Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Crazy_Joe on March 29, 2010, 11:35:59 PM
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*Edited*
My brand new Dual Terror with pics :D
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/Sandman666/DSC00493.jpg)
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/Sandman666/DSC00492.jpg)
It's amazing, fell in love with it when playing it at Machinehead. It actually has pretty much the same amount of gain as my Mesa head which i thought was amazing. And the power switching is epic too (half power switch and a switch on the back to use just 2 EL84's rather than 4). I never thought i'd say it but i love the simplicity of just having volume, tone and gain. I always thought it was cruicial to have bass, treble and mids. This thing can do anything you want, i think it's overlooked and thought as as a 1 trick pony but this can do blues, rock, metal, jazz i even played a bit of country on it.
By the way i sold my Ibanez a while ago and got a Vintage V6 Icon, it's epic but it needs some BKP's when i get some money next.
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The rocker 30 has a lovely clean sound but it doesn't have an EQ for that channel; this could be worth your consideration if you really feel the need to have one to shape your sound.
They won't be perfectly cut-glass cleans but none of the amps you listed are likely to do that.
I always find the drive on Oranges to be quite difficult to use for lead playing but a mid booster would do it some good for that (the orange sound has lots of trebel and bass but the midrange is just enough to cut; great for rhythm and riffing but lead playing can sound a bit 'mosquito' to me if you know what I mean).
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Yeah i know what you mean about the lead sound, but as you said some form of mid booster should sort that out if i had trouble in cutting through a mix.
I like a nice clean sound if i'm playing jazz or something but apart from that i don't necessarilly need a pure jangly clean tone that much, i'm more focused on the distortion sounding nice, but it's always nice to have versatility.
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Then having played through a few different Oranges I'd say that they would be an excellent choice, besides which there are tone controls on the guitar should you need to play about with the tone.
In my experience the simpler the amp design and interface the better it will sound anyway (though there are exceptions).
I managed to get caught out by an Orange AD-50 on my audition for BIMM as I had it set for a lovely bluesy lead with a great crunch rhythm sound and I decided to show off my chops and ended up with a total mess of unforgiving fuzziness. :oops:
Luckily I'd done all I needed and got a placement because I would have been totally lost if I'd gone through UCAS.
Great sounding amps and my favourite rock rhythm tone out of the box.
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haha that must have been heartbreaking, but it's good it worked out in the end.
I'm going to go to machinehead to try the Blackstar and the Orange Rocker 30. Then to Coda for the Marshall 1987x. I can't try the Thunder 30 because it's not out yet but do you know how much different the tone will be as it swaps the Rocker's EL34s for EL84s?
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To me, the Rockerverb 50 is the only Orange that doesn't sounds so Orange. It sounds more open to my taste.
I like it a lot, stunning cleans and awesome distortion.
This amp really shines if you switch off the Damping switch.
When it came stock, it came with that switch on and, ok, it gives you a more modern distortion type, more compressed but, not my cup.
So, taking into account that this "misterious" switch gives you a noticiable difference between modern and vintage vibes, I find the Rockerverb 50 really versatile.
The backdraw with the Rockerverb 50 is that it is painful loud. To dial the clean channel up to the break up sweety spot, it's too loud. With distortion, it's easier to go to lower loudness.
For that vintage vibe, I am currently enjoying the Vox Night Train. Simple amp, cheap, easy to carry on and incredible sounding for the price.
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Marshall Vintage Modern???
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Marshall Vintage Modern???
I like that suggestion! :D
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Marshall Vintage Modern???
I heard Chris George demo one a few years ago at the LGS and I thought it sounded amazing, really sweet sounding. I have wanted one ever since.
I like the Oranges but would not get one for a "lead guitar" role, I would go with a Marshall fwiw.
Also, I do not like V30's at all, especially in bright amps, I would recommend you stay away especially if you go with the Marshall (they may work better for the Orange). I always recommend G12-65's.
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The VM is a nice amp for the price. Certainly nicer than a lot of stuff out there.
If you have more cash than that, the MJW Orion is a fantastic vintage-flavoured two channel amp.
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I don't have a huge amount of cash and it can't be blisteringly loud, hence why i chose the 30 watt versions of the Orange's and the Blackstar 20 watt.
I liked what i heard from the Vintage Modern a while ago actually it might be worth trying that out.
@Twinfan, i was too a bit worried about V30's with a more vintage voiced amp. I listened to a comparison video of a Laney Lionheart 20 watt head with a cab with G12H and V30 in it and i prefered the G12H for pretty much most of the tones he demonstrated.
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By the way, if i got a Vintage Modern 50 watt head, and put 2 Greenback's in my cab would that be ok? As the cab would only be 50 watts and the head is 50 watts, or would i need higher rated speakers to handle the power of the VM?
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I've found the V30 to be very harsh and spiky unless you're playing LOUD. With a 20/30 watt amp I really wouldn't go near a V30, personally.
Heritage G12H, Gold, standard Greenback, Hot 100 or a Tayden Brit 60 are the nicest speakers I've personally heard across a range of prices and volumes.
I think you'd be fine with the two standard Greenbacks, unless you're running the amp constantly at full volume.
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By the way, if i got a Vintage Modern 50 watt head, and put 2 Greenback's in my cab would that be ok? As the cab would only be 50 watts and the head is 50 watts, or would i need higher rated speakers to handle the power of the VM?
I think you will be fine,
the 5153 cab has 4x20 watt speakers and the head is 100 watts, I asked Fender about this and they responded along the line of "don't worry about it, the speakers can handle more than the 20 watt rating" Seemed a bit odd to me but I have not heard of anyone having any trouble with this cab
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i have this and like it a lot: http://www.valvepower.co.uk/
it doesn't really have anything in the way of clean headroom, though.
fwiw, I really didn't like the VM i tried, it was ridiculously hard to dial in (it was either too muddy or too bright), and didn't sound anything even approaching decent unless it was really cranked up.
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Have you thought about a used Mesa Express ? I tried one out today and it can do the vintage thing very very well.
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Have you thought about a used Mesa Express ? I tried one out today and it can do the vintage thing very very well.
I'd second that for sure. I've got a 5:50 head with V30 loaded 2x12, and it's a bloody versatile combination. Great clean sounds, good crunchy breakup, and a suprisingly good hi-gain sound. Not as much gain as a Rectoverb, but still very useable.
Bit pricier than the other contenders I know, but you could maybe trade in the Recto?
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Go back to Laney :P
edit - to make this post more useful, I'd say probably stay away from Blackstar. If the HT5 is anything to go by, their tone is pretty modern sounding. More modern than a Laney, which seems a bit more modern than a Marshall. Not bad amps, but just not my cup of tea.
How about an Orange tiny terror? Chappers always got epic tone from his.
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I have resivations on the amps listed, will they too loud for in your house? Guess it depends what your house is like and where your guitar room is (or bedroom). For me 30 watts no attenuator is just too dam load for me to enjoy without worrying about the neighbours. There some dam good amps on your list. I especially like the oranger rocker just think it needs reverb to be lovely for me.
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^ Thats a valid point about volume. It's worth mentioning that the Express switches down to 5 watts, which makes it very useable at bedroom levels.
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I played the Thunder30 on the Messe and loved it. It has all the features I was missing on the Rocker 30 (loop and proper cleans) and has that addictive beefed up TinyTerror flavour on the drive channel. At the price you can get one for in Uk it's a winner!
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^ Thats a valid point about volume. It's worth mentioning that the Express switches down to 5 watts, which makes it very useable at bedroom levels.
it's worth mentioning that the valvepower has VVR, so it goes down to a fraction of a watt :P
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Go back to Laney :P
edit - to make this post more useful, I'd say probably stay away from Blackstar. If the HT5 is anything to go by, their tone is pretty modern sounding. More modern than a Laney, which seems a bit more modern than a Marshall. Not bad amps, but just not my cup of tea.
How about an Orange tiny terror? Chappers always got epic tone from his.
There's a used Laney Lionheart 20 watt head in Coda for £299 :o tempting...
On another note, i watched a few vids of the Peavey Windsor just for the hell of it, and it sounds bloody good and it's only £300! I was shocked, i'll have to try that in Coda when i go too. I need my amp to sell before i can go amp shopping though.
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Have you thought about a used Mesa Express ? I tried one out today and it can do the vintage thing very very well.
I'll have a look at that too, i always wondered about those amps but have never tried one out. I'd have to find a cheapish used one though.
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I have resivations on the amps listed, will they too loud for in your house? Guess it depends what your house is like and where your guitar room is (or bedroom). For me 30 watts no attenuator is just too dam load for me to enjoy without worrying about the neighbours. There some dam good amps on your list. I especially like the oranger rocker just think it needs reverb to be lovely for me.
I don't mean stupidly low bedroom volumes by the way. My Mesa right now is a 50 watt metal monster so anything down from that will hopefully be a tad quieter, saying that though i've owned the Laney GH50L and VH100R and they were all louder than my Mesa.
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Welcome back Joe.
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Cheers 38th!
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Went to Machinehead and got the chance to play the Blackstar Studio 20 head and the Orange Dual Terror.
The Blackstar i was highly dissapointed in, it sounded flat with no dynamic range or character, just a bog standard amp though it did have a nice bluesy break up tone, but that's about all i could say about it, when i moved the knobs not enough change in the sound happened for my liking. I would be dissapointed if i had bought that without trying it. I'm sure with a lot of fiddling you can get some good tones but i didn't have the time and i can't be bothered sitting there for hours trying to find a tone i like.
Whereas the Orange Dual Terror is a beastly little thing!! Wow, the dynamic range was great and it has bags of tone. Instantly i loved it as soon as i switched it on. I love it so much, you can change to just use 2 power tubes rather than 4 (by the way, 4 EL34's in a 30 watt amp??? amazing) and change to half power so there's so many different power options. The slightest change on the knobs makes a huge difference and although it just has a tone control and not bass mid treble controls it has such a vast range of sounds. This amp really surprised me and i think it's really great and i'm definatley going to be picking one of these up when the guy comes to get my Mesa.
Everyone go and buy Dual Terrors now, they are amazing.
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just get a 2204 marshall master volume, its what you want lets face it!
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haha I searched for the Dual Terror on youtube to hear some clips, guess who comes up? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1UbujaJTZQ
Paul from Guitar World, who can't ever get good tones out of anything, haha. Although he actually makes this sound alright especially on the fat channel. I'd probably be interested if I could afford to spend more money on guitar.
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according to the orange website it has 84s, not 34s :?
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haha I searched for the Dual Terror on youtube to hear some clips, guess who comes up? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1UbujaJTZQ
Paul from Guitar World, who can't ever get good tones out of anything, haha. Although he actually makes this sound alright especially on the fat channel. I'd probably be interested if I could afford to spend more money on guitar.
Haha, yeah i saw that. If he can make it sound good then it must be amazing!
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If money was tight I'd just re-tweak the Recto. They must have other tones you can use in there. Or don't they do vintage slight break up tones that well?
Hello again! :D
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Nice looking Amp Joe. Very portable! :D
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That's a big change Joe :lol: I've never considered the Tiny Terror even though I've liked the tones people have out of them.
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Tbh i disregarded it for a long time until i actually tried one, they are little monsters it's really hard to get a bad tone out of them.
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sweet :D
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Nice choice Joe. I know $%&# all about amps, but even I can get a decent tone out of my Tiny Terror. :D