Hi all,
Well, i have been s frustrated with this amp that i just been letting it sit and take up space because every time i go near it it cost me money.
Let me explain.
I bought this amp over a year ago from ebay, the amp seemed to be in excellent condition, with the seller stating they had not put many hours on the amp. It seemed like a good deal since it was loaded with 3 nice modules and looked as new.
i bought it for just under a thousand, and with new ones being 1800 i thought it was a good deal.
When i got the amp it worked fine, i used it at band practice 2 times and everything worked.
Then the pain began.
Next practice it blew a tube fuse, can't find these fuses locally anywhere so after driving around half the day, practice was canceled cause i had no amp now.
so i found this forum and read up as much as possible to get the correct fuses for it ect..
I ordered them from digikey, since it makes sense to just get a handfull
at a time i bought a bag of them, for i don't remember but like 10 - 20 bucks.
While those were on the way, i read about if fuses blow could be a problem with the tubes, so to make sure i decided to order a whole new quad of tubes at another 80 or so bucks.
So i get everything, change the tubes and fuses am thinking ok, she should be tip top, next practice the amp works great for about an hour.
sounds good having fun then all of a sudden it drops volume.
Just a whisper of sound, and i am like WTF!?
Were not even playing very loud, in my friends living room!!
So i start checking cords, my guitar, switching guitars, sure enough it is the head.
So now i'm like, what the hell do i do.
I decide it's best to call a tech..
After 400+ dollars of service ( another new set of tubes as well )
It had blown a cap in the tube section like many others post i've seen here, plus since that blew it also blew something else even deeper in the amp, the tech said he had to take the whole thing apart, and remove all the boards to check everything - why the cost was so high, was partly the tubes, but also the hours it took to disassemble and reassemble the thing.
He did call me when he had it apart to warn me, that just getting the thing apart was massively time consuming, and that the fix would actually be easy but the taking i apart was chewing up hours.
I almost told him to just stop as it was already close to 200 dollars in hours time, and he still had to put it back together.
He didn't want to have to charge me that and not finish or actually fix the amp, so he kinda cut some time off of it, and in total with tubes it cost like 400 + dollars. And took 3-4 weeks.
Ok so that sucked, so now the amp has cost me about 15-16 hundred dollars.
And i got to use it 3 times.
So i'm like ok this thing should be tip top now - i take it to practice sounds good !!
So my drummers wife is getting a little annoyed and we can't practice at his house any more, so we don't practice for about 2 months till we got a place.
This amp sat all by itself, covered up so as not to get dust on it totally undisturbed the entire time....
Once we get a place to practice, i'm like excited to play this thing after all the waiting and money.
Get it all set up, star tuning my guitar and dialing in my sound at just medium volume and all i did was strum a few chords then all of a sudden, no sound!!!!!
Not only no sound, but totally dead amp Totally Dead, no lights no power nothing.
So now i'm pisssed beyond belief, and i don't really think it has anything to do with the maintenance performed on the amp, and anyway months had gone by and was not going to go to the tech and tell him well i got to turn it on twice in the last few months and now it's totally dead.
Anyway, i checked the fuse where to power cord goes sure enough it had blown.
So again, practice interrupted by this thing.
I had to go and order another handfull of fuses from digikey, got the exact correct fuse and put it in.
Nothing, totally dead - at this point, there's no way i'm opening up this piece of **** amp.
It's sitting on my floor now for about 6 months, this thing that cost now almost close to the cost of a new one and i got to use it 3 times.
I can't even afford the energy to pick the dame thing up anymore to toss it in the trash it's so heavy.
By comparison, my old Peavey has lasted something like 16 years with the ORIGINAL tubes in it, and i never had to service the thing once, and it had been thru hell. (still works by the way and cost me a grand total of about 550 bucks) ... it's lifetime.
I want to get rid of this piece of ****, but can't in good conscience try to get it working and sell it to some poor chump as a problem free amp.
No way in hell.
The best i can do is probably dump it on a pawn shop or guitar center and get next to nothing for something that cost near 1600 bucks.
Since i have almost the cost of a new Rm100 invested in it i wish i bought it new so i could just have returned it but now i'm stuck with a non working 1600 dollar brand new looking piece of junk.
Randall, i want my money back for this utter piece of garbage.
Seriously used or not this thing is a total fail that should be recalled anyway by the sheer number of problems reported by now with them.
Everytime i see someone post somewhere they just got a new Randall RM100 and they are so happy, i feel really sorry for them.
Yet have never said anything or bad mouthed your company till now.
Plain and simple, a well built tube amp can last near 20 years with no problems or even a tube change.
This thing has been Nothing but problems (for me), and a huge money sink, from day one.
That being said if anyone thinks i am a dumbass because it's probably only yet another fuse somewhere, this thing is for sale as is and stated with a new set of 140 dollar EL34B tubes and in near mint cosmetic condition. 1086, Ultra Plus and Blackface modules.
I would like just 500 dollars for it, to retain a shred of my dignity.
Thanks for listening to my rant, i want this thing out of my living room cause every time i look at it it feels like someones poking me in the ***.
Sorry for such a long post.
Well, i have been s frustrated with this amp that i just been letting it sit and take up space because every time i go near it it cost me money.
Let me explain.
I bought this amp over a year ago from ebay, the amp seemed to be in excellent condition, with the seller stating they had not put many hours on the amp. It seemed like a good deal since it was loaded with 3 nice modules and looked as new.
i bought it for just under a thousand, and with new ones being 1800 i thought it was a good deal.
When i got the amp it worked fine, i used it at band practice 2 times and everything worked.
Then the pain began.
Next practice it blew a tube fuse, can't find these fuses locally anywhere so after driving around half the day, practice was canceled cause i had no amp now.
so i found this forum and read up as much as possible to get the correct fuses for it ect..
I ordered them from digikey, since it makes sense to just get a handfull
at a time i bought a bag of them, for i don't remember but like 10 - 20 bucks.
While those were on the way, i read about if fuses blow could be a problem with the tubes, so to make sure i decided to order a whole new quad of tubes at another 80 or so bucks.
So i get everything, change the tubes and fuses am thinking ok, she should be tip top, next practice the amp works great for about an hour.
sounds good having fun then all of a sudden it drops volume.
Just a whisper of sound, and i am like WTF!?
Were not even playing very loud, in my friends living room!!
So i start checking cords, my guitar, switching guitars, sure enough it is the head.
So now i'm like, what the hell do i do.
I decide it's best to call a tech..
After 400+ dollars of service ( another new set of tubes as well )
It had blown a cap in the tube section like many others post i've seen here, plus since that blew it also blew something else even deeper in the amp, the tech said he had to take the whole thing apart, and remove all the boards to check everything - why the cost was so high, was partly the tubes, but also the hours it took to disassemble and reassemble the thing.
He did call me when he had it apart to warn me, that just getting the thing apart was massively time consuming, and that the fix would actually be easy but the taking i apart was chewing up hours.
I almost told him to just stop as it was already close to 200 dollars in hours time, and he still had to put it back together.
He didn't want to have to charge me that and not finish or actually fix the amp, so he kinda cut some time off of it, and in total with tubes it cost like 400 + dollars. And took 3-4 weeks.
Ok so that sucked, so now the amp has cost me about 15-16 hundred dollars.
And i got to use it 3 times.
So i'm like ok this thing should be tip top now - i take it to practice sounds good !!
So my drummers wife is getting a little annoyed and we can't practice at his house any more, so we don't practice for about 2 months till we got a place.
This amp sat all by itself, covered up so as not to get dust on it totally undisturbed the entire time....
Once we get a place to practice, i'm like excited to play this thing after all the waiting and money.
Get it all set up, star tuning my guitar and dialing in my sound at just medium volume and all i did was strum a few chords then all of a sudden, no sound!!!!!
Not only no sound, but totally dead amp Totally Dead, no lights no power nothing.
So now i'm pisssed beyond belief, and i don't really think it has anything to do with the maintenance performed on the amp, and anyway months had gone by and was not going to go to the tech and tell him well i got to turn it on twice in the last few months and now it's totally dead.
Anyway, i checked the fuse where to power cord goes sure enough it had blown.
So again, practice interrupted by this thing.
I had to go and order another handfull of fuses from digikey, got the exact correct fuse and put it in.
Nothing, totally dead - at this point, there's no way i'm opening up this piece of **** amp.
It's sitting on my floor now for about 6 months, this thing that cost now almost close to the cost of a new one and i got to use it 3 times.
I can't even afford the energy to pick the dame thing up anymore to toss it in the trash it's so heavy.
By comparison, my old Peavey has lasted something like 16 years with the ORIGINAL tubes in it, and i never had to service the thing once, and it had been thru hell. (still works by the way and cost me a grand total of about 550 bucks) ... it's lifetime.
I want to get rid of this piece of ****, but can't in good conscience try to get it working and sell it to some poor chump as a problem free amp.
No way in hell.
The best i can do is probably dump it on a pawn shop or guitar center and get next to nothing for something that cost near 1600 bucks.
Since i have almost the cost of a new Rm100 invested in it i wish i bought it new so i could just have returned it but now i'm stuck with a non working 1600 dollar brand new looking piece of junk.
Randall, i want my money back for this utter piece of garbage.
Seriously used or not this thing is a total fail that should be recalled anyway by the sheer number of problems reported by now with them.
Everytime i see someone post somewhere they just got a new Randall RM100 and they are so happy, i feel really sorry for them.
Yet have never said anything or bad mouthed your company till now.
Plain and simple, a well built tube amp can last near 20 years with no problems or even a tube change.
This thing has been Nothing but problems (for me), and a huge money sink, from day one.
That being said if anyone thinks i am a dumbass because it's probably only yet another fuse somewhere, this thing is for sale as is and stated with a new set of 140 dollar EL34B tubes and in near mint cosmetic condition. 1086, Ultra Plus and Blackface modules.
I would like just 500 dollars for it, to retain a shred of my dignity.
Thanks for listening to my rant, i want this thing out of my living room cause every time i look at it it feels like someones poking me in the ***.
Sorry for such a long post.
