Orange Rockerverb MkII opinions?

StefB

Hi all,

My first post on the Fretboard!  Taken me a while to get my bearings post-MR, but good to see a lot of familiar names on here and business as usual.

Any road, have any of you tried the MkII Rockerverb range, particularly the 2x12 50 watt combo?  I'm liking what I see and hear on reviews around the net, and the improvements over the MkI seem to make good sense to me, although owners of the 6V6 powered MkIs will never agree.

I'm keen to hear thoughts on how it will compare tonally to my Marshall JVM410 combo.  The JVM will be far more versatile of course, particularly from a functions band perspective, but I'm not in such a band at the moment, and I'm assuming from what I've read over the years that the Orange should be superior tonally, build-wise and in terms of outright cool?

But do educate me otherwise if all this isn't the case.  I'm thinking it will also help me concentrate on actually playing more, and working the guitar's volume and tone pots, rather than endlessly buggering about with channel swicthing and MIDI etc.

Drew_TNBD

Hi Stef!

I had the MKI of these amps for a while. They've got lovely cleans and they have the *best* amp reverb I've ever heard. I also have a JVMJS. I think the Orange does that sort of sludgy high-gain sound really well; quite doomy amps. But if you want to do metal or hard-rock tones, I actually think the JVM is better. The Orange is best coloured with pedals in my opinion; set the amp to have a crunchy tone, and use a pedal to push it into high-gain territory.

The reason I sold mine was because it just wasn't doing the tones I wanted and was a bit limiting. The JVM fulfills all my tones, but it doesn't really do the doom sludge sound that Orange is so good at. Cleans I'd say the Orange is marginally superior to the Marshall. But there isn't that much in it and I'd be happy to use either.

So it really depends what you're after.

StefB

Thanks Drew, appreciate your input.

I think with the deal on offer it is worth a punt, so I'll just have to make my mind up now!

ThePrettyDamned

RIP HIS HAND OFF!

Okay, I don't know how good that price is.  But the Rockerverb Mk 2 is capable of more than the sludgy stuff.  If you want to hear some more typical tones, a great deal of Slipknot's "All Hope Is Gone" album is a Rockerverb Mk 2 and some kind of Diezel.  On tour, they use Rockerverbs, too.  They can also get a pretty good Maiden - esque tone, and it's very capable of that 80's style 'Steel Panther' tone that I love so much.

I tried one and it was fantastic! It could still do the doomy stuff, but it was capable of pretty tight gain, too.  It's got far too much gain on tap though, you'll never push it past 6 or 7!

ddlooping

Welcome to  theFB   Stef.

StefB

ddlooping said:

Welcome to  theFB   Stef.

Athankyou!

Lodious

That price is fantastic, I think is a no brainer. The only downside is they weigh a ton! If your OK with that, i'd go for it.

Parker

Yep great price. I've had both. Prefer the mk1 for sound, features and look wise. But mk2 still a great amp. Think they struggle to sell though due to ugliness!

StefB

Parker said:

Yep great price. I've had both. Prefer the mk1 for sound, features and look wise. But mk2 still a great amp. Think they struggle to sell though due to ugliness!

Really?  I've read that Mk1 diehards don't much care for the Mk2 looks, but I'd never have thought it would affect resale.  I think they look good, and prefer control panels on the front personally as I use my amps raised off the floor.  Difficult to tell what the Mk1 even is from the front, could just be an extension cab from a distance.

You hardly see any used ones up for grabs come to think of it, so folks must hang on to them, which is usually a good sign.

Interesting that you prefer the Mk1 for features, as doesn't it have less features than the Mk2?!