NAD - Randall Diavlo RD45H, (AGAIN!!)

[napalmdeath]

@napalmdeath, the boost is only available on the overdrive channel, right?
Is the sound different enough between them?

This is something where the EVH ofcourse has an edge, blue vs. red.
Also, the Randall's styling is utter childish IMO.
Do you still have the Thrasher 50? How does that compare?

I never tried the boost on the clean channel.

As for the Thrasher, I owned the 50 twice, and a 120 briefly, (it was messed up and I had to return it).

For me, the one good high gain tone you could coax out of the RD45H trumped both the blue and red of the EVH. Red, (I found), was unusable, and the RD45 was harmonically richer and more dynamic than the blue - better lead tones as well. The clean is better too. If you use the EVH for blue channel and cleans, save some money, get the RD45H, and you'll be happy. You can upgrade the tubes, bias it correctly, (they typically show up biased at 28-30mA), and still come out way ahead, with better tones.

As for the Thrasher, it's built better and has more Fortin flavor. Angrier, and more aggressive. Loved that amp too. The 50 is hard to find used, and they jacked the price up on the new ones. MF still has the cheapest price new.

BOTH amps shine using a boost, and NOT using the amp's onboarding boost. Simply more raw sounding..

The Diavlos are kinda juvenile looking, but if you ditch the Chinese tubes, bias it up, it'll surprise you. I've owned the damn thing 4 or 5 times. For under $400 used, (and sometimes new), they simply can't be beat. I'll take one over an EVH 50 all day, every day.

 

[Speeddemon]

Thanks for the clarification.

I did some heavy tube rolling in my EVH as well, tamed the red channel considerably and with a NOS RFT ECC83 in V1, thickened up the whole thing a bit.
From that RD20 clip, I really enjoyed his Marshall-esque tones, but the amp's own high gain tones have this sort of modern coughy things going on in the mids, that's not really my thing.
Since I gig a lot with my EVH, I really need some of the features, especially a footswitchable fx-loop, which the RD45H doesn't have.

With regards to the Thrasher 50, I do find it interesting, since I understand the boost can operate on both channels, *and* if you connect an extra footswitch, it can toggle the fx-loop as well:

The only thing that I'm afraid of with that amp, is that I may find the thickness and juicyness of the lows and lowmids lacking. Most of the Fortin stuff I've heard has more 'clang' than 'kerrang', and is very mid focussed.

 

[napalmdeath]

Thanks for the clarification.

I did some heavy tube rolling in my EVH as well, tamed the red channel considerably and with a NOS RFT ECC83 in V1, thickened up the whole thing a bit.
From that RD20 clip, I really enjoyed his Marshall-esque tones, but the amp's own high gain tones have this sort of modern coughy things going on in the mids, that's not really my thing.
Since I gig a lot with my EVH, I really need some of the features, especially a footswitchable fx-loop, which the RD45H doesn't have.

With regards to the Thrasher 50, I do find it interesting, since I understand the boost can operate on both channels, *and* if you connect an extra footswitch, it can toggle the fx-loop as well:

The only thing that I'm afraid of with that amp, is that I may find the thickness and juicyness of the lows and lowmids lacking. Most of the Fortin stuff I've heard has more 'clang' than 'kerrang', and is very mid focussed.

This is why I own an MXR 10-Band EQ. It will fix those shortcomings. I agree, the Thrasher does not have crushing lows.

 

[errrrrl]

Congrats once again man!

I'll be honest, I'm kinda interested in this amp from reading all your post about it. Do you have any clips of it?

 

[GJgo]

I had a RD20. I was very impressed with that amp. If I all the sudden couldn't afford my Mesas anymore I'd easily go back to a Diavlo over anything else under a grand.

I also had a RD1 but it was just too quiet.

The RD5 is intriguing because it's class A.