2013 Randall Thrasher 120

Overview

This extremely expensive amp has a relatively mixed reputation - designed by no-doubt excellent amp builder Mike Fortin, by built “somewhere” overseas and with a $3000+ price tag, it’s easy to see why despite the good reviews on the sound, people don’t seem to want to buy these amps new. Of course, I got mine used, and cheap, but I feel for whoever first paid $3k for this and let it go for a nearly third of that price.

Now, dubious build quality and pricing aside, this is a pretty fantastic amp. It’s fairly basic, with two channels (clean and drive) and simple features with nothing really high-tech besides a basic XLR emulated speaker output.

Starting with the clean channel (“2”), the breadth of tones is really surprising for an amp that is obviously focused on high gain sounds. Without ever touching the 3-band EQ, the 3-way “shift” switch and the 2-way “bright” switch is all you might ever need to get great clean tones from this amp. With the shift switch down, the tone is very scooped, spanky, and elastic, great for funk rhythms or background chording with good clarity, but not stepping on the toes of other frequencies. Comparatively, the switch up drastically thickens things up, opening possibilities into smooth jazz leads or full bodied strumming, with some dirt if you like depending on your gain setting. Add in the bright switch to a little extra cut in busy mixes, and the middle position of shift is a great compromise between the two other settings if you prefer a more standard clean tone. This channel can also benefit from the footswitchable gain boost, which is fixed on this channel - just a small bump for some more dirt and punch, great for mostly-clean leads with more volume.

This amp has two inputs as well, with different impedance depending on whether you have active or passive pickups. I don’t notice a drastic difference plugging into either of these myself, but I’m in a studio, so perhaps with more variables or if I listened very closely to the noise floor, I might notice it a little more. Still a pretty cool feature that I’m sure some people will really like.

The overdrive channel (“1”) is of course where the Fortin design makes itself apparent. It feels like a modded Marshall metal tone, but actually has less gain than I really expected from an amp like this. It doesn’t get as saturated as something like a 5150/6505, but that’s probably why it stays so clear, and is a heck of a platform for a boost pedal, just like your favorite classic Marshall. This channel has the same 3-way shift feature, and it operates very similarly to channel 2. Basically, up for a louder, thicker tone, down for a more scooped and clear one, and the middle for a compromise between the two. The real unique highlight of this channel is the “LF Gain” and “HF Gain” controls, which is something I haven’t seen before on another high gain head. Basically, you have your normal gain control, but also two additional gain controls that more clearly have an affect on lower mid, or upper mid frequencies. This is really great for customizing the tone, HF Gain really adds a lot of clarity and punch, especially to palm muted chugging or solos. LF Gain brings back in the growl and thickness, but rolled down a bit gives you a bit more control over the saturation of the lows - great for lower tunings or I imagine, 7/8 string instruments, in addition to the more common Bass or Depth controls. By adjusting these controls with the regular Gain control, you can keep your more overdriven high-string lead sustain, but keep the bottom end super clear with less saturation. I’ve seen many times someone playing in Drop A on a 6505 with the gain set as low as 3-4 to keep a tight low end, but then kicking on a boost for a solo - this amp could theoretically get you the same kind of low end feel without the need for the external gain boost.

Of course, channel 1 also can utilize the built-in boost feature, but it works in a very different way than channel 2. On this channel, you get a knob to control the boost, but it’s not the “amount” of a gain boost - it’s the EQ of it. The volume and gain of the boost feels very similar at any setting, but instead you can customize the tone of that boost, for more push in the low end or high frequencies. How you want to use this will depend a lot on your LF or HF Gain settings, since the boost can be used to bring one or the other back up to a similar amount of saturation, but it’s interactive - lots of fun ways to use this feature, and another thing I haven’t really seen on anything besides a distortion floor pedal.

Externally, the amp is built in a metal shell as opposed to wood, with no tolex covering - just a textured black paint finish. Instead of one centered handle, there is a handle on either end, which would be convenient for picking the amp up with two hands if one of them wasn’t already broken on my amp. Other than that one small annoyance though, build quality seems decent and the internals are nicely put together. Is it worth $3k? I’m not sure, but it definitely exceeded my expectations quite a bit.