U
ubermetaldood
Banned
New member
I know of Fortin and have a little experience, but want to know more. At one time, I considered buying a Bones, but elected to get a Bogner XTC 20th for that money. When it was announced that Mike Fortin would be working with Randall, I was intrigued but not excited. It sounded like this amazing amp guru was financially forced to sell-out. Because they were made in China, I pretty much wrote them off. However, on a recent trip to a music store, I had nothing to demo guitars through except Fender, Peavey and Randall amps, so I chose the Thrasher.
Man the Thrasher was impressive from the moment I struck the first note. It had great tone and definition, and the clean channel was like icing on the cake. What a fantastic clean channel. It was like a modern, hi-fi Fender clean or something with kind of a bouncy feel and just really fun to play with. I moved over to the RD45 and it too was an awesome little amp with a nice clean channel. Although the RD45 is a nice value, the Thrasher is what stuck in my mind.
Unfortunately, with a $1700 price tag, I wasn't about to spend that much on a Chinese made amp. I know, I know, but I've had my experience with Chinese manufacturing and I don't care what they say about IPhones, etc..., I'm always going to be stuck on the big three (USA, Europe, Japan). The only exception I have made thus far has been Blackstar amps which have proven to be an exception to my rule.
In any case, I once played a Fortin modded Marshall JCM800 several years ago. I didn't know anything about Fortin back then so it wasn't a big deal to me. I wasn't "blown away," but I do remember thinking it was a great sound. All that I can remember is that it was a more modern sound with something different about the low mids and a lot more gain. Still, the memory stuck with me enough to check in on the Fortin website a couple of years later.
To make a long story short, I'm probably never going to drop $4000 on a Fortin amp or $1700 on a Randall/Fortin, but I would like to know more about the man and his art. Why are his amps so expensive? There are a lot of great amp-modders out there these days, so what makes Fortin so respectable? Is it because he caters to the high-gain metal crowd? Does he still make and sell his own amps and do mods?
Man the Thrasher was impressive from the moment I struck the first note. It had great tone and definition, and the clean channel was like icing on the cake. What a fantastic clean channel. It was like a modern, hi-fi Fender clean or something with kind of a bouncy feel and just really fun to play with. I moved over to the RD45 and it too was an awesome little amp with a nice clean channel. Although the RD45 is a nice value, the Thrasher is what stuck in my mind.
Unfortunately, with a $1700 price tag, I wasn't about to spend that much on a Chinese made amp. I know, I know, but I've had my experience with Chinese manufacturing and I don't care what they say about IPhones, etc..., I'm always going to be stuck on the big three (USA, Europe, Japan). The only exception I have made thus far has been Blackstar amps which have proven to be an exception to my rule.
In any case, I once played a Fortin modded Marshall JCM800 several years ago. I didn't know anything about Fortin back then so it wasn't a big deal to me. I wasn't "blown away," but I do remember thinking it was a great sound. All that I can remember is that it was a more modern sound with something different about the low mids and a lot more gain. Still, the memory stuck with me enough to check in on the Fortin website a couple of years later.
To make a long story short, I'm probably never going to drop $4000 on a Fortin amp or $1700 on a Randall/Fortin, but I would like to know more about the man and his art. Why are his amps so expensive? There are a lot of great amp-modders out there these days, so what makes Fortin so respectable? Is it because he caters to the high-gain metal crowd? Does he still make and sell his own amps and do mods?
