I think that the Orange amps are great, and versatile. I'd like to upgrade my Blue Voodoo and cannot decide between Orange and Mesa. Then theres the whole cabinet decision....

Not much to say, I know, but I'd like to see what others say as well.

Conrad. But I'm a bit biased.

30w of all tube power through a 4x12 should be plenty of power to gig with right?

30 watts with a single 12" speaker with an SPL of 100dB works just fine for gig'n around.

30 watts with a single 12" speaker with an SPL of 100dB works just fine for gig'n around.

I've heard a number of the Orange rigs lately and they're very impressive. One of the touring acts that came through last month had a Tiny Terror on a Marshall 2x12 cabinet - sounded great - that's all you'd need.

After we get the building built, I'm thinking of getting one of their little combos to add to the amplifier aresenal.

dvdhawk wrote: One of the touring acts that came through last month had a Tiny Terror on a Marshall 2x12 cabinet - sounded great - that's all you'd need.

Wow, now that's pretty impressive for 15w. Was there a PA system involved or were they playing acoustically?

Oh yes, very nice sized PA for FOH.

I play guitar in an ACDC tribute band and recently brought a new guitar rigg for the job. Personally I hated the Orange system I demo'd immediatly. It had a very 'tubey' tone, if you know what I mean. With the rest of the band playing I could hardly be heard. No definition or cut I guess. I remember having to really boost the EQ on it to sound half decent.
I think it would be good for a blues guitarist or maybe a Brit-rock band like Oasis or something. For ACDC tone, not good at all (ACDC tone is very low gain, flat EQ with lots of volume to get the drive)
Personally I was blowen away with Hiwatt custom (though it was nearly $10k) and strangely enough, a Fender Supertone (I think it was called anyway). In the end I went for a Soldano with a Marshall 1960a quad cab. It was pretty much bang on the money tone wise immediatly when I plugged in, I run it competly flat, low gain and just crank the master volume. My Gretsch has a very distintive jangly tone that I didnt want an amp colouring too much, the Soldano was one of the only amps I tried that let the guitar tone ring through well.
Its all very subjective with amps and tone, I know my setup wouldnt work for everyone, but thats the outcome of my experimentation. I was fortunate to have a music store that didnt mind me setting up lots of amp combinations in there back room with the band, it was very helpfull.

Guitarfreak, post: 294863 wrote: Wow, now that's pretty impressive for 15w. Was there a PA system involved or were they playing acoustically?

Go to a store and grab their lowest wattage head (all tube) and plug it into a 4x12, you'll be blown away by how much volume can come out of it. The old rule of thumb I remember is every time you double the wattage you get 3dB of volume increase - and 10dB would be considered "twice" as loud to a person listening. So a 50watt head is a lot louder than just "half" a 100 watt, and so is a 25watt a lot louder than "half" a 50 watt. The math gets painful if you want to go deeper into those numbers - but I've heard a 5 watt tube head on a 4x12 sound far FAR louder than it has any right to be!

Class-A amplifiers are a whole different animal. The bluesy clean tone of an old 40-watt Fender Super Reverb (no Master Volume) is almost unbearable to be in the same room set at 4 (bearing in mind there is no 'zero' - so 1 is OFF).

The wattage numbers are useless, especially if you're comparing amplifiers of different build classifications. It's like comparing apples to... you know... some different kinda fruit.

AToE, post: 375504 wrote: So a 50watt head is a lot louder than just "half" a 100 watt, and so is a 25watt a lot louder than "half" a 50 watt. The math gets painful if you want to go deeper into those numbers - but I've heard a 5 watt tube head on a 4x12 sound far FAR louder than it has any right to be!

....yeap true, but they are quieter, so if you constantly ring a 25w head out max volume because you really shold have got a 50w to start with and nobody in the band can hear you, you'll start chewing through tubes like they're going out of fashion.

BrotherLove, post: 375511 wrote: ....yeap true, but they are quieter, so if you constantly ring a 25w head out max volume because you really shold have got a 50w to start with and nobody in the band can hear you, you'll start chewing through tubes like they're going out of fashion.

You'll definitely burn through more tubes, but not at too crazy of a rate - those things can take very serious beatings. And if a cranked power section is the tone you're going for (if it's not then ignore this next bit!), then it's better to buy a set of tubes every 18 months instead of every 24 months and not have the tone you wanted. It's not really worth worry about the money in my opinion, after spending (likely) hundreds to thousands of dollars on a guitar, then spending $1k-$3 (or more) for a tube head, then again hundreds to thousands on a cab.... at that point an extra set of tubes every year or two (or more) ain't worth not getting the tone you'd wanted out of those previous thousands upon thousands of dollars!

I'm a big fan of less wattage run louder though, everyone has their own tastes (to me anything over 50-60 watts in your average tube head is a waste, and anything over 100 is just silly. But that's just me, I also play 11-68 gauge strings which not everyone would enjoy!).

EDIT: Also to be nitpicky, you'd never notice much volume difference between a 25w and 50w head - if you're playing in a situation where the 25w won't do what you need, then almost 100% for sure the 50w won't either - remember (assuming same specs otherwise) that doubling of watts is seriously near the bottom threshold of what a person can even decypher as "difference" in volume (3dB), if 10dB sounds like "double", then 3dB isn't "30% of double" it's more like 5% of "double" (I made that number up! Just pick a tiny number and pretend it's the real one).

But yeah, to make your example a little more extreme, buying a 10w when you should have bought a 100w is probably not the best choice!

EDIT: and just to agree with dvdhawk, and the end of the the wattage numbers are nearly meaningless, so much depends on the rest of the design. One 100w head might be way louder than another. Only thing to do is plug em in, crank em, love em or move on to the next one. :)

The Dark Terror is the coolest amp I have ever helped. It does 1 thing and 1 thing only: high, high gain! I don't own one but it would be a fun amp to have around! I'm a fan of most of Oranges Amps but they tend to do 1 thing well and that's it! There is nothing wrong with that except to have any versatility you would need to buy a few different amps and switch between them. Of course an army of the Terror Series lunchbox amps would be pretty cool!