got character, but some additions would really juice it up.

Solid State dependable. I bought this thing used, and there were dried up leaves in the circuitry! yet no scratchiness in the pots, and perfectly functional. Another thing...this thing can definatly take an ass beating, because the tolex is thick and this thing is a beast.

I bought this randall with the intent of running units through it, so I wasnt expecting perfect sound out of the amp straight through. I gained a trust in randall when I bought my RH100, which is a monster. This thing has got major character, and with some added gain and proper adjusting, could sound like a modern randall, or tweak some and get that boogie dirt. It isnt for everyone...

I sold my Century 170 II back in '95. That was dumb. I have been playing through my RG100ES into a Mesa DC10 4x12 for almost 10 years. Just today I became the proud owner of yet another Century 170 (not the II). What a badass monster this thing is. Its a metal machine all the way. If you are a blues player stay away and keep playing your Marshalls. Its scary loud. Im afraid to go past 4. The only thing that sucks about it is that it sounds better the louder it gets but Im afraid I'll go deaf before I get to 7 on the volume. It has an effects loop which I don't use. Give me crunch or give me death.....

I have 5 vintage Dean MLs and 3 new 79 series MLs all with either Bill Lawrence L500XLs or SD Dimebuckers and this thing fukin smokes.

Metal, metal and more metal. Don't buy it if you are playing George Benson stuff.

Brutal is too nice a term for the crunch.

Like the other dude said. I have had my RG100 ES for 10 years and it was made in '87 and it has never ever seen a bad day as this Century has not either (as I was told). Randall = Reliability. Keep your tubes. Im going solid state.

Never had to deal with the company cause these things do not break. How cool is that??

Been playing 15 years and gonna keep rockin the Randalls 4 life. Steal this thing and your gonna be shot dead.


And no the MLs aren't for sale, but I'll buy 'em if you got 'em.

I am not sure the year it was made in..I bought in in 1993. for 12 hundred (including 2 4x12 cabinets with the jaguar speakers, WAY better than the celestions. It has 150 Watts of solid state Power. (I am not sure where the other guy said it was supposed to be tube unless they made two kinds of the century 170. mine has a roman numeral of II>
I mainly play the heavy stuff..at the time it was good enough for the death metal I was playing.
it has 2 channels Clean and distortion.
I use this amp with no power amplifiacation added to it.

I would say that this amp is good...the reverb is spring and that is very nice but I use a Digitech GNX 3 processor and I input through the Effect return plug on the effects loop. I play Black/Death Meatl and some progressive. So I rely on my processor for my sound and the kick ass Jaguar speaker. but the power seems like it is fine. but I would like to have more.

I have never had a problem with this product AT ALL. Randall makes the best quality equipment. I have had it 11 years or so and never had a problem and it has taken a beating...my cabinets have endured at one time 450 watts per cabinet from a PA power amp (Pevey 8.5C) the power amp made it sound like shit but it handled it just fine. I will always buy randall if I can.

I own a Digitech GNX3 Processor and Digitech RP-10 Processor An Ibanez Guitar with ENG pickups (89 and 85). if it were stolen or lost I would probably get something else but I would make sure it were randall. (Probably jus a power amp.) it is heavier than hell but I can not say there is anything I dislike about it.

I used to have one. I regret selling it. I have an older RG100ES now but it lacks that heavier crunch that the Century gives. The first post's amp must have been broke. The sound that mine had was unreal.

I own 3 vintage Dean MLs that I play thru my Randall. I have a Mesa DC 10 4x12 cab. The distortion that the Century makes is brutal. I am looking for another one.

Randalls never break down.

I have been playing for 12 years. I have been playing randall for 8 years with no problem what so ever.

I bought this head along with 2 4x12 cabs in or around 1992 (new) The only versatility at the time I had it was for classic rock, as it never seemed "overdriven" enough even to do the (then) contemporary hard rock (I was hoping for a Black Sabbath sound during the Ronnie James Dio era) thing. Only has a minimal of options. Had a fx loops at least lol.

I have tried and tried and tried again to get a good sound out of this beast. If anyone spots this amp for sale for under $200 don't be bamboozled! Run! Run far far away at even the slightest though of yourself drinking that stuff :( Distortion needs ALOT of help. When I bought this I thought I was going to get the (dimebag was in his glory in 1992 when I bought this [keep this in mind]) When I plugged it in, I thought the power was bad or something. I remember thinking how I got a good Jethro Tull "Aqualung" sound, but nothing close to Pantera or Slayer. Heck I rememebr getting better distortion out of a late 80's RG-80 combo 1x12. This was my first tube head and the sound make me cry. (Not a good thing)

Here is where it excells. But that may be because I rarely used it since I have owned it 1991/1992 - Spring/Summer of '98. Never had any problems with sound popping or cutting out when switching channels using Randall's 2 button footswitch.

Never dealt with Randall (YET!!!!)

Rating it on looks would get the highest marks, but I digress, we are not selling looks but TONE. Tone seekers don't get sidetracked with this Randall. Stick with Mesa products, you WON't be disappointed.

k