Give me a taste of Orange!?
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screamingdaisy
Well-known member
I owned an AD30, AD140, Rocker 30 and Rockerverb 50.
The Rocker 30 was the first one I had. I really liked the "Natural" channel. Cranked up to band volumes it produced a natural sort of overdrive that reminded me of a really broken up version of AC/DC. The "dirty" channel was good, but relatively generic sounding in an 80s sort of way. At 30w the amp kind of struggled with the preamp gain levels it was capable of and I could never get the amp to produce a very satisfying chug when palm muting.
My next amp and the best of the lot (IMO) is the AD30. It had a great feel to it that the others lacked. The amp is EL84 based with a tube rectifier and it produced a sag that made it a joy to play. My only complaint was that it was too distorted... when playing alongside a drummer I had the thing wound right out and had zero headroom left to work with. The overall sound was really cool but as a rhythm player I'd prefer a bit more power and dynamics left to work with.
Trading it in for an AD140 was my solution. I thought it would be like the AD30 but with more headroom. What I got was a relatively stiff amp with the tonal depth of a piece of cardboard. While the preamp voicing is largely similar (if not the same) the power section is a total 180 turn. The sag and 3D response were gone and the sound that replaced it was definitely more powerful and dynamic but relatively lifeless. To compound problems the Orange voicing doesn't generally get along with overdrive pedals, which are generally designed by people who play through a Marshall or Fender.
Last was the Rockerverb 50. By the time I'd bought this I'd gone a couple years without a high gain amp was was missing the option. I tried using distortion pedals through the AD140 but the results were lacklustre. The Rockerverb was the most disappointing amp I've played through and it was the final nail in the coffin when it came to my now dead love affair with Orange amplifiers. The clean channel was stiff and boring, only becoming marginally decent when you could turn up to loud enough volumes to elicit a little bit of grind out of it. The dirt channel was so generic it made me feel like I was playing through a Boss DS-1. The EQ was largely ineffective; it only sounded good in a very limited range of settings... all of which amounted to pretty much the exact same sound with slightly more or less T/M/B mixed in. The EQ problem is compounded by the amp being very dark... something that sounds great on it's own but makes it difficult to use the amp in a band... which is a common complaint of this series of amps. The reverb was also disappointing. It was fairly bright and clangy spring reverb with no real depth to it, and the global reverb knob caused balance issues between the two channels.
I eventually traded the Rockeverb 50 for a Dual Rectifier and haven't regretted it once. The AD140 was sold soon afterwards and I bought a Lone Star Special.
The Rocker 30 was the first one I had. I really liked the "Natural" channel. Cranked up to band volumes it produced a natural sort of overdrive that reminded me of a really broken up version of AC/DC. The "dirty" channel was good, but relatively generic sounding in an 80s sort of way. At 30w the amp kind of struggled with the preamp gain levels it was capable of and I could never get the amp to produce a very satisfying chug when palm muting.
My next amp and the best of the lot (IMO) is the AD30. It had a great feel to it that the others lacked. The amp is EL84 based with a tube rectifier and it produced a sag that made it a joy to play. My only complaint was that it was too distorted... when playing alongside a drummer I had the thing wound right out and had zero headroom left to work with. The overall sound was really cool but as a rhythm player I'd prefer a bit more power and dynamics left to work with.
Trading it in for an AD140 was my solution. I thought it would be like the AD30 but with more headroom. What I got was a relatively stiff amp with the tonal depth of a piece of cardboard. While the preamp voicing is largely similar (if not the same) the power section is a total 180 turn. The sag and 3D response were gone and the sound that replaced it was definitely more powerful and dynamic but relatively lifeless. To compound problems the Orange voicing doesn't generally get along with overdrive pedals, which are generally designed by people who play through a Marshall or Fender.
Last was the Rockerverb 50. By the time I'd bought this I'd gone a couple years without a high gain amp was was missing the option. I tried using distortion pedals through the AD140 but the results were lacklustre. The Rockerverb was the most disappointing amp I've played through and it was the final nail in the coffin when it came to my now dead love affair with Orange amplifiers. The clean channel was stiff and boring, only becoming marginally decent when you could turn up to loud enough volumes to elicit a little bit of grind out of it. The dirt channel was so generic it made me feel like I was playing through a Boss DS-1. The EQ was largely ineffective; it only sounded good in a very limited range of settings... all of which amounted to pretty much the exact same sound with slightly more or less T/M/B mixed in. The EQ problem is compounded by the amp being very dark... something that sounds great on it's own but makes it difficult to use the amp in a band... which is a common complaint of this series of amps. The reverb was also disappointing. It was fairly bright and clangy spring reverb with no real depth to it, and the global reverb knob caused balance issues between the two channels.
I eventually traded the Rockeverb 50 for a Dual Rectifier and haven't regretted it once. The AD140 was sold soon afterwards and I bought a Lone Star Special.
Cool, thanks. I wil probably still end up with the Electradyne when I find the right price on a used one. it seems every Mesa I have bought over the years, I end up selling. They just don't do it for me like a good british amp but the ED is the first that really got me going! 
screamingdaisy
Well-known member
papersoul said:Cool, thanks. I wil probably still end up with the Electradyne when I find the right price on a used one. it seems every Mesa I have bought over the years, I end up selling. They just don't do it for me like a good british amp but the ED is the first that really got me going!
I've often wondered why 99% of your posts after the last few years seem to be about Mesas when you never seem to like them...
YellowJacket
Well-known member
Sounds like a chick who keeps on going back to an abusive relationship hoping for a change...
Also sounds like me with my Dual Recto the last 10 years.
Also sounds like me with my Dual Recto the last 10 years.
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