ezboarderz
SS.org Regular
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2022
- Messages
- 157
- Reaction score
- 242
Its been a long time since i have bought a new (to me) amp as my high gain journey so far as included a Peavey 5150 Blockletter (which i sold) and i have been using an EVH 5150iii 50w 6l6 mkii for the last 2 years or so. I have been wanting something different from the 5150 because i am getting a bit bored with it and looking for a less midsy amp. I was originally looking for a used ENGL Savage mkii, but i missed one by a few weeks and there has been nothing on the local used market in Sweden since that and reverb sellers are selling used ones for new prices, so forget that.
I did see a local listing for a Randall Satan 50 and being a fan of Ola's channel and overall tone, I figured i would give it a try to see how it sounds in person. Unfortunately, my 7 string was at a local luthier to get the frets leveled so going into it, i only had my 6 string to reference how the amp sounded.
I go to meet the guy with the amp and it actually turned out to be Ola, which was not something i expected and was kinda surprising. He was super nice and super polite and explained how it works and the features. He let me try it with one of his solar 7 strings and his Mesa OS 412. The solar was actually quite nice to play and really well set up. It was just an awesome experience and his cab is amazing in person. I asked him why he is selling the Satan and he has a few more of them and is looking to make some space and wanted this to be out in the wild and to be played.
The amp itself is different to dial in, since its all about the girth, grind, and gain controls. I played it both with a ts9 and my hm808 that I brought with me and its quite a tight amp without using a boost. I really really like the sweep selector as it allows you to find the right voicing for your cab/IR. It goes from quite mid forward to scooped to just right (for my preference). The gain is quite dry without using an OD but dry in a very good way and quite different from the 5150s i have been using in the past. Basically when not using an OD, you want the girth to be like 10-12 o clock (depending on how tight you want it) and grind to be quite high around 2-4 o clock with the gain quite high. When using an overdrive, you want the girth to be at like 2-4 o clock and grind to be between 8 - 10 o clock and dial the gain down a bit. After that, you have the normal eq controls (low, mids, high) and the power section controls for depth and presence.
The clean channel is quite nice as well and is closer to what i want in a clean channel than the 5150iii. It has a gain, volume, and tone control, which is similar to a twead, but it honestly is easy to dial in and you use the volume to match the volume of the distortion channel.
I poked around inside and it has 2x JJ 6l6GC power tubes and 4x ruby 12ax7 preamp tubes in it. Ola mentioned that you can run another type of power tube in it but i forget which one he mentioned. Might has been KT88s, but i would need to verify that, but i am happy with 6l6GC power tubes.
Overall, the amp sounded amazing when testing it and I decided to roll with this instead of the Savage mkii for now. To top it off, Ola was nice enough to sign it before i took it home with me. The next day, i got my 7 string back from the luthier and i've been experimenting with the amp for the last two days and really enjoying it. I have put the 5150iii up for sale and I need to redo my pedalboard as the 5150iii footswitch was eating up a decent portion of the pedalboard, but i'll try to find some time to put up some clips of the Satan in action. Here are some pics of the beast!
I did see a local listing for a Randall Satan 50 and being a fan of Ola's channel and overall tone, I figured i would give it a try to see how it sounds in person. Unfortunately, my 7 string was at a local luthier to get the frets leveled so going into it, i only had my 6 string to reference how the amp sounded.
I go to meet the guy with the amp and it actually turned out to be Ola, which was not something i expected and was kinda surprising. He was super nice and super polite and explained how it works and the features. He let me try it with one of his solar 7 strings and his Mesa OS 412. The solar was actually quite nice to play and really well set up. It was just an awesome experience and his cab is amazing in person. I asked him why he is selling the Satan and he has a few more of them and is looking to make some space and wanted this to be out in the wild and to be played.
The amp itself is different to dial in, since its all about the girth, grind, and gain controls. I played it both with a ts9 and my hm808 that I brought with me and its quite a tight amp without using a boost. I really really like the sweep selector as it allows you to find the right voicing for your cab/IR. It goes from quite mid forward to scooped to just right (for my preference). The gain is quite dry without using an OD but dry in a very good way and quite different from the 5150s i have been using in the past. Basically when not using an OD, you want the girth to be like 10-12 o clock (depending on how tight you want it) and grind to be quite high around 2-4 o clock with the gain quite high. When using an overdrive, you want the girth to be at like 2-4 o clock and grind to be between 8 - 10 o clock and dial the gain down a bit. After that, you have the normal eq controls (low, mids, high) and the power section controls for depth and presence.
The clean channel is quite nice as well and is closer to what i want in a clean channel than the 5150iii. It has a gain, volume, and tone control, which is similar to a twead, but it honestly is easy to dial in and you use the volume to match the volume of the distortion channel.
I poked around inside and it has 2x JJ 6l6GC power tubes and 4x ruby 12ax7 preamp tubes in it. Ola mentioned that you can run another type of power tube in it but i forget which one he mentioned. Might has been KT88s, but i would need to verify that, but i am happy with 6l6GC power tubes.
Overall, the amp sounded amazing when testing it and I decided to roll with this instead of the Savage mkii for now. To top it off, Ola was nice enough to sign it before i took it home with me. The next day, i got my 7 string back from the luthier and i've been experimenting with the amp for the last two days and really enjoying it. I have put the 5150iii up for sale and I need to redo my pedalboard as the 5150iii footswitch was eating up a decent portion of the pedalboard, but i'll try to find some time to put up some clips of the Satan in action. Here are some pics of the beast!
I know it's intended to not "need" a boost, but I liked using one anyway and usually kept the Girth control up fairly high to compensate.
