Fortin + Randall = ??? Discuss...

[RevolverRT]

Seems like to me they put all stuff that really doesn't take in my opinion. Is Mike Fortin teaming up with them to put something out? We saw Bogner with Line 6....that really didn't do much to me...still sounded like a Line 6.

 

[Anonymous]

We all know the artists' personal signature amps will be handmade by Mike with quality parts. Standard ones will be made in China. It's been discussed before. 1800$ for a Chinese Thrasher is no good.

No matter how good the amps will sound, seems like Randall are still clueless about marketing, production management and other aspects of business. No amp designer can save a company from such incompetence.

 

[Moshaholic]

It seems like I hear less and less talk about Fortin amps in general these days and I have wondered if is because of the Randall thing or if the Fortin hype has long since faded.

I guess if handled correctly from a business and marketing perspective, the situation could be a win/win for both parties as long as the product is a good one of decent quality and priced reasonably.

That said, I keep hearing that the Fortin/Randall stuff is somewhat expensive for "off shore" production amps. Also nobody around my neck of the woods is carrying the amps in a store to try out.

FWIW, I personally have never been a fan of Randall amps or anything Fortin, so the "Fortin & Randall" thing was something of a non-issue for me.

This is starting to remind me of when Mike Soldano made a Yamaha amp back in the 80's...

 

[JerEvil]

Yeah I have lost interest honestly. I was kind of stoked for the 667 but not so much anymore.

 

[Anonymous]

You know there's this thing called hype
Generating hype is one thing. Using hype to your advantage is another
Release your product too soon, hype hasn't been built up enough yet
Release your product too late, hype will have died down
Seems like Randall have failed to understand this concept

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Interesting. If Randall flops, I think it will be despite having Mike on board
There was so much Fortin-love and Randall hype here a year or 2 or 3 ago....the finished products a\have taken so long, they may have missed their peak hype point

WTF is up with the Satan amp? There's like 1 place that has one, and it has been years since those videos showed the development process. Maybe nobody will carry it because the name is at best juvenile, at worst a taboo atrocity.

And besides this forum, no one I talk to- including some seasoned players-know Fortin's name. Or Randall beyond their Dimebag days. I guess we have to blame marketing for a lot of this? They have some promising gear but I fear that they may end up in the clearance section soon with many products left undelivered.

 

[dwizted]

I dont know really what to say but I can tell you I played all those amps at NAMM and they were all kick ass... The Rhodes stuff was off the chart as well... Kyle is such a nice guy by the way...

One thing for sure the Randall booth was one of the busiest booths out of the bunch...

 

[benduncan]

You know there's this thing called hype
Generating hype is one thing. Using hype to your advantage is another
Release your product too soon, hype hasn't been built up enough yet
Release your product too late, hype will have died down
Seems like Randall have failed to understand this concept

This.

It seems that they simply released too much info too soon. I just talked to a local dealer and he said that the Satan and 667 dates have been pushed back to July and August respectively. When the amps start to ship, I think that everything will be fine. This is assuming that they live up to our current perception, from all I've heard, they do. I was impressed with the Thrasher, but my expectations were low, lol, based on the clips.

Regarding price/China. The gap between American manufacturing and Chinese manufacturing is closing fast, "made in China" doesn't automatically equal the poor quality that it used to. I don't know what kind of parts are in these amps yet, they could be crap, but they could also not be crap. Honestly, if the amps sound good and don't prematurely explode, I don't really care where the parts came from, speaking within the current state of our trade policy. On a larger scale, I think that NAFTA(among other things, of course) could contribute to the destruction of our economy

 

[BSRIAudio]

Interesting. If Randall flops, I think it will be despite having Mike on board
There was so much Fortin-love and Randall hype here a year or 2 or 3 ago....the finished products a\have taken so long, they may have missed their peak hype point

WTF is up with the Satan amp? There's like 1 place that has one, and it has been years since those videos showed the development process. Maybe nobody will carry it because the name is at best juvenile, at worst a taboo atrocity.

And besides this forum, no one I talk to- including some seasoned players-know Fortin's name. Or Randall beyond their Dimebag days. I guess we have to blame marketing for a lot of this? They have some promising gear but I fear that they may end up in the clearance section soon with many products left undelivered.

I feel the same about the Friedman Brown Eye. I was astonished when that was the name on a company's flagship $3700 amplifier head. They're popular though so I doubt names really matter.

Chinese construction isn't much of a big deal either. iPhones and computers galore are made in China and they are wayyyyyyy more complex and precise than a tube amp. As long as the parts and design are good the amps should hold up perfectly well.

 

[benduncan]

Interesting. If Randall flops, I think it will be despite having Mike on board
There was so much Fortin-love and Randall hype here a year or 2 or 3 ago....the finished products a\have taken so long, they may have missed their peak hype point

WTF is up with the Satan amp? There's like 1 place that has one, and it has been years since those videos showed the development process. Maybe nobody will carry it because the name is at best juvenile, at worst a taboo atrocity.

And besides this forum, no one I talk to- including some seasoned players-know Fortin's name. Or Randall beyond their Dimebag days. I guess we have to blame marketing for a lot of this? They have some promising gear but I fear that they may end up in the clearance section soon with many products left undelivered.

I feel the same about the Friedman Brown Eye. I was astonished when that was the name on a company's flagship $3700 amplifier head. They're popular though so I doubt names really matter.

Chinese construction isn't much of a big deal either. iPhones and computers galore are made in China and they are wayyyyyyy more complex and precise than a tube amp. As long as the parts and design are good the amps should hold up perfectly well.

I'm pretty sure that the name is satirical. Personally, I think that it's pretty funny. It could be worse:

 

[nwright]

I've always heard of nightmare's with Randall reliability, at least for the products from the last 10-15 years. I owned a V2 for a time, and returned it. I bought it after a factory refurb because it didn't work and it had a wicked ground issue...Sent back to Randall who returned it with a clean bill of health, but the grounding issue was still very present.

And I've heard too many stories like this to ever want to buy an amp with their name on it.

And, as far as Fortin goes, he pretty much only has a name on forums, and through fans of the well reknowned social media artists. In the grand scheme of things, the amps are designed and (somewhat) marketed (through people like Ola) to such a small niche market that they've shot themselves in the foot.

I mean, in my years of playing Randall has never been that well regarded by anyone who doesn't own a Dean or Washburn

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

The only thing that can save the Randall line now is the "head hunter" Lynch head that he was supposedly working on for final release... which we know won't happen, so Randall will just keep appealing to the cookie monster low tuning crowds.

What the hell are with the aesthetics of the diavlo heads anyway? cheesy.

 

[cardinal]

Yeah, Fortin won't be the reason for Randall's continued lack of success/traction. Randall's doing that in spite of Fortin. No matter how good an amp designer he is, 1) the vast majority of guitar players have no idea who he is, so it's not like connecting his name to the amps suddenly means that Randall can compete with Mesa and Marshall and 2) you can't sell amps that you can't get into showrooms. The delays have been terrible, and they lost whatever momentum they had with the few folks that did recognize Fortin's name.

As for the made in China thing... that's been beat to death. Bottom line is companies won't start building stuff here until buyers demonstrate that they're willing to buy a stripped-down US amp at the price of a multi-feature Chinese amp or when they demonstrate they're willing to get out their wallets for a much more expensive US amp. Randall is stuck at the low end of the market, so they can't just release a $4,000 head to compete with a VH4, even if the Meathead design could/should be considered in the same air. Who would buy it? Everyone would just laugh at them. Look at Schecter, who tried to bring out American built amps that were priced in line with Mesa. Most people, including me, were like, WTF? Who would pay that much for an amp from a company not known for making high quality amps? Maybe Randall saw Fortin's name as a way out of the low end market, but cheesy aesthetics and amp names like "Satan" aren't going to get them there.

 

[dooredge]

I definitely feel victim to the hype with the Thrasher - I thought it could possibly displace my Diezel Herbert! How stupid am I? Pretty much what you're thinking right about now.

All I know is the few dudes, myself included, who got a Thrasher didn't keep them very long & lost money in the process of moving them.

 

[sg guy]

what the hell does NAFTA have to do with china?

You know there's this thing called hype
Generating hype is one thing. Using hype to your advantage is another
Release your product too soon, hype hasn't been built up enough yet
Release your product too late, hype will have died down
Seems like Randall have failed to understand this concept

This.

It seems that they simply released too much info too soon. I just talked to a local dealer and he said that the Satan and 667 dates have been pushed back to July and August respectively. When the amps start to ship, I think that everything will be fine. This is assuming that they live up to our current perception, from all I've heard, they do. I was impressed with the Thrasher, but my expectations were low, lol, based on the clips.

Regarding price/China. The gap between American manufacturing and Chinese manufacturing is closing fast, "made in China" doesn't automatically equal the poor quality that it used to. I don't know what kind of parts are in these amps yet, they could be crap, but they could also not be crap. Honestly, if the amps sound good and don't prematurely explode, I don't really care where the parts came from, speaking within the current state of our trade policy. On a larger scale, I think that NAFTA(among other things, of course) could contribute to the destruction of our economy

 

[timeroo]

For me, the thrasher should have been put on the market at a price lower than the 5153. The thrasher is an "ok" sounding amp with some useable tones but when you have the EVH 5150 at the same price point or cheaper, who's gonna buy the thrasher?

Fortin has really done a lot of great things from Randall, so has Ola but it's gonna take a lot more to win people over.

 

[benduncan]

what the hell does NAFTA have to do with china?

Wtf?!

I misread an article(found it again) about two years ago and have been connecting China to NAFTA ever since. No one called me out on it, lol. I wonder how many didn't know, or how many knew and just silently thought that I was a dumbass.

I thought that when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was replaced with the World Trade Organization, and China became a member, that it allowed them access to NAFTA participation.

 

[War Admiral]

Satan juvenile??? and brown eye, hairy brown eye, little fokker, etc.... isnt??? lol

 

[Anonymous]

Ok so does anybody care to make any predictions on how long a Meshuggah amp will take?

Or better yet... How many other signature heads/amps will there be, and who will they be for?

A decade
A ton
Hetfield

 

[glip22]

Mike was very active here and other forums. He's no dummy. I am sure he is doing well or he would be back to making his own amps again.