Randall Cyclone Head

This amp is mostly designed for brutal Pantera type metal. It has lots of tone shaping options and features which have been discussed already at length. Any teeny tiny knob adjustment can noticibly change the tone, which I find annoying. It would have been nice to have a seperate reverb for the clean channel, as you can't expect to use the same amount of reverb on both channels.

Some amps sound better with certain types of pickups, pedals, playing style, etc. Pickup height adjustment on the guitar is also very important to get the best sound out of your pickups. I'm not into brutal, scooped out metal tones, so after many years of fiddling around with this thing and not being satisfied, I finally found some useful tones by adding a Boss EQ pedal in front of the amps input and adusting the midrange on the graphic EQ's on both the amp and the Boss pedal very high to get rid of the sterile 'designed for brutality' metal tone. I'm into hard rock, heavy metal, and punk rock (The Ramones, Black Sabbath, early Metallica, Black Flag, early Def Leppard, etc) so I need one tone that can be acceptable for all those styles. I'm a rhythm guitarist and play through an Ibanez flying V (VBT700) with a Seymour Duncan SH-4 pickup in the bridge and Celestion Vintage 30s 4x12 half-stack. The adjustments I needed to make on most of the amps knobs are way to the left. I leave the distortion in the center and the Master Volume turned all the way up. I get a fantastic mid-range heavy crunch this way and some very good punk rock harmonics which satisfies me, but a lead guitarist might need to add another pedal to get some sweet liquid sustain. If the guitar is slightly out of tune, it will sound like crap on this amp. The clean channel has no sparkle and sounds lifeless, but to be fair, that's the case with just about every solid state amps clean channel. One great thing about this amp though is that you don't have to turn it up loud at all to get some sweet distortion.

It's as reliable as any solid state amp I guess.

This amp is not for everyone. Most people, especially lead guitarists, prefer a tube amp, but I was stuck with it so I was forced to constantly adjust the knobs to find a satisfactory tone. I used this amp to record my guitar tracks (two tracks for each song) and they came out great. The other amp available to me was a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier which also sounded great, but after doing some sound tests in the recording studio, I personnaly prefered the double tracks of the Randall Cyclone + Boss EQ pedal. You can hear for yourself at www.myspace.com/uchaos

You can read those below

This amp sounds awesome. My old guitar player had one and granted he didnt know how to set it...but when i got behind it ripped. In response to the JR character below, I happen to have boogies, and to say theyre for korn is retarded. most of todays top metal, hardcore, and metal core bands use boogies before they get free amps. So dont listen to him. Solid state is good, but tube is always superior.

very reliable

never dealt with them

Great amp is you get it used for under $600. If you pay more though, youre a sucker cause yo ucould get an amazing tube head for a couple hundred more.

This amp features a mid sweep and a 9 band EQ. It's a 300 Watt solid state amplifier. The mid sweep is very useful and so is the 9 band eq. You can really mold your tone.

Im using an esp ltd delux h-1000 w/ emg-81/85. At first i had stock seymour duncans on my guitar but it just wasnt enough for this amp. I thought this amp was a waste of money and lacked distortion and sustain. However, when i got the emg's everything changed. I was able to unleash brutal tones with it. The only drawback is the clean which is just....clean. It lacks character and gets distorted when you put the level knob high but other than that this amp is simply amazing. I would recommend that you play around with the settings first and get pickups with enough output(preferably active pickups). You should also keep in mind that it took me almost a 2 months to find "my tone." Overall i think this amplifier is a dream come true(except for the cleans).

Just dont do anything stupid with it like pouring water inside to see what happens.

Amazing amplifier. The distortion is VERY versatile. This amplifier was inteded for "nu metal" heads but i listen to prog metal/rock and ive got my tone to sound similar to that of petrucci's. If you want to see a clip of my playing Erotomania by Dream Theater, you could check it out at http://media.putfile.com/Erotomania

Lots of features...as everyone else has listed numerous times before.

I'm going with a Gibson V with Lawrence bridge p/u as my main axe, through a Digitech XP-100, Crybaby, chorus, pitch shifter (Boss), and Rocktron Hush Pedal (2 channel kind). I play metal, and have been playing for 23 years...damn I laugh when I read some snot-nosed 19 year old write that he's been playing for something like 3 years, and that he couldn't get a sound out of this amp...Like many others have written, if you're not playing brutal-style music, don't buy this amp. At 300 watts of solid-state power, you know it's only good for wasting people. With both the regular EQs, the Mid Sweep, AND the 9 band, needless to say this amp is very sensitive. If you move something more than a cunt-hair, it'll change things...so work on it, but trust me, if it's metal, then this amp will get the sound you want. First thing for you youngsters to realize is that you have to have at least a decent pickup in your axe. Then you need to realize that if you turn the Gain up to 10, it WILL sound fuzzy, thin, and ridiculously like paper... However, if you go with the gain more like Noon or 1-2 o clock, then you fuck with the EQ, you will have enough gain to pummel anyone, without thinning out your sound. The clean channel is another story, and the moral of that story is Effect, Effect, Effect...pop a chorus, some reverb, WHATEVER, just wet that dry-ass clean channel down...that'll help you smooth things out. If you're anal about the quality of the clean without effects, then buy a Roland and run an A/B switch.

Fairly new amp, but it's seems to be built like a brick shithouse...

Playing 23 years...play Flying Vs (Gibsons), but really want to splurge on both a Dean V, and a Hamer Vector (V shape), as they're supposed to be the shit...
Great amp, this Randall, especially for the dough (600 new).
Definitely as brutal as any and all tube amps. You clowns out there who write in about Hughes/Kettners, Boogie Recs, Bogs, Marshall tube heads, etc. are absolutely LYING to the relatively younger axeslingers who are reading this stuff. You all know that NO TUBE AMP MADE will hang with a high-powered solid state for distortion and brutality. Yes, the tubes give you a degree of warmth the SS won't, and some natural harmonic qualities, but stop telling these kids that a freakin' $1800 Boogie will get the brutality they're looking for...Boogie's are for Korn and Limp Bizkit sounding rigs, they could not and would never get a sound as brutal as what hardcore players generally are in the ballpark for, without some kind of outboard help... Only complaint about the amp really is the effects loop can't be switched on/off with the footswitch.

The graphic eq is execellent for tone shaping as well as the mid sweep

As i said above the features are nice except......no matter where you set them all the sounds are crap. What a joke of an amp. The distortion is brutal, but also lifeless. This amp is just bland, real flat. I was very very dissapointed with this amp considering what they cost new. When you hit a cord it is lifeless and response...ha ha yeah right. This amp sounds like a $200.00 practice amp. If you solo or play single line they better be quick hits cause this amp has no sustain.

Well i bought it used of ebay and played it about a week and the button on the footswitch came loss.....besides that i had it for about 2 months and had no problems.

This amp is a piece of crap. I sold this and bought a peavey XXX and it is like night and day. I play pantera, mahine head, and black label society style music and the XXX is perfect and has aa ton of different sounds in it unlike this turd. If you see this amp hide your money and run. I don't know what the reviewers who rated this amp highy are thinking. I guess if you go from a crate to this you make think your in heaven, but i have been playing for 15 yrs. and have owned alot i mean alot of "name" brand amps and this thing is one of the worst......

Purchased my amp in 2004. Has just 2 channels the clean and distortion. The real kicker on this thing is the 9 band EQ. Also has a line out, effects loop.

With the band im in right now, we play mainly hardcore/noisecore type music. This thing pretty much does it. I have a Viper 1000 with 81's in it and it sounds pretty sick. Real sharp tone to it. You will have to mess around with the EQ for a while though, and im using the matching Cyclone cab, so it sounds pretty sick. The distortion sound is almost unheard of, it sounds pretty insane. The only thing ive heard that sounds better(by a little) than the cyclone would be a dual rectifier which another guitarist in our studio room has. But thatd be another 6 or 700 dollars.

Not a single problem with it at all. Volume stays consistent and there are no tubes to replace. Comes with a 5 year warranty from Randall, but hopefully i wont be using that anytime soon.

Overall this amp kicks a whole lot of other amps ive tried in the nuts. The Line6 amps ive heard come no where near to the cyclone, and other amps in its price range like the peavey XXX, marshall mode 4 or AVT amps sound no where near as good as the cyclone for heavy shit. Good value, great tone, I'd recommend it.

I play mostly newer death metal in the 80s Maiden vein (In Flames, Soilwork, Arch Enemy) and older 80s thrash like Testament and Kreator. Not sure the exact date of the amp--picked it up off Ebay, but then had to send it to Randall to have it fixed (see customer support below). Essentially the amp is good for one thing, metal, and nothing else. In most cases I'd say this is better, but the amp's versatility is so compromised that it's literally worthless for anything else. The channel switch being a push/pull knob is different and is a bit annoying as I don't have the footswitch with it, but as I use this just for recording so it's not bad. I like the volume on the effects loops, and since I mostly record in my apartment the master volume is good for getting it loud enough for a good tone but not too loud. It really didn't seem like 300 watts, although I didn't push it too loud. The volume is more graduated than my Carvin MTS3200 tube amp, which is loud right away, even on 50 watts. The Cyclone is pretty quiet, especially when the channel volume is cranked and the master is low. I like all the mid features on it (a parametric sweep, a mid level, and even then a graphic), and the reverb isn't bad for rhythm, although it decays unnaturally when playing single notes. A chorus would have been nice along with the reverb. I give it an 8 for all the volume knobs, mid things and the fx loop volume, although independent reverbs would have been cool.

I use a few guitars, an Eb 96 Japanese Jackson Kelly Professional with EMG 60/81, a 00 Japanese Jackson King V with an EMG 81/89 and BTC control, a DGCFAD Indian Jackson Dinky Reverse with an SA/S/81 and an EXG mid control, and an 03 crimson swirl CFBbEbGC Japanese KE3 with Mastertone vHO and the 4 volt SPA. I tested it on the Dinky, which tends to get the best distorted sound.

My main complaint with the amp, and a summary of this review is, it's good for a "wall of guitar" sort of sound (with vague nu-metal tendencies) but has absolutely no touch. Even the harmonics were a bit modest in my experience, although they probably occur better at higher volumes. The amp isn't very noisy even when the gain is cranked, although I've nothing in the loop like I do with my Carvin (BBE 482i). The gain knob sounds much the same on 5 or 10, with only adding in a bit of fuzz, and it doesn't help the lead tone a whole lot, which this thing does not do. The pick attacks are more pronounced and sharp than with my Carvin, and it's not as warm, which is both good and bad. It sounds a lot better than my other solid state though, a Crate GX130C.

The amp seriously suffers from lack of versatility. I like a Justice for All style clean tone, but this amp's clean is sterile even by that standard. I didn't bother with it much. It might be good if you want a clean that's simply that dead and featureless (I'm thinking Dimension Zero here), but my Carvin also has a pretty sterile clean and sounds a lot better. I'll probably use the clean somewhere, but not immediately.

As far as brutality of distortion, I'm of a mixed opinion. I don't consider a lot of nu-metal (Static X, Slipknot) brutal because it has a droning, bassy, brown quality as opposed to a saturated, bright attack with a big bottom and scooped mids, which is what I like (newest and best example of this is In Flames' "Soundtrack to Your Escape", which I think tonally improves on the classic "The Jester Race" tone--also Dimension Zero's insanely quick and complicated "Di'i Minores"). This amp avoids sounding like 5150-powered Carcass as it avoids a harsh brittle quality and totally destroys that vintage, middy Slayer tone. However, the Cyclone also suffers from a bit of nu-metalitis, which is a lot of bass with little definition or articulation. It sounds like a Justice-era Newsted is jamming right along with you during "To Live is to Die". That being said, it does a better job than my Carvin at sounding articulate and saturated all at once, and chord arpeggios come out much more defined on this head. As with all solid states, the notes decay unnaturally, abruptly and flatly, although the pick attack is very pronounced. The reverb fills out the distortion nicely but is not as pronounced, smooth, or as occasionally harsh and deep as my Carvin.

In all, I give it an 8 for a metal head, because it does a lot of things well, mostly as tracking rhythm guitars for a record. But live I would want more touch from one head, and more versatility. Overall I would give it a 3, as it only does one thing, but for just metal distortion, an 8. The controls don't seem to do much to the overall sound really, and this amp seems voiced very specifically. I think it would be easier to get a good heavy sound quickly out of this amp as opposed to something more rounded like a Marshall or my Carvin. So please keep the above in mind when looking at the numbers.

Haven't had it long enough yet. I got the amp mint condition on Ebay but it arrived with no output. I didn't get upset with the seller because obviously the amp was taken care of and something probably happened during shipping. Even shipping it to Randall and back, compared with the money I saved, made the head well worth it versus MSRP. No opinion yet.

Randall was ultra-cool with me about fixing the amp even though I wasn't the original purchaser. At times it was a bit annoying because I would email specific people and they wouldn't reply. But Randall did fix the amp and get it back to me in a timely manner and in secure packaging, and most importantly didn't charge me. Thank you Randall.

I've been playing for about 8 years and am a 2000 GIT grad. I own the variety of Jacksons I mentioned, an ART SGX 2000 Express preamp, a Carvin MTS3200 head, a BBE 482i Sonic Maximizer, and other miscellaneous gear. If this amp were stolen, I'd probably replace it or check out one of its closest competitors in the same price range. I love it that the amp sounds the way it does without a lot of fiddling, but I also hate it that that sound is *all* the amp does. In styles like Arch Enemy with not only a lot of thickness but touch the amp couldn't pull it off, in my opinion. I compared it with my Crate GX130C and my Carvin MTS3200 and found that it blew the Crate's solid state distortion (but not clean) away and sounded heavier but had less touch than the Carvin. I chose this amp because I had heard bad things about the Warhead and the price I found it for was very reasonable. It also had a hell of a lot more features than its closest competitor, the Titan. I'd like to try it against a Blue Voodoo, 5150, JCM2000, Mode 4, Triple Rec, Engl and a few other things. Although I've heard these amps separately, I've never tried them in one sitting and it might color my opinion. I wish this amp had a better and more articulate lead tone, but the rhythm tone alone makes it worth picking up for relatively hassle free rhythm head. It's good for "wall of sound" guitaring with not much articulation or dynamics. I'll probably use it in conjunction with other heads to record. I'd like to see independent reverbs, a chorus and maybe some effects built in. Used it's a great buy, but the MSRP is way overpriced, as these things usually are.

Made for metal, and that is what it does! Loud as hell, 300 watts. This with a marshall 1960 will rock you like a hurricane. I have a 5150, and its a little better, however that is a tube amp so.....

I play an esp with a dimebucker, and it kicks ass. The clean really isn't bad at all, it excells well with some chorus. Really low on noise with monster cables. I play death metal, black meatl, grindcore, jazz....the distortion will give your pregnant illegal alien neighbor's wife a miscarrige. Very nice.

Built like rosie o'donnel's chairs. It can take thousands of pounds of pressure.

It has a 3 year warranty, but don't ask randall for help. They are cock bastards when you require service. Nice product randall but fuck you! But, it won't break.

I have been playing for 5 years and a lot of gear has been with me, but this and the 5150II are the best damned things for metal. I prefer the 5150, but hey, this is one hell of an amp. Solid state and reliable, will always be my backup amp. I put a black light in it and it is very cool. If lost or stolen, I would hunt down the theif, beat them unconcious, steal thier wallet and driver's liscense, and then curb them. I love this amp!

Im unsure of the exact date of my cyclones inception. This is a Cyclone it come's with two channels Gain and clean with separate level controls. The clean channel has all the normal stuff plus presence. The Gain channel low mid and high as well as a mid frequency and a 9 band graphic EQ which is key. This amp is also equiped with a reverb option. Just go to the Randall site to see all the specs on this machine.

I am using a ESP SC 500 LTD with duncans in the single coil, neck humbucker and a lundgren M in the bridge. This amp suites me pretty well. I play mostly Death Metal, and hardcore, but i love to back off and play rock, and light stuff too. This Amp is a beast and that is no joke it is built for the heavy stuff.
Gain Channel.-- It is pretty great depending on personal preference. For a solid state amp it has the most brutal distortion and options i have ever encounted. The Mid Frequency and the 9 band graphic EQ will be what shapes your individual sound i like to run the mid freq around 7 and i scoop my mid enough so its like any other great metal tone but i can drop out the 500 eq nob and get a meshuggah tone thanks to my lundgren of course, but even befor i installed the lundgren it was pretty damn close. This amp can handle low tunings very well but you might want to invest in a good cab for it. I prefer a Genz Benz G-Flex or a Marshall JCM cab. The Gain on this amp is a lot, and depending on your gear you may get a dirty crap sound, you need a decent guitar for this amp to come through, this is no lie. There is a substantial amount of gain and you can probally get as much as you'll ever need from a solid state amp. As for the Reverb it isn't that good but it helps fill out your sound.
Clean--- I wasn't impressed with this amps clean channel at all. People say its not bad, but it definetly isn't good by any means. I think for a little more money one should just invest in a Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 100, You'll get tube power, as much gain as you'll ever need and a much better (amazing for the JCM) clean tone. You will however be missing out on a seriously cool mid freq nob and a sweet 9 band graph EQ, but these things can be added to some extent. Randall has an unique sound but for metal, you'd be better off with something like a Marshall or a Bogner, price wise there is no compairison, Randall is affordable for a heavy as shit amp.

Here is where i really began to hate this amp.
I bought it used so i have no idea where the hell it was coming from. At first this amp was fine and seemed great. As soon as i started to get the sound i wanted from it. It shit the bed on me. Id plug in my POD through the effects loop and it would be fine, but that would cripple the amp for whatever reason. It wouldn't work for days after I unplugged the POD, The thing would turn on but no sound, not even hiss. This amp either worked great or not at all and i wouldn't want to be stuck at a gig with it not working. Sometimes it would be working and suddenly id notice it would start to fart out and then no sound at all. Like a tape player that is running out of battery power. I tried to email the boys at randall...no response. So my advise is make sure you buy it new and make sure its been inspected, and under warrenty.

I contacted them when the amp started to go south, ive never heard back from them. Im thinking on getting it repaired but it sucks that Randall wont get back to me. It might be hard to find someone who fixes randalls.

Ive been playing for years. I played bass for seven years befor starting to learn guitar. So i own both guitar and bass equipment. If it were lost of stollen, id get over it and start saving money to buy something better and tube. Bogner, Marshall, VHT, Ashdown, NOT MESA B's. Seriously This is a fun amp for a time, it helped clean up my playing cause you can't hide behind walls of fuzz. Unfortunetly it went sour on me. Id keep it for fun cause it did give me some enjoyment. Compairing it to other products id just save the money and buy a Marshall JCM 2000 TSL100, or a Bogner Uberstall, or a VHT. If you know anything of how this amp works inside and you'd like to give me your insite as to why it might be shitting out on me please do. Don't email unless.

Ok this is a 1999 model im using. As pretty much everyone has said before this is a METAL amp. so if youre trying to get some blink 182 sounds, wrong amp, try Marshall like everyone else. Two channels, channel 1 is hard ass distortion pretty much anywhere you set the gain, and 2 is clean. Clean is actually pretty decent for a solid state amp. the controls make a huge difference where you put em. The only beef i have with this head is just something really simple. I wish it was stereo. thats about it. I love "baby killer" distortion and this amp definitely has just that. i got a randall because everyone uses marshalls and marshalls just dont have the heavy tone i wanted. This baby has 300w which is way more than anyone needs. im using one Crate Vintage 30 loaded cab right now and it makes the bass hit you in the chest. sounds awesome.

im using a jackson dxmg with the stock jackson special EMG hz pickups. im playing music mixed between mudvayne/pantera/lamb of god/white zombie. its got a groove but still a semi thrashy sound. the amp does kinda get hissy when turned up while youre not playing. the clean stays pretty steady and not all gained out sounding when you turn it up. as stated before the distortion is "baby killer" so use your imagination. tons of bottom end and plenty of highs. the 9 band graphic eq is sweet ass. exactly what every amp needs.

the guy i bought it from had it checked before he sold it to me so ive had no problems yet. the thing is build like a bradley fighting vehicle so i kinda doubt i will have any anyways.

havent had to deal with them, and hope i dont need to. ive heard that the custome support has gotten a lot better than it used to be.

ive been playing i guess 6 years or so. right now with the half stack im not using any rack stuff or pedals but i intend to get a few basic rack things like a sonic maximizer, noise supressor, conditioner, tuner, and MAYBE later on a parametric eq. ive played a crate blue voo doo, and a line 6 hd147 and neither even come close to this amp.