Wanna hear about my amp experience today?

[hugo]

You guys all know I'm in the market for an amp?!
Well, today I thought I'd go out and listen to the amps I'm interested in. The store had Vox's (1395), a 1968 SF SuperReverb (1400), 1965 BF SuperReverb (2000), a Marshall Plexi (the owner's own amp), a Traynor Bass Master (400), Rolands and another one I can't remember (Kustom).
Well, my intention was to listen to just a couple at a time cause they had alot of work pulling 'em all out and setting them up. Not a huge music store.
I told them that I like nice clean tones but I like it dirty and not tight for blues. There were a few other "would like" features that I told them would be nice. I listened to the Fender's first. I then listened to the Marshall, then the Kustom, and last the Traynor.
Well now please remember that I'm not well versed in amps. I know the sound I like and how some of the features work but that's it. I'm not a "tubehead".
I wanted a tube amp for sure.
It was so interesting to hear the differences between all the amps. I was there for three hours. I asked tons of questions and listened intently to each and every amp and what they were and weren't capable of doing.
I've bought quite a few items from them and the guy who will be taking over the business is a certified amp tech. I told them from the beginning that I was just looking. They had people coming and going in this little music shop that was cramed full of amps, guitars, amp and guitar repairs, etc. He never once left my side in three hours. They had the lady owner working too and she took care of each person one at a time and never rushed anyone. It was amazing service and at that music shop the customer comes first. I have never seen that kind of attention. Usually places spend some time with you but if you're not intending to buy that day, they don't usually hesitate to leave to help someone who may be buying.
This guy who I've dealt with several times is always the same. No matter if you're talking strings, guitars, amps, whatever. He stays until you say goodbye. I was blown away. I've been in lots of music shops and not once have I ever gotten that type of attention.
Anyway, I was done listening to all the amps I was curious about. I told the guy I didnt' want to spend a grand on amp but needed to hear what my 1000 plus would buy me if I had it.
I liked the Fenders, esp. the BF and I did like the Vox and Marshall.
Anyway, he says to me, "Do you wanna see my setup at home?" I said sure. He pulls up a picture on the computer of his music room at home. He has a Roland and it's kinda wierd looking to me in the picture. What the setup was, it had 8 preamps. Each preamp was to emulate a certain other amp. One preamp was a Marshall, the other a Tweed, the other a Blackface, etc. A total of 8 preamps. This thing is almost 6 feet high. Bunch of other stuff too. I said what do you mean it has 8 preamps? Now excuse me for my enthusiasm, you guys probably know all about this stuff?! Just let me ramble on in my excitement here!
Anyway, he says I got a Randall over here. He says it's over there. I said oh the one with the hole in the centre. I said I want a tube amp not a ss. He said it is a tube amp and what you do is pull the preamp out (like a car cd player), and interchange the preamps for whatever type of sound you want. If you want a Marshall sound, you put the preamp in for it. You want a Fender Tweed sound, you pop that preamp in. I said ya but I want a tubeamp. (Hugo's thinking to himself at this point "what is this guy stupid or what?") He says come here I'll show ya. Sure enough it's got two tubes in it. Inside the amp is 3 more preamp tubes and other tubes as well. I can't remember how many?? My brain at that point was oozing out my ears from too much info. So, he pops in the preamp for the BF. I'll be damned cause you couldn't tell that it wasn't the blackface. He did it for the tweed as well, same thing. He then pops in a Marshall preamp and the same damn thing! Honestly guys, I compared each one to the actual amp sitting there. Then, he puts a preamp for the vox. Same friggin thing. Turns out you can buy 20 different preamps. Now it comes with the preamp in it for 950.00 +tax. The speaker is a 12" Celestion Greenback. These preamps that pop in and out are 200.00 per preamp. So, you wanna play a Les Paul but want that sound, pop out the BF preamp and put the Marshall in. These preamps are exact duplicates of the actual real preamps. I was blown away. The cost is there though. This is a 20 Watt one that I was looking at. You can get much bigger than that. The one I was looking at and listening to was sitting on another one that had 3 preamps in it. So instead of having to buy an amp for each and every sound you want, you just buy the preamps.
I said "ya know, I'd love to buy it but i can't affford that right now. He says tell ya what, let me see what I can do. You've bought lots of stuff here, you're a frequent flyer. LOL. He comes back and says "you pick whatever preamp you like" and you can have it for 859.00 tax in. I'm like ohhh nooo, don't do that to me. He says come here...puts MF on the screen and it was quite a bit lower than them. I'm like please...what are you doing to me?????
I bought the friggin thang. I was blown away. Then he says I'm going to show you something. He says you should have the bias checked and that should be taken to an amp tech, a qualified amp tech. Not with this one though. Grab you voltmeter/ampmeter and put the ground here and the pos. in this spot. Showed the bias right then and there. Both tubes. Then he showed me the specs and one was a little high. He says get your screwdriver and turn this counterclockwise and voila! Done. Not to mention that he is a certified Randall amp tech. I bring it in if I have a problem and it's repaird within two days and no shipping it and waiting 6 weeks.
Then he says, I'll tell ya what, I'll put in an amazing set of tubes for you, and you can get it on Monday. Then he says, to be honest, you can even mod the preamp if theres some tweaking you want done. He would have to do it but it can be done if a certain sound you want changed a little.
Boy's I pick it up on Monday.
I took your advice and lived there today. I listened to everything. I compared everything. I was as thorough as I could be. Then he gave me the link to the forums for the roland amps. It's Grailtone.com
I want you to know that I listened and didn't buy something that i couldn't use at home. Plenty loud to gig with too. I can barely hear now because of all the listening today.
Later on I'll buy more preamps, to match whatever sound I want.
I wanna thank all of you for your advice, which I took. I'm not kidding, look into it. I know there's someone out there that's going to tell me something that i'm not aware of but I don't care. I absolutely know I made the right purchase, for me.
Now, I didn't check with the wife, I usually don't have to. I paid part with cash and part with debit/interact.
So, then I go and try to buy a couple cd's and a mag. and it comes up insuff. funds. I almost sh#t myself on the spot. So, now I'm sitting here freaking because it's Friday night and we have no money..honnnney....
Now the wife gets out of work at midnight. I have no idea if bills are coming out or what??
I'm truly worried and I'm not afraid to say "scared!"
Still it won't be divorce, it might be a little quiet here for awhile. Still what a sweet buy at a great price from a great guy who gave great service!

[crawdad]

You said its Roland. Do you mean Randall?

[hugo]

Crawdad, yep. Sorry there was Roland cubes there too. Thanks for correcting that. Told you grey matter was seeping outta my ears!! LOL.

[Geoff738]

I remember hearing about these a few years ago but have never seen/ heard one.

Sounds like a neat idea.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Geoff

[pchilson]

Way to go Hugo! Go down in a blaze of glory...hehe

[Murphy Slaw]

That was a very interesting read.

Thanks.

Murph.

[jh45gun]

Congrats on your new amp. Interesting concept I guess I do the same thing the pedal way I use a Digitech PR series pedal in front of my amps and it does clean up my tweed amp in the black face mode and gives it more dirt in the high gain modes ect plus effects. The only thing is I guess yours is tube and mine is digital.

[hugo]

They also have a Bogner preamp. Each of these preamps are exact to the original amp with the exception of one - the Mesa boogie. Apparently they were threatening to sue so they changed it a little. But since they can be modded, you can make it the exact sound of the Mesa.
Murph, were you being saracastic??? LOL. Wouldn't blame ya if you were. I do like to talk don't I?

[Sidney Vicious]

Never seen one - post a pic.

[jh45gun]

Sid I just went to the Randal web page and looked it up.

[Rumble]

So which preamp did you go with?

That sounds like an interesting idea. I would doubt that each cartridge would sound exactly like the real thing, but if you were sitting there A/Bing them with the real thing, it must be pretty close.

A single 12" with 20 watts and a Celestion Greenback is a sweet combination. Similar to a 1974x and my AC15, which I put a 20-watt Heritage Greenback in. I love the Greenbacks; the woody tone is perfect for some real saturated dirt because it will keep the sound in the vintage range without going into metal tones. It's part of the 1974x/Bluesbreaker classic, early Marshall sound.

And 20 watts is the perfect amount of power IMO. Enough to play with drums and a bass, will cut through a mix, but you can crank it without pissing everyone off.

Send pics when you get it. Sounds interesting.

[woodman]

Hugo, you are too much. you remind me of when i was 25 and all things were possible -- even having gear that did what i wanted!

enjoyed your account of the amp score, and can sympathize as to how these events can cut our precious domestic capital to the bone. but when ya gotta, ya gotta!

[Southern ILL]

Randall MTS Series....I think its basically a power amp... head or combo and you can put different modules in it.The modules I think are like preamps with a 12AX7 tubes and are voiced differently...Fender clean-Marshall- Bogner XTC.Anyone remember the Seymour Duncan Convertable amplifier.I am sure someonme who knows more can describe it better.Kinda cool really. I would tinker with it more than doing any actual playin' ....ANd Lord knows I need to be playin' more....I'm a hack !!

[Guitar_Ninja]

That sounds pretty cool.

They have a whole demo page on their website:

http://www.randallamplifiers.com/pro...ts/modules.asp

[hugo]

Rumble, I was told by my guy that these are exact and he meant EXACT preamps. I'm not kidding ya, this thing is amazing. I'm dead serious here boys.
I got the tweed but I plan on getting many more for whatever combo I want.
Picture your amp with controls on the front panel. In the centre there is a spot about the size of a radio deck in your car where the preamp slides in and out of. That preamp has two tubes in it. There are 3 more preamp tubes in the body of the amp. So, you buy the size amp you want and just interchange the preamp decks. These preamps can be modified. The controls on the amp can be clean, dirty, etc. It's worth going to an amp shop just to see what I'm talking about. This guy has 8 preamps to choose from in his own system at home. There was another one in the shop that had 3 spots containing three different preamps. I think it'll even save the settings as well. You put in the Marshall Plexi preamp and set the gain, vol. etc. to your liking. What's really cool is the volume on your geetar controls alot of the sound as well. It was amazing watching him adjust the settings and then using the volume on the guitar while he's playing to make it sound different. It was an amazing display. I will definitely post pics. I am still sitting here like a deer in the headlights. I'm sorry but it was unreal.
I'm new to all this but I'm no idiot. I know what I heard and I watched him like a hawk. I've been going to this shop since last August and they're as pure as the driven snow. This is probably common sense to you guys but you can use the line out in the back for headphones if needed.

[hugo]

If you saw his setup at home you'd be freaked out. It's a fortune worth of equipment. He says to me, why would I buy it myself if I didn't know what I'm talking about? That's his job, amps. Sure he sells too but they're very honest people. I gave my guitar instructor a call to tell him about it before I bought the thing. Apparently he deals there himself. He knows them well. Friend of a friend type thing. He says "If Jeff tells you something about amps, you can take it to the bank." Made me feel much better about buying it before I did. Now I'm in trouble when the wife gets home from work and I don't even care. That is a first for me I'll tell ya. I'm sorry if my posts are long and I seem overly excited. I felt like I saw the most amazing thing ever. My sister in law is a guitarist and has a Marshall amp. I know the sound of that tube amp and I haven't forgotten that sound (I don't have a LP, not that it matters) and that amp sounded identical. Dark and dirty but he cleaned it up quite abit as well. You ever have one of those times when you're stopped dead in your tracks about something. Well this is one of those moments.
That's why he gave me the site to go to. He told me go there and read posts of guys who have it. Post all the questions you want and if by next Monday when you come to pick it up and you've changed your mind, I'll give you back your money. He said you'll be back to pick it up. He says, you realize it takes money outta my pocket because you can set your own bias and you don't come in buying other amps. Instead you buy the preamps and just insert it in and away you go. We lose money because of that. Sorry about my long posts, I'm kinda manic because I had a great day. An amazing learning experience and learned about settings on amps too.
He said I take my one amp and carry my 8 preamps and I can play any sound I want all night. If I wanna sound like Led Zep, insert the preamp and boom!, I'm good to go. I want that Fender sound, insert the BF or the Tweed or whatever other Fender preamp and I'm identical to the sound. He's says now you can't do that with anything else unless you wanna lug 5 different amps to your gigs.

[hugo]

How many people think Hugo needs to calm down and take a chill pill? How many people think Hugo needs to quit referring to himself in the third person?
LOL. Happy boy until the wife comes home....bwahhhhhhhh

[furrfurrfurr]

Originally Posted by hugo

How many people think Hugo needs to quit referring to himself in the third person?

[robt57]

Can the modules be hot swapped??

[Rumble]

Sorry to quote myself but...

Originally Posted by Rumble

So which preamp did you go with?

[furrfurrfurr]

he got the tweed.

[hugo]

Models??? There are no women involved in this deal. In fact, there may be no wife involved either. teehee Oh...modules!!! What the frig are you referring to and what the heck is hot swapping? That's not where you go to those parties and throw your keys in a bowl is it?

[furrfurrfurr]

Originally Posted by hugo

Models??? There are no women involved in this deal. In fact, there may be no wife involved either. teehee Oh...modules!!! What the frig are you referring to and what the heck is hot swapping? That's not where you go to those parties and throw your keys in a bowl is it?

he wants to know if you can slap him some peas upside his porkchop, mama.

[hugo]

I forgot, the dude said the sound samples on the Randall website suck. They aren't accurate enough. Just thought i'd pass that along.

[Geoff738]

Er, how long does it take to take one module out and put another one in?

If you were using this in a gig situation could you do it between songs?

Cheers,
Geoff


PS - Has your buddy who was looking for a Marshall heard this thing yet?