Played my new RM100 and not digging it. Any suggestions?

[op1e]

Nothing different about your head op1e

IMO w your current gear this is just what you're going to get. In other words tweak it all day, at the end of the day it is what it is.

Some guys use that GMajor. I wouldn't have one of those in my rig either. I'm a bit of a snob though lmao

I bet your rig is probably OK sounding, but with what you have and how you have it set up, it is what it is.

Just play your guitar

Sorry/Not Sorry. It was the above that irritated me the other day on a long crappy sick overtime for 2 months straight no sleep kinda situation, and I hadn't even really noticed the other one till then and it seemed like I was on blast and was taking passive aggressive shots. I wouldn't have said anything normally but ya gotta see it from my perspective. Seemed petty. I'll bow out.

 

[Capt_Tippy]

Well I started out wanting to try to help you, but then I thought.. maybe I won't take you down this hole. ...just go play your guitar and stop listening to me. You keep talking to me and its going to get expensive. ...but, No need to "bow out" LoL

 

[JKD]

Definitely a rat-hole....just for basic FX I can remember changing all my stuff around to match the +4dB loop of the RM stuff....never really had another issue with it, it;'s tube/driven and nice sounding....but one heck of a hot signal.

Not to mention you get the choice of serial/parallel or both.

This is from owning 4 or 5 RM100s of all vintages, 3 RM50s..countless RM4s and M4s....

FWIW I *hated* the sound of my first RM100.....the presence and density controls practically useless and the am overall so boomy / not tight.

Just trying to share useful stuff, I'm a ****** hack player but lots of time on these amps.

For a basic tone improvement:

1. you should definitely try jumping the parallel loop
2. suggest an MDA board
3. if you are getting fancy, look at changing the input cap/resistance..I lowered the coupling cap on mine/since prefer tighter tone and you can alter value of resistance in there to change the input gain a little....
4. Tube changes...after many years/swaps..I settled on 6550s for the RM100s and KT-88 for the RM50

 

[withmittens]

does a Morley line Level Shifter fix this?

 

[Mattfig]

does a Morley line Level Shifter fix this?

It should....

 

[withmittens]

cheap fix, they're like $30

 

[Mattfig]

cheap fix, they're like $30

Yeah, I'm not familiar with the morley but I'm assuming it's just a passive shifter, in which case some may argue than an active one will be a better signal, but it will work and solve the issue....

 

[Capt_Tippy]

well the 1101 doesn't have any issue with the levels and you don't need any kind of shifter... that's what I was saying. The loop (crap or otherwise) is not an issue with the 1101. The 1101 on the other hand has plenty of its own issues.

 

[op1e]

I bought a TC Electronic Spark Boost and put it in my loop switcher for when I use amp models into the fx return. Its a handy solution and $50. When I hit the Control switch on my Control 2, it switches from Internal/External preamp and turns on the loop that the Spark is in. That way I cann have real amp and amp model within each patch without having to have a seperate bank for the models I like to use. And the great thing is, when I use a different head it just takes the turn of one knob to balance out levels.

Although I do have to say, I don't need it for the SL-X or my Peavey Ultra. There's no drop out in signal volume when I switch to internal preamp. But the RM100 blew up again so it's a mute point. I should have made the tech switch that power board out and not even tried to bring it home. This one has been more problems than anything I've ever owned.

 

[Equalizing_Distortion]

HI Tbone81,
Late reply to your late reply. I didn't get to check the bias before I sent this amp back to Guitar Center.

After my last post I took this amp to band practice and with enough messing around I got the ultra to sound pretty good. Over all there was some serious low end punch on all of the modules in a good way and the head is much louder than my other heads at the same volume settings.

Although I got some good sounds from all of the modules I was never able to dial in the right settings on the power amp side with the presence and density controls I assume one of the Jaded Faith mods would probably fix this. Compared to my Mesa Boogies the RM100 feels stiff and lifeless, I would really like this for re-amping in the studio but its not as much fun to play.

A year later and I am back to considering the Randall modular, so obviously I liked the modules although I was not that impressed by the head. I actually just got a free Mesa Boogie 395 power amp that sounds great, and I ran across my old posting because I was looking around for an RM4 to try and build up the modular rig that I would be really happy with.