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Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:45 am
by some_math_guy
I love Orange tone and I'm looking for a 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock. It also has to have enough clean headroom for cleans at a similar volume as the dirt channel. I mostly play a Gibson LP with 7-8K Alnico 2 humbuckers (59N and Custom Custom) with pull-pots for coil splitting, so they're not very hot pickups.

Does anyone have advice or recommendations for any specific Orange amps that would meet my needs, or how to set up a specific Orange amp and/or use my guitar volume/pull pots to accomplish this?

I own and have borrowed and A/B'd a number of Orange amps to try to figure this out including a TH30, Rocker 30, Rockerverb 50 MKI, and Rocker 15, playing through a well- broken in PPC212, and here are my observations:

The TH30 had an amazing, loud and beautiful clean channel with lots of headroom, it's by far my favorite clean of the bunch. But, the dirty tone was way too harsh, tight, and metal for my taste, no matter what cab, tubes, or mods I did to it. So The TH30 was a no - I sold it.

The Rocker 30 has the most amazing sounding dirty channel, so much fun to play and beautifully uncompressed and punchy. By far my favorite dirty channel. But, the clean channel struck me as very flat and lifeless, and it couldn't come anywhere near the volume of the dirty channel, and it doesn't have much headroom either. Also, it has no effects loop.

I currently own a Rockerverb 50 MKI, but I find the Dirty channel quite 'grainy' and compressed and kind of 'clacky', I honestly don't like it much. The Natural channel is pretty good though; better than the Rocker 30, but not as nice as the TH30.

I also own a Rocker 15 combo, and I like the Dirty channel much more than the Rockerverb - through the PPC212, it sounds and feels very similar to the Rocker 30, just without the awesome thundering low end coming from the Rocker 30's EL34s. It also has a nice clean channel, but again the clean channel can't come close to matching the dirty channel in volume while still staying clean. In fact, it starts to break up around 1 o'clock on Natural volume, which is much, much quieter than the Dirty channel.

I have tried things like turning the Natural channel volume up to around 9-10 o'clock, and then using my guitar volume to clean up, but it just doesn't sound that great either. Ditto to using the pull pot to coil split, it cleans up some, but the volume drops significantly too. Diming the Natural channel results in power tube distortion no matter what pickups I'm using.

Please, any suggestions, comments, or feedback is really appreciated!

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 11:58 am
by Jondog
See if you can track down an OR100

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 2:22 pm
by Hubaxe
yes, OR 100 or a Dual Dark for the modern side and a touch of high gain.

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:08 pm
by afjungemann
AD30TC might be up your alley. The OR100 doesn't really cover much different ground than a Rockerverb to my ear but I really like the OR100 and the Rockerverb so others might have a better ear for it.

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:21 pm
by Dark Helmet
AD30TC/HTC...

That's basically my personal play list (ex Stoner Rock, I actually don't even know what that is...), and the AD30 is hands-down the best of the Oranges I own for that purpose.

best classic-rock tones were with an AD30HTC into an avatar 412 w/split V30s & G12Hs

best alt-rock was with my combo, it's saggier (which I think is a function of the speakers being gloriously beat-in and the OB cab).

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:35 pm
by Les Paul Lover
some_math_guy wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:45 am
I love Orange tone and I'm looking for a 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock. It also has to have enough clean headroom for cleans at a similar volume as the dirt channel. I mostly play a Gibson LP with 7-8K Alnico 2 humbuckers (59N and Custom Custom) with pull-pots for coil splitting, so they're not very hot pickups.

Does anyone have advice or recommendations for any specific Orange amps that would meet my needs, or how to set up a specific Orange amp and/or use my guitar volume/pull pots to accomplish this?

I own and have borrowed and A/B'd a number of Orange amps to try to figure this out including a TH30, Rocker 30, Rockerverb 50 MKI, and Rocker 15, playing through a well- broken in PPC212, and here are my observations:

The TH30 had an amazing, loud and beautiful clean channel with lots of headroom, it's by far my favorite clean of the bunch. But, the dirty tone was way too harsh, tight, and metal for my taste, no matter what cab, tubes, or mods I did to it. So The TH30 was a no - I sold it.

The Rocker 30 has the most amazing sounding dirty channel, so much fun to play and beautifully uncompressed and punchy. By far my favorite dirty channel. But, the clean channel struck me as very flat and lifeless, and it couldn't come anywhere near the volume of the dirty channel, and it doesn't have much headroom either. Also, it has no effects loop.

I currently own a Rockerverb 50 MKI, but I find the Dirty channel quite 'grainy' and compressed and kind of 'clacky', I honestly don't like it much. The Natural channel is pretty good though; better than the Rocker 30, but not as nice as the TH30.

I also own a Rocker 15 combo, and I like the Dirty channel much more than the Rockerverb - through the PPC212, it sounds and feels very similar to the Rocker 30, just without the awesome thundering low end coming from the Rocker 30's EL34s. It also has a nice clean channel, but again the clean channel can't come close to matching the dirty channel in volume while still staying clean. In fact, it starts to break up around 1 o'clock on Natural volume, which is much, much quieter than the Dirty channel.

I have tried things like turning the Natural channel volume up to around 9-10 o'clock, and then using my guitar volume to clean up, but it just doesn't sound that great either. Ditto to using the pull pot to coil split, it cleans up some, but the volume drops significantly too. Diming the Natural channel results in power tube distortion no matter what pickups I'm using.

Please, any suggestions, comments, or feedback is really appreciated!
Re: RV50 MKI sounding grainy/clacky, could you explain that a bit more? I know it's very difficult to describe guitar tones.

I would have thought the R30 should be you perfect amp really.
I've dropped a Tungsram ECC83 in V1, which has done wonders for the clean channel, but it still is what it is - a fixed flat EQ channel.
As for the volume mismatch, lots of people have said they used a clean boosy on the clean channel with great effect to get lots more volume from the natural channel. With only 1 gain stage, this channel has no preamp dirt at all. You can boost it quite a bit more.

Then just leave the boost as always on for both channels and adjust the volume/gain to suit on the dirty channel.

Assuming you have a clean boost, it costs nothing to try that.

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:25 am
by Ronnie Robinson
OK I've owned several Rocker 30s

As you like the dirty channel sounds much stick with it .. Use the natural channel on Max, sounds great like this and if you need it boosted use an xotic ep booster, this pedal really suits the natural channel.

But if not clean enough then ad30 head or combo... Very versatile, when set clean it's really sweet !

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:39 am
by Jondog
Ronnie Robinson wrote:
Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:25 am
OK I've owned several Rocker 30s

As you like the dirty channel sounds much stick with it .. Use the natural channel on Max, sounds great like this and if you need it boosted use an xotic ep booster, this pedal really suits the natural channel.
Agree 100%. Even a tubescreamer or RC boost

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 6:35 am
by Ronnie Robinson
The xotic Ep booster, set low, also sweetens the natural channel up and adds life at lower volume settings!

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 1:02 am
by some_math_guy
Thanks so much for the feedback guys. I borrowed my buddy's Rocker 30 again today and played through it for like 90 mins, it rules! So much fun to play.

The clean channel is not bad on it's own, it is just WAYY quieter than the dirty at just before edge-of-breakup volume, which is only 12 o'clock on the Natural volume with my Les Paul. Any higher than that on the volume dial, and it starts to break up into light overdrive. I tried using both a clean boost and a treble booster with various level, gain, and EQ settings to try to get more volume out of the clean channel without pushing it into overdrive, and I can indeed get somewhat more clean volume this way, but it's still nowhere near loud enough to match the dirty channel. It's like the clean channel is from a 15W tube amp, but the dirty channel is a 50W tube amp.

I'm going to keep trying different clean boost settings on the Rocker 30. I'm also going to try rolling some different tubes in my Rockerverb 50, and doing some more A/Bing between the Rocker 30, Rockerverb 50, and my Rocker 15 through different cabs to see if my current amps can get close to the Rocker 30. Man that thing is SICK.

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 1:14 am
by Jondog
People tend to miss the reason its called the “Natural” channel and not “Clean” like the other amps like the Rockerverb. It’s really best cranked for power tube distortion. It works as a clean channel, but not really what it’s designed to be. Cranked you max out the volume of the power amp. Ade says if you have a good guitar it will sound great, if you don’t you won’t.

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 1:24 pm
by bclaire
Try an AD30TC. It's exactly what you are looking for.

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2019 11:35 am
by some_math_guy
So I decided to retube the Rockerverb 50 MKI with JJ's and a Ruby in the PI, and it sounds so much better...the cleans are sparkly and the dirty channel sounds a lot more like the Rocker 30!

Mullards sounded harsh and thin in the natural/dirty, JJ's brought back that thick ballsy Orange gain. I tried a JJ in the PI slot and it gave the dirty channel more oomph, but it harshed up the clean channel so I put a Ruby in there instead and got a sweet balance between killer dirt and awesome clean with great headroom.

I love my Rockerverb again!!!

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2019 9:04 pm
by Les Paul Lover
some_math_guy wrote:
Mon Apr 01, 2019 11:35 am
So I decided to retube the Rockerverb 50 MKI with JJ's and a Ruby in the PI, and it sounds so much better...the cleans are sparkly and the dirty channel sounds a lot more like the Rocker 30!

Mullards sounded harsh and thin in the natural/dirty, JJ's brought back that thick ballsy Orange gain. I tried a JJ in the PI slot and it gave the dirty channel more oomph, but it harshed up the clean channel so I put a Ruby in there instead and got a sweet balance between killer dirt and awesome clean with great headroom.

I love my Rockerverb again!!!

Woohoo!!!

I love happy endings!!!!!

Re: Best 2-channel Orange amp that can cover classic rock, 90's alternative rock, and stoner rock?

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:17 am
by Dale2
My Rockerverb 50 Mk III seems like it would be perfect for that range of uses. The Mk III sounds difeerent from previous versions ... to me anyway.