Finally got my TH30

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beckyjc
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Finally got my TH30

Post by beckyjc » Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:37 pm

Originally posted this in another forum, but i figured you guys might like a read.

Well i had the option of going to alton towers today with college, im quite glad i couldnt afford it. Since this arrived today at about 12 oclock. Obviously im not very aquinted with it yet but yeah...

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Long ass review...

Info
The Thunder 30 is the predecessor from the Rocker 30.

The clean channel is from the Rockerverb MK1, re-voiced to suit the amp's EL84s. Treble and bass controls are interactve with each other, and the more bass you dial in the less mids you get, and vice versa.

The dirty channel is the Rockerverb 4 gain stage lead channel with the shape control from channel B of the Thunderverb. The shape control adjusts between all midrange (o) and all treble and bass (10), and all points inbetween.

It has the same power switching capabilities and output transformer as the Dual Terror. (Two tube/four tube switch and pentode/triode switch, switchable from 30 to 15 to 7.5 watts.)

It has a 12at7 buffered series FX loop (smileyface), 2 8 0hm/1 16 ohm cabinet input, footswitch jack to switch between channels.

4 EL84s, 4 12ax7s

It's made in china (With love), and is the first sleeved orange head to be completely manufactured in china. Rather than the circuit board being put together in china, then sent to the UK for the rest of the assembly, like the rest of the higher end orange line. :/
Review
Initialy
Out of the box it was well packed (double boxed with polystyrene), switches are good quality with a satisfying click, the pots are smooth, handle feels strong and durable, overall everythings sturdy, no underpaid chinese workers in the back either.

Cleans
Switched on to the clean channel (its pretty much the law to start with the cleans), ub3r dark warm sounding cleans, even with my fender jag. much Warmer than my Laney vc30 was. That could be a problem in itself, the only way to get anything like a bright icepicky clean tone from it is to turn the bass to 0 and crank the treble, which yeah, i dont reccomend. There isnt much chime to it. But personally, im really digging the cleans. Very deep, rich and round, sounds great with pedals, though probably not for everyone. Diming both the treble and bass knobs scoops the mids out a bit and delivers a really nice almost fendery spanky sound, reminds me a little of a bassman.

I heard it start to break with heavy attack up about 12 oclock at full power. About 11 at with 2 valves. About 10.5 with 2 valves and half power. A nice grit, pretty indie-ish. Played a bit of dashboard and switched to the dirty channel.

Dirty
Picked up my tele, dialed the gain in half way, same with the shape control. Got a some nice crunch. Very dynamic, cleaned up great with soft picking. Pretty satsifying, slayed my vc30, you can hear the orange crunch still, but really, in that department, the R30 had a much fatter crunch. A few AC/DC tunes later pushed the gain again, rolled the shape back a bit and switched to the neck pup, some pretty smooth lead tones. Sounded nice with some blues licks. Kept pushing the gain control, you can hear the final valve kick in accompanied by a fair bit of hum, a pile of poop lot of gain, still using the tele (yes metal with a tele), tried to chug out some master of puppets. Not happening, i even tried turning the scoop control all the way up, it was still too loose sounding for the palm mutes.

Kinda dissapointed by that, im not willing to give up and listen to everyones "I told you so" pile of poop about trying before buying :p:. I grabbed my strat, thats tuned to C standard with a high output humbucker, played dragonaut. It ****ing sings for stoner/sludge stuff. Sounds huge, loads of low end, some sweet grit and a bit of the orange fuzzyness, really put a smile on my face. I actually cant believe orange are trying to market this as a metal amp. Sure it has the gain, but it does not have the tightness for modern metal, it isnt for shredders or the conventional metalhead. At least not by itself, at least i can still put the barber dirty bomb to good use for playing chuggy stuff :).

What I like
Its orange, colour is important for tonez
Cleans, im really glad this delivers a good clean sound, and the EQ on the clean channel had a really nice feel, made a pretty big difference to the sound.
Low gain crunch was nice
Mid gain is decent
High gain brings teh doom.

What I don't like
Its kinda noisy, especially with that 4th gain stage kicking in, i also find the FX loop adds its share of hiss, though the grail sounds nicer through it.
The gain can get a bit fizzy
And im pretty sure the above issues would be (at least partly) solved by improving this;
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pile of poop chinese valves. Sadddfaceee. I even tried my old crackly TADs out of the laney in it, that even seemed to imrpove the sound and noise issues. Unfortunately im too poor to upgrade them atm...
I found there wasnt much gain before 12 on the gain knob
Im not gunna lie here, im not digging the shape control too much, sure its nicer than a run of the mill tone control, but it sounds its best with the shape between 10 and 2 oclock. Anything after that is harsh and typical ick scooped sounds, and before that is a bit too middy and nasaly. Im deffinately considering an EQ to stick in the loop. Any thoughts on http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/p ... -eq--21439 ?
I dont really know weather this is a pro or a con, for me probably a pro, but its a quiet amp. With it set to two output valves i could pretty comfortably get the volume clean to 12 oclock, and itd be just a bit too loud for playing at home. At full power it didnt make much of a difference. Though i havent played much with the switching yet. Its loud enough to gig and get over a drummer and everything, it just seems quieter than my laney did. It could be to do with the taper used on the pots though...


TL;DR
Features: 6
Sound: 7
Build quality: 8
Overall impression: 7

I can see this amp keeping me happy for a while. :)
Ill prolly do a youtube demo tommorow.

Also, a few new pedals
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I need a bigger board...

I cant be bothered to review them.
But its a EHX Octave Multiplexer
Way Huge Swollen Pickle

Also i added a rotary switch on my small clone to switch between dry/chorus/vibe and a knob to dial in some tremolo.
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And gutted my vox wah etched myself a clyde PCB and stuck loads of knobs on it.
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Twit | ElementFX

Orange TH30 Head
Orange PPC112

Jackson Dinky, Fender CIJ 62 RI Jag, Fender 92 MIM Standard Tele, Fender MIM '04 Stratocaster
+Too many pedals

misterfolkertsma
Orange Expert
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Location: Netherlands, Maastricht

Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by misterfolkertsma » Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:55 pm

Good to read a nice and honest review! I'm curious to what you'll think of the amp after adding an EQ pedal, 'cause that 'shape' control does concern me a bit as well.

And if you do do a video... do the opposite of that so called 'toneking' demo. :)

beckyjc
Tiny Terror
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:10 pm
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Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by beckyjc » Tue Sep 14, 2010 10:14 pm

I do plan to at some point.

Yeah ill try one up the tone king, cant promise my playing will be better though. :p:

Using my OD does tighten the whole thing up alot, much less flubby.

What im really interested in is if anyone else is having these noise issues with the thunder?

It isnt like subtle background hum, on the dirty channel anyway, its pretty prominent, and im wondering if maybe i should get in touch with orange and ask them for a new set of valves.
Twit | ElementFX

Orange TH30 Head
Orange PPC112

Jackson Dinky, Fender CIJ 62 RI Jag, Fender 92 MIM Standard Tele, Fender MIM '04 Stratocaster
+Too many pedals

OU818
Orange Master
Posts: 2332
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:55 am
Location: Melbourne, AUS

Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by OU818 » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:02 am

The gain was much tighter when I played it. Maybe borrow a friendsmguitar and try a dual humbucker. The 496R 500T combo was perfect for high gain shred.
Orange Gear:
AD200B MkIII
OBC810

Non-Orange:
Bergantino NXT212
Bergantino Forte D
Woogie Lessie
Laney DBV-410

Basses:
Ernie Ball Stingray 4H
Rickenbacker 4003
Gibson Midtown Signature
Gibson Thunderbird
Gibson Nikki Sixx Thunderbird
Gibson Les Paul Bass

beckyjc
Tiny Terror
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:10 pm
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Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by beckyjc » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:25 am

I already have a high output humbucker in my strat ive tried with it.
Twit | ElementFX

Orange TH30 Head
Orange PPC112

Jackson Dinky, Fender CIJ 62 RI Jag, Fender 92 MIM Standard Tele, Fender MIM '04 Stratocaster
+Too many pedals

jasonmwnf
New Member
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 4:09 pm

Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by jasonmwnf » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:37 am

beckyjc wrote:
Kinda dissapointed by that, im not willing to give up and listen to everyones "I told you so" **** about trying before buying :p:. I grabbed my strat, thats tuned to C standard with a high output humbucker, played dragonaut. It ****ing sings for stoner/sludge stuff. Sounds huge, loads of low end, some sweet grit and a bit of the orange fuzzyness, really put a smile on my face. I actually cant believe orange are trying to market this as a metal amp. Sure it has the gain, but it does not have the tightness for modern metal, it isnt for shredders or the conventional metalhead. At least not by itself, at least i can still put the barber dirty bomb to good use for playing chuggy stuff :).
I'm so glad to hear you say its good for stoner/sludge as I just traded in my RV 100 for a TH 30 and stoner/sludge is my preferred style of guitar playin \m/. Any pedal recommendations for it? A good boost? Did you try the EQ pedal out?

beckyjc
Tiny Terror
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:10 pm
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Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by beckyjc » Wed Sep 15, 2010 1:15 am

Not tried an EQ through it yet. I hope too soon though.

Well, ive had it for a day, so the only pedals ive used with it are the ones on my board, i like my Silver Kiss with it, works nice for adding sparkle to the cleans as well as tightening everything.

Id like to know how you compare the Rverb to the thunder tho. :)
Twit | ElementFX

Orange TH30 Head
Orange PPC112

Jackson Dinky, Fender CIJ 62 RI Jag, Fender 92 MIM Standard Tele, Fender MIM '04 Stratocaster
+Too many pedals

OU818
Orange Master
Posts: 2332
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:55 am
Location: Melbourne, AUS

Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by OU818 » Wed Sep 15, 2010 1:36 am

Also, just to be picky, the TH30 is the Successor of the Rocker 30, not it's predecessor.
Orange Gear:
AD200B MkIII
OBC810

Non-Orange:
Bergantino NXT212
Bergantino Forte D
Woogie Lessie
Laney DBV-410

Basses:
Ernie Ball Stingray 4H
Rickenbacker 4003
Gibson Midtown Signature
Gibson Thunderbird
Gibson Nikki Sixx Thunderbird
Gibson Les Paul Bass

jpish0t
Tiny Terror
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Location: miami, florida usa
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Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by jpish0t » Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:13 am

mine is really noisy too, with all kinds of pickups!
Thunder 30
Dual Terror
Fender hot rod deluxe
roger linn adrenalynn 3
maxon compressor
mxr: evh 90, micro chrous, 10 band eq, line driver, carbon copy, wah
fender black out telecaster, prs zach myers signature, esp dan jacobs signature, schecter hellraiser

doomedfuzz
Rocker
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Location: Forth Worth, TX
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Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by doomedfuzz » Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:46 am

Told ya so lol haha!

But nice that you threw out some Dragonaut in the test. Orange is marketing to the wrong type of heavy rock player.
Brian: Orthodox Fuzz
http://www.reverbnation.com/orthodoxfuzz
Orange RV100/PPC412, Sunn Enforcer/4x12, Gibson LP & Flying V & SG, Epi Sheraton II & LP Custom

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Alan
Orange Hero
Posts: 349
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:37 pm

Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by Alan » Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:08 am

When you say the FX loop is noisy - are you mixing line/guitar level stuff in there?

Is that 4th gain stage noisy with the fx loop disconnected and you going straight into the amp?

Cheers!

beckyjc
Tiny Terror
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:10 pm
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Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by beckyjc » Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:03 am

I discovered 3 things today

1, I had a deadish patch cable in the pedalboard that was seriously limiting the gain, gets quite a bit tighter, and i discovered why i found this amp so quiet, its now pretty uncomfortable at the volumes i was playing at, facepalm on my behalf
2, My akai headrush is actually responsible for most of the noise issues
3, Plugging direct into the amp gets rid of the rest of the noise, besides a bit of hiss from the loop.

So why are my pedals so noisy through this if they were fine through my laney D=
And how did i not notice that dead cable yesterday? Its made a good portion of what ive said about the dirty channel completely obselete...
Twit | ElementFX

Orange TH30 Head
Orange PPC112

Jackson Dinky, Fender CIJ 62 RI Jag, Fender 92 MIM Standard Tele, Fender MIM '04 Stratocaster
+Too many pedals

Alan
Orange Hero
Posts: 349
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:37 pm

Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by Alan » Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:31 am

FX loops are tricksy beasties - they're expecting levels of a certain amount of gain, and pedals don't tend to supply exactly what they want half the time.

You're not running your wah/dirt pedals through the loop are you? They should very definitely go in front of the amp.

beckyjc
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Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:10 pm
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Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by beckyjc » Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:59 am

Nope not at all, i'm not really a n00b or anything (though that was a pretty n00by mistake), ive been playing for a while.

All thats in the loop is the holy grail. Which people keep saying was a noisy pedal, but i never heard it with my old laney vc30.

Ill try my clone in the loop later see if i get the same hiss.
And ill try the headrush in there too, its off the board atm since i cant work out why it wants to be so noisy. I dunno how well the looper will work in the loop though, it always repeated really quietly in the parelell loop of the laney, maybe itll work better in the oranges series loop.

I really should rewrite the review for the dirty channel, it isnt quite fair on the orange, but i cant be bothered, ill just do clips instead.
Twit | ElementFX

Orange TH30 Head
Orange PPC112

Jackson Dinky, Fender CIJ 62 RI Jag, Fender 92 MIM Standard Tele, Fender MIM '04 Stratocaster
+Too many pedals

Alan
Orange Hero
Posts: 349
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:37 pm

Re: Finally got my TH30

Post by Alan » Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:28 am

Hmm, I don't remember finding the grail noisy, but I've not used it in a while. My rig's still in bits from Sunday's gig, but it being a RV50MKII it supposedly has the same loop as your TH30 - I'll try the grail in the loop when I assemble it and let you know how it goes. I think it'll be as good a test as any for now!

Edit: sorry, wasn't trying to suggest you were a noob - best to cover everything though when troubleshooting!

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