The spiff folks at ORANGE AMPLIFICATION (Specifically Alex in Artist Relations) are going to lend me an ORANGE TERROR AMP HEAD to make a video review of and put it through it's paces. I'm thinking about buying one of these heads so I"m looking forward to really digging in to this amp. If you are thinking about buying one, watch this vid first!

I'll be shooting the vid next weekend and will post ASAP!

Todd

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I always love gear reviews I am eagerly waiting Todd Keep us updated of any other stuff you review/demo

And all you other guys too

Well done Todd !

Thanks Will do!


Thanks man I"m really looking forward to getting my hands on it!

Cool, give us your opinion on this little head

Will do Just picked it up yesterday! Went to the Orange Amps national distribution center here in Atlanta. A really nice guy named Alex showed me around and let me get the last Jim Root Terror they are gonna have until Sept! They are sold out of these completely. It's become one of their top units.

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Great! I still have to check out the Mesa Boogie camp some day on tour, missed the chance last time unfortunately.

Now that would be quite a visit! If you do make it out please by all means bring a camera! Love to see the land of Boogie stacked with amps

Todd I am pretty hyped about the review! I am on the hunt for amps and the more I see, the more I know

Will do! I'm going to make an entry in the GEAR WIKI with Videos and everything Just put it on my home half stack and been trying it with compressors, preamps, by itself etc.

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First impressions?

Here are my first impressions of the ORANGE DARK TERROR vs the MINI MESA
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Having had this Orange Jim Root Dark Terror sitting on top of my VETTA and switching between them I can safely say I'm shocked, SHOCKED I SAY, and amazed just how different two amps can be.

It seems blatantly obvious sonically that the sheer, cahones of deep/rumbling/thumping/body/etc. of the Orange Tube just can't be denied and I was a skeptic. WOW this thing is MEAN. Size of a shoe box and accidently deafened myself when I forgot about the STANDBY switch. Oops.

The sonic character seems most apparent at mid gain. This is where the orange really does shine. Even delicate strikes are articulate and full bodied. Power chords are almost too big and need to be restrained. EVen an open G chords just feels deep and HUGE. That kind of body on the high strings, in the low mid seems to be something tube amps like this one really shine at.

The only fault I can find so far, and it's pretty minor, is that by itself, it's really, really, really hard to get the Terror to CHUNK/GRIND in a Metallic/Gears Grinding way. Not to say it isn't heavy. It's just not the amp for MESHUGGAH. Palm muted triplets are not really it's cup of tea IMHO. But it was never really designed for that. So for pretty much anything you throw at it, just rolling back the gain a bit or tweaking the EQ yields vastly different tones. Almost sounds like a different amp. Very flexible. But DimeBag Darrell, or Chuck Schuldiner would need to keep looking. It's got a HUGE DEEP Black Sabbath vibe that tones down to be a killer blues, rock, lead, rythm, amp.

I played the MESA MINI and it has COMPLETELY different character. MUCH more Bite, Grind, bit hotter on leads. However, rolling the gain back didn't do the same thing as it does on the orange. It seems the ORANGE is nearly a different amp at each point on the gain/eq dial. Vast differences in tone from little tweaks. The MESA was WAAAAAYYYY more METAL, but the Orange did seem more versatile.

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Ahoy Todd! Thanks for the insight man! I have a little review I will post about a wonderful guitar I just tried yesterday

Cool! Can't wait to see! Always love hearing about new gear

One thing with the ORANGE AMP from what I've read since getting this head, they behave best with an ORANGE CAB. I've got a RANDALL cab it's hooked to now which evidently is not a great pairing. When I tried this head in the Demo Room at orange on an Orange 4x12 closed back cab, it nearly melted my face. I was honestly blown away. The articulation of each notes was just amazing.

On my Randall, it just sounds a bit too bassy even with the bass turned all the way down. The cab starts to frap a bit. With the line 6 Vetta, or even with my old gnx3 and a clean power amp, the Randall cab sounds amazing.

I really didn't think cabs could be this different given that they are somewhat similar in design/speakers/wattage, etc.

I have seen some Metal guys using an Orange cab with a Mesa Head which always seemed odd as MESA makes killer cabs. Come to find out, the orange cab is really well suited to detuned work

[
THE SECRET BEHIND ORANGE CABS (THEY CHEAT! But in GOOD way)

Most cabinets are 14 inches deep. ORANGE cabs are 15 inches deep which allows more sound pressure to build internally which is then ported out the front center and evidently couples with frequencies from the speakers making the cab seem much louder at any given wattage. They use really hard woods then port all that out the front .

My Randal cab is smaller than a standard cab and not as wide as the line 6 vetta that sits on top. I can honestly say it sounds vastly different and not in a good way to the orange cab.

In addition to the depth/woods/porting design, the 'Picture Frame" design of front of the cab acts almost like a wave guide focusing sound forward compared to flat edge designs. Again, not trying to say these are "superior" to anything. Just pointing out how different it sounded and sharing what I found upon researching it.

here is a link to an article about the history of orange and their amps/cabs that really spells it out.

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Arti..._Orange_Excerpt

So in short, I'd suggest pairing an orange head with an orange cab if you plan on getting an orange head They really are designed as a system. But also, they match well with Mesa Heads. But then again, so do Mesa Cabs

great review todd, really interesting to read.
If / when I am able to replace my old marshall half stack Im totally switching to orange

Howdy Todd - check this out http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=45757

Try before you buy! Make sure it's the tone for you. I'd say the cabinet goes with ANYTHING but the head is a very specific sound that some folks love and some folks don't. So put your hands on one before putting down cash

About the cabs - I've seen a lot of young modern metal bands using them in combination with Mesa heads The sounds is absolutely HUGE!

Those cabs really are MONSTERS. The little 15 watt JIm Root was shaking the plaster off the walls when we put it through an ORANGE 4x12 and turned it half way up. Any louder and I thought my ears would bleed. It was a small room but I thought there was another amp connected or something, didn't seem possible for a micro mini head to be that loud. But it seems that the cab really can make a huge difference.