mastertone007 Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 Hey guys. Who here owns a Orange amp? Well i have a tiny terror 7 watt to 15 watt head. I really love this thing. Its real good for testing out guitars i have repaired or built. Plus its handy to when customers come around, you can have the thing cranked up and get that tube tone going with out the wife yelling at me. Unlike the days when i had my mesa trem o verb. haha here is a picture of my baby! I got to try out the orange rockoverb 50 combo the other day, another totally awesome amp. Anyway who else has an orange around these parts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 try a matamp if you get chance. they are the company who originally made oranges back in the day. I had one made for me recently thats a 4w model, but its 4 english watts so its quite comparable with the TT . thats 4 watts before distortion occurs you see and there is plenty of distortion on tap overall it compares well with the TT, similar price here in the UK but the matamp is handmade here. The TT has slightly tighter distortion wheras the matamp needs a little push to get the best out of it in that respect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 Hey wez, maybe you can clear something up for me. Why does your matamp have a volume, drive, *and* master volume in a single channel amp? Does it have a built in load dump and the master volume is actually post poweramp? Or does it have multiple volume/gain controls for multiple preamp gain stages? Otherwise that control is quite repetitive and does nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 You have to think of the master as just setting the volume/loudness.. The first switch on the amp is a 6 position voice switch, it has 3 clean voices and 3 drive voices, thick, medium and thin respectively. basically its like having a clean and drive channel and stays on the thickest versions of each but the extra setting really come in usefull when playing with distortion pedals - helps retain a lot of clarity. On the clean settings only the volume and master volume are active. The volume controls the initial gain stage of the preamp, the master just contols the power amp stage. So the first volume does add a little drive and the master just makes it louder ( untill its up quite full when the power amp distortion kicks in as you would expect) the drive control comes into play with the drive settings, its an extra stage of the preamp responsible for overdrive. The volume and drive stages of the preamp are daisy chained so the overall sound can be fine tuned with both before using the master to set the actual volume of the amp. It also only has treble and bass but these are not standalone so turning up the bass reduces treble basically the amp is set up to be versatile but simple - this does mean some fine tuning can be required and only change the controls in small increments and its best to remember your favorite settings but to be honest its not a problem. Probably not best for live use but lots of tweakability for recording and home use. It is really loud enough for small gigs and also has a DI out with a dummy load that can be hooked up to a PA. Infact the most fun i had with this amp is with the DI out straight to my cousins dual rec!!! Full out the amp is comparable to JCM800 gain levels but it really responds well to extra pedals as well if more is required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 Thank you that answered my questions perfectly. So it has dual volumes for separate preamp stages (one labeled volume and one labeled drive) and one master volume that controls the poweramp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 well if you really want to sum it up in one sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acousticraft Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Hey WezV Is that your mobile effects unit next to the head. Is it a Wow Wow or Me ow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 she comes in usefull for steve vai sound effects!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted December 8, 2007 Report Share Posted December 8, 2007 ok - cat molestation jokes aside for a minute.... i have just been down town and bumped int one of my clients, a bassist who has just got an endorsement with orange. He said he gets 60% discout with orange and i am welcome to take advantage of that...oh bugger, i didnt want a new amp but can i really turn that down!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByronBlack Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 Hi Guy's I'm thinking of getting one of these new smaller tube heads (TT or matamp), but wanted to ask a couple of questions - how well do they react to an overdrive pedal? And with a 2x10 or 2x12 cab can they still be cranked to bedroom levels without removing paint from the walls? I watched Rob Chapmans 'Tiny Terror does Metal' youtube video, but he was using a larger cab and although it sounded great, I couldnt get an idea of just how loud it was.. Finally, does anyone here have any experience of overdriving an ephiphone valve junior into a metal/heavy rock area? Is it possible, or does it sound rubbish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 I have some videos of my matamp on youtube, one is with a booster pedal http://uk.youtube.com/wezv i can say the matamp works great with pedal, in fact it makes the effect of the voice switch more noticable. I use it with a few including my BYOC big muff clone and BYOC tri-boost the orange tt has the half power switch (7/15w)which helps with bedroom use. My matamp has two preamp gain stages and a master volume for getting good preamp distortion at bedroom levels - but it is a lot louder than 4 watts and with good power amp distortion with the master its a little loud - more like the TT at 15w. the matamp has a little less gain thean the TT and its been said by some people that have both that without pedals the matamp is better for blues/rock and the TT is better for rock/metal. The matamp is a little flabby for some styles of metal but just about copes Matamp will not be making anymore little rocks (priced at £300 - the same as a TT) because they just cant rellly keep up Uk production and still stay in competition with the TT thats made in china i think. they will still be making the Minimat II starting at £370ish which is the same power but less distortion (still good with pedals) and also has a valve booster built in and a proper attenuator for getting the volume right down while not loosing tone (apparantly) other than that you lose from not pushing speakers as hard - they do still have a few little rocks left at £300 though, i reckon its an absolute bargain for an all valve amp handmade in the UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByronBlack Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 I did see your vids and was very impressed, I saw some littlerocks on ebay going for around £400!! I can definetiyl see one of this little blighters in my future, what cab do you use yours with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 my cab is an old calrsboro 4x12 thats was cut in two years ago so i got hold of it and recovered it to match the little rock. Still has the original speakers which seem to be rebadged greenbacks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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