Orange MT20 Micro Terror Guitar Amplifier and PPC108 Cabinet Review

Howdy!

A few years ago I wrote a less than flattering review of the Orange Tiny Terror guitar amplifier, so I did not have much hope for their even smaller Micro Terror, but after messing around with it for a while I came away impressed. This is more than your usual practice amplifier.

The Orange Music Electronic Company is a British amplifier manufacturer that has been around since 1968, and have maintained a steady following throughout the years, in part because of their association with major acts of the 1970s.

Micro Terror is not just a clever name: this thing is about the size of a kitten. It measures about 5.5 by 4.5 by 6 inches, and weighs in at less than two pounds. Even with its tiny footprint it cranks out 20 watts of solid-state power, with a 12AX7 tube pre-amp for added character. It looks like a downsized Tiny Terror, with the same white case and little cartoons for each knob and jack.

The controls are dead simple: gain, tone and volume -- the Micro Tiny Terror is not a knob farm. Also on the front are the ON/OFF switch, a single ¼-inch input, a headphone jack and a 1/8-inch auxiliary input. On the back there is a single 1/4-inch 4 ohm speaker output and a jack for the power supply. This uses a laptop style power supply to provide 15 volts DC, so converting this for use in other markets should be easy.

Build quality (from China, not England) is very good, and the finish was laid nicely over the steel chassis. This amplifier does not come with a carry bag, but it is small enough to fit in a gig bag pocket.

I mated this amplifier up with the closed-back Orange PPC108 cabinet, which is a pretty good match-up. My god, just look at how orange it is! The cab seems solid and should hold together like a brick house. It is loaded with a single 8-inch special-design (whatever that means) Orange speaker that can handle 20 watts at 8 ohms. The whole thing is light, coming in at around 9 pounds and it measures around 10 by 10 by 7 inches.

This combination of amp and cabinet ends up being a really good practice amplifier. It can do an unbelievable crunchy overdrive, and the tube really warms things up. I had good results with a Strat or a Les Paul, and it was really fun with my Bass VI. Unlike the Tiny Terror, this amp does a good clean sound too (not as tinny), though it is a single-channel amp, so switching back and forth takes some knob turning.

Running the Micro Terror through a bigger speaker cabinet, the Orange PPC112, brought this into a new dimension of fullness and volume, and turned this into a good small gig set-up. Of course this speaker will cost you a few hundred bucks more.

As it is, the Micro Terror and PPC108 is better than most any practice amp you will find on the market, especially when you factor in the price. The MSRP of the Micro Terror is $199 with a street price of $149, and the MSRP of the PPC112 cabinet is $139 with a street of $99. You will not be able to do better for $250!

Mahalo!

Orange OBC410 Bass Cabinet Review

I remember when I started playing bass that everybody and their brother was using speaker cabinets with 15 or 18-inch speakers in them. Guys that used cabinets with 10 or 12-inch speakers usually teamed them up with larger speakers because there was not enough air moving to satisfy them. In 1988 (or so) I endured a deafening audition/practice at an airplane hanger near Santa Anita that shredded the speakers in my two old-technology 4x10 cabinets.

Everything has changed over the past 25 years, and now there are plenty of 4x10-inch cabinets out there that have a full range of sound and sickeningly huge power capabilities. Today we are looking at the Orange OBC410 bass cabinet that I tried out recently with the Orange Terror 500 bass head -- it is a nice piece of work, for sure.

This is an imposing cabinet, measuring 24 by 24 by 18 inches and weighing in at a spine-compressing 95 pounds. It earns this weight honestly through liberal use of 13 ply high-density 18mm birch plywood. This English-made (really?) product comes in two colors: orange or black. But why would anyone in their right mind buy one of these and not get an orange one? There are nice skids to help protect the tolex, but no wheels. Ouch.

This cabinet is loaded with four 10-inch heavy-duty Eminence speakers coupled with a crossover and a n Eminence APT80 horn. It is rated at 600 watts at 8 ohms. There are two parallel ¼-inch/Speakon connectors on the back panel, along with a 3-positon horn control switch (Hi, Lo and Off).

I hooked the OBC410 up to the Terror 500, and let fly with a few different active and passive basses. My initial impression was that it had a very tight and punchy sound and that was well-balanced with the horn control in the Off position. This cabinet certainly took everything that the 500-watt Terror could dish out, and it got to incredible volume levels with consistently good bass and no farting out.

I tried the horn control switch in the Hi and Lo positions, and was not happy with the higher registers in either one of these modes. For a thousand bucks, I think they could have included a variable control like the other manufacturers use. As it sits, I think the horn is not terribly useful.

What can I say? It is pretty nice and it sounds good, but the Orange OBC410 has a list price of $1379 and a street price of $999. This is very spendy for what it is and I am not impressed with the horn control. There are plenty of good 4x10 cabinets out there for less cash, and the only reason I would ever buy one of these is if I really wanted an Orange head and needed a matching cabinet to complete the set. This is not going to happen…

Mahalo!

Orange Terror Bass 500 Amplifier Review

Aloha!

I am a fan of the Orange Tiny Terror guitar amplifier, so it was only a matter of time until I made time to review their equivalent bass head, the Terror Bass 500. Though it is not a full tube head, this hybrid unit is still a pretty neat piece of work.

In case you have been living under a rock, the Orange Music Electronic Company is a British amplifier manufacturer that has been around since 1968, and they have maintained a loyal following. In recent years they have shown a resurgence in popularity, as they have introduced some compelling new products.

As I said, the Terror Bass 500 is a hybrid amplifier, meaning that it has a tube pre-amplifier stage and a solid-state power amplifier. The preamplifier is based on a pair of 12AX7 tubes and the power stage is a class D amplifier that is rated at 500 watts at either 4 or 8 ohms.

This head unit fits in with the whole “Tiny” theme. It measures a scant 12 x 7 x 6 inches, and it comes in around 11 pounds. That class D technology really is quite miraculous, insn’t it? It carries over the visual theme too, with a white-finished steel chassis and nice looking silkscreened graphics.

Like its bothers in the Orange line-up the Terror 500 is not terribly complicated to use, so setting it up the first time should only take a few minutes. On the back are two Speakon speaker outputs with a 4 ohm / 8 ohm switch, and a socket for the IEC power cord. Why doesn’t everything use an IEC power cord? That’s it for the back.

On the side (yes, the side) there is a balanced XLR out, a ground lift switch and the effects loop ¼-inch jacks. And on the front there is the power switch (yay!) a single instrument input, and active/passive switch, and knobs for volume, gain, treble, mid and bass.

That is it – this is really quite simple. It is a single channel amp, so there is no switching, and there are no effects built in. Plug it into you speaker cabinet, set the impedance and start experimenting with the knobs. Unlike some other new amps, the flat setting appears to be all of the EQ knobs at 12 o’clock.

And right out of the box, this thing sounds killer. I plugged it into an 4x10” Orange OBC410C 8 ohm cabinet and the tone is satisfyingly warm and round, and is definitely tube-driven. Dialing in gain results in plenty of dirt (in a good way), and the distortion is glorious. It cannot do a perfectly clean and sterile tone, but someone that is buying the Terror 500 is probably not looking for the GK sound.

Volume-wise, the Terror 500 is about on par with the Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 that I currently use and the Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 that I have tested before. It is pretty loud, but it is no SVT. If you are looking for the same tone but with ridiculous power, Orange has the same-size hybrid Terror 1000, which might be enough to get the job done for you.

I think that the Orange Terror 500 is a nice amplifier, and it certainly sounds good. But...it is a tad spendy for what it is, with a list price of $1139 and a street price of $899 (which includes a nice padded travel case). In this price range they have to compete with the Tone Hammer ($699) and the Shuttle 6.2 ($755), and if you are not totally hung-up on having the Orange tone these other amps will certainly get the job done for less cash. I suggest trying and comparing before buying…

Mahalo!

Orange Crush PiX CR50BXT Bass Combo Amplifier Review

Howdy!

There is a huge market for cheap bass combo amplifiers – ones that are mostly used for practice or very small gigs. There is also a lot of competition and it seems like every manufacturer has a player in this game. Today we are going to look at Orange’s offering, the Orange Crush PiX CR50BXT.

Orange amplifiers have been around since the late 1960s, when the company was started in England. They made powerful tube amplifiers with a tone that was to die for, and a lot of high-profile acts were using their equipment. There has been a resurgence of popularity for the brand in the past decade, and this has led to their production of cheaper solid state amplifiers for us mortal folks.

The Orange Crush PiX CR50BXT is a solid-state 50-watt (RMS) bass combo amplifier. It is equipped with a single 12-inch 4 ohm Orange Crush speaker. There is an auxiliary speaker ¼-inch output so another 4 ohm (or greater) speaker can be added. The whole thing weighs 41 pounds, and it measures 10.5 by 16.5 by 18 inches. Oh, and you can have your choice or orange or black tolex. There is no point in getting an Orange amp with black tolex on it, if you ask me.

All of the controls are nicely laid out on top of the unit, and there are only five knobs: gain, 3-band EQ and master volume. There is also a single input jack, a headphone out, a 1/4-inch direct out and an 1/8-inch input so you can plug in an iPod to play along with. As an added bonus, an onboard tuner is included with lots of red and green LEDs. The power cord plugs into the back, and that is also where they hid the ON/OFF switch (boo).

It is best to not set your expectations too high when you are looking at an amplifier in this price range and with these features. It is not going to be terribly loud and it is not going to provide a thunderous bottom end. If you keep this in mind, you will not be quite as disappointed.

I ran a few different basses through this Orange combo amp and had mixed results. First, I tied is with a passive precision bass and the amplifier had no added noise (hiss and static), and it sounded pretty nice at lower volume levels, with an actual Orange amplifier sound. When really pushed it farted out at volume levels that would not keep up with even a medium-loud jam session or rehearsal. But, this amplifier was never intended to provide designed for high volumes, so I should not really be complaining.

With an active bass (Musicman Bongo with a 18-volt preamplifier), the CR50BXT really could not cut the mustard. The input was too hot, and there is no pad switch or input, so I really had to cut back on the gain. Even through the headphones the tone was sadly weakened. With either instrument, the bass knob of the 3-band EQ seemed to make almost no difference in the tone from the amplifier.

On the plus side, the tuner worked nicely, and the input for an mp3 player makes this into a great practice amp when coupled with the headphone jack. Plus the amp can work as a boom box if you just want to play your iPod though it. But, when price is considered this amplifier is not my choice.

The Orange Crush PiX CR50BXT has a list price of $329 and a street price of $269. In this price range you can get the 50 watt Ampeg BA112 for $279, a 75 watt Fender Rumble 75 for $249 or a 100 watt Ashdown Five Fifteen for $249. These amplifiers are at guitar shops everywhere and I highly recommend trying and comparing them before buying.

Orange Tiny Terror Guitar Amplifier and PPC112 Cabinet

Good day, I hope you are all doing well!

Today we are looking at an Orange Tiny Terror guitar amplifier and matching speaker cabinet.

The Orange Music Electronic Company is a British amplifier manufacturer that has been around since 1968, and have maintained a steady following throughout the years.

Well, let’s start with the Tiny Terror head. It is not just a clever name; this thing is tiny for an all-tube head. It is not much bigger than a lunch pail, and ekes out a switchable 15 or 7 watts of class A power, using two 12AX7 preamp tubes, and two EL84 power tubes.

One of the things I like the most is that the controls are simple: gain, tone and volume. The Tiny Terror is not a knob farm. On the back there are 1/40-inch 8 ohm and 16 ohm speaker outputs.

Build quality (from China, not England) is very good, and the finish was laid nicely over the steel chassis. This amplifier comes with a padded carry bag, which is really a nice feature. I cannot count the number of times things have gotten scuffed up as they bang around in the back of my car.

I mated this amplifier up with the Orange PPC 112 cabinet, which is fantastic. My god, just look at how orange it is! The cab is built of 18mm plywood, and will hold together like a brick house. It is loaded with a 12-inch Celestion Vintage 30 speaker that can handle 60 watts at 16 ohms. The whole thing is not terribly heavy, coming in at around 36 pounds.

This combination of amp and cabinet is the king of crunchy overdrive, and with a Strat, the 60’s British sound is bronzed. The speaker performed well at all volume levels with no rattles.

And, unfortunately, that is about all it does for me. The thing that I do not like about this amp is that I will never get a decent clean tone out of it. With no gain it just sounds tinny, which is kind of a big deal in my book.

Anyway, should you go out looking for these, the MSRP of the Tiny Terror is $729, with a street price of $575, and the MSRP of the PPC112 cabinet is $459 with a street of of $369.

Mahalo!