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It sounds great, but one should know what they're getting into and their goals before getting this unit. I paired mine with a 1960a cabinet. I would not recommend v30s on this head. Additionally don't try to record it at low volume, it sounds okay in person at low volume but miced up it's thin and weird up in the highs. If dialed in correctly, it produces the chuggy ola englund sound from the rejects album. It can do AC DC really well and it has a beautiful fender sparkle to the clean channel. A lot of people are biased to the Randall Satan. I like this one a lot more. It sounds more like the fortin natas, but I can't recommend it to someone who doesn't want to tweak much, or has a specific sound they want in mind.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Bias your amp as soon as you get it otherwise the amp is underwhelming out of the box. Set the bias correctly even and the amp sounds the best. The stock ruby tubes are actually pretty good out of the box, I did swap the stock tubes for Tung-sols and it definitely gave alot more sound to the amp that i perfered. (You can mix and match the power tubes to different types than just the stock 6l6, i find the 6l6 the best for this amp, but el34 are good as well depending on what flavor you want)I use this amp primarily for studio use and it kills 5150 type of amps in versatility. You can get a plethora of different sounds. This amp does not need a overdrive but it can handle boosts and or overdrives very well. My favorite feature is the gain shaping options to really dial in the distortion character and the boost function is great for adding in a little more saturation focused on the higher mids.The clean channel is not over looked and delivers the goods.This amp isn't for everyone some perfer 5150 sounds, this gives you a hot rodded Marshall sounds met with Mesa type sounds and it's own 5150 type of sounds (but not exactly close but in the ballpark of 5150 style amps).After putting in the work with a tube swap and a bias, this amp is a monster and has plenty of gain necessary especially when it's biased even.This amp is assembled in China, but don't let that steer you away from it.. (Although my footswitch that came with the amp however came defective with a short in the cable where it meets the houseing and would not function without disconnecting the signal from the amp. I didn't want to return the whole amp after falling for its sounds compared to other amps i have had in my studio. I contacted Zzounds customer service and they were able to reimburse me with a gift certificate to replace the defective footswitch, that's awesome customer service.)I will say this amp isn't made for everyone, especially if you perfer straight forward classic 5150 sounds (you may perfer the Randall Diavlo that costs less than this) If you want a Fortin Natas this amp is the closest you'll get to it with a little over 1/4th of the cost. I may contact Mike Fortin in the future in the interests of modding it personally to get it closer to the Natas in terms of transformers/chokes etc., till then this monster of an amp delivers the goods in terms of heavy music live or in the studio. Definitely made for someone who wants go have the options to tweak their sound and tone. I have yet to have a problem with the amp, my band mates are very impressed with quality of the sound when used at rehearsals compared to their 6505 and mesa rectifier they are used to hearing, and both my guitarists want one for themselves for live applications. Couldn't be happier with an amplifier.

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It has a lot of EQ and gain shaping tools. It has a ton of clarity. Basically it can sound great or like crap depending how you dial it in. For some reason I like everything thru the passive input. The active input kills the gain way too much. It takes well to boosts as well. I play out live and rehearse with mine all the time. It sounds clear and brutal. I went with a quad of JJ E34L's and have been very happy tonewise. One drawback is the weight as I imagine the 50 watt version will be much easy to carry.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I've had every amp known to man over the past 25 years and this was a huge disappointment. It has a wierd lower mid range that can't be dialed out, don't get me wrong I like mids but it has to be the right kind. The only thing I could think of is this sounds like a very bad Soldano and I never liked them in the first place. This amp is in no way shape or form what you would expect from a Randall. I even threw KT88s in it and still couldn't get anything good. It has a very compressed polished sound maybe good for studio work but cranked up with a band it sucked. I will admit it sounds badass at bedroom volumes but that does me no good.

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