Reader: Natheniel Nikhamin
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Guitar: Rogue
Then, one day in chemistry class, I decided to check Reverb and see what the prices are like on Ibanez JPM100s these days. Not surprisingly, they’re reaching $10,000. I kept scrolling until I saw a set of bare guitar bodies with the Picasso faces engraved in the wood with a CNC machine. The gears started turning. I sent a link to my dad and said, “Thoughts?” Later, at dinner, my mom OK’d the idea. The journey began.
I ordered the basswood body from Perle Guitars via Reverb with an Ibanez Lo-Pro Edge from a retailer in Germany. I got the pickups from DiMarzio with the goal to get it to sound as similar to John Petrucci’s as possible, by using his signature Crunch Lab and LiquiFire set. I even got the toggle switch from DiMarzio, which allowed me to have a split-coil sound in the middle position. I put 500k CTS pots and a .022 µF cap on the tone knob. I ordered locking tuners from Gotoh.
The biggest issue was sourcing the neck. I couldn’t find a single builder who builds custom Ibanez AANJ necks, which left me with buying a used neck from a parted guitar. The wait for the right neck lasted around three months. I bought a 2000 Ibanez RG7620 neck in practically mint condition from Uplander Guitars in Canada. I used black, gray, and red stains I bought locally. The idea for it was to look almost robotic with red eyes and avoid too much of a copycat look, hence the color choice.
Knowing I was going to John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe 4.0, I decided I may as well show it off and get it signed. It was the right choice. This guitar was a head-turner and even brought in compliments from Tosin Abasi and Aaron Marshall. The signatures on the back include Al Pitrelli, Scott Weis, Zakk Wylde, Tim Henson, Scott LePage, Tosin Abasi, Guthrie Govan, Rena Petrucci, Mike Mangini, Dave LaRue, Lari Basilio, Jason Richardson, Plini, Fredrik Åkesson, Ola Englund, Captain Fawcett, Joscho Stephan, and, of course, John Petrucci. There are two steps left: filling in the engraved channels with resin mixed with blue glow-in-the-dark powder, and applying a clear coat to preserve the signatures for virtually forever.
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SATAN main features:
- 2 Channel - 4 mode 120 Watt All tube head
- 6 - 12AX7 preamp tubes and 2-6L6/2-KT88 power tubes
- Active/Passive inputs
- preset “kill” boost mode
- 6irth & 6rind - Low/High Frequency Gain controls
- Sweep function provides variable tone stack frequency point control
- Full EQ for both channels
- Presence/Depth power amp voicing
- Push/ Pull bias controls
- Series/Parallel Loop
- Heavy duty metal front/rear grills, corners, edging
- 2 Button LED footswitch included
- Overdrive pedal with Punch, Frequency & Smooth functions
- True bypass
- Easy access battery compartment
- Runs on 9v battery or external power
- Clean aggressive one knob boost pedal
- True bypass
- Easy access battery compartment
- Runs on 9v battery or external power.
- 2 channel FET preamp pedal with Gain1/Gain2 controls
- Full EQ
- Bass boost
- Mid scoop
- Tone stack shift
- True bypass
- Runs on 9v – 15v power supply
The new Randall pedal series continues our tradition of unique designs squarely aimed at the modern metal player. The new series, which includes the FacePunch, MOR, RGOD and the RF8 midi controller, embodies Mike Fortin’s 20+ years of high gain experience into compact, affordable and great sounding pedals.
FACEPUNCH main features:
MOR main features:
RGOD main features:
For more information:
Randall
Ratings
Pros: Easy to dial in great tones. switches for halving power and number of active power tubes increase versatility. overdrive channel combines classic orange fuzziness and modern punch.
Cons: Shape control on the overdrive channel can add raspiness.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street: $1,499
orangeamps.com
The dual-channel TH100 is a lesson in brutal simplicity that hearkens back to Orange’s golden era of no-nonsense designs with immense power. Four EL34s generate 100 watts, but the front-panel half-power switch and a rear-panel switch that pares the tube array down to just two let you reduce it to 70, 50, or 35 watts.
The preamp has four 12AX7 tubes, and the clean channel has bass, treble, and volume knobs, while the dirty channel is governed by gain, volume, and shape (EQ) knobs. A series effects loop and channel footswitching round out the amp’s features.
The TH100’s huge-sounding clean channel won’t disappoint those who relish the bottom-heavy cleans and velvety highs of the classic OR120 amp from the early ’70s. With the amp set at full power and with all four power tubes in play, the enormous headroom makes it challenging to generate any real distortion—even with high-output humbuckers. And it’s ideal if you like loud clean passages or use pedals to lend color. Setting the amp to use just two output tubes softens the low end significantly, and setting it to half power and cranking the volume up halfway yields a smooth, rich overdrive with a humbucker-loaded Les Paul out front.
The amp’s overdrive channel dispenses mammoth-sized distortion that can be tailored to a wide range of rock and metal tones. The slight tinge of upper-mid fuzziness that’s a hallmark of Orange amps is there, but even in extreme gain settings, it never gets too overbearing. Small adjustments of the shape control can have a big effect on the presence, mids, and highs, and the knob is particularly useful for dialing back the intensity of all three for refined modern metal tones.
Setting the shape above 2 o’clock when using brighter-toned humbuckers can make the highs piercing, so it’s best to start at about noon and use it conservatively from there. That said, the TH100’s spartan control layout makes it really hard to get a bad sound out of the amp, and its copious headroom and blistering gain channel make it a no-brainer for players who crave house-leveling Orange grit and power, yet like a classic clean tone in the mix too.
Watch Ola Englund demo the amp:
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