Orange Amps Forum

Hello all. I joined this forum back when I picked up a Micro Terror, but never ended up posting anything, and forgot I even had a profile. Have something I hope will be of interest now--some shots of the Rocker 32 I picked up a couple of weeks ago. Great amp--don't ordinarily use a lot of pedals, but am feeling the need for a stereo everything now.

I emailed Orange USA and asked if they could help me out with a chart of tube functions, and heard back that they did not even have their hands on one yet, and would try to track one down for me--will post that as well if I get it.

Great info and pictures! Thanks...

and welcome to the forum!

Awesome thanks! As much as I suspected, a Dual Terror PT and two Tiny Terror OTs. Nice to see the soldered they filament wires rather than use connectors. Although they should be twisted tighter, if I'm being picky.

bclaire wrote:Great info and pictures! Thanks...

and welcome to the forum!

Thanks very much. Glad to be of help.

Jondog wrote:Awesome thanks! As much as I suspected, a Dual Terror PT and two Tiny Terror OTs. Nice to see the soldered they filament wires rather than use connectors. Although they should be twisted tighter, if I'm being picky.

Sure thing. I like the ideas that went into putting this thing together.

Hey....

I'm really confused... the tube/ valve chart doesn't jive with what I see for tubes. Something's wrong there.

Let me know what you think is off, and I will double-check it, but when I looked at all the tubes with the chassis positioned like below, everything checked out. I also meant to note previously that the amp came with all JJs except for the 12AT7s, which are Rubys.

Well, it says three rows when there are only two. It say the output tubes are two EL84'2 on the left and two on the right. There aren't four EL84's anywhere I can see...

Or are there tubes under those metal covers?

EDIT: ok, looks like they are under those covers. Looks tricky to quickly replace those if need be...

They have locked the power tubes down tight for sure--each of those covers is held in with eight screws, and then each power tube has a heavy-duty retainer with dampeners. The amp starts getting a little buzzy when I start turning it up, and while it could also still be the cab (tuned some, but not all, of it out by tightening screws all around), I have been wondering whether it might be one or both of those covers vibrating--I might have to take them off to see.

Other random things I've done with this amp so far, just for the heck of it:

--Guitar into Micro Terror, then out of headphone jack into the R32 effects loop return L-R, for a nice MT-flavored "third" channel

--iPod into effects loop return L-R to help break in the speakers -- makes for a tube boombox with some power.

The EL84's are under those metal cages. The amp has two separate 15W, push and pull, cathode biased output sections. You can see the output transformer primary leads (red and black, and brown for the center tap) running to each pair (and obviously, the two output transformers on the top of the chassis).

Those output transformers appear to have 8 ohm taps on them that are unused and terminated on the board (the orange leads). If someone with an amp in the flesh can confirm that, it might be useful to some people who were curious about speaker swaps or using a remote cab on the other side of the stage.

I'd venture a guess that they're Tiny terror output transformers (and the TT has that 8 ohm tap):
https://nbhuachi.en.alibaba.com/product ... 0.0.37bcGF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It looks like it's set up for 120V, but doesn't have the option to switch (no leads on the other side).

It's nice to see the new amps getting away from those underrated problematic push on connectors. They hard wired the pre-tube heaters here, though the EL84s must be on PCB traces on the topside of the board. Noise isn't as much of an issue in the output stage.

-Nick

fiveightandten wrote:The EL84's are under those metal cages. The amp has two separate 15W, push and pull, cathode biased output sections. You can see the output transformer primary leads (red and black, and brown for the center tap) running to each pair (and obviously, the two output transformers on the top of the chassis).

-Nick

@fiveightandten - Would this imply that the Rocker 15 is also cathode biased?

paulphoenix wrote:

fiveightandten wrote:The EL84's are under those metal cages. The amp has two separate 15W, push and pull, cathode biased output sections. You can see the output transformer primary leads (red and black, and brown for the center tap) running to each pair (and obviously, the two output transformers on the top of the chassis).

-Nick

@fiveightandten - Would this imply that the Rocker 15 is also cathode biased?

Yep. As was the original 2x EL34 Rocker 30.

Man, those tube cages are crazy! EIGHT screws?!? I don't get it. Is there some other functionality, other than protection? Pseudo heat sinks?

langmurf wrote:Man, those tube cages are crazy! EIGHT screws?!? I don't get it. Is there some other functionality, other than protection? Pseudo heat sinks?

I wish I knew--if they're just to protect the tubes, they seem like overkill, since the tubes aren't really exposed to being knocked around in any way inside the cab. They aren't touching the tubes, but maybe they are drawing some heat off of them? I did notice yesterday that the power tubes glow very brightly, even at half power, so they might be biased pretty hot.

Liking this amp more and more every day. I haven't even turned on any of my other amps since I picked it up, and in fact have put a few up for sale (all four- or five-watt combos that, while cool in their own ways, have now been rendered obsolete for me--no real need anymore for amps that have to be turned up all the way to get their desired tone).

I'm wondering if they're there to block possible interference coming off the opposite power amp circuit. Eight screws each seems a bit overkill to me, and a pain in the ( l ). The heavy transformers only need four!

Jondog wrote:I'm wondering if they're there to block possible interference coming off the opposite power amp circuit. Eight screws each seems a bit overkill to me, and a pain in the ( l ). The heavy transformers only need four!

I just played through the amp with the covers removed to test your theory. While it wasn't exactly a controlled experiment, it made no difference that I could hear in the sound of the amp--each side and channel sounded fine, and there was no increase in hum. If I end up hearing back from Orange about the tube layout, I will ask if they are supposed to serve any purpose other than protection. One thing's for sure--those 16 screws will not be coming out again until they have to (I like Sylvania EL84s, and might spring for a matched quad eventually to see if they make any difference in this amp).

Breaking in the speakers seems to be doing the amp some good--I feel like it's getting a little bassier.