I had a problem. I'd joined a classic rock band, in between the 2 lockdowns and had bought a a Boss Katana 100 (2X12) combo,
for the job. It is great at lower volumes but this is a loudish band. No trouble with volume though, the Katana is a loud amp.
The problem was that when cranked up the Katana lost all it's bottom end. I EQed the hell out of it but up loud it always sounded
too toppy and even tizzy. I had to give up on it and get an alternative. About 5 years ago I'd owned a Orange CR120C combo and
I remembered how it definitely leaned toward the dark and full sound, that Orange are known for.
I spotted a preowned model at one of my favourite guitar shops, Promenade Music. So on Monday I popped over to try it out. It
was in mint condition and sounded as I remembered. They knocked a good lump off the asking price and home it came. I took it
to band rehearsal last night. My set up being nice and simple. EBMM Stingray RS, into Blackstar HT-Dual, a dual channel, valve
based overdrive and the Orange. Now the Orange is an all solid state amp. No modelling and the only digital thing on it, is the
rather nice reverb. And this set up sounded just how I wanted it to. Full and very sweet. With the pedal, I had clean, mild crunch and heavy overdrive. This was the first time I'd played this amp with a loud band and it exceeded my expectations. Just great and at not much financial outlay.
Comments
I've always liked the sound of them, but I'm concerned about long term reliability and have had no luck with modern solid state PA gear.
These are run quite conservatively, and have proved to very reliable.
As with any SS amp for best reliability don't use them with the minimum load.
One thing that's worth mentioning if you're using them as a clean platform for pedals - the clean channel isn't necessarily the best choice, it's quite Fendery and can make some drive pedals sound buzzy and a bit thin. But if you use the overdrive channel with the volume up full and the gain down at around 9 o'clock, you get a great Orange/Marshall-type clean sound which takes pedals really well.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein