The story of Randall starts with the history of its founder, Don Randall.
Don Randall partnered with Leo Fender in 1946 to develop, market, and distribute Fender instruments and amplifiers. In 1953 he became president of Fender. Under his marketing genius, organizational expertise, and senior partnership with Leo Fender, Fender Sales grew steadily throughout the 1950s and thrived well into the 1960s on an international scale. Don Randall coined the names Esquire, Telecaster, Broadcaster, Stratocaster, Precision Bass, Twin Reverb, Bassman, and others.
He also spoke for Fender in the 1964 negotiations that resulted in the company’s sale to CBS then subsequently became vice president and general manager of the Fender Musical Instrument and Fender Sales divisions of CBS until his departure from the company in 1969. Don Randall is forever rooted in American history as a pioneer in our industry and as one of the key contributors to the development of Rock music.
In 1970, he founded Randall Amplifiers with a focus on the technology surrounding the use of solid-state circuits instead of vacuum tubes. Many of these early FET transistor circuits are still the benchmark for solid-state amps to this day.
In 1990 Don Randall sold the brand to US Music Corp in Wisconsin who operated the brand until it was acquired by Washburn International in 1995. Washburn international then renamed its operations “US Music Corp” after the acquisition of Randall Amplifiers.
2002 brought the launch of the innovative MTS Modular Amplifier Series designed by former US Music engineer Bruce Egnater (who later found success with his own Egnater Brand). After the successful launch of the MTS platform, Randall greatly expanded its artist reach with relationships with Kirk Hammett, Scott Ian, George Lynch and many others.
In 2010 US Music Corp was acquired by JAM Industries, and Joe Delaney was hired to manage the Randall Brand.
Understanding the need for a solid engineering base from which to grow the brand, in 2011, Joe began to enlist the services of world-renowned heavy metal amp Engineer Mike Fortin. The first order of business was to bring Metallica lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett, a new amp for his approval. After that first prototype debuted at the BIG4 show at Yankee Stadium, everyone knew that Randall was on a track to renewed success.
Mike Fortin became Randall’s official new chief engineer.
The 2013 NAMM show debuted three new series of Randall Amplifiers – The new RG, RD-DIAVLO, and THRASHER series released to an overwhelming response from the heavy metal community.