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mooseherman
Published on 03/03/10 at 15:50
This is a pretty well-respected tube amp, made by Orange Amps. It only really has the 1/4" input, as its the combo version. There are no other external speaker outputs. There are 30 watts of power delivered to this guy. The interesting thing about it is that it has 2 channels, natural (clean) and dirty (distorted). However, the natural channel only has one knob, for volume. The dirty channel has volume, gain, and EQ.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this, as an acquaintance of mine put it, is easy...if you're a good guitar player with a good guitar. If you don't have a good guitar, or aren't a good guitar player, it won't sound good at all. That's kind of a raw deal, especially since no guitar player really wants to think that he or she isn't good. This is especially true of the clean channel, which has no eq or anything. If that tone is specifically what you want then this is fine, if not, you're out of luck. There's slightly more variety with the dirty channel, but it's still rather limiting. Fortunately for me, I am a good guitar player with a good guitar, so I love this amp! But I recognize its limitations.
SOUNDS
I like this amp the best with the Les Paul. It's not that impressive with a Fender, except on the clean channel, but even then, the natural brightness of my Strat is too much for it. This is when I wish I could EQ the clean channel. Anyways, with the Les Paul, I could easily get a great clean and dirty sound. In fact, my favorite sound is when the clean channel is pushed to the limit, as it produces a very 60s sounding Garage-rock/British rock tone similar to The Who and the Yardbirds. When plugged in, this amp recalls the classic tones of the early 70s and gets super heavy. It really manages to wipe the floor with most amp distortion. I definitely am very impressed with the raw power of this amp. However, it is a bit predictable, and getting a wide range of tones from it is not easy, which is why I tend to prefer pedal distortion nowadays.
OVERALL OPINION
I think that this is a great-sounding amp, and I know that there are many players out there who wouldn't need any other amp (there was a time when I myself fit this description). I think that mostly, my beef lies with how little versatility it has. There is no room for anyone who plays anything other than classic rock era stuff. Therefore, I wouldn't personally get much use out of it. I think that many people would enjoy it, though, and it's been popular enough to warrant that assumption. Check it out if my description interests you.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this, as an acquaintance of mine put it, is easy...if you're a good guitar player with a good guitar. If you don't have a good guitar, or aren't a good guitar player, it won't sound good at all. That's kind of a raw deal, especially since no guitar player really wants to think that he or she isn't good. This is especially true of the clean channel, which has no eq or anything. If that tone is specifically what you want then this is fine, if not, you're out of luck. There's slightly more variety with the dirty channel, but it's still rather limiting. Fortunately for me, I am a good guitar player with a good guitar, so I love this amp! But I recognize its limitations.
SOUNDS
I like this amp the best with the Les Paul. It's not that impressive with a Fender, except on the clean channel, but even then, the natural brightness of my Strat is too much for it. This is when I wish I could EQ the clean channel. Anyways, with the Les Paul, I could easily get a great clean and dirty sound. In fact, my favorite sound is when the clean channel is pushed to the limit, as it produces a very 60s sounding Garage-rock/British rock tone similar to The Who and the Yardbirds. When plugged in, this amp recalls the classic tones of the early 70s and gets super heavy. It really manages to wipe the floor with most amp distortion. I definitely am very impressed with the raw power of this amp. However, it is a bit predictable, and getting a wide range of tones from it is not easy, which is why I tend to prefer pedal distortion nowadays.
OVERALL OPINION
I think that this is a great-sounding amp, and I know that there are many players out there who wouldn't need any other amp (there was a time when I myself fit this description). I think that mostly, my beef lies with how little versatility it has. There is no room for anyone who plays anything other than classic rock era stuff. Therefore, I wouldn't personally get much use out of it. I think that many people would enjoy it, though, and it's been popular enough to warrant that assumption. Check it out if my description interests you.