Re: Orange AD30TC (2x12 Combo) Review
Part III
I just finished playing a 2-hour practice session and again I'll say 'Wow'.
Every single time I play through this amp all I can think is that it sounds f*cking awesome. I swear that my soloing ability doubled the second I plugged into this thing. I don't know why, but for an amp with only one gain stage this thing has killer sustain. The power tube compression is awesome.
That said.... this is arguably the worst rhythm amp I've ever played in my life. It has next to zero headroom and it breaks up in a way that makes it very difficult to play chords without them going all nasty (I couldn't think of a better term). The rectifier sag that adds a lot of tone and expression to my lead playing causes the bottom end to feel tubby and sputter. While I think the rhythm tone is usable for a lead guitarist that jumps between rhythm and lead a lot I don't think I'd recommend this amp to a strait rhythm player.
Now that that's said, back onto lead;
So far every effect that I've thrown at it has worked...Barber LTD (overdrive), Dunlop Wah (w/Fazel), MXR Blue Box & Phase 90, EHX Big Muff, Small Clone chorus & PolyChorus, and both Ibanez and Maxon analog delays. Unfortunately I just sold a bunch of pedals so I don't have more to experiment with.
The preamp has more than enough headroom to allow the delays to repeat naturally without distorting or becoming confused and unmusical. Also, since the amp is so easily controlled via the guitar's volume I get no problems with repeats jumping in volume like you'd get when you front end a normal channel-switching amp. One cool thing however is that the repeats slowly increase in volume as you turn up your guitars volume, so you can get a nice subtle delay beneath your cleaner soloing, then a still subtle yet more pronounced delay behind your overdriven soloing.
The modulation I've tried thus far has been good for adding a swampy swirl to the overdrive without becoming overbearing. Since most of the dirt comes from the power tubes the preamp doesn't really cause me any problems so I don't think I'm missing much through not having an effects loop.
I'm not a fan of wah, and to tell you the truth, as much as I love this amp I found my Les Paul through the wah less than desirable no matter how far down I dialed the LP's volume. My Strat on the other hand sounded killer through the wah and the extra treble really helped it to take on a more cutting tone without loosing clarity or dynamics like I would with an OD.
As for the OD pedal, it sounded good but it made things a bit more 'modern' sounding than I wanted so I'm not going to give much of an opinion on it.
The Big Muff was most uncool with the Les Paul but pretty cool with the Strat. With the Les Paul it didn't even sound like a Big Muff.... it sounded like a scooped something or other...not enough midrange for lead and way to mushy for rhythm. With the Strat it had a lot more upper mid bite and near infinite sustain.... some people would probably like it but it's not a tone that'll work for me.
Within the next couple of weeks I plan on getting an AnalogMan SunLion. It's a combination Beano Boost and Sunface (a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster clone & germanium Fuzz Face clone in one box). I'm thinking that the treble booster might do a lot to make the rhythm tone more usable in an old school kind of way, and I'm thinking that the Fuzz Face would be fun and would probably compliment this amp's voicing really well. I’ll add more to this review once I get that pedal, though that may be a month or more away.
