Recently got a used Rocker 15 combo amp by Orange.
15/7/1/0.5W power switching
el84 power tubes
The idea behind the amp is a natural channel that has no tone stack, minimal voicing components and one half of a 12ax7 then the power section. The dirty channel is based on the topology of the Rockerverb but with 3 gain stages as opposed to four. It has a FMV tone stack and a dual gang gain pot so it has a huge range from hairy cleans to black Sabbath. Reminds me of the tiny terror but with a cleaner channel, tone controls and a more "open" sound but still plenty of gain on tap.
The stock speaker right away sounded very bright and upper mids voiced with not a lot of bass. Early ratty breakup. Not bad but not what I wanted so I threw in a Celestion g10 vintage. Much darker speaker but still some good high end. Louder too. It was a good choice. Even brand new this Celestion has more balls and punch, and holds bass together at higher volumes for sure. Very good 10" and not expensive.
The 1w/0.5w modes are ok but sound congested compared to full power, but it's not bad. It's still loud on bedroom mode!
Natural channel sounds good but I bought it for a mid-rangey dirty channel. I will play with this more later when I get the chance but it's very natural sounding on the natural channel and breaks up early with buckers.
Dirty channel has lots of mids, decent bass but not like a 40w amp. Still good though.
Plenty of gain for Black Sabbath. The treble control I like to leave very low, it can add a lot of sizzle. There's plenty of chime going on with the treble on minimum still.
The mids on or near full gives the most vintagey orange tones to be found in this box, but it has wide sweep of mids control if you don't want it so in your face, and to tailor your sound to different pickups and cabs.
Sounds good with the dirty channel set cleanish then use your dirt pedals to push it over the edge. This is how I've spent the most time with it but still getting to know it. Too much gain and it splattts out. But it can get a good big muff fuzz going at a decent volume. Nice thick fuzzy sound without getting the cops called. I like it. I use a blues driver a lot and it works well to take it from hairy cleans to big crunch with picking and the guitar volume and I like the blues driver flavor with this very much.
It is capable of a 8ohm load so you can run it with the internal 16 ohm speaker and add a 16 ohm extension cab or run one 8 ohms can and disconnect the stock 16 ohm. I would like to try this with a big cab some day!
I used to have an or15 and this amp is every bit as good for my purposes but in a conveniently sized package.
All in all, not a metal amp or clean machine but a good rock amp for jamming in the garage.
It sounds way bigger than it looks!
15/7/1/0.5W power switching
el84 power tubes
The idea behind the amp is a natural channel that has no tone stack, minimal voicing components and one half of a 12ax7 then the power section. The dirty channel is based on the topology of the Rockerverb but with 3 gain stages as opposed to four. It has a FMV tone stack and a dual gang gain pot so it has a huge range from hairy cleans to black Sabbath. Reminds me of the tiny terror but with a cleaner channel, tone controls and a more "open" sound but still plenty of gain on tap.
The stock speaker right away sounded very bright and upper mids voiced with not a lot of bass. Early ratty breakup. Not bad but not what I wanted so I threw in a Celestion g10 vintage. Much darker speaker but still some good high end. Louder too. It was a good choice. Even brand new this Celestion has more balls and punch, and holds bass together at higher volumes for sure. Very good 10" and not expensive.
The 1w/0.5w modes are ok but sound congested compared to full power, but it's not bad. It's still loud on bedroom mode!
Natural channel sounds good but I bought it for a mid-rangey dirty channel. I will play with this more later when I get the chance but it's very natural sounding on the natural channel and breaks up early with buckers.
Dirty channel has lots of mids, decent bass but not like a 40w amp. Still good though.
Plenty of gain for Black Sabbath. The treble control I like to leave very low, it can add a lot of sizzle. There's plenty of chime going on with the treble on minimum still.
The mids on or near full gives the most vintagey orange tones to be found in this box, but it has wide sweep of mids control if you don't want it so in your face, and to tailor your sound to different pickups and cabs.
Sounds good with the dirty channel set cleanish then use your dirt pedals to push it over the edge. This is how I've spent the most time with it but still getting to know it. Too much gain and it splattts out. But it can get a good big muff fuzz going at a decent volume. Nice thick fuzzy sound without getting the cops called. I like it. I use a blues driver a lot and it works well to take it from hairy cleans to big crunch with picking and the guitar volume and I like the blues driver flavor with this very much.
It is capable of a 8ohm load so you can run it with the internal 16 ohm speaker and add a 16 ohm extension cab or run one 8 ohms can and disconnect the stock 16 ohm. I would like to try this with a big cab some day!
I used to have an or15 and this amp is every bit as good for my purposes but in a conveniently sized package.
All in all, not a metal amp or clean machine but a good rock amp for jamming in the garage.
It sounds way bigger than it looks!
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