Dimebag Darrell’s Randall RG100ES

Dimebag acquired a Randall RG100 amp sometime in the late 80s and used it on Pantera’s breakthrough record, Cowboys from Hell, released in 1990. From that point on he switched to a Randall Century 200, but came back to the RG100 in 1996, and used it on The Great Southern Trendkill.

I ended up using the old, carpeted Randall RG-100 head I recorded Cowboys From Hell with (on The Great Southern Trendkill).

From the Archive: Dimebag Darrell Discusses Pantera’s 1996 Album, ‘The Great Southern Trendkill’

As far as the origin story, according to his guitar tech, Grady Champion, Dime got this amp after winning a guitar contest.

I believe he won an RG100 in a contest, and the Randall sound became his trademark.

Dimebag day: Dime’s longtime tech Grady Champion talks guitars, amps and tone

It’s a known fact that Dime also won his legendary Dean from Hell at a contest and that the won the same contest a couple of years in a row, which led to the organizers telling him to basically stop competing, and give other people a chance. So it’s likely that DIme won the Dean the first year, Randall the second, and the third year he was told to skip.

This means that the guitar and the amp with which Dime is most often associated both found him more than he found them. While he already owned another Dean guitar prior to the one that he won, and it was his dream guitar, his whole deal of using solid-state Randall amps came as a result of a lucky coincidence.

In a 1992 interview, Dimebag sort of confirmed this. He was looking for something different, something that would be his own, and Randall luckily came along and it was exactly what he wanted.

I always wanted my own tone, I always did. And I got I wanted a Randall half stack, and that’s where I heard something different. I said, man this is like a chainsaw, man, it’s like, too gritty, I bet I can make it my own one day.

And like, a year and a half later, I was using solid Randall. I got a cheap endorsement with him, I got it for like 39% off or something, and then established ourselves as a band and myself as a player, and of course I’m endorsed full key with them now. And they dig me and I love them. I think they’re the best amps.

Dimebag Darrell (Pantera) 1992, A never-published interview with Dimebag Darrell

Model, Specs

The RG100ES is a 150W 2-channel solid-state amplifier. It has an input for each channel, a master volume and gain knob for each input, as well as controls for built-in reverb, and the standard settings such as presence, bass, middle, and treble.