OR series and pedal friendliness..

[klarocca]

Here we go again..

After having owned an RV50mk1, RV100mkii and TV50, what ultimately led me to parting with them was their blatant inability to get along with many pedals, (mostly fuzz– a sound particularly important to myself).

So I was wondering has Orange changed anything with the OR series in regard to pedal friendliness? (I'm mostly interested in how they fare with the OR100). Is the clean channel a good platform for pedals?

[a.hun]

May be the wrong approach...

Don't expect Orange amps to always sound good with pedals which you like with other amps. If you like the sounds of Orange amps you'd be way better to try to find pedals which sound good with them. The tonalities of (all!) Orange amps are pretty unique which is why this problem exists IMO.

Just have to ask yourself which is your core sound, the amp you use or the pedals you use. For most of us it is the amp, though there are always going to be a few exceptions.


Andy.

[Jondog]

What is bad about the way the fuzzes sound?

[msmith4432]

I have found the OR50 to be pedal friendly but I only use a overdrive and a reverb pedal, so it may not sound good with the pedals you use.

[0000]

I had the same problem... none of my Orange amps really accepted my fuzz (Death By Audio - Fuzz War). I had a Rocker and an AD30. The Rocker became a thin, brittle, hissy mess on both channels. The AD30 sounded good at low volumes, but was again, too thin and harsh sounding once cranked to up band volume. I believe both these amps are EL34 based, so I went to try something else...

I finally tried a Fargen Epic-30 head, EL84 (four) based, and it's a single non-master volume head. Throwing the fuzz in front of this thing gives a thick, warm, beefy fuzz tone that was still clear and crisp.

Anyway... I used to have an old 90's OR120 non-master volume, and that took pedals REALLY well. I'm not sure about any of the other Orange heads, but personally... I think the tubes and amount of clean headroom the amp has really matters for fuzz pedals.

[Jondog]

Get a transparent overdrive and set it clean, place after the fuzz pedal.

[Gray]

I believe both these amps are EL34 based, so I went to try something else

The AD30 is an EL84 amp. My AD30 and Fuzz Factory are the best of friends. If you open the master volume up on the AD30 it's basically functioning as a non-master volume amp.

[megalithic]

On my Micro Terror it sounds just as good with pedals as with my other amp (non-master volume), and the same pedals sound just as good.

But I keep the gain low, 11 o'clock at most, sometimes less depending on the pedals. If you play louder you might want to back down more on the gain and/or fuzz knob, especially with a valve power amp.

More challenging was finding a cab which worked well with it (o.k., not hard either because I have quite a few, but it did take some time).

[Thinline_slim]

This thread is a little older but I'll throw in my $.02 of wisdom (adjusted for inflation of course).

I take Andy's approach to pedals. Almost ALL of my distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedals have multiple tone controls. Actually, running them through my head, they all do. Orange amps have their own eq/tonalities and I've been through enough dirt pedals to know I'm going to need some flexibility in what the pedal has to offer.

If it has one tone knob, I usually pass as I don't want to take the gamble.