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Orange Rocker 15 Terror questions

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:15 pm
by Distortion_101
Hi all!

I've been playing with my Rocker 15 Terror for a while and am looking for a way to improve it.

Basically I'm looking for a way to make the gain knob have a wider sweep, for a more useful range. How it is setup now means 50 percent of the knob is useless.

Right now, my amp acts like the below with Dirty channel volume at halfway:

Gain Knob Range
0 - 3: Barely Audible
3 - 5. Quiet, and thinner than clean channel. Pretty unusable. Natural channel volume at 0.5 is equal perceived volume
5 - 6: Bit of Overdrive and bite, light blues tones. Natural channel volume at 3 is equal perceived volume
6 - 7: Blues and classic rock can all be found in this range. Natural channel volume at 5 is equal perceived volume
7 - 8: Classic to hard rock (Alice in Chains level). Natural channel volume at 6.5 is equal perceived volume
8 - 10: Heavy, bassy chug, definite more modern hard rock territory . Natural channel volume at 8 is equal perceived volume

I would like the amp to act more like the following, giving a wider range on the knob for each tone/genre/gain level:
0 - 2: Thin (thinner than clean channel) and pretty unusable. Natural channel volume at 0.5 is equal perceived volume
2 - 3.5: Bit of Overdrive and bite, light blues tones. Natural channel volume at 3 is equal perceived volume
3.5 - 6.5: Blues and classic rock can all be found in this range. Natural channel volume at 5 is equal perceived volume
6.5 - 8: Classic to hard rock (Alice in Chains level). Natural channel volume at 6.5 is equal perceived volume
8 - 10: Heavy, bassy chug, definite more modern hard rock territory . Natural channel volume at 8 is equal perceived volume

Is this possible?

The amp has a Dual Gang audio taper pot. Would a logarithmic taper perhaps make the gain knob increase more gradually with a wider sweep? This means instead of squeezing blues tones out of 2 notches (5 - 7), i can now squeeze it out of a wider range (2 -7) which gives me more control of the available gain.

Looking forward to any help here
Thanks!

Re: Orange Rocker 15 Terror questions

Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:27 am
by Les Paul Lover
Distortion_101 wrote:
Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:15 pm


The amp has a Dual Gang audio taper pot. Would a logarithmic taper perhaps make the gain knob increase more gradually with a wider sweep? This means instead of squeezing blues tones out of 2 notches (5 - 7), i can now squeeze it out of a wider range (2 -7) which gives me more control of the available gain.

Looking forward to any help here
Thanks!
An audio taper pot is a logarithmic pot.

Since you want to accelerate the sweep, it's quite possible a linear pot would achieve that.

I would be interested to hear your findings if you go ahead with that.

I have a R30 and the gain channel behaves similarly.

Re: Orange Rocker 15 Terror questions

Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 8:21 pm
by Distortion_101
Les Paul Lover wrote:
Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:27 am
An audio taper pot is a logarithmic pot.

Since you want to accelerate the sweep, it's quite possible a linear pot would achieve that.

I would be interested to hear your findings if you go ahead with that.

I have a R30 and the gain channel behaves similarly.
Sorry that's what I meant, a linear pot!

The problem is, i don't want it to do the opposite, basically make 0 - 3 the quiet to classic rock range, and then 3 - 10 to be hard rock level.

Curious if anyone else has done this before i rip into my in warranty amp.

Re: Orange Rocker 15 Terror questions

Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:15 pm
by Jondog
Below half is normally the way you describe it and it’s because most of the signal is being sent to ground. You could mod the amp and put a resistor off lug one on the pot so it’s always set to have at least “x” amount of gain. You really can’t compare volumes between channels. They need to be treated like two separate amps...because they kind of are, just sharing a power amp thats only going to amplify the signal it sees. Linear taper may help the distortion increase more gradual, but for volume you want audio taper (log).

Re: Orange Rocker 15 Terror questions

Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 9:37 pm
by northernguitarguy
This may be a dumb question, but have you tried other preamp tubes? Or do you already know that that couldn't give you the subtle change you seek?

Re: Orange Rocker 15 Terror questions

Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:18 am
by Distortion_101
wont a lower gain tube like a 5751 make the gain lower/quieter, meaning the max gain will be reduced, but the floor (gain from 5 and up) increase cause there is less gain?

this would reduce the usable gain. Although i think it would definitely make the amp more of a blues amp and increase the versatility in that range

Re: Orange Rocker 15 Terror questions

Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:04 am
by JJJ
the easiest thing you can do is play with lower gain preamp tubes before you modify anything

So maybe some selected low gain stuff, or 5751s, or a 12ay7 etc. I have tried a 5751 and 12ay7 in an ad30 because the preamp vol/gain didn't do much some of the way, had a sweet spot around 2 o'clock and then the rest was useless. Didn't notice much difference with the 5751 but with the 12ay it's a lot more friendly