Santa brought me a tiny thing

not_the_dj

shaunm said:

Bit harsh this thread. If the OP is pleased with his amp it seems a little bit out of order for everyone to react as they have. 

Glad you like the amp @gearaddict ;;

Happens whenever these are mentioned.

Mine (standard version) has got me out of the shit more than once at gigs, it’s my regular back-up and has served me well. 

shaunm

I keep thinking that I should get one of these just as a back up. Maybe finally retire my old solid state Laney.

clarkefan

Might be something fun to try; I remember a vid Chappers did with one of these, plugged a dirt box into the Return of one of these, bypassing the preamp section, sounded better to me than stock

ICBM

shaunm said:

Bit harsh this thread. If the OP is pleased with his amp it seems a little bit out of order for everyone to react as they have. 

Glad you like the amp @gearaddict ;

I'm glad he likes it too, but the plain truth is that the standard one sounds worse than terrible to me - so bad I would literally rather not be in the same room when one is being played. I'll keep an open mind about the Dark one now that nick79 says they sound quite different.

not_the_dj said:

Mine (standard version) has got me out of the shit more than once at gigs, it’s my regular back-up and has served me well. 

I'd rather plug a distortion pedal into the PA. It can't possibly sound worse.

But it also sounds like you need a better main amp .

not_the_dj

ICBM said:

shaunm said:

Bit harsh this thread. If the OP is pleased with his amp it seems a little bit out of order for everyone to react as they have. 

Glad you like the amp @gearaddict ;;;

I'm glad he likes it too, but the plain truth is that the standard one sounds worse than terrible to me - so bad I would literally rather not be in the same room when one is being played. I'll keep an open mind about the Dark one now that nick79 says they sound quite different.

not_the_dj said:

Mine (standard version) has got me out of the shit more than once at gigs, it’s my regular back-up and has served me well. 

I'd rather plug a distortion pedal into the PA. It can't possibly sound worse.

But it also sounds like you need a better main amp .

Ha ha. First time was an Egnater Tweaker with the ubiquitous dodgy output transformer that blew during a sound check, other time was a short notice gig with the rest of the family and luggage in the car. Both times running with a Catalinbread DLS into the Micro Amp. 

Posted this before but for the Tweaker(less) gig we got a repeat booking from the pub we were in and a booking for a private party from a punter that saw us. Job done for something small and cheap. 

ICBM

Do you not hear that hideous grating, fatiguing tone it has? I've really tried to ignore it whenever I've repaired one, but I just can't - it totally sets my teeth on edge. I find it strange that some people don't seem to hear it.

To be honest I probably shouldn't post about it, if I ever get captured by the CIA they only have to read what I've said and they could make me tell them anything they want in a matter of minutes.

midlifecrisis

I had the original (not dark) one, the one that @ICBM doesnt care for and probably hasnt forgiven me for getting him to repair it for me, but it was a great backup and saved me when i thought my laney vc30 was floundering (turned out it was a dodgy lead) but plugging the vc30 speakers into it sounded not at all bad. might try the dark one and maybe get one but dont really need one at the moment.   Saw a young band and the guitarist was playing one through a 2by 12 and it sounded loud and immense. i think they are great little amps 

prowla

Mine's smaller than yours!

JayGee

prowla said:

Mine's smaller than yours!

Ohhh! Has anybody tried one of those with a guitar?

Could just be the ultimate get out of jail free card...

TTBZ

Doesn't sound bad to me? Do I have cloth ears? Or may they've EQ'd the shit out of it to make it sound passable? I'd be happy with that as a backup amp.

GavRichList

gearaddict said:

To be fair, they got the boot in well before it was clear whether I liked the amp or not

Think yourself lucky it’s not made by Blackstar!

ICBM

TTBZ said:

[HOD Orange Micro Dark Review.]

Doesn't sound bad to me? Do I have cloth ears? Or may they've EQ'd the shit out of it to make it sound passable? I'd be happy with that as a backup amp.

Sounds hideous to me. That grating character comes through quite well even via Youtube compression.

Whatever was used to record the intro clip is even worse though. I was afraid that was going to be the sound on the whole demo...

Winny_Pooh

In that video he's micing the amp with what looks to be a Cascade fathead ribbon mic, so you know in real life there would be 2x the amount of fizz you're actuallt hearing.

thecolourbox

Winny_Pooh said:

In that video he's micing the amp with what looks to be a Cascade fathead ribbon mic, so you know in real life there would be 2x the amount of fizz you're actuallt hearing.

Yeah but... That dog though

TTBZ

Ha just goes to show how we all hear things differently then! I don't really like the sound of most Orange valve amps (based on the few I've actually played) - just judging by clips online I prefer the tone of all their solid states (micro dark and the Crush Pro series) to most of the valve amps which almost always have a weird muffled fizzy quality to their tone. 

ICBM

To be fair I hated the Dual Terror I was working on recently for a similar reason - overbearing, fatiguing midrange (although at least without the weird grating overtone).

The odd thing is that although many of the Orange amps seem to have this characteristic, there are some that don’t - the Rocker 30 for example, which in my opinion is easily the best-sounding modern Orange and sounds quite like the original 70s ones.

Rocker

Not nice to read of so much scorn directed towards to OP just because he likes his new amp. The Orange Micro series, to me at least, are low cost 'fun' amps. It is unfair to compare the Micro to the much more expensive and serious amps made by Orange and others. I have a Micro and the sound was tizzy until I replaced the valve as the stock valve is very poor. I recommend this low cost upgrade to everyone who has a Micro amp.  So my message to the OP is to enjoy his new amp. There are always 'better' amps available no matter what amp you have. Play away and don't be put off by the criticism of your kit.

gearaddict

Really quite cool this thing...the speaker out stays active when you use the headphone out, which is actually an emulated speaker out, so it means you can use a cab as a monitor while going straight to the PA via the headphone out.

It doesn't have quite the crushing gain that the TH30 has but tbh I never use that level of gain in the real world anyway.

If you like that sort of thing

randella

gearaddict said:

It doesn't have quite the crushing gain that the TH30 has but tbh I never use that level of gain in the real world anyway.

This raises a valid point.  My amp and pedals are capable of monstrous distortion levels, but  as soon as you rehearse or play out and get the speaker moving a bit, it gets dialled right back anyway.