YT: Randall Diavlo RD40C & Washburn Parallaxe PXL20B - Metal

[C1-ocaster]

I just got a RD45 head, same amp as the combo.
I can't get any high gain distortion like that, not even close.
There has to be something wrong with it cause I've seen and heard many videos of this amp and nearly all of them have a great saturated distortion, but not the one I got.

User error.

How could it be user error? I really don't think anyone in here doesn't know what a gain knob does and how to get more. I tried the RD45 and it has loads of gain, I was able to dial in a good tone in like 5 seconds.

I'm referring to C1-ocaster. I've owned 2 RD45H heads, and they just plain kill. I used the boost, gain around noon, and an OD boost. Brutal as shit!

I You're overstepping with the insult, cause you don't know me, nor do you know whether or not I know what I'm doing.
There's not reason for you to act like that.
If you want to be helpful, great, give your experience and offer some insight.
Throwing one liner insults doesn't make you look knowledgeable.


I know my way around amps and other musical electronics, so I know how they work and how to set them up.

As for the RD45 just plain killing, well, that's also a matter of opinion.
Yes, it's a good amp for the money, and I can see why some will like it very much.
I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep it.
It hasn't WOW'ed me as it has you.

I'm looking for an amp that will give me natural tube high gain without pedals, but so far it's been a losing battle.
My Egnater Vengenace is as close as I've gotten, but it's too powerful for my needs, and the RD45 is a great small size.

I apologize. Really. These amps are brutal as shit. Good tubes are a must. I hate the Rubys too. Again, I've owned 2, I'm glad to help, just PM me.

If I decide to keep it, I will take you up on your offer, especially regarding biasing this amp.
Thanks!
The more I play the more I like it, especially with good working valves.

 

[C1-ocaster]

My 1st post here as well. That was a great demo and review. Thanks man!

Thanks and welcome to the forum!

I have to thank you as well.
I was ready to give up on my RD45, but after watching and listening to your vid, it changed my mind.


BTW, are you using the stock tubes, or have you swapped in something different?

 

[killertone]

My 1st post here as well. That was a great demo and review. Thanks man!

Thanks and welcome to the forum!

I have to thank you as well.
I was ready to give up on my RD45, but after watching and listening to your vid, it changed my mind.


BTW, are you using the stock tubes, or have you swapped in something different?

Cool. Glad it helped. All of the Diavlo videos that I have done are stock amps right out of the box. No tube swaps of any kind.

 

[dennyps4]

I have a rd20h and I couldn't be happier. Great vids as always KTone. Mike Fortin is a very detail oriented amp designer, if you crack open one of these bad boys, you will know what I mean. Good luck finding an amp with the feature set, and quality, that these afford us. The people that whine about these need to find another hobby.

 

[mctallica1]

Dang...I just listened to this. Badass tone and playing.

Loved that solo you played. Very cool stuff!
T

 

[Erock]

Damn, you make these amps sound badass Jason. Great sounding combo. Killer playing too, loved those arps at the end of your solo, flowed awesome.

What's the deal with the Washburn? I really liked the specs you had listed, might be something I would be interested in.

 

[NeoRamza]

Is there some way to replace the 6L6 for 6V6 or EL84 to make this a 20W amp?

 

[killertone]

Is there some way to replace the 6L6 for 6V6 or EL84 to make this a 20W amp?

The best way is to buy the 6V6 version that is 20 watts. It is called the RD20H.

 

[Ascension]

Hey y'all!

Sick little combo amp here...check it out!

Killer Washburn Parallaxe guitar as well. This guitar destroys!

I need to play one of those amps. Do they clean up with the volume well and respond to touch? How's the loop?
On the guitar Washburn gets no respect but I will put my USA handbuilt mid 90's Chicago Custom MG's in the same class as a Suhr or Anderson. These MG's were Grover Jackson's babies when he was running that Chicago shop back in those days but all the USA Washburns I have owned have been KILLERS!!
Like these.

 

[Lampshade1973]

Anyone have any clips of the RD45 doing anything else besides metal? would love to hear some other interpretations...

 

[dimester69]

Based on this video and everyone's comments I decided to pull the RD45 head back out of the shipping box and swap out the pre tubes to see what's up.

MUCH BETTER!
Now it's what I was expecting.

I took out the quartet of Ruby pre tubes and installed a Tung Sol in V1 and JJ's ECC83's in V2-V4.
Ruby tubes SUCK!
They came stock in my Egnater Vengeance, this RD45, and the Laney Ironheart.
In the Vengeance they were at least installed properly.
In the Laney and Randall they were installed with bent pins, and in the Laney 2 of the Ruby's had bent pins so bad that I don't think they were making contact or full contact.

There must be a bad Ruby in the RD45 or poor contact, cause now with the Tung Sol and JJ's this amp has some really good high gain.
It's still not as hot and robust as the Vengeance, but the Vengeance uses 4 gain pre's and PI.
RD45 and Laney have 3 pre's and PI.

Ditch the Ruby's or take them out and make sure the pins aren't badly bent.
I don't know what ruby uses to make their tubes, but the pins feel like they are made of mostly lead, they are really soft and bend easily.
The pins don't even have a nice clean shine on them either. All the Ruby pre's have dull pin metal.
One of the Ruby power tubes that came stock in the Vengeance blew out.
And I almost returned the RD45 because of them, and whoever installed the tubes.
It was just as bad with the Laney. I pulled those tubes cause it wasn't sounding right.

Anyway, the RD45 is sounding much much better. It lives up to Randall's reputation of a high gain amp.
I don't know if I'll keep it, I'll play with it some more.
It's a very limited amp tonally. The EQ has limited range.
It's a really good base/basic tube amp, but a bit too much so.
The clean channel isn't bad, but it doesn't have a channel volume like the high gain channel.
It just has gain then straight to master.
Not even a built in DSP reverb.

I think I'm going to pick up an EVH 5150 III 50 watt head.
I've played through that amp twice and really liked it, but it was only for a couple of hours.
Need to have more time with it.

well i just bought myself an RD45 as well and am having the same problem.. i turned my old RG200 back into a cab hybrid by relocating the output wires to a output jack and installing one of those "plug & play" auto switching cab jack plates and the Rg works fine but the RD45 sounds a little boxy and has nowhere near the saturation of killer tones vid whereas my 20 year old RG sounds similar but not as fat so i figured this was the next progression.. now after reading this im thinking it may just be the crappy ruby's or i have a bad one altho killertones suggested on his vid i may have a bad tube and they all seem to glow but im no tube expert so thats about as far as my diagnosis skills go and i did have it shipped from the US to Australia and through ebays global shipping program so even tho it had to go from Missouri to kentucky it went to 5 other states inbetween with about 15 different scan and rescan points so probably had the shit kicked out of it... i can get an ok sound if i hook it into both 8 ohm outputs but in mono seems to work better on 4 which is weird because the RG is 8 but with my settings on the same as the ones in the vid its about 1/4 as heavy


so you said you also own a laney? now that youve retubed how does the Randall compare? still more gain from the laney? coz if i cant get this sorted i may change brands love my RG but between that and the fact Randall AU wanted nearly as much as the amp for a 240 power supply and now this im kinda over it. lucky i didnt pay the AU RRP since we dont really have a "street price" which is $1199 or id be pissed especially since i just found a laney 120 ironheart for $1039 on sale (we do have sales just not the competition to drive the price down) almost tempted to onsell the RD and buy that i havent really heard a vid with a rhythm sound i like of it yet but with all that adjustment id reckon id be able to dial in my sound without a prob + i like the watt changer + as you said the RD eq is very ltd infact the presence on mine almost seems to do nothing lol (could be a tube thing) i can hear a near sound that i like with the RD but its like my RG with the guitar vol turned down.. i actually keep going for the volume because when the RG loses saturation ive usually rolled the guitar vol back a bit while im playing so i automatically go for it

just trying to decide if its worth forking over for pre tubes on a maybe or moving on do like the size of it tho and the way it sits on the RG (like it was meant to be there) its like an evil little mini stack

 

[Endsmouth]

I've had the RD45 for about a month and I am having issues similar to the other posters. My best guess is that I just need to bite the bullet and get a tube swap.

I will say upfront that part of the issue is the guitar I am using, a BC Rich Stealth with X2N pickup. This guitar/pickup combination is very compressed with prominent mids and I've never been happy with how it sounds in other amplifiers either. My son's Ibanez Mikro sounds much better with the RD45.

That being said, something about the gain is simply not right. It is very honky, the opposite of tight and clear; notes do not sing, and sweeps and runs turn to mush. I've been able to crank the amp and the louder it is the worse it sounds. At a certain volume it sounds harsh like a solid state amp.

With the boost on and the gain about 1 o'clock it can get newer Alice in Chains territory. Turning up the gain doesn't add more gain just takes away definition. I tried boosting it further with a Boss SD-1 and it just took away more definition.

Another symptom is the clean channel. It sounds thin and lacks any body no matter how I set the EQ. With the right combination of Master Volume and Channel Volumes I can also hear a crackle on both channels.

I'm running it through a custom WhiteBox 2x12 cabinet with V30s.

On the plus side, this thing is whisper quiet even when cranked without a noise suppressor.

This is my first personal tube amp, but the fact that it sounds WORSE as I crank it tells me that it is in serious need of new tubes and a rebias.

 

[Caulk Rocket]

I've owned the RD1 for quite a while now, through a Blackstar HT-Metal 408.

Really surprised by both the amp and cab.