NAD: Orange Rocker 15 Terror

noisepolluter

Fifteen watts of fat, fuzzy fabuliciousness in a great deal from @paulnb57 ;

Always fancied owning an Orange ever since the first Tiny Terror came out - this one has the added advantage of a 3 band EQ, clean channel and fx loop - sounds great with a nice swampy analogue delay. 

Power reduction works very well and it’s well behaved in terms of extraneous noise, so it’s easy to use at polite levels - can’t wait to wind it up!

paulnb57

Glad you like it, we got there in the end!…

guitargeek62

Congrats! I’ve got the Brent Hinds version and love it - such a versatile little amp

newi123

Are they gig loud on both channels? Had a TT when they were first released and it struggled a bit in the band I was in at the time.

noisepolluter

Not had the chance to play it in a band situation yet but I don’t think the clean/“natural” channel will stay clean unmic’ed unless it’s a pretty small/quiet gig, or you’ve got a 2x12 or bigger cab with really efficient speakers. 

DartmoorHedgehog

newi123 said:

Are they gig loud on both channels? Had a TT when they were first released and it struggled a bit in the band I was in at the time.

noisepolluter said:

Not had the chance to play it in a band situation yet but I don’t think the clean/“natural” channel will stay clean unmic’ed unless it’s a pretty small/quiet gig, or you’ve got a 2x12 or bigger cab with really efficient speakers. 

I think @noisepolluter is right if you want pristine clean.  Assuming it's a similar design (and I don't know for sure - @ICBM ;;
?), the natural channel on my Rocker 30 "just about" manages clean sounds loud enough unmiced with the band, and that's into a 2x12 with a V30 and a creamback H65, so pretty efficient speakers.  And even then it isn't pristine clean like you'd get from some amps - it'll break up a bit if provoked.  I reckon with half the power you'd be struggling.

Having said that, I like the sound, it's my only gigging amp.  It's just not really a "loud clean" amp if that's what you're after, even with the 30W power amp.

noisepolluter

I was able to play the Rocker 15 in a band situation yesterday through a Zilla ported 1x12 with H75 Creamback, with my SG standard 61.

It sounded fantastic - fat, punchy and crunchy, and so easy to dial in, I suppose the control simplicity helps with that.

Used it with a DM-2w and RV6 in the loop, and the natural channel sounded great right off the bat for clean(ish) sounds too, I didn’t miss having a tone control at all. 

newi123

noisepolluter said:

I was able to play the Rocker 15 in a band situation yesterday through a Zilla ported 1x12 with H75 Creamback, with my SG standard 61.

It sounded fantastic - fat, punchy and crunchy, and so easy to dial in, I suppose the control simplicity helps with that.

Used it with a DM-2w and RV6 in the loop, and the natural channel sounded great right off the bat for clean(ish) sounds too, I didn’t miss having a tone control at all. 

Thanks!

Tat2dstesh

DartmoorHedgehog said:

newi123 said:

Are they gig loud on both channels? Had a TT when they were first released and it struggled a bit in the band I was in at the time.

noisepolluter said:

Not had the chance to play it in a band situation yet but I don’t think the clean/“natural” channel will stay clean unmic’ed unless it’s a pretty small/quiet gig, or you’ve got a 2x12 or bigger cab with really efficient speakers. 

I think @noisepolluter is right if you want pristine clean.  Assuming it's a similar design (and I don't know for sure - @ICBM ;;
?), the natural channel on my Rocker 30 "just about" manages clean sounds loud enough unmiced with the band, and that's into a 2x12 with a V30 and a creamback H65, so pretty efficient speakers.  And even then it isn't pristine clean like you'd get from some amps - it'll break up a bit if provoked.  I reckon with half the power you'd be struggling.

Having said that, I like the sound, it's my only gigging amp.  It's just not really a "loud clean" amp if that's what you're after, even with the 30W power amp.

i have the rocker 30 too as my main amp, granted I really don't use the clean channel too much as the bands I have been in and I am in at the minute are primarily very much heavy rock/punk but I get a very nice edge of clean very dynamic sound from mine and thats with a way huge saucy box as a boost in front (its always on). What I find weird is if I turn the boost off the volume really drops on the clean channel, so I don't know if it would be worth you trying a nice clean boost to just bump up the volume. 
Mind you I also have a 12ax7LPS in the phase which apparently boosts the headroom a touch too. 

noisepolluter

I thought I’d add an update on how I’m settling in with it, for the benefit of future civilisations and/or anyone who’s considering buying one.

Pleased to report that I’m really getting it dialled in nicely - I find it sounds best with the treble and mids slightly after noon and the bass slightly before, and the gain around 2 or 3 o’clock (depending on guitar pickups) so I can roll back the guitar volume to clean it up, or boost the front end for lead.

Not gotten round to experimenting much with the natural channel and pedals, but will report back.

Also pleased to report that contrary to my earlier post, the fx loop does not actually add noticeable noise - I just had the output setting on my multi fx set to +4dB line level, so once I switched it to guitar level and brought up the unit’s volume control to compensate, level was the same as before but the slight hiss was gone. (I  puzzled over this for a couple of days, after finding that individual boss reverb and delay pedals in the loop didn’t add hiss whereas the GX-100 did even with noise gate).

I’ve been spending some time playing around with the half/full power settings combined with the headroom/bedroom controls. I’m guessing that the half/full switch is power reduction whereas headroom/bedroom is some kind of resistive attenuator which also has slight frequency compensation to brighten the sound a bit. 

I find for polite volumes unless you need it super quiet, it’s best to work with the output set to 7 watts and just be judicious with the master volume, as with the ‘bedroom’ output setting you do seem to lose a little bit of the warmth and depth to the sound along with the slight presence boost, though it’s still perfectly decent for very quiet practice albeit crunch sounds have a more pronounced fuzzy edge.

My solution so far is to use the output control on the aforementioned multi fx as an additional fine master volume to knock a couple of dB off 7 or 15 watt mode if necessary. Obviously this precludes driving the power section and/or natural channel at home, but to be honest the preamp gain sounds are fantastic.

Fortunately there’s very little difference sound wise between 7 and 15 watt mode apart from the output level. Great balance of warmth and clarity at lower gain levels, and glorious fuzzy-edged roar when you crank it up. I will definitely be keeping this. 

ICBM

noisepolluter said:

I’ve been spending some time playing around with the half/full power settings combined with the headroom/bedroom controls. I’m guessing that the half/full switch is power reduction whereas headroom/bedroom is some kind of resistive attenuator which also has slight frequency compensation to brighten the sound a bit.

Very close - 7W is a genuine power reduction using lowered power supply voltage, whereas Bedroom is a 'virtual' power reduction using what's effectively a fixed-resistor post-phase-inverter master volume. From memory I don't think it has any frequency compensation.

guitargeek62

ICBM said:

noisepolluter said:

I’ve been spending some time playing around with the half/full power settings combined with the headroom/bedroom controls. I’m guessing that the half/full switch is power reduction whereas headroom/bedroom is some kind of resistive attenuator which also has slight frequency compensation to brighten the sound a bit.

Very close - 7W is a genuine power reduction using lowered power supply voltage, whereas Bedroom is a 'virtual' power reduction using what's effectively a fixed-resistor post-phase-inverter master volume. From memory I don't think it has any frequency compensation.

Whatever it is I really like it - mine’s rarely out of bedroom-half mode (~1w) and still sounds great to my ears