This was my first amp head purchase, and it's a tube! My buddy has a B-52 100W tube head and the sound is just incredible compared to hybrids or solid-state amps. Sorry guys, I didn't think I'd go for the tube sound, but after hearing the difference between the B-52 and a Marshall hybrid head going through the same speaker cabinet, it was a no-brainer. This Randall head is just sick and has a lot of features, though not as many as some might like (can't please everyone). I'm writing a more details review so I'll use the other sections to elaborate, but overall this was one of the best purchases I've made in my slow guitar career start. The amount of stuff I'm learning is a lot, but it's not overwhelming.

Sound
Sound is very subjective because each person has different hearing characteristics and different speaker cabinets. This RT100H head was hooked up to a Crate Flexwave 120W 4X12 cab and it sounded just off-the-chart amazing! The clean channel with the "bright" switch flipped really sounded crisp with no fuzzy feedback or anything else; the OD1 and OD2 channels seemed similar at first, but as I played with the sound and switched humbuckers on my ESP LTD KH-25 (Kirk Hammett 25th anniversary guitar), I finally discovered the differences. OD1 gave me a more classic, warm sound, where OD2 gave me that bone-crunching distortion...but clean and full! It sounded every bit as good as my buddy's B-52 tube head, and even he was pleasantly surprised at… read more how good the Randall sounds.

Features
I mean, it does what you want it to do, has an effects loop (you need to use the Send jack in the effects loop if you need to run your amp into a sound board at a church or school or something, which we discovered with some trial and error), you can switch out the tubes with others to give you different sounds, and the biasing system is easily explained in the instructions and adds a lot of flexibility for an all-tube amp at this price. Huge. And they included a very solidly built foot switch to go between clean, OD1, and OD2. The instructions incorrectly state that the third button switches reverb on and off. It doesn't. The three switches control the three channels...reverb you need to add with the knob on the head, so try to do that ahead of time because out on stage you don't wanna be messing with it.

Ease of Use
Randall defines easy to use. The instructions are written well and are kinda funny in a sarcastic sort of way, which I enjoyed. The biasing system is explained perfectly and the amp has everything in the place you'd expect. In short, you can't mess up using it unless you've got issues or are on controlled substances.

Quality
This thing is a tank. It's built well and is rather heavy, lending to the quality of the components. The metal grate on the front is very nice indeed, and the foot pedal, as I stated earlier, is solid.

Value
You can't get an all-tube amp of THIS quality at this price, period. Randall is setting the bar high and I hope they continue to do so. Also, ZZounds adds a huge amount of value because they price-matched a goofy competitor and even beat the price. The shipping was fast and the unit was not damaged whatsoever. Excellent value! Period. This is not a practice tube amp...you can do a ton with it in your main arsenal.

Manufacturer Support
Haven't had to deal with them, fortunately.

The Wow Factor
The blue lights really get people looking. Very few heads at this price point have a feature like that. Plus, the front grate looks industrial and plain cool. This is a fashionable amp with a soft blue glow, and the tubes look awesome inside.

Musical Background:
Jam at home, with friends, and in church; played piano and trumpet since I was a kid, but guitar on and off for about 12 years

Musical Style:
Rock, Christian read less