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Orange Crush Pro CR60C

HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9657
edited April 2016 in Amp Reviews
This amp is a 60W analogue solid-state 1x12 master-volume combo bought from Nevada Music for £315 back in January. The retail price was actually £369 but Nevada were offering a 15% discount at the time. 

I like that this amp is designed as a giggable, rather than a bedroom, amp. This means no built-in effects (other than reverb), no built-in tuner, no aux in, and headphones out sockets. Just a simple straightforward amp. 

The control panel is simplicity itself with Orange's usual easy to understand hieroglyphics. There are two channels - 'Clean' and 'Dirty'. 'Clean' is exactly that, but does gets a bit gritty when pushed. 'Dirty' carries on from where 'Clean' leaves off and when the 'Gain' is max'd gives more distortion than I'm ever going to use. Having the 'Gain' around 50% gives useful blues and rock tones. The clean channel has two eq controls, whilst the dirty channel has the usual three. The (digital) reverb has three settings, Hall, Spring, and Plate, and all sound pretty decent to my ears. 

Soundwise, this amp sounds pretty much as you'd expect an Orange. Although solid-state, it has a very valve-like response and some nice harmonics going on. However, you do need to find the sweet spots to get the best from it, but those sweet spots are very good indeed. Would it fool a valve purist? I doubt it, but it is surprisingly good.

Build quality looks to be extremely good, and the amp looks like it's been built to last. The speaker is a 12" Voice of the World unit which, again, sounds pretty good. 

 Oh, nearly forgot. It also has an effects loop (which I haven't used), and channels and reverb can be controlled by footswitches (not supplied). 

The only obvious downside is that at around 44lb, it is pretty heavy for a solid-state amp. Mind you, I'm sure a 60W valve amp would weigh rather more. Other than that, I am really pleased with this amp.
I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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Comments

  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9657
    edited April 2016
    Here's Chappers and the Captain giving their review (the interesting stuff starts at around 9:12) - that way you don't need to listen to me...!

    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
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