UberMetalDood
New member
I got to play a few hours with a TH30 and AD30. Although that's not long enough to review how reliable they are or how they work with efffects, I can tell you a lot about how they sound. Here's a quick review of them for anyone who is interested.
TH30 (made in China)
Build: Looks as good quality as the made in UK stuff
Features: FX loop, low, high, shape, gain, master vol, 2 channels (clean/dirty)
Clean Channel: Nice clean channel. It's not "great," but very nice. It's kind of a dark clean, not like chimey Fenders. It's plyable in feel like a Fender, but it doesn't have the sparkle. It's a great clean sound however for any kind of blues, rock and metal. You can go from a clean sound to an AC/DC kind of grit. I think changing the stock tubes will give the clean channel a little more headroom. With high output humbuckers I was still able to get a fairly clean tone when cranking the amp loud.
Overdrive Channel: This is where the amp shines. It's honestly one of the nicest gain channels I've ever heard on an EL84 amp. The things that usually bother me about EL84 amps doesn't bother me about this one. It sounds incredible. The gain has a very wide range from bluesy breakup to a really thick, heavy distortion. It's more distortion than I've heard in any Orange. It's just dripping wet and ripe with all kinds of great lead and rhythm tone.
Pros/Cons: There are a couple of things about the TH30, but they may or may not be anything that important.
First of all, it doesn't have a mid control. The only feature is a "shape" control with seems to do a couple of things. To one side, it seems to scoop the mids, in the middle it seems to add mids, and to the far right it seems to entirely shift the EQ balance. It's a really cool control but I don't know how it would cut it in a mix, however, it does have an inherent midrange quality like any British amp so I think it would have no problem cutting through.
It has an effects loop but no level control. I guess it's not a major issue, but it would be nice to have one.
The other feature is that it has a 1/2 power and full power toggle so you can run at 15/30 watts.
Finally it has a manual channel switching toggle as well as a footswitch input. It bothers me that some of the most expensive, sought-after amps don't have a manual channel switch. This has both so that's cool.
I should also mention that it's made in China. Although it appears to be very well constructed inside and outside of the chassis, I have no idea if any corners were cut as far as part quality, etc... I would be surprised if it wasn't a reliable amp.
AD30 (made in UK)
Build: Top notch build quality. Nothing else to say without banging it around at gigs for a year.
Features: Master volume, gain, bass/middle/treble, 1/2 power toggle, 2 channels
Clean Channel: I plugged into the clean channel with the volume about 1/4 which is fairly loud for playing inside a small store. I started with all controls at 12:00. With the gain at 12:00, using Duncan Designed humbuckers, the clean channel had a fair amount of breakup. I turned the gain down and the volume up, and still a little breakup, then I turned the gain down to 9:00 and the volume up even more and it was pretty clean at a healthy volume.
My impression is that it has less headroom than the TH30, but I wouldn't know for sure because I didn't get either amp past 1/2 volume.
The so-called "clean" channel sounded awesome, perhaps a mild improvement over the TH30, but not the kind of clean channel I like which would go from pristine clean to a mild breakup.
Overdrive Channel: The overdrive is really cool, but probably about 1/2 the gain that the TH30 has. It reminds me a lot of a JCM800 and with a similar amount of gain. In fact, I would not be surprised in the least if Orange told me it was modeled after a JCM800.
I really like this overdrive even though it's not as juicy as the TH30. They both have a great overdrive sound. This one seems to showcase the nuances of your technique just a little bit more than the TH30, but that might be attributed to the fact that I was spoiled with the amount of gain on the TH30. It's a great overdrive sound no doubt.
Pros/Cons: I'm going to have to say there are some disappointments. There is no FX loop. That's definitely a big minus in my opinion. I don't know if the preamp design is one in which FX sound good at the input, but 3 multi-FX units I've tried in front of many amps (Nova System, M9, Boss GT10) sounded horrible. I don't expect anything better ouf of this amp. A couple of reviews seem to confirm that it doesn't handle effects well, but I wouldn't know for a fact since I didn't try any effects.
It's a very straight-forward amp, absolutely no frills. For a price tag of $1600, I would expect at least an FX loop. It's just TOO classic of a design for this day and age.
I wish I could say that the tone makes up for it, but not really. It's a great tone that I would love to have, but it doesn't have the versatility of a JCM800 reissue.
It would be nice to have more headroom, or at least low and high inputs. Unfortunately, their no-frills approach to designing it leaves none of those features.
TH30 (made in China)
Build: Looks as good quality as the made in UK stuff
Features: FX loop, low, high, shape, gain, master vol, 2 channels (clean/dirty)
Clean Channel: Nice clean channel. It's not "great," but very nice. It's kind of a dark clean, not like chimey Fenders. It's plyable in feel like a Fender, but it doesn't have the sparkle. It's a great clean sound however for any kind of blues, rock and metal. You can go from a clean sound to an AC/DC kind of grit. I think changing the stock tubes will give the clean channel a little more headroom. With high output humbuckers I was still able to get a fairly clean tone when cranking the amp loud.
Overdrive Channel: This is where the amp shines. It's honestly one of the nicest gain channels I've ever heard on an EL84 amp. The things that usually bother me about EL84 amps doesn't bother me about this one. It sounds incredible. The gain has a very wide range from bluesy breakup to a really thick, heavy distortion. It's more distortion than I've heard in any Orange. It's just dripping wet and ripe with all kinds of great lead and rhythm tone.
Pros/Cons: There are a couple of things about the TH30, but they may or may not be anything that important.
First of all, it doesn't have a mid control. The only feature is a "shape" control with seems to do a couple of things. To one side, it seems to scoop the mids, in the middle it seems to add mids, and to the far right it seems to entirely shift the EQ balance. It's a really cool control but I don't know how it would cut it in a mix, however, it does have an inherent midrange quality like any British amp so I think it would have no problem cutting through.
It has an effects loop but no level control. I guess it's not a major issue, but it would be nice to have one.
The other feature is that it has a 1/2 power and full power toggle so you can run at 15/30 watts.
Finally it has a manual channel switching toggle as well as a footswitch input. It bothers me that some of the most expensive, sought-after amps don't have a manual channel switch. This has both so that's cool.
I should also mention that it's made in China. Although it appears to be very well constructed inside and outside of the chassis, I have no idea if any corners were cut as far as part quality, etc... I would be surprised if it wasn't a reliable amp.
AD30 (made in UK)
Build: Top notch build quality. Nothing else to say without banging it around at gigs for a year.
Features: Master volume, gain, bass/middle/treble, 1/2 power toggle, 2 channels
Clean Channel: I plugged into the clean channel with the volume about 1/4 which is fairly loud for playing inside a small store. I started with all controls at 12:00. With the gain at 12:00, using Duncan Designed humbuckers, the clean channel had a fair amount of breakup. I turned the gain down and the volume up, and still a little breakup, then I turned the gain down to 9:00 and the volume up even more and it was pretty clean at a healthy volume.
My impression is that it has less headroom than the TH30, but I wouldn't know for sure because I didn't get either amp past 1/2 volume.
The so-called "clean" channel sounded awesome, perhaps a mild improvement over the TH30, but not the kind of clean channel I like which would go from pristine clean to a mild breakup.
Overdrive Channel: The overdrive is really cool, but probably about 1/2 the gain that the TH30 has. It reminds me a lot of a JCM800 and with a similar amount of gain. In fact, I would not be surprised in the least if Orange told me it was modeled after a JCM800.
I really like this overdrive even though it's not as juicy as the TH30. They both have a great overdrive sound. This one seems to showcase the nuances of your technique just a little bit more than the TH30, but that might be attributed to the fact that I was spoiled with the amount of gain on the TH30. It's a great overdrive sound no doubt.
Pros/Cons: I'm going to have to say there are some disappointments. There is no FX loop. That's definitely a big minus in my opinion. I don't know if the preamp design is one in which FX sound good at the input, but 3 multi-FX units I've tried in front of many amps (Nova System, M9, Boss GT10) sounded horrible. I don't expect anything better ouf of this amp. A couple of reviews seem to confirm that it doesn't handle effects well, but I wouldn't know for a fact since I didn't try any effects.
It's a very straight-forward amp, absolutely no frills. For a price tag of $1600, I would expect at least an FX loop. It's just TOO classic of a design for this day and age.
I wish I could say that the tone makes up for it, but not really. It's a great tone that I would love to have, but it doesn't have the versatility of a JCM800 reissue.
It would be nice to have more headroom, or at least low and high inputs. Unfortunately, their no-frills approach to designing it leaves none of those features.
