Well, I wound up getting that Orange AD-30 head I was talking about a few weeks back. This amp is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. :dance:
In the past, I thought I needed to have a lot of bass in my guitar to make it *THUMP*.. but in the past month or so I've realized that that's what bass players are for (turns out they're good for something after all! :smack: :laugh2: ). Now that I'm not pushing so much bass, our band practices a lot quieter and we sound a lot clearer than before.. like everything is equally defined. (You can seperate the bass from the guitar a lot more easily).
The amp itself is 30-watts of Class-A EL84 goodness. I was a bit leary of the wattage at first (going from a 100 watt head to a 30 watt head made me a bit uneasy), but the Orange is definately loud enough to practice with and even play gigs with. I didn't even have it full blast at the last gig we played (medium sized Legion hall) and it was easily loud enough.
The controls are definately simple enough, with a master volume, gain control, and 3 band EQ for each of the 2 channels. No reverb, no effects loop.. just a jack in the back for the single-button footswitch. Honestly, I don't really miss all of the fancy features. They were nice to have in the past, but I can't think of a single time I ever needed to have my reverb footswitchable. Setting up for a gig is a breeze with this amp.. I just plug it in, dime the EQ (the EQ is active, so anything less than 10 is taking away from the frequencies), adjust the volume and PLAY. No more setting up my head, then my rack, and so forth.
This thing is built like a tank too.. as a lot of Orange products seem to be. It's about 3/4 the size of my Laney head, but probably weighs about 5 lbs more. It looks and feels very sturdy. I would feel very comfortable gigging this head without a backup. (not much that can go wrong on it! :laugh2: )
Sound wise, the AD-30 is killer. As far as I can tell, both of the channels are voiced exactly the same with the same controls, so you can have one channel slightly distorted and the other cranked, one channel totally clean and the other cranked, both pretty clean, etc. There's a lot of versatility for two channels. (I've read a few posts over on the Orange forum saying one of the channels is voiced for more gain, but I certainly don't hear it. Just my $0.02). The gain on the orange is outstanding.. there's not too much of it, but definately enough for what I want to do. It can definately chunk and retain articulation, but it might not have nough bass/gain for very heavy metal or something like that. (Which doesn't bother me any)
The amp is one of the more sensitive ones I've played.. one that really shows when you miss a note. It's taught me I can't be as sloppy live anymore, as everyone will be able to notice. It can be a bit difficult to get a real "clean" clean sound at gigging volumes, but I find that if I don't strum quite as hard, I can pull it off. Playing with single coils helps retain a clean sound as well (my Tele stays a lot cleaner than my CC-equipped LPS). It is pretty nice to be able to play softer and get a clean sound, then strum harder and get a nice overdrive sound going. Very pick sensitive.
All in all, I'm very happy with this head so far. I'll post another review in a few months after the honeymoon is over. :wink:
In the past, I thought I needed to have a lot of bass in my guitar to make it *THUMP*.. but in the past month or so I've realized that that's what bass players are for (turns out they're good for something after all! :smack: :laugh2: ). Now that I'm not pushing so much bass, our band practices a lot quieter and we sound a lot clearer than before.. like everything is equally defined. (You can seperate the bass from the guitar a lot more easily).
The amp itself is 30-watts of Class-A EL84 goodness. I was a bit leary of the wattage at first (going from a 100 watt head to a 30 watt head made me a bit uneasy), but the Orange is definately loud enough to practice with and even play gigs with. I didn't even have it full blast at the last gig we played (medium sized Legion hall) and it was easily loud enough.
The controls are definately simple enough, with a master volume, gain control, and 3 band EQ for each of the 2 channels. No reverb, no effects loop.. just a jack in the back for the single-button footswitch. Honestly, I don't really miss all of the fancy features. They were nice to have in the past, but I can't think of a single time I ever needed to have my reverb footswitchable. Setting up for a gig is a breeze with this amp.. I just plug it in, dime the EQ (the EQ is active, so anything less than 10 is taking away from the frequencies), adjust the volume and PLAY. No more setting up my head, then my rack, and so forth.
This thing is built like a tank too.. as a lot of Orange products seem to be. It's about 3/4 the size of my Laney head, but probably weighs about 5 lbs more. It looks and feels very sturdy. I would feel very comfortable gigging this head without a backup. (not much that can go wrong on it! :laugh2: )
Sound wise, the AD-30 is killer. As far as I can tell, both of the channels are voiced exactly the same with the same controls, so you can have one channel slightly distorted and the other cranked, one channel totally clean and the other cranked, both pretty clean, etc. There's a lot of versatility for two channels. (I've read a few posts over on the Orange forum saying one of the channels is voiced for more gain, but I certainly don't hear it. Just my $0.02). The gain on the orange is outstanding.. there's not too much of it, but definately enough for what I want to do. It can definately chunk and retain articulation, but it might not have nough bass/gain for very heavy metal or something like that. (Which doesn't bother me any)
The amp is one of the more sensitive ones I've played.. one that really shows when you miss a note. It's taught me I can't be as sloppy live anymore, as everyone will be able to notice. It can be a bit difficult to get a real "clean" clean sound at gigging volumes, but I find that if I don't strum quite as hard, I can pull it off. Playing with single coils helps retain a clean sound as well (my Tele stays a lot cleaner than my CC-equipped LPS). It is pretty nice to be able to play softer and get a clean sound, then strum harder and get a nice overdrive sound going. Very pick sensitive.
All in all, I'm very happy with this head so far. I'll post another review in a few months after the honeymoon is over. :wink:
