Randall RG100 ES

I love this head. I payed 75 for it when I also bought a Gibson sg for 200 bucks. Best deal ofmy life

using an sg its sick. A stray sick. Les Paul-sick

its 20years old so looks good to me

don't have thefootswitch

This amp was made sometime in the 1980's. I dont know the exact year because i have no opened it up yet. It is the black tolex version, which to my knowledge are the older ones (the newer ones were carpeted). It has the outer shell and shape of a Marshall JMP.

The amp is pretty versatile and takes pedals very well. I play metal, hardocore, southern rock, blues, sludge/doom metal, alt. rock, ambient rock, etc. and this amp can do them all.

2 channels. I bought it used and the guy did not have the footswitch (Randall FS-5). They are hard to come by but a company on ebay makes replicas of them. Effects loop is good (I am going to get the jacks on them replaced though). 2 speaker outputs, 1 signal input. This particular RG 100 is the ES for the reason of 'Extra Sustain'. You can pull the treble knob. It is okay but the volume on the amp drops in half so it is hard to use in a band situation.

With out the footswitch you can only change channels on the amp but turning the clean channel volume and gain all the way down, or to use the clean turn the distortion down. I boost the amp so i stay on the dirty channel. Set the amps gain low so it is clean when i click off the boost.

I have never gigged with it yet, but i played with a band for a while and it held its own against a mesa triple rect at a high band volume.

Run a Gibson Les Paul Custom w/ Dimebucker and ESP MH-400NT w/ EMG 81.

The amp sounds very close to the voicing of a JCM 800. Very close.
At times you would think it was a tube amp, but there is a certaintly quality that is lacking. I am going to try a tube boost pedal and see if that helps but to be honest this thing kills most of the tube heads i have owned. Most recently i owned a 6505+ and Mesa Dual Rectifier Blackface... and hands down this amp has a better sound quality than both of those amps.

The sound i currently have is in the vein of Mastodon. Old school metal/hard rock vibe.

Takes my pedals great. Whether it be boosts in the front, or effects in the loop.

Being the amp is 20 something years old, i am going to bring it to my tech to get all new jacks and tuned up. I think the quality of the amp will increase when i do that.

In the future i plan on purchasing a nice Marshall JMP MKII or JCM 800 2210...but until i have the money and the right deal comes this thing is amazing. I will never sell this amp regardless.

Never had any issues with it and i have had it since October (Almost 7 months). With any of the tube amps i have owned, i would have to re-tube or take care of something else that went wrong with it.

Here is where this section get's a 1. Randall was bought out from Irving Randall in 1990? I believe. The sound of the amps drastically changed and the company has since forgotten about anything made prior to the buyout. From fellow randall rg100es users i hear the company is unhelpful in any matter.

I have been playing for 12 yrs, and have owned many a gear throughout the years.

If this amp was lost, stolen, or broken i would buy another one in a heartbeat.

It slays peavey, and mesa products hands down.

Has an 80's marshall vibe. If your low and cash and looking at a JCM 800 get this thing.

This amp has been my best friend since January of 1988. I will never get rid of it, the tone is incredible and can go as loud as you need it to be. I have played this amp at loud Rock Gigs as well as Metal Gigs it will never fail

I am a very versatile player that needs a certain sound. this amp now is my personal Recording amp. I have never put on a Noise gate and the only effects I use is a Dunlop Original Wah Pedal and a Ibanez DM1000 Delay system, Without the Delay system this amp is very quiet. The gain on this amp is amazing, and when you turn on the compressor the gain is what I call a "Sustaining Monster" This amp is very easy to manipulate controlled feedback or Harmonic feedback pretty much at will.

I have had this amp for 20 + years and it still takes a licken and keeps on ticken!

Never had to call for support so no opinion

If you would like any additional information on this amp please feel free to contact me

This amp was made sometime in the 80's. It's a solid state combo with 4 10's , covered with black carpet. Some sources say the power rating is 120 watts. Some say 150. Either way, it's LOUD. It has 2 channels that can be selected with a footswitch, or used simultaneously without it. It has Reverb and effects loop.

I've used it for practice and gigs. It has more than enough power for most situations (and I play with a very loud drummer).

I haven't noticed any noise.

There's a variety of sounds you can get, from clean to filthy. The clean tones are okay, but lack character. It's not as warm as a Fender or as chimey as a Vox. But it's not as sterile as some other s.s. amps, either. So I'll give the cleans a 7.

The more you turn up the gain, the more this amp comes to life. Lightly overdriven settings are decent. No one will ever mistake it for a Dumble or Marshall Bluesbreaker. But it can do a passable blues or classic rock tone with a little tweaking.

Where it shines, however, is metal. I've read that George Lynch had some input in this amp's design. I believe it. High gain sounds are excellent - lots of harmonics and chunky low end. You can scoop the mids, if that's what you're into (I like to keep some mids in my sound). I'll give the dirty sounds a 9.

So, overall, the sounds gets a solid 8.

I depend on this amp. I use it at gigs without a backup. It's been around at least 20 years, and shows very little wear (except the top of one knob fell off on the way home from a gig). It works perfectly.

NA

I've been playing for almost 25 years. I've used everything from Fender tube amps to digital modelers. Speaking of digital stuff - the Randall is a perfect amp to use with my POD XT Live. I just set the EQ flat and set the POD output to "combo front". Sounds great.

I have 2 other amps that I compared this with side-by-side (a vintage Fender Champ and a Lab Series L-5). The Fender sounded better clean and the Lab had a more flexible EQ. But the distortion on the Randall was easily the best.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd look for another one.

Not sure what year mine is I have heard that the date code is on the side of the chassis but havn't looked yet.

This amp can produce a lot of different sounds Great for any thing from Hard Rock to Death Metal. This amp brings out a lot of Harmonics! I love the sounds I get out of this amp.

I have used this amp with just about every pickup made and I can appreciate the sound I get from each, Sounds Really good with EMG 81's though it Sounds pretty insane with an Gibson SG with 490t-r Pickups. So far I havn't needed any pedals with this amp the distortion it gives you straight in is great! if you feel you need anymore distortion than this you must be trying to hide your mistakes.

Amp is really dependable, doesn't weigh a ton either easy to gig with.
Built in the U.S.A (not China)this is a real amp!

The current owner of Randall Sucks! I needed a replacement Logo for the front of mine and those guys haven't got a clue! I finally got one from them but it was like pulling teeth and they were like "it's probably not going to fit anyway" Soo they have some stuff they just don't seem to care about helping anyone there.

I have been playing for 30 years and I have just about one of everything as far as amps go, well I should say one of everything worth owning! This amp is one of the keepers! I am on the hunt for More! if you see one of these in the pawn shop be kind to it and take it home! you will Love it.

Mine was the carpet-covered version made in 1986/1987. 2 channels, clean and dirty. You need the footswitch or else they both run at the same time. There are independent volume and gain controls but the EQ is shared. There aren't many features but there isn't supposed to be on this amp. I got a new footswitch from the same guy on Ebay others are talking about.

The sound of this amp was a huge dissapointment to me. The clean channel wasn't bad, just a little cold for my taste. Some chorus helped it a lot. The reverb was pretty cheesy so I kept it off. Now for the distorted sounds. If this amp didn't lose more than half its volume when you engaged the boost (pull treble knob) than I would have kept it. It had some great scooped metal tones with just the bare minimum of distortion, which was exactly what I was going for. However, the problem with the boost is that the amp cannot be used in a band setting when it is engaged. Without the boost, the distortion is drastically reduced and becomes very rough in character. Loud as hell, but rough and in need of a boost. Upon boosting it with my SD-1 (volume dimed, tone 10 o'clock, gain 9 o'clock) I got some great classic metal tones. This amp sounds quite a bit like a JCM800 when you boost it with a pedal. I was getting Kill 'Em All Metallica tones easily. Unfortunately beyond this I couldn't achieve anything else. To get his sounds Dimebag used 2 EQs, and I can see why. While this is definitely the best sounding solid state that I had heard, it didn't cut it for heavy distortion.

This amp is built like a tank. 20 years old, countless gigs and a lot of abuse and this thing came to my door (in a smashed box no less) looking like new. Hats off to Randall for making a pillbox of an amp.

Randall will give you the schematics to the amp and footswitch if you want to make your own. Why would you though?

I have been playing guitar for 7 years. I played through the amp with my JB-loaded Strat and my Washburn WI-64D. If you would like a good hard rock amp that doesn't use tubes this is a cheap way to get some good sound. You'll just need a pedal for leads. I'm sure this amp would work great for metal with some outboard EQs, but I didn't want to mess with that stuff so I sold it. If someone could find a way to mod the amp so it doesn't lose its balls when using the boost I would go pick up another one tomorrow. Overall I still rate it well because it's a great amp. Be prepared to pay more for them though as the HC forums have created some demand for these. I bought mine for $200 and sold it for $300 a month later.

I believe this amp was made in 1985. I mainly use this amp for heavy metal. Though co-designed by George Lynch, it's fairly versatile to any type of music. Not just metal. You can get dirty blues or clean country out this if you wanted. It has 2 channels. 1 clean, 1 dirty. With the footswitch, you can switch back and forth from clean to dirty, or you can use both at the same time, mixed together. It also has a "booster" switch located in the treble knob. All you have to do is pull the knob out, and boom! You got added crunch and gain! BUT! You loose overall volume. So, that's really the only complaint I have about this amp. But Randall updated this amp with the "XP" series and fixed that problem. Also, you can get the "XP" block booster to achieve the same goal...which is more gain and crunch. It's great for "dirty" blues or old school hard rock right out of the box. BUT DO NOT expect to get Dimebag's overall tone and sound just from this amp! You need some extra "sizzle" for that, like the MXR 6 band and the Furman PQ-3. Plus you need a high output humbucker also. But, for general hard rock and "heavy metal" like blues, it's great. It's only rated at 150 watts. Sounds like a lot, but it's solid state, so it equals to only like 50 watts tube amp rating. Still loud enough for small to medium size gigs though! It's the best "bang for the buck" amp. Note: YOU CAN GET A CUSTOM BUILT FOOTSWITCH FOR THIS FROM A GUY OFF EBAY! It's like $70 shipped. He builds them w/all brand new parts. Even better than the stock Randall FS-5 footswitch ! He is very reliable and knows his Randall RG series amps! Just do a search on Ebay....type in "Randall custom footswitch". Sometimes he may not have any, but they do come up once and a while. You can still find the stock Randall FS-5 footswitches on Ebay as well. The only downfall about this amp is the volume loss on the "boost" circuit(via the treble knob pulled). But also, it would be nice if it had a little more gain out of it, for the type of music I play. But, using some "ammo" aka = eq pedals, overdrive pedals, eq rack units, you can get pretty good metal tones from that. I plan upgrading soon. To either an XP series amp, or modifying the existing amp, for more gain.

I use a Dean FBD tribute guitar (Dimebucker in the bridge, '59 reissue in the neck) stock, an Epiphone Les Paul stock, and occasionally a Fender Squire also stock. To my ears, they all sound great through this amp. Of course, each one has it's own sound and tone due to the fact that they are each completely different types of guitars. I play mainly heavy metal (Pantera, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Damageplan) and sometimes blues (my own style) and hard rock (AC/DC). The Distortion is pretty good, but needs some extra sizzle (to achieve Pantera like sound). I use a new version MXR 10 band eq pedal and a Furman PQ-3 for added tone and gain. This makes it sound a lot better and you also have more control over your sound. Plus, it gets it even closer to Dime's tone and sound. There's a reason why Dime, Michael Angelo Batio, George Lynch, and other metal guitar gods used these amps back in the day. They sound great and give you that "tube like" tone and the solid state crunch. You get the best of both worlds. No tubes to break. This amp can be noisy, especially if you add eq pedals and other stuff like that to it. But, ANY amp will do that. That's why you need to use a noise gate of some kind.

I would definitely depend on this amp. It's all original (except for the custom built footswitch) since day 1, so that says something right there! Amp never gave me any problems.

Never dealt w/Randall yet. Probably would not anyways, since this amp is "Pre-Washburn" era and like 21 years old!

I have been playing for like 16 years. Not seriously, but just as a hobby. I own this amp (Rg-100ES) along w/ a Randall XL 4x12 slant cab w/Celestion Vintage 30s, MXR 10 band pedal, Furman Pq-3 and a ISP Decimator (noise gate). If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another Randall amp. May not be this one, cause I want a little more gain. I would buy the XP series amp, or save up some more dough and get the Warhead or X2. Randall makes some great solid state "metal" amps and cabs. I believe they are in the top 5 all time best since day 1. Overall best value and low maintenance.
Again, there's a REASON why Dime picked and stayed w/ Randall since he was a kid!!!!!!! GETCHA' PULL!!!!!!!!!

Hi everybody, NO MORE FOOTSWITCH PROBLEMS!!!

In response to the many who have the old missing footswitch promlem...USE YOUR IMAGINATION A LITTLE!!!

It is highly unlikely that Randall amp ever become truly collectible, though the RG100ES would as collectible as any other of the higher priced Randalls due to its 'Dimebag legacy'. However, this is not a Hiwatt so don't be scared to have a good technician rewire the thing so you can use any generic footswitch!

Contact Randall and they can send you the schematic for the amp and footswitch (there is a slight error on the footswitch schematic but any good tech will spot it). All you have to do is mount the footswitch circuit inside the amp head and replace where the switches would be with 1/4in. jacks which you mount on the back panel of the amp. Then, go on Ebay and find a generic double footswitch (I found a double Morley f/s for $20).

I'd say you can easily find a double switch and the mod done for less than $100 all included.

Enjoy!

Mid-eighties. I had two of these, one was blonde tolex with black snakeskin design (with footswitch and matching 4x12" Jaguar cab!) and the other was an earlier model which had been recovered with speaker carpet and looks really cool too in a ghetto low-profile kinda way. There are not many features on this amp and it's really too bad cause you can get several good sounds out of it, but you can't really get to them without messing with everything. Get two of these and a A/B switch and it's a whole other story. By the way, pulling the treble switch gives the RG100ES its magical mid-scooped crunch, and I never turn it off. Lush! You'd swear there are tubes at times - No joke. But you do compromise on volume by doing this, but no problem, blend in a bit of the clean channel and a full-body tone comes rushing out...

Awesome! I traded both heads and the cab for a Mesa/Boogie Mark III (which is a great amp, by the way) and actually missed the sound of the RG100ES!!! The Mesa obviously is more focused, and the clean channel brighter; but the distortion tone really is comparable, you actually get more cunch out of the Randall, and for one third of the price (I also use a TubeWorks TubeDriver with a 12AU7 tube, and parametric EQ in the loop, to push it further). I sold my Mark III for $1000 and baught the old black Randall back for $300!!! I've also got a Roland Jazz Chorus, so I'm all set for beatiful cleans AND awesome distortion. I'll only sell these amps to get a Hiwatt (and use the TubeWorks for disto).

Absolutely reliable.

They do not support the gear built before Washburn baught out Randall. However, They sent me schematics of the amp and footswitch, so I could modify the amp to accept a generic footswitch. That was allright...

If I compare this amp to Hiwatt, Mesa Dual Rec, Bogner, Orange, etc., I would obviously laugh at this amp. However, for less than $400 (or $1000, for that matter) the scooped gain channel is hard to beat, really!! Better than Marshall and many Mesas, in some ways. It depends what you're gonna do with it. Think about this for a moment: if Dimebag Darrell or George Lynch could easily find better, why did they still use these?? F@%k what they say about tubes (even if they are generally right), if the thing sounds awesome, it just sounds awesome! I give it 7.5 but because of Dimebag's influence I'll say 8.

Cant really switch channels w/o a footswitch...witch is really hard to find for an amp like this.

SOUNDS AWSOME....i put this baby on top of a Behringer BG412S Ultrastack cab and its awsome! I was a bit skeptic about the sound quality because of the behringer but it sounds just great

i havnt had it that long to no how reliable it is..but other revies say its pretty sweet

CANT FIND FOOTSWITCH NEWERE

Ive been playing for almost 3 years and hav gone throu a lot of amps...my favorite at the time was a peavey rhythem master 400, but it didnt hav a speaker out jack so i coulnd turn it into a stack, but the Randall RG100 es sounds just like it. I use a Danelectro Fab Tone distrotion pedal and that just makes it sound that much easier when ever i plug in and play.