Speaking of Rocker 15/32 static on volume knob

[beninma]

I saw the other contentious thread.

I'm not going to try and fan any flames here.

Who else has had the "static on the volume knob" thing? I have always had it on my Rocker 15, but only on the natural channel. I talked to Orange about it last year and they said it was probably grid leakage on the preamp tube and I could replace the tube if I wanted to.

I still have not done it, the static does not really bother me. The only thing I wonder is if it is negatively affecting the sound of the amp the rest of the time. I often feel like the natural channel is "metallic" or slightly too bright compared to the dirty channel. I play a Telecaster and play clean a lot of the time (though I love the dirty channel too!) so clean sounds are kind of important to me. I have plugged my Taylor acoustic into the natural channel a few times too and I would say the metallic sound is there on that guitar too even though it's a very different guitar & pickup setup. Both guitars have a tone knob though and it works, especially on the Tele. (And that's really only a thing with the bridge pickup.)

Anyway.. has anyone replaced their preamp tube on the natural channel and see the static effect go away? Any change in the sound of the channel? If anything I would actually perhaps like the natural channel to stay cleaner a bit longer as I turn up the volume on the amp. It depends on the music but sometimes I don't want it to grit up chords as much. I can change this a bit via an EQ pedal (I have a 2-stroke) or by turning the volume knob down on the guitar. The guitar volume knob kind of robs tone for this though I think, and it's difficult to get the 2-stroke adjusted in a way that sounds good with all pickup positions.

I keep waiting for some of the websites that sell tubes to offer tubes for the Rocker 15/32 so if I were to replace the tube someone can take all the guessworking out of picking a tube for me.

[Les Paul Lover]

If you feel the clean channel is a bit too bright, you could try a JJ in there.

They have less treble than either EH or Chinese valves.

[Les Paul Lover]

I wanted to add, we've had a small number of threads over the last year querying that static noise when moving the volume with amps made in China, using Chinese preamp valves.

It's difficult and easy to make assumptions - Orange sell a lot of terror series amps, and by the volume sold, the number of queries relating to that issue isn't huge, but occasionally comes up.

In the mid 2000, Orange switch from JJ preamp valves to Chinese preamp valves as the JJ quality in that respect went down. I believe JJ have upped their game since. It's possible the QC on Chinese preamp valves isn't as good as it should be at the moment, but from what we see on this forum, we cant really say that as the issue is reported only very occasionally.

[beninma]

I could have sworn Orange tech support told me the Rocker 15 already has JJ tubes.

This stuff is so hard to tell. The amp doesn't feel the same every day. There's a lot going on.

If I run the clean channel at a higher power setting with the volume lower it seems to sound better than a lower power setting with a higher volume.

Overall I just love the thing to death. More just curious if a new tube would get rid of the static AND make it sound even better.

I took the 2-stroke EQ off my pedal board recently as this stuff is bugging me less. The tone knob on my guitar does just as good of a job and I changed string brand on my Tele recently and that also seems to make it get along better with my Rocker 15.

But overall, hard to say just how much I love the amp. I had a little journey trying to get rid of hum/buzz but none of that has ever been the amps fault, it's always been a really quiet amp. I wish pedals were as quiet at the amp!