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King Loudness « Fireball! »
Published on 12/12/11 at 23:55The Orange Rocker 30 combo is one of the more stripped down amps that they've built recently. It features two channels, natural and dirty. The natural channel has just a volume control, whereas the drive channel features gain and volume controls. They share a very simple EQ setup of bass, middle, and treble. There's no onboard reverb or effects to add to the equation, just pure and simple tone. It puts out 30 watts of power and is run on a pair of EL34 tubes. Simple, yet effective. The combo version of this amp features a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, the industry standard when it comes to many amps.
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this amp is pretty easy. I've been using one of these to record my solo album, and it's really quite interesting how good it sounds. I owned a Rockerverb 50 for a while and never did gel with it, but this Rocker 30 sounds fantastic. Both channels are pretty simple to get good tones out of. Sure it doesn't have the flexibility of some of the other multi-channel amps on the market, but that's a minor sacrifice when you consider that each channel seems to have a great sound without much tweaking.
SOUNDS
This amp is definitely akin to a fireball when it comes to tone. Everything about this amp tonally has a certain fire to it... lots of power and tone even for such a small and simple package. The natural (clean) channel sounds pretty good, but even considering that, it does have bit of dirt lurking within the sound spectrum which serves perfect for grittier bluesy or rocky tones. The drive channel is pure raunch heaven. It's quite high gain, but the overall vibe is very vintage and clear even with the gain dimed. In that respect it's a little more like a vintage amp that's being hit (overloaded) with gain stages. The tones are cool overall, and if you want a vintage voiced high gainer that has gobs of saturation but still has a loose and raunchy British vibe, check this one out!
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Orange Rocker 30 is a great amp for anyone looking for something in a reasonable package that combines simplicity with great hard rock tones in the loose and killer British vibe. This amp is now discontinued but can be had in the combo form for under $1,000 if you look, which is definitely a great deal. Grab one today!
UTILIZATION
Getting a good sound out of this amp is pretty easy. I've been using one of these to record my solo album, and it's really quite interesting how good it sounds. I owned a Rockerverb 50 for a while and never did gel with it, but this Rocker 30 sounds fantastic. Both channels are pretty simple to get good tones out of. Sure it doesn't have the flexibility of some of the other multi-channel amps on the market, but that's a minor sacrifice when you consider that each channel seems to have a great sound without much tweaking.
SOUNDS
This amp is definitely akin to a fireball when it comes to tone. Everything about this amp tonally has a certain fire to it... lots of power and tone even for such a small and simple package. The natural (clean) channel sounds pretty good, but even considering that, it does have bit of dirt lurking within the sound spectrum which serves perfect for grittier bluesy or rocky tones. The drive channel is pure raunch heaven. It's quite high gain, but the overall vibe is very vintage and clear even with the gain dimed. In that respect it's a little more like a vintage amp that's being hit (overloaded) with gain stages. The tones are cool overall, and if you want a vintage voiced high gainer that has gobs of saturation but still has a loose and raunchy British vibe, check this one out!
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the Orange Rocker 30 is a great amp for anyone looking for something in a reasonable package that combines simplicity with great hard rock tones in the loose and killer British vibe. This amp is now discontinued but can be had in the combo form for under $1,000 if you look, which is definitely a great deal. Grab one today!