Micro Terror Advice

[ApuChunk]

Hi! I recently bought an Orange Micro Terror and, although I love the tone to bits, I could do with a good chunk more gain that it can give me. I have spent aaaages looking into different pedals(both OD and distortion pedals) and I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall now. Can someone please give me some recommendations? I'm on a budget somewhat(would stretch for the right thing). Also I'm aware of how noisy this amp can be with high gain so wasn't sure if a distortion pedal on top of a clean sound would be better than an OD with the gain turned up? please help I'm losing my mind.

[Boy_Narf]

Since you are on a budget perhaps check out Mooer, Joyo or HoTone pedals. I'm sure you could get a Dist and Noise Gate for the same price as a single mainstream pedal. These are just two brands I know off the top of my head but there are dozens of mini pedal brands popping up. I had a JOYO Orange Juice and it was awesome. Wicked tiny, and has a cover for the controls so you won't bump them in transit.

My honest recommendation however would be to upgrade that amp to a TT (or something similar) rather than trying to make the MT sound better than it is. I had the MT for a few months and couldn't get rid of it fast enough.

[ApuChunk]

Yea there seems to be hundreds of tubescreamer clones lol! I think thats what I'm going to go for.

[caldurham]

i actually love my micro and micro dark terrors. i did change out the tube in the micro terror. i got a sovtek 12ax7 to replace the stock tube. the sovtek tube was $16 and makes a noticeable difference, a little more gain and a dirtier meaner sound. and louder! here's a good vid showing the difference tubes can make in a micro terror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aTLw1EPkJc a tube swap with a good overdrive may cure you up. honestly though i mainly play metal and love the tone my sovtek swapped micro terror makes by itself running into my 412. but i also have more than a few active pickup guitars or really hot pickup guitars. active pups in front of a crunched amp sound amazing.

and if you're considering an overdrive why not try the Electro Harmonix East River Drive. new they can be had for around $60-$70, used i am sure you can get better deals. they are also based on the TS808 circuit and by all rights have nailed it. they have true bypass and the JRC4558 chip that made the first tubescreamer such a hit. plus since they are basically ts808 clones there is a lot of mods for them out there.

[ApuChunk]

I ended up going for this one http://www.amazon.com/Biyang-Od-10-Driv ... B003VTQBR8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yea I'm using it for metal mainly and I did originally replace the tube with a Tung Sol 12ax7 following recommendations online but although it did give me a load more gain and beef, I inherited a crackle when playing low notes and palm muting. I sent the valve back and the guy said he tested it and it was fine so I decided going the pedal route instead.

[megalithic]

If you want a higher gain valve that sounds good in that amp, try the JJ ECC803.

[caldurham]

I ended up going for this one http://www.amazon.com/Biyang-Od-10-Driv ... B003VTQBR8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yea I'm using it for metal mainly and I did originally replace the tube with a Tung Sol 12ax7 following recommendations online but although it did give me a load more gain and beef, I inherited a crackle when playing low notes and palm muting. I sent the valve back and the guy said he tested it and it was fine so I decided going the pedal route instead.

you got me wanting to try a tung sol now to see if i get the same crackle you are talking about. that would be weird if that is the case. i definitely do not get any crackle with the sovtek and the low end chunk/growl is fine even palm muting. let us know how the overdrive works out. i have been interested in getting the bangeetar but i know they are kinda pricey.

i am also wondering how a reissue Genalex Gold Lion ECC83/B759 would sound. kind of pricey but really high gain for a 12ax7 style tube.

btw do you remember which tung sol you had? if you can find it on this chart it might explain the crackle you were hearing maybe?
https://www.tubesandmore.com/tech_corne ... made_tubes

[megalithic]

I don't think that even matters, they can vary, my JJ ECC803s are certainly much higher gain than all the Sovtek 12AX7WA and WB valves I tried, but not according to that test. I don't know if it varies as much in batches or individual pieces, but it certainly varies.

The ones I have also vary among themselves, but not by a great amount.

Actually that article also says they vary.

[ApuChunk]

I ended up going for this one http://www.amazon.com/Biyang-Od-10-Driv ... B003VTQBR8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yea I'm using it for metal mainly and I did originally replace the tube with a Tung Sol 12ax7 following recommendations online but although it did give me a load more gain and beef, I inherited a crackle when playing low notes and palm muting. I sent the valve back and the guy said he tested it and it was fine so I decided going the pedal route instead.

you got me wanting to try a tung sol now to see if i get the same crackle you are talking about. that would be weird if that is the case. i definitely do not get any crackle with the sovtek and the low end chunk/growl is fine even palm muting. let us know how the overdrive works out. i have been interested in getting the bangeetar but i know they are kinda pricey.

i am also wondering how a reissue Genalex Gold Lion ECC83/B759 would sound. kind of pricey but really high gain for a 12ax7 style tube.

btw do you remember which tung sol you had? if you can find it on this chart it might explain the crackle you were hearing maybe?
https://www.tubesandmore.com/tech_corne ... made_tubes

It was this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tung-Sol-12AX ... O3czNjveug" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; He said it worked fine when he tried it on his amp and the crackle didnt seem natural at all.

Sorry I'm pretty new to all this guitar amp tech stuff but I'm enjoying learning. If only I had more disposable income hahaha! I'll let you know how the Mad Driver works out. Thanks for the advice all. Lovely forum!

[caldurham]

I don't think that even matters, they can vary, my JJ ECC803s are certainly much higher gain than all the Sovtek 12AX7WA and WB valves I tried, but not according to that test. I don't know if it varies as much in batches or individual pieces, but it certainly varies.

The ones I have also vary among themselves, but not by a great amount.

Actually that article also says they vary.

comparetively speaking on my micro terror the tubes i have tried follow the chart. the stock jj's have the least gain, the sovteks have a little more and the ruby i have has the most. but i prefer the sovtek. it sounds nastier and i like that. and of course it varies but the testing and the chart shows an average for the brand and model. also be aware like the article says "The gain rating is only a relative reference (e.g. a rating of "10" does not mean ten times louder than a "1")." also gain doesn't automatically mean more distortion if that makes sense.

i think this friday i'll have to order some of the russian made gold lion reissues and see what all the fuss is about. i'd really like to hear one in my micro dark and try two out in my diavlo rd 1.

It was this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tung-Sol-12AX ... O3czNjveug" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; He said it worked fine when he tried it on his amp and the crackle didnt seem natural at all.

Sorry I'm pretty new to all this guitar amp tech stuff but I'm enjoying learning. If only I had more disposable income hahaha! I'll let you know how the Mad Driver works out. Thanks for the advice all. Lovely forum!

i guess i am new in the sense i've only been really interested in how tubes and tube amps work in the past 2 years. before then i just knew i liked tube amps better lol. i am wanting to make my own small wattage high gain amps. micro soldano clones if you will. and disposable income is my problem as well.

[megalithic]

Strangely enough, I also found the stock ECC83 to be a bit higher gain than my Sovtek 12AX7WA and WB valves, but it could that my Sovteks are more worn, although I do prefer the Sovteks to the stock.

One interesting thing about that article is that it lists the Sovtek 12AX7WC as having lower gain than the WA and WB, when just about everywhere on the internet where they compare them, they list the WC as the highest gain of the three. I'm not sure the ones I have are lower gain than the WAs and WBs I have, but I do agree about how they have little high end and midrange on the chart. They sound pretty lifeless a lot of the time, but they can be used in some positions in some amps and sound o.k.

[caldurham]

Strangely enough, I also found the stock ECC83 to be a bit higher gain than my Sovtek 12AX7WA and WB valves, but it could that my Sovteks are more worn, although I do prefer the Sovteks to the stock.

One interesting thing about that article is that it lists the Sovtek 12AX7WC as having lower gain than the WA and WB, when just about everywhere on the internet where they compare them, they list the WC as the highest gain of the three. I'm not sure the ones I have are lower gain than the WAs and WBs I have, but I do agree about how they have little high end and midrange on the chart. They sound pretty lifeless a lot of the time, but they can be used in some positions in some amps and sound o.k.

yeah i dont doubt it. that's the cool thing about tube swapping though. you will always find a gem tube in there somewhere when you least expect it. for the micro dark i stuck with the stock jj. my other tubes sound too harsh through it. it's funny how on one amp you may prefer one tube brand and on another you may hate that same tube brand.

[a.hun]

Strangely enough, I also found the stock ECC83 to be a bit higher gain than my Sovtek 12AX7WA and WB valves, but it could that my Sovteks are more worn, although I do prefer the Sovteks to the stock.

One interesting thing about that article is that it lists the Sovtek 12AX7WC as having lower gain than the WA and WB, when just about everywhere on the internet where they compare them, they list the WC as the highest gain of the three. I'm not sure the ones I have are lower gain than the WAs and WBs I have, but I do agree about how they have little high end and midrange on the chart. They sound pretty lifeless a lot of the time, but they can be used in some positions in some amps and sound o.k.

yeah i dont doubt it. that's the cool thing about tube swapping though. you will always find a gem tube in there somewhere when you least expect it. for the micro dark i stuck with the stock jj. my other tubes sound too harsh through it. it's funny how on one amp you may prefer one tube brand and on another you may hate that same tube brand.

It isn't just different brands, it is individual valves. And with fully valve amps it is not just individual amps but individual valve positions in the amp. Just experiment with swapping different individual valves into the different sockets in your amp one at a time. If one swap sound / feels better to you than leave it in there.

BTW I wouldn't bother getting too fanatical about the modern production 'brands'. There are really only 3 main producers these days, in Russia, Slokak Republic and China. All the different brands are basically from one of these three sources. Almost ANY working old production valve (unused NOS = 'new old stock' or used OS) will give better sound, performance and (especially) life span. Expect most all NOS valves to last 5-10 x as long as any modern ones - the difference in quality really is that great! So my advice to any valve amp owner is always to grab a few different old production preamp valves and chances are once you've found good slots for them you won't have to worry about them for literally decades.


Andy.

[ApuChunk]

I'm VERY happy with the Mad Driver. It does exactly what I wanted it to!

[Danjohn42095]

Hey im new to this forum but i recently got a used used micro terror and ppc108 cab. I also played metal and tried so many pedals to get the right sound
Some of them would give me a very wierd crackling sound.and i thought i needed new preamp tube or something was wrong with head or cab. I tried a boss metal zone
.amarshall jackhammer a berhimger ultra metal a couple modeling pedals. A hotone whip distortion and even more. And couldnt get it right. I saved up for a boss heavy metal and of course it sounded like pile of poop. Then i saw a mxr fullbore metal and devided to try it out and man it is litterally perfect. The exact sound i was looking for. I tried so many pedals of high and low quality. The proco rat sounded pretty good too. But the mxr fullbore metal guves me very high gain. Great sound and has a built in noise gate. Its hard to get a shitty sound iut of this pedal. Every tone is different but still awsome in its own way. I would try out mxr pedals for distortion