I pulled the trigger and bought the Orange Crush 30R and all I can say is....

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Buck62

Buck62

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....HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, THIS THING ROCKS!!!!!!!!!

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Yes, I tried the Tiny Terror and even A/B'd them side by side at the store. It was less than 30 minutes before this little music store closed and the owner let me crank them both all the way up. And while the TT is certainly louder and somewhat "tubier" I couldn't believe how close the Crush 30R came to matching the tone of the TT!! Simply amazing for a Chinese made solid state amp, I was blown away. Everything from jangly, harmonic overtones to biting, sweet overdriven tone. Yeah, baby, this thing has got it! :)

For $199 it was a no-brainer. I would have loved to scoop up the Tiny Terror, but then it would cost me at least another $300 for a cabinet, then I'd have to get a reverb pedal, too... and extra cables. I figure it would cost me around $900 to get properly set up with the TT, so I went with the Crush because I couldn't justify spending more than quadruple the money for the slightly better tone. Yes, I said "slightly", because the Crush is simply amazing... a real tone monster. I spent the entire evening (about 4 hours) last night playing all my guitars through the 30R and every one of my electrics sounded great through it.

But hey, don't take my word for it. Go hit a music store and A/B these amps for yourself. I'm sure some of you will trash my opinion, and that's fine. I'm certainly no expert in "pure tube tone" as many of you seem to be. I just know what sounds good to my ears and I like getting more for my money.

And while the TT is certainly better, you have to crank it up to get the best tone out of it. If you're recording, the Crush 30R allows you to get that sweet tone at much lower volume levels, saving your ass from complaints from family and neighbors. I rarely play clubs anymore, save for an "open jam" every now and then. So going with the 30R just made more sense for me.

Next on my list is a Vox AC15CC. :)
 
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Congratulations! I've been looking at the TT myself for a while. My local music store doesn't carry Orange (the nearest dealer is over an hour away :(). Could you post clips?
 
Buck62 said:
It could be weeks before I get out to the studio.

In the meantime, here's the video that got me interested in the 30R in the first place....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnTr49UmhZs

That'll give you a pretty good idea of how nice this amp sounds.
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Wow, that's one of the few youtube clips I've heard that doesn't totally suck balls. Not bad at all. I think I might pick up one of these amps.
 
jonnyc said:
Wow, that's one of the few youtube clips I've heard that doesn't totally suck balls. Not bad at all. I think I might pick up one of these amps.
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Like I said, play it first and make your own decision, because tone is subjective to each listener. But for $199 it's pretty much a no-brainer, it simply can't be beat for the money. I've heard amps that cost 3 times as much that don't sound half as good as the 30R.
 
Buck62 said:
Like I said, play it first and make your own decision, because tone is subjective to each listener. But for $199 it's pretty much a no-brainer, it simply can't be beat for the money. I've heard amps that cost 3 times as much that don't sound half as good as the 30R.
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Yeah for sure.

I just got rid of the Marshal Half stack I bought in the summer for $750.

It was awful.

When I hear how good these little combo amps can sounds, and take in to consideration that with a good PA system, you can mic them and play any sized gig , I feel really foolish about the half stack mistake.

I guess I didn't fully realize all that until someone told me that Marshall makes "fake" half stacks for big concerts, that have nothing in them - they are all for show. Meanwhile, the artist is actually playing the little combo amp that's mic'd up back stage.

Bull-shit baffles brains.
 
Buck62 said:
Like I said, play it first and make your own decision, because tone is subjective to each listener. But for $199 it's pretty much a no-brainer, it simply can't be beat for the money. I've heard amps that cost 3 times as much that don't sound half as good as the 30R.
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Well I have a studio for other bands and I don't even play guitar. So basically I'd be adding another flavor to my arsenal for pretty cheap. I don't see how it would hurt to have something like this in my amp collection.
 
mattkw80 said:
Yeah for sure.

I just got rid of the Marshal Half stack I bought in the summer for $750.

It was awful.

When I hear how good these little combo amps can sounds, and take in to consideration that with a good PA system, you can mic them and play any sized gig , I feel really foolish about the half stack mistake.

I guess I didn't fully realize all that until someone told me that Marshall makes "fake" half stacks for big concerts, that have nothing in them - they are all for show. Meanwhile, the artist is actually playing the little combo amp that's mic'd up back stage.

Bull-shit baffles brains.
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I don't know if it's Marshall that makes them, but mockup Marshall cabs do exist. I worked the stage for a Metallica show many years ago, and of the 27 (yes, 27) Marshall cabs they had on stage, only 3 had speakers in them, and the fake ones were much lighter weight than a real cab would have been, even with the speakers removed. All 9 of the Marshall Major heads (one atop each 3-stack of cabs) were fakes as well; each real cab was powered by a 50 watt head behind the stacks.
 
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ggunn said:
I don't know if it's Marshall that makes them, but mockup Marshall cabs do exist. I worked the stage for a Metallica show many years ago, and of the 27 (yes, 27) Marshall cabs they had on stage, only 3 had speakers in them, and the fake ones were much lighter weight than a real cab would have been, even with the speakers removed. All 9 of the Marshall Major heads (one atop each 3-stack of cabs) were fakes as well; each real cab was powered by a 50 watt head behind the stacks.
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Awesome. So the rumor was true !

Do they serve any other purpose then, besides a visual ?

Do you store stuff in them, or do they add anything in the way of acoustics, due to the fact that more crap is one stage than would be otherwise ?

They must bring an extra transport truck just for that !
 
mattkw80 said:
Awesome. So the rumor was true !

Do they serve any other purpose then, besides a visual ?

Do you store stuff in them, or do they add anything in the way of acoustics, due to the fact that more crap is one stage than would be otherwise ?

They must bring an extra transport truck just for that !
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Just for show, no other purpose. There were only two of us stage hands. When they opened up their semi trailer and I saw all those cabs, I thought, "Oh my achin' back and ears!", but I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up the first one and it only weighed about 15 pounds. The three instrumentalists (guitars and bass) each had three 3-stacks behind him, with the center cab being the real one. Like I said, the 9 Marshall Majors (one atop each 3-stack), were mockups as well, just a box with a light in it. They had about 10 real Marshall heads with them, but most were spares. The guitarists used 50 watters and the bassist used a bass head, whatever wattage it was.
 
I have the Orange Crush 15, which is a tiny SS practice amp -- it sounds pretty good. Between my son and me, we've got about 8 or 9 little practice amps, most of them all tube - we still grab the Orange Crush pretty frequently. I'm keeping my Marshall half stack, though :)

I've heard that about the phony cabs and heads before. It makes a lot of sense , except for the phoniness of it all -- could you imagine being the sound guy/gal, and having to deal with all those cabs in addition to the mains? Also, I never played a stadium size venue, but even the larger places I played, we miced my Marshall (which is a 50 watt 2204 JCM800 with the slant cab), and I rarely turned it up past "1", lest I start competing with the mains.
 
antichef said:
I have the Orange Crush 15, which is a tiny SS practice amp -- it sounds pretty good. Between my son and me, we've got about 8 or 9 little practice amps, most of them all tube - we still grab the Orange Crush pretty frequently. I'm keeping my Marshall half stack, though :)

I've heard that about the phony cabs and heads before. It makes a lot of sense , except for the phoniness of it all -- could you imagine being the sound guy/gal, and having to deal with all those cabs in addition to the mains? Also, I never played a stadium size venue, but even the larger places I played, we miced my Marshall (which is a 50 watt 2204 JCM800 with the slant cab), and I rarely turned it up past "1", lest I start competing with the mains.
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It would be different I think - if I had a "real" stack like your JCM800.

Mine was a solid state, digital piece of garbage.

It had 1 tone - and that tone sucked.
 
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