Thunderverb 50 vs Rocker 30

[11tonylevin]

Hi all
I know this question has probably been asked so i apologize if i am too lazy for not digging through all the posts.
I recently picked an R30 in a trade. Blew me away. Played it live where i could crank it a bit more than home, and even better. I decided to buy a TV50 LTD edition because it has the attenuator control which is useful for home jamming. I know they are 2 different amps, but i was kind of hoping that the TV would have enough versatility to do R30 and more. When I play them both, even with the attenuator fully CCW, the R30 seems less compressed, more crunchy. Is that my perception or are the amps designed to be different? Maybe a bad assumption on my part and bit of ignorance, but I hoped the TV was a R30 (or close) but with Reverb, attenuator, effects loop and dual channels with tone shaping and tone controls that could generate a wide variety of tone and crunch including the R30. I guess in the end, my question is, can a TV50 be set up to sound like an R30 or are they that different? Which then leads me to ask, how is a TV 50 different from a RV 50?
I asked because the MK III also has the attenuator + the rest of the same features as the TV like reverb etc. I do understand that the RV has a clean channel, but in the end i am more interested in how to get the R30 sound with an attenuator. Any guidance or advice?
thanks
tony

[Les Paul Lover]

The R30 is a pretty unique amp.

As you've noticed, it's very uncompressed, and has a very lively organic feel.

The TV50, as you now know is very different. Still vintage sounding, but with a modern twist, and more compressed.

The RV50 has almost nothing in common with the R30. The clean channel can sound similar if set right, but that's it.

I own both the R30 and RV50 (love them both very much, for different reasons). I use the jet city jettuanator. Designed by soprano, produced wherever under the jet city name. It's a great attenuator, it can do 4, 8 or 16 ohms, it can do direct line out, load box, or XLR out.

I've only used it as an attenuator, and it works great. It has a minimum 3db attenuation, and a potentiometer to set it where you want it (you're not stuck with -3, -6, -12db or similar), and it sounds great. Of course, masssive attenuation will make your tone suffer, but I finding a blessing at home. It makes it really easy to play at TV volume and not disturb the rest ofntje house too much.

I've used it live a couple of times too, and it shines there too. You can really put the volume up on the amp quite a bit and keep the volume manageable (getting the R30/RV50 clean channel to break up(quite) a bit).

Anyway, that's my solution for home playing.

[Wired]

The R30 is very unique and has a very different tone than anything else in the lineup. I don't like it. Only because the clean channel is very underwhelming, but it could be argued that the drive channel is better than the Rockerverb because of how open and thick sounding it can be. For me the Rocker30 is great for the balls to the wall hard rock crunch or dirty blues.

The TV50 is a bigger, fatter amp with a more focused sound. I personally find it punchier and has a much nicer clean channel overall. The attenuation I feel rips some of the life out, but it's now here near as bad as other methods of quiet jamming with a 50w.

[Les Paul Lover]

The R30 is very unique and has a very different tone than anything else in the lineup. I don't like it. Only because the clean channel is very underwhelming, but it could be argued that the drive channel is better than the Rockerverb because of how open and thick sounding it can be. For me the Rocker30 is great for the balls to the wall hard rock crunch or dirty blues.

The TV50 is a bigger, fatter amp with a more focused sound. I personally find it punchier and has a much nicer clean channel overall. The attenuation I feel rips some of the life out, but it's now here near as bad as other methods of quiet jamming with a 50w.

The R30 channel is greay with some reverb though. It really comes to life then. But without fx loop, it's difficult to use it on both channels.

[Dark Helmet]

1) I own a TV50 as my #1
2) I'm still pissed about hesitating and missing the R30 I should have bought when I ended up with the TV50

As many have said, they are certainly different, however, I would say the TV50 Channel A is the closest thing to the R30 out there... IIRC the R30 is Class A only, which would absolutely explain the differences, as there are a lot of similarities between the pre-amp channels (some have claimed they are identical ex-EL/RV, personally I have no idea).

outside of the vintage stuff, I would posit that the R30 is the most Orange Orange of their modern offerings... the TV50s attenuator makes it a dynamite value play, but run opened-up... the R30 is easily better (to me) than any other Orange I've played... and I've played most of them.