Review: Orange AD30HTC

[gabrielstigmatic]

These are clips to show the difference in styles that I play at the moment. This is mostly for people who are looking into buying the AD30htc. So for all of these, I miced up the cab with a condenser mic (the AKG Perception 220). The amp was cranked to 10 on Master and Gain on the Some Girls covers. It's ok, the condenser has a mic pad so I can cut it -20dB. So I hit the -20dB switch and place the mic centered dead on with one of the 12 in speakers on my Peavy 4x12.

The only recording I didn't have the Master knob up to 10 on was Define Human Concept. On the softer songs I had the gain to about a 1/4 of the way up and Master up to 10.

A heavy original: http://www.sendspace.com/file/uvfh04

Here's an example of the AD30htc, it's a Some Girls cover. It's heavier but more on the punk side of things: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HGQYZN4D

Here's another heavy clip, also a Some Girls cover: http://www.sendspace.com/file/x0ul9m

Now for the softer side of things, this is an intro for an original: http://www.sendspace.com/file/8um3rr

Another "softer" original: http://www.sendspace.com/file/jcmtsw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gabrielstigmatic]

Well, there you go - it suits your personal preferences for not needing lots of gain and not needing lots of bass. However, a lot of people who play heavy music do quite specifically want those things!

I think it's also not just about the amount of gain, but the type - the AD30's gain is very gritty, fuzzy and old school, I love it too but it definitely won't be to everyone's tastes, especially someone who wants that modern saturated, smooth kind of drive tone.

For what it's worth, I'd prefer channel 2 to be more like channel 1 - just shows you that different folk like different things!

Mhm, it's the truth! Whatever floats your boat

[a.hun]

I read a Clapton quote at some point (can't remember but think it was in one of his album notes) where he said you could give him any guitar and any amp and he'd still sound like him. I guess some of it is in the settings we naturally go to and the rest is just in the hands.

I've another Clapton quote from a while back. Quite an odd one I always thought. It was in an interview in the July '94 edition of the UK 'Guitarist' magazine:

I was using AC30s and things like that, but they didn't do it for me. They were too toppy - they didn't have any mid range at all. Whack them right up and they still didn't distort, as far as I can remember. They may have distorted but I can't remember that they did so in an attractive way; it didn't really get thick, it just got edgy.

Maybe he'd only ever played duff Vox amps. Good ones are nothing like that...


Andy.