Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

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beninma
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Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by beninma » Wed Nov 07, 2018 4:44 pm

I seem to have a problem with buying Orange pedals, I thought I'd offer my thoughts on the ones I have. I don't really buy an excessive # of pedals but for some reason I gravitate towards the Orange ones. I've noticed a few things that I've not really seen mentioned in reviews and videos.

I have a Rocker 15 so that's what I'm putting these through. I do occasionally try them through other amps. I practice often on Orange Crush 35RTs as I go to a practice space several times a week that has those. I will often take 1 pedal with me there. Very rarely I will also plug something into my THR5 as well.

General thoughts:
- They are all big, which is sometimes annoying
- All of them are super solid
- All of them seem to get good battery life
- All of them do a great job at not introducing noise into the signal chain

Specific thoughts:

Kongpressor:

I think this might have been the first one I bought. It's a fantastic compressor. I think a lot of the negatives players write about on the internet don't apply to it because it's an optical compressor and doesn't go down the same mold of copying the old Ross or MXR designs. It works really well as both a clean tone compressor or as a kind of boost. I don't play any country really so I don't use it for the standard effect at all but it does a really nice job of cleaning up full chords and open chords, etc.. a lot of stuff that you would normally play on an acoustic guitar that doesn't sound great on an electric guitar will sound very nice through the Kongpressor.

Getaway Driver:

This is a very nice OD but it sounds so much like an Orange amp that I'm not sure I would ever put it on a pedal board that goes to an Orange amp. Maybe a great option going into something like a Fender because it'd give you a wildly different sound. This pedal is very quiet and has a ton of gain & boost available. It does make static type noise if you put it after a buffer, so it really needs to be early in the chain if it's on a pedal board. I have used the headphone some for practice. One thing I haven't seen mentioned in reviews is that it has a hard time driving headphones with higher impedances. If I was really using this a lot I'd want to get a nice pair of over the ear headphones that are rated something like 16 Ohm like many little earbuds are. This mostly is a factor trying to use it bypassed or trying to get a clean tone out of it through the headphones. I have Sony MDR-7506s and it has a hard time driving them. Running the signal from the Getaway Driver through a headphone amp ends up being very very noisy. (Tried it with a Fiio headphone amp that has a lot of power.) I bought this partly cause I've chased finding an OD that works well with my Rocker 15.. I almost always find something I dislike about most of them. I will likely keep this even if it doesn't end up getting used constantly with my Rocker 15. It's nice to take with me if I'm playing a different amp. For example on the Crush amps or lots of other non-orange amps if you set the amp up clean and use the Getaway Driver you can get a really nice sound that might be better than the amps drive setup.

Two Stroke:

I've used the two stroke in the loop as an EQ and I'm currently trying it out as a boost + eq in front of the amp. There is a learning curve on using the parameteric EQ but there is nothing bad I can say about the two-stroke. It works really well, I think I like it better to boost the dirty channel than any Overdrive I've used. I used it in the loop to try and adjust the EQ of the clean channel of my Rocker 15.

Fur Coat:

This was my most recent acquisition. It's a really powerful Fuzz pedal, tricky to learn to use as it can get crazy & out of control. I seem to like it better on lower fuzz settings and then reducing the volume some. The Fur Coat needs to be in front of buffers, which seems to be a standard thing for fuzz pedals. I have seen it pick up radio signals, which only happens when the octave switch is on and the octave dial is turned up to at least 3 o'clock. The radio signals are picked up louder as you roll the guitar volume off. The worst case for this I had a lot of cable... a 20ft cable from guitar to pedal and another similarly long one from the pedal to the amp. The other thing I have not really seen mentioned much is the Fur Coat definitely has a noise gate in it, but it only kicks in with the octave on and again with the octave dial near max. I got this because it's very flexible and I was kind of looking for something that would get me closer to some of Gary Clark's tones and I didn't really want to go straight to the pedals he's rumored to use. I'm not really sure if I'm going to end up keeping this or keeping a Big Muff.

Les Paul Lover
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Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by Les Paul Lover » Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:06 am

I had the kongpressor for a short while and loved it. It made everything sound just sweeter.

Unfortunately a couple of my amps at single channel amps (Orange AD15 and Genz Benz Black Pearl 30), and I rely on playing dynamics to switch from clean to dirty with the amp set just over edge of break up. I use these amps a lot, and the kongpressor, by evening the volume (normal, that's what compressors do), totally killed the ability of playing clean and dirty from the edge of break up. I had to set my amps clean or dirty with it, so it went to find a new home.

It did sound so sweet with cleans though. An always on pedal for sure.
Ant

Orange Gear: RV50 MKI, R30, AD15, PPC212
And.... Genz Benz Black Pearl 30
Past Orange: AD30TC Combo, TT, AD5


Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Standard Faded, Vigier Expert Retro 54, Gibson SG 70s Tribute, Aria Pro II RS X80, G&L ASAT Special Tribute

adkguy07
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Location: Upstate New York

Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by adkguy07 » Thu Nov 08, 2018 11:08 am

Les Paul Lover wrote:
Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:06 am
I had the kongpressor for a short while and loved it. It made everything sound just sweeter.

Unfortunately a couple of my amps at single channel amps (Orange AD15 and Genz Benz Black Pearl 30), and I rely on playing dynamics to switch from clean to dirty with the amp set just over edge of break up. I use these amps a lot, and the kongpressor, by evening the volume (normal, that's what compressors do), totally killed the ability of playing clean and dirty from the edge of break up. I had to set my amps clean or dirty with it, so it went to find a new home.

It did sound so sweet with cleans though. An always on pedal for sure.
I'm glad that you posted this. I do pretty much the same as yourself; with respect to playing dynamics to alter my tone from fairly “clean” to a “Page-like” grit. My weapon of choice is a single channel Dark Terror. Of the Orange pedals the OP opinionated on, are there any that you'd consider with your two amps mentioned? Have you come across any particular pedal that enhances your dynamics approach?

So far, other than the 5 pedals listed by Senior Orange Tech Jon Bailey on the Orange site, I have not been enthused over any pedal that might help an already dynamic Dark a Terror tone. I like this amp to the point that I can't see “gilting the Lilly”, so to speak.


adkguy07

beninma
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Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by beninma » Thu Nov 08, 2018 2:36 pm

I’ve actually found it possible to still play with loud & soft dynamics with the Kongpressor but I do think I’d agree playing with it with the amp setup at the edge of breakup music would make it harder to play some notes clean and some dirty. I love playing in that zone too. But I mostly use the Kongpressor with the clean channel to keep the sound from breaking up at all.

I’ve kind of been going through the exercises of buying ODs ever since I got my Rocker 15 including the ones recommended on the Orange website with mostly disappointment.

I feel like if someone had tried to educate me about boosting vs overdrive that would have been really helpful. As far as I can tell the clean boost type pedals work a heck of a lot better for an Orange amp set at the edge of break up because all you have to do is kick the amp over the edge.

For example I got an OCD after looking at the Orange blog. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get a great sound out of the 2-stroke for me than the OCD cause it seems like the OCD is always adding a little too much gain and sends the bass out of control.

I get the impression that if I had a really clean amp like a fender that couldn’t go into drive sounds on its own at reasonable volumes than the Overdrive pedals would start to make sense.

adkguy07
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Location: Upstate New York

Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by adkguy07 » Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:40 pm

beninma wrote:
Thu Nov 08, 2018 2:36 pm
I’ve actually found it possible to still play with loud & soft dynamics with the Kongpressor but I do think I’d agree playing with it with the amp setup at the edge of breakup music would make it harder to play some notes clean and some dirty. I love playing in that zone too. But I mostly use the Kongpressor with the clean channel to keep the sound from breaking up at all.

I’ve kind of been going through the exercises of buying ODs ever since I got my Rocker 15 including the ones recommended on the Orange website with mostly disappointment.

I feel like if someone had tried to educate me about boosting vs overdrive that would have been really helpful. As far as I can tell the clean boost type pedals work a heck of a lot better for an Orange amp set at the edge of break up because all you have to do is kick the amp over the edge.

For example I got an OCD after looking at the Orange blog. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get a great sound out of the 2-stroke for me than the OCD cause it seems like the OCD is always adding a little too much gain and sends the bass out of control.

I get the impression that if I had a really clean amp like a fender that couldn’t go into drive sounds on its own at reasonable volumes than the Overdrive pedals would start to make sense.
This is the reason why I held off getting any of these pedals mentioned in the blog. If it were to
be one of them, the Pigtronix clean boost would be it. I was researching it, but so far I haven't sprung for. I just don't like the idea of messing up the tones that I now get from my Dark Terror.


adkguy07
it.

beninma
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Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by beninma » Thu Nov 08, 2018 6:30 pm

The Pigtronix Micro Clean Boost might work for me, it is cheap, but my guess is I would not like it as much as the 2-stroke... if the Pigtronix doesn't do exactly what you want in terms of what frequencies it boosts then you'd have no option of adjusting it. JHS has a little boost pedal like this too IIRC.

One of the things I want to be able to do is retain enough bass in the base sound so that it sounds the way I want, but then when kicking the pedal on it doesn't overdo the bass.

E.x. with the OCD I could dial out the bass on the amp in the base sound, then have it be right when I kick in the OCD since it boosts the bass so much. But then the base sound would sound thin... with the 2-stroke I can have the Bass up on the amp where I want it and then use the EQ to make sure the bass doesn't get boosted too much.

For straight up boost with no EQ I'd be tempted to assemble my own from one of the kits.. seems like a good place to start.

Les Paul Lover
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Location: Derby, England

Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by Les Paul Lover » Thu Nov 08, 2018 7:33 pm

adkguy07 wrote:
Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:40 pm
beninma wrote:
Thu Nov 08, 2018 2:36 pm
I’ve actually found it possible to still play with loud & soft dynamics with the Kongpressor but I do think I’d agree playing with it with the amp setup at the edge of breakup music would make it harder to play some notes clean and some dirty. I love playing in that zone too. But I mostly use the Kongpressor with the clean channel to keep the sound from breaking up at all.

I’ve kind of been going through the exercises of buying ODs ever since I got my Rocker 15 including the ones recommended on the Orange website with mostly disappointment.

I feel like if someone had tried to educate me about boosting vs overdrive that would have been really helpful. As far as I can tell the clean boost type pedals work a heck of a lot better for an Orange amp set at the edge of break up because all you have to do is kick the amp over the edge.

For example I got an OCD after looking at the Orange blog. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get a great sound out of the 2-stroke for me than the OCD cause it seems like the OCD is always adding a little too much gain and sends the bass out of control.

I get the impression that if I had a really clean amp like a fender that couldn’t go into drive sounds on its own at reasonable volumes than the Overdrive pedals would start to make sense.
This is the reason why I held off getting any of these pedals mentioned in the blog. If it were to
be one of them, the Pigtronix clean boost would be it. I was researching it, but so far I haven't sprung for. I just don't like the idea of messing up the tones that I now get from my Dark Terror.


adkguy07
it.
For boosting for more from the edge of break up, i love my Digitech Hardwire CM-2 tube overdrive. A bit like a tube screamer, but with flat EQ and independent treble and bass controls.
It isn t a super high gain pedal, and is great at giving an extra volume and gain kick whilst really sounding like your amp.... with the possibility to boost either treble or bass if needed.
Ant

Orange Gear: RV50 MKI, R30, AD15, PPC212
And.... Genz Benz Black Pearl 30
Past Orange: AD30TC Combo, TT, AD5


Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Standard Faded, Vigier Expert Retro 54, Gibson SG 70s Tribute, Aria Pro II RS X80, G&L ASAT Special Tribute

beninma
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Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by beninma » Mon Nov 26, 2018 2:44 pm

Man.. I've been using the Two-Stroke more as a booster lately.

It just can't seem to be beat.

I picked up an EHX Soul Food used last week, tried that as the basic idea behind the Klon type pedals sounded like maybe it'd work. I like it, it is in the right ballpark.

It still doesn't sound as good as the Two Stroke though.

That ability to dial in exactly what frequency range you want to boost is just crazy.. and you get so much clarity at the same time, and with tons of touch sensitivity and ability to get what you need out of the volume knob.

I think I'm done with pedals that do any intentional clipping of the signal other than Fuzz pedals, at least as long as I'm using my Rocker 15.

I've been using the Fur Coat lately too, it really is great. Very hard to pick between the Fur Coat and a Big Muff though.

adkguy07
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Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by adkguy07 » Mon Nov 26, 2018 6:04 pm

beninma,

Glad you like it! I like the tone of my Dark Terror and without OD or boost pedals, but the Two
Stroke would be acceptable. I also have a ‘Fish n' Chips” eq. that I've yet to use with this DT. I
will try that first.

adkguy07

adkguy07
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Posts: 252
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Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by adkguy07 » Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:56 am

beninma and Les Paul Lover,

How do each of you go about setting up your amp before adding the pedals that you mentioned?
Namely: Orange Two Stroke and the Hardwire CM?

Here's how I set my Dark Terror.....

With each of my two Les Pauls dictating these settings, I use a slight to medium gain setting from
11 to 12 o'clock on the Dark Terror. The volume is just slightly below that noon setting; the Shape
knob set for a clear but full tone say, around 2 o'clock. This allows me to roll my guitar volumes
down or up from 8.5 to 10 to go from “clean” to grit....that “Orange” grit. I just use one reverb
pedal in the amp's loop...for just a slight amount.

Is this in the ballpark or “soccer pitch” as the case may be?


adkguy07

Les Paul Lover
Duke of Orange
Posts: 6821
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:08 am
Location: Derby, England

Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by Les Paul Lover » Tue Nov 27, 2018 1:18 pm

adkguy07 wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:56 am
beninma and Les Paul Lover,

How do each of you go about setting up your amp before adding the pedals that you mentioned?
Namely: Orange Two Stroke and the Hardwire CM?

Here's how I set my Dark Terror.....

With each of my two Les Pauls dictating these settings, I use a slight to medium gain setting from
11 to 12 o'clock on the Dark Terror. The volume is just slightly below that noon setting; the Shape
knob set for a clear but full tone say, around 2 o'clock. This allows me to roll my guitar volumes
down or up from 8.5 to 10 to go from “clean” to grit....that “Orange” grit. I just use one reverb
pedal in the amp's loop...for just a slight amount.

Is this in the ballpark or “soccer pitch” as the case may be?


adkguy07
Settings are really dependant on how YOU use your amp. With my single channel amps (AD15 and Genz Benz Black Pearl 30), I set them to a point where I can play clean when playing softly, and get some light crunch when digging in. Fuzz, OD and boost for more or different flavour.

I get more with pedals after that, though I don't need masses of gain. I don't use my guitar volume or tone knobs either.
So for me, on the AD15, I set the gain between 9 and 11 o'clock depending in mood and guitars, but the AD15 is very low gain. Only 2 stages compared to 4 in the dark terror.

But all that is very dependant on both your amp and how you want to use it.
Ant

Orange Gear: RV50 MKI, R30, AD15, PPC212
And.... Genz Benz Black Pearl 30
Past Orange: AD30TC Combo, TT, AD5


Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Standard Faded, Vigier Expert Retro 54, Gibson SG 70s Tribute, Aria Pro II RS X80, G&L ASAT Special Tribute

adkguy07
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Posts: 252
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 3:46 pm
Location: Upstate New York

Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by adkguy07 » Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:02 pm

Les Paul Lover wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 1:18 pm
adkguy07 wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:56 am
beninma and Les Paul Lover,

How do each of you go about setting up your amp before adding the pedals that you mentioned?
Namely: Orange Two Stroke and the Hardwire CM?

Here's how I set my Dark Terror.....

With each of my two Les Pauls dictating these settings, I use a slight to medium gain setting from
11 to 12 o'clock on the Dark Terror. The volume is just slightly below that noon setting; the Shape
knob set for a clear but full tone say, around 2 o'clock. This allows me to roll my guitar volumes
down or up from 8.5 to 10 to go from “clean” to grit....that “Orange” grit. I just use one reverb
pedal in the amp's loop...for just a slight amount.

Is this in the ballpark or “soccer pitch” as the case may be?


adkguy07
Settings are really dependant on how YOU use your amp. With my single channel amps (AD15 and Genz Benz Black Pearl 30), I set them to a point where I can play clean when playing softly, and get some light crunch when digging in. Fuzz, OD and boost for more or different flavour.

I get more with pedals after that, though I don't need masses of gain. I don't use my guitar volume or tone knobs either.
So for me, on the AD15, I set the gain between 9 and 11 o'clock depending in mood and guitars, but the AD15 is very low gain. Only 2 stages compared to 4 in the dark terror.

But all that is very dependant on both your amp and how you want to use it.
That's a big help to me, and thank you! When you note that you don't use volumes or tone....I
would take that to mean that you keep them on 10?


adkguy07

Les Paul Lover
Duke of Orange
Posts: 6821
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:08 am
Location: Derby, England

Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by Les Paul Lover » Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:23 pm

adkguy07 wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:02 pm
Les Paul Lover wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 1:18 pm
adkguy07 wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:56 am
beninma and Les Paul Lover,

How do each of you go about setting up your amp before adding the pedals that you mentioned?
Namely: Orange Two Stroke and the Hardwire CM?

Here's how I set my Dark Terror.....

With each of my two Les Pauls dictating these settings, I use a slight to medium gain setting from
11 to 12 o'clock on the Dark Terror. The volume is just slightly below that noon setting; the Shape
knob set for a clear but full tone say, around 2 o'clock. This allows me to roll my guitar volumes
down or up from 8.5 to 10 to go from “clean” to grit....that “Orange” grit. I just use one reverb
pedal in the amp's loop...for just a slight amount.

Is this in the ballpark or “soccer pitch” as the case may be?


adkguy07
Settings are really dependant on how YOU use your amp. With my single channel amps (AD15 and Genz Benz Black Pearl 30), I set them to a point where I can play clean when playing softly, and get some light crunch when digging in. Fuzz, OD and boost for more or different flavour.

I get more with pedals after that, though I don't need masses of gain. I don't use my guitar volume or tone knobs either.
So for me, on the AD15, I set the gain between 9 and 11 o'clock depending in mood and guitars, but the AD15 is very low gain. Only 2 stages compared to 4 in the dark terror.

But all that is very dependant on both your amp and how you want to use it.
That's a big help to me, and thank you! When you note that you don't use volumes or tone....I
would take that to mean that you keep them on 10?


adkguy07

Yes, on full all the time. :D

Some people manage to work them whilst playing, I can't. :?
Ant

Orange Gear: RV50 MKI, R30, AD15, PPC212
And.... Genz Benz Black Pearl 30
Past Orange: AD30TC Combo, TT, AD5


Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Standard Faded, Vigier Expert Retro 54, Gibson SG 70s Tribute, Aria Pro II RS X80, G&L ASAT Special Tribute

beninma
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Posts: 45
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 2:37 pm

Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by beninma » Tue Nov 27, 2018 3:37 pm

Yah it's definitely very amp specific.

99% of the time I set my Rocker 15's dirty channel up like this:

Gain - between noon and 1 o'clock. (I have single coils that are not "hot")
Volume - 4-5 range
Tone - Mostly around noon. Usually reduce bass a little, possibly raise mids a little, possibly raise treble a little

This gets me in the range of being able to play distorted or semi-clean based on attack. Then I can have totally clean on the clean channel, crunch on the dirty channel, and then boost the dirty channel to have a higher gain sound. If you are in an environment where you can play really loud I'd maybe increase gain a little more and then control things with the guitar volume. I use my tone knob a lot too FWIW, my guitar is a Telecaster and with the Rocker it has a ton of stinging treble available if you max the tone knob.

That seems to be a quirk of the Rocker 15 & my Telecaster that it likes the tone around noon? When I play on a Orange Crush 35RT I need to make wild changes to the tone stack to get a good sound. That amp I still like the Gain & Volume in the same place as my Rocker but on the tone I roll the bass almost all the way off on the Crush, roll the mids back to about 9-10 o'clock, and have to boost the treble up to 1-2 o'clock. I practice on a Crush at least once a week as they have them in the rehearsal rooms where I take lessons.

I mostly don't like overdrives with it. But for the 2 stroke like I said I boost the whole signal with the oil knob and then setup one of the dials to boost around 800hz a bit more.

I have been learning Tush by ZZ top lately.. this setup turning the Two Stroke on sounds really great for that kind of sound.

For Fuzzes I often like to keep the actual fuzz knob pretty low. On both my Op Amp Big Muff & the Orange Fur Coat I often like the Fuzz around 9 O'clock and then dial in the volume knob & tone from there. On the Fur Coat the octave knob likes to be turned pretty far up, more like 3 o'clock. (But beyond there it starts picking up radio stations!) On the dirty channel of my amp that gets me a slightly fuzzy tone as opposed to a wall of fuzz sound. Great for something like a Black Sabbath type sound. (Works for stuff like ZZ top too, neither of these bands used fuzz AFAICT). Obviously the wall of fuzz sound is great for certain things.

adkguy07
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Re: Thoughts on some Orange pedals...

Post by adkguy07 » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:19 pm

Thanks to you both for your insights. The Two Stroke interests me in that it leaves the basic tone that I set on my Dark Terror alone, but I would have the option of creating a “faux” 2nd. channel
on this amp (It's a single channel amp,although 4 stages of gain). Would this not be true; if I were to boost the right frequencies on the TS pedal and activate it, I would have the option of another boost on my bridge pickup for soloing? Yes. the neck pickup also?

I usually set my DT amp up so that I can get a good Orange “grind” happening and I'm still in the
2nd. gain stage.

adkguy07

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