RM50 vs RM20/22

Has anyone done an A/B comparison between an RM50 and it's lower watt cousins?

The EL84s in the RM20/22 will break up earlier. You notice the difference mostly with cleans and a little lack of headroom. You don't get the massive headroom that you get with the 50 and 100W versions. This can be both good and bad. It depends upon how you like your cleans served.

The RM20/22 simply lack balls. EL84s will just never give you the full sound of a 6L6, EL34, etc.

However you will get power tube breakup a lot earlier than with 6L6 and EL34. See by the time you get it with 6L6s the cops are outside your door but you can't hear them because the music is too loud... or you're already deaf.

Most home studio situations you'll probably get by just fine with EL84s. Probably also most gigs unless you're playing metal.

each has it's own purpose and flavor, you don't need to be deafening to hear the difference in an rm50

rm20/22 is great small amp, for non hard rock you can dial in almost anything. Hard rock and beyond at moderate volumes it comes up a bit small. Great recording amp though, I'll be using this piece with headphones than reamp later through my rm100 when the time is right.

The other thing to consider is that you can make an RM50 somewhat sound like an RM20/22 but you can't make an RM20/22 sound like an RM50.

If you get some tube converters such as THD Yellow Jackets or Groove Tubes Substi-tubes, you can use EL84 tubes in your RM50, which will make it sound similar to the RM20/22.

I found this thread cause I'm curious about the RM22 and wanted to see if anyone has actually played one live. Not so sure I agree with the discussion about EL84's being light on thump tho. I sold my RT2/50 solely because of the oppressive weight and bought a Mesa 20/20 which has EL84's; did the "deep mod" and the RM4 sounds massive. I run the masters at 2:00 and get no power tube breakup; I run JTM for clean and it's fat and chimey; the stock Grail never sounded better, and the JF Plexi and VHT modules are searing. Played a show last week at Sun Bank Arena in Trenton and stage volume was huge. I use an RM50 with Wing C's for rehearsal and the rack rig has comparable head room.

And CrankyRay knows how hard my drummer hits; he played with Ray's band for awhile!

If the RM22 has the punch of the Mesa, it'll hang with an RM50.

So anyone played an RM22 live with a heavy rock band?

I don't think the rm20/22 can be loud enough to keep up with Bob.
The boost had plenty for leads, but no boost rhythms lacked the volume I needed in a live situation- and that was with a laid back drummer

I think I have a video with Inner Prison & Bob at Sweenys. Good show with Stygian that night. Bob rocks!

I owned an RM50 for about a year and the other guitar player in my band uses one as well. I recently got an RM22. While we did not really try to critically listen to the differences, we did have them both at a rehearsal last week.

The main difference I could hear between them was that the RM50 had a much bigger bass sound. Not that it was really better tone. Sometimes you need to leave the bass frequencies to the bass player - and a lot of the "more" bass from the RM50 was in the that range.

The RM22 sounded good with the band and I had no trouble downing out three different drummers (we're auditioning new drummers). Having heard that the RM20's were a little on the quiet side I was concerned, but there was no volume problem at all. I was using an 80 watt 1x12 theile cabinet.

Regarding the EL84 tone. We were playing 70's and 80's hard rock/metal and I thought the tone was great. I did notice that if my face was right in front of the speaker there was kind of a funky power tube break up, but when I was away from the cabinet it sounded fine. Clean tones were not as clean as on the higher wattage amps but more than clean enough.

:? I seem to be the only one who lacks appropriate volume with the rm20...could be I like it LOUD

After I got the RM22 I played it at home for about an hour and the volume did seem lacking. When I got with the band there was more than enough there - way more than enough.

I guess that just tells you how loud I play at home :shock: .

Right now I am picturing Tommy Chong blowing up his amp in "Up In Smoke". I guess I am showing my age...

Good info as I am pondering selling my RM100 for 2 RM22's.

I own an RM20 combo that I put a Scumback H series speaker in to make it louder...It's still to small sounding for my 3 piece Blues/Rock band....I usually use a Lynchbox 100 head with 2 tubes pulled making it a 50 watter...That amp is perfect for any gig....I use either a 1/12 cab w/a Super V or a 2/12 cab ...The20 watter is just to small sounding...It's those EL84's/.....

Right now I use a Egnater 2x12 and a G&K 2x12 with the head. I don't think I can pull 2 tubes and use the 2 cabs still? I did pull the tubes for a bit and tried the E34L's in it. Might try going back to that so it breaks up earlier. Do you get a drop in wattage when going from the 6L6 to the E34L's cause I noticed on a couple of youtube vids of Phaez amps he says if he uses 6L6 that wattage was like 35 and EL34's were 22ish.

You know the small sound could be the circuitry in the amp head's power section...

You can pull 2 tubes and run 2 cabs if they are both 16 ohms..You would then run the head at 4 ohms....As far as wattage is concerned, the EL34's and 6L6's are close in power

Shinozoku said:

You know the small sound could be the circuitry in the amp head's power section...

Click to expand...

I think it's the power tubes....I had the same experience with a Budda SD-18 with the same EL84 power tubes

Seems to me. Volume is only a problem when there isnt enough speakers!
Hehehehehehe An rm20 in a 4x12 is awesome!!