Just bought my first RM100. Questions thread.

[Shockmaster]

I just picked up a stock Randall RM100 head with no modules. It's running 6L6 ruby tubes and hasn't been modded.

The main modules I'm interested in are the Jaded Faith Ubersonic and the Salvation Benzin, but I'm reading the fine print that a lot comes down to the power amp. I'm also interested in eventually commissioning custom mods and am seeking insight on that.

1. Would I need to switch the 6L6 tubes to EL34s in my RM100? (I used to use a 120W Bogner Uberschall back in the day and am hoping to be able to swing that kind of monstrous gain again or comparable.)

2. Is a foglifter mod needed?

3. I've seen Jaded Faith has made dual mods for modules. How would a dual mod module be of benefit for a Ubersonic or D-Zilla?

4. I'd like to order a Bogner Fish style module, after I get set up for high gain, and am wondering where I could order that. I can't find any website links. Did Salvation Mods discontinue their Bogner Fish module? Is this something that has to be special ordered?

5. I see a lot of users with modules from Sacred Groove, Gigmods and other companies. How do you get modules from these brands? The only mts module websites I'm seeing are Jaded Faith and Salvation. Is this a matter of reaching out to a certain member on the forum who makes these, who doesn't have a website or LLC company and is just doing the word of mouth thing?

6. In regard to custom modules, I owned a Holland Brentwood/Jumpmaster head (Link: http://bit.ly/1gCLhAl) maybe 4 years ago that was making its rounds on TGP. I don't have this anymore but loved that amp for cleans. For a company like Salvation Mods or Jaded Faith to create a custom module based on a head, do they need the actual head or can they approximate through recordings and online literature? What is generally the process?

 

[The Beast]

Hi Shockmaster, Welcome to the Madness!!!

Ok I will try to answer your questions here as best I can from my experience and humble opinion.

1. You don't need to swap your power tubes in fact I have tried both the EL34's and 6L6's. And for a deeper tighter and clearer top ended Modern Metal sound the 6L6's in my opinion are better suited for a JF Ubersonic or an SG Afterlife module.

They translate the sound of those MTS modules better my Lynch Box had come with EL34's and while I really liked the lead tone the rhythm tone had more mids and less bottom end great for solos but not so much for Modern Metal to Death Metal.

The EL34's were to old school sounding not a bad thing if you want to play old school thrash but if you had an Uberschall which is one of my favorite amps it has a very modern sound and the power section choke is in a very unique place which helps to give it that tone with the Randall 6L6's will help with deeper tighter lows and detailed cutting highs the notes will split better and separate better when playing extremely fast and not turn to mud when using the highest gain distortion with the bass maxed out.

What I like about the EL34's though are the growling mids and it's more raw and in your face sound. It wouldn't be wrong to use EL34's it's a matter of personal taste for what it's worth I have the SG Afterlife and I play mainly I guess what I would call Progressive Modern Brutal Technical Death Metal ( Not Djent! lol) and like you the Uberschall was on my radar but I also play Neo Classical Fusion, Jazz Fusion old school Van Halen George Lynch Vai Satriani and I needed an amp that could do all the above styles and genres of music.

If Reinhold made a amp that had the Bogner Fish for channel 1 the Bogner XTC for channel 2 and the Bogner Uberschall for channel 3 I would have considered it but to by all 3 of those would cost a fortune not to mention who wants to carry all that gear!!!

What I have been doing is collecting the above mentioned Bogners in MTS format I have the SG Afterlife, SG Fisch and I will soon have the SG XTC LE 20th Anniversary version fully loaded I should have that next week.

My dream amp is almost complete!!!

The Fish I use for Fusion, it has a Allan Holdsworth type tone to it and Fusion guitarist Chris Poland uses it.
It has one of the best Fusion tones ever in my humble opinion.
It can do the Van Halen type tone too great for tapping and legato.

The Ecstasy is the Rocker great for Lynch and Vai ( Both of whom used this amp ) type old school to new school Shred tones it will cover Hendrixy plexi tones to Van Halenesque Brown sounds to more modern George Lynch Sacred Groove album tones.

The Uberschall the Ultra Modern Metal sound!
One of the heaviest amps out there and one of the best for 7 and 8 string guitars.

I do wish the Lynch Box had 4th channel for a clean tone if it did I would want to commission a Dumble Steel String Singer amp module again just my opinion the best electric clean guitar amp sound ever on the planet!

2. 100% the Foglifter made a Huge difference on my Lynch Box!!!
And its dirt cheap I have spent more money on bottle of JD and Heinekens lol
Get it you can thank me later.
The Bottom end on my amp is tighter and deeper not lose and muddy any more also the top end treble and presence is crystal clear but not piercing or bitey it was like taking a thick blanket off my speaker cabinet!
Best and cheapest investment yet for my amp!

3. Unless you have a M4 there isn't a huge benefit here because on the Randall amps you can only switch one of the three channels from the foot pedal or midi. But I believe Rob at Jaded Faith can add a switch on the front of the module faceplate that you could switch it manually.
Also I have read a MTS member sent his Randall amp to Bruce Egnater to have it modified to accept and switch both channels from midi on a dual channel module.

4. I have the SG Fisch module which is Awesome for Legato and Fusion style leads I wish Scott would come back but I will just have to keep holding my breath lol.
All the clips I have heard from Salvation Mods sound Great!!!
If you contact Anthony at SM via email he may still do it or if not do what I did keep checking the classifieds.

5. Scott at Sacred Groove and Pete at Gigmods are not presently doing any mod work but we can only hope they come back.

6. Good question contact them both and see, they are both Geniuses at what they do.

Well I wrote a novel here I hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[dcg8]

Or run 2 EL34's and 2 KT88's... Killer tube combo for metal.