thebigcheese
"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
Being a little impulsive, I decided to put in my order for the new Thunder 30 head before it was shipping, so now that I finally have it sitting here in my house, I thought I post my thoughts on it for those considering picking one up.
First, the gear I'm using. I'm playing in a small basement that isn't very well treated, so that colors the sound a little bit (but I often sit right in front of the amp, so not that much). I'm plugging the amp into a 1x12 cabinet I made--it's half-open in back and it's loaded with an Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker. I have a 1979 Gibson The Paul (which is a walnut guitar) and a fairly recent G&L Legacy.
The amp features two footswitchable channels, 3 speaker outputs (two @ 8 ohms, one @ 16 ohms), and can run on 4 or 2 power tubes. You can also switch the output between full and half, though I have found that it doesn't seem to make much difference. In fact, 2 tubes vs 4 tubes isn't that much quieter, either. This amp is not really meant for quiet practicing.
The amp itself is, like other Orange amps, quite sturdy. The handle seems a little less solid than I was expecting, but probably nothing to worry about. The amp is a good deal bigger than I thought it was going to be, though I suppose it's about standard head size (not quite as wide as, say, a Dual Rectifier, but just as tall). It looks a little silly sitting on my 1x12 box, though, considering it's half as tall and wider...
The clean channel has three controls: volume, bass, and treble. As I understand it, the bass control also handles the mids to the extent that turning it up is supposed to cut some of the mids. That does seem to be the case, though that obviously means that you have to have more bass if you want to cut the mids, which is not always preferable. The treble control does what you'd think it would do, though there seems to be a range on most of the controls on this amp where there are only slight adjustments possible, despite what seems to be a huge tonal difference from one side to the other. Having said that, two controls is plenty for the Legacy, which sounds really great through this amp. It's warmer than, say, a Vox Night Train (which is what I was using until now), but definitely not as bright/present as that amp (or a Twin Reverb, probably). As I said, that works out quite well for the Legacy, but The Paul could use a bit of brightening up, in my opinion. It is a bassy guitar and not as bright as the Legacy, but cutting the bass some helps. It's fine for live, though I'd probably EQ it when recording. At the end of the day, I guess I would say that it's a fairly standard Orange clean tone. It can go pretty loud, but turn it more than about halfway with the Legacy (and less with The Paul) and you'll start getting some crunch in there. Not that that's a bad thing, but it does inhibit the clean volume.
Flip it to the dirty channel and you have gain, shape, and volume controls. Cranking the gain control way up provides more gain than I will ever need and certainly enough for any type of metal. With The Paul, palm muting gets a little less chuggy and a bit more spongey on higher gain settings, but rolling it back some and putting an OD pedal in front of the amp clears that right up. The Legacy doesn't suffer from the same problems, probably because it's not as bassy to begin with. You can also dial the gain way back and get a clean sound, or just stick somewhere in the middle for more of a rock sound. The shape control is useful to an extent, though I suspect I will likely just leave it where it is. All the way counter-clockwise gives you nothing but mids; conversely, all the way clockwise gives you all bass and treble. I don't think I would use either extreme, but just a bit scooped (about 2 o'clock) is where I like it best. A bit more to the left and you'd get a more classic rock tone. Actually, the scooped tone could be useful on cleaner gain settings to drag a bit more sparkle out of The Paul.
Taken as a whole, the amp gets quite loud, perhaps a little louder than my 50-watt speaker is ready to handle. Hum is more prevalent than I remember it being on other amps I've owned (a Fender Blues Jr. and the Vox Night Train), but seems to be mostly related to the Legacy. Some better shielding and some ground loop elimination would probably go a long way.
I also use the effects loop, though only with one pedal. It is very transparent with just my TC Nova Delay in the loop, though adding a custom reverb pedal seemed to quiet the signal down and change the color a bit. I decided that was probably the pedal's fault and took it back out. The Nova Delay gets subtle enough to be mistaken for reverb, anyway. It's also worth noting that I run a rather full pedalboard in front of the amp and there doesn't appear to be any major tonal changes vs going straight into the amp.
All in all, the Thunder 30 is a very good, relatively versatile amp, though it is not perfect for all situations. It is more of a modern rocker than a classic rocker, though that depends on the classic band we are referencing (it would do Van Halen quite nicely). Not as sparkly as a Vox or a Twin Reverb, but the dirty channel absolutely blows away anything you'll find on amps from either of those companies, so decide for yourself what's most important. I, for one, am not disappointed.
First, the gear I'm using. I'm playing in a small basement that isn't very well treated, so that colors the sound a little bit (but I often sit right in front of the amp, so not that much). I'm plugging the amp into a 1x12 cabinet I made--it's half-open in back and it's loaded with an Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker. I have a 1979 Gibson The Paul (which is a walnut guitar) and a fairly recent G&L Legacy.
The amp features two footswitchable channels, 3 speaker outputs (two @ 8 ohms, one @ 16 ohms), and can run on 4 or 2 power tubes. You can also switch the output between full and half, though I have found that it doesn't seem to make much difference. In fact, 2 tubes vs 4 tubes isn't that much quieter, either. This amp is not really meant for quiet practicing.
The amp itself is, like other Orange amps, quite sturdy. The handle seems a little less solid than I was expecting, but probably nothing to worry about. The amp is a good deal bigger than I thought it was going to be, though I suppose it's about standard head size (not quite as wide as, say, a Dual Rectifier, but just as tall). It looks a little silly sitting on my 1x12 box, though, considering it's half as tall and wider...
The clean channel has three controls: volume, bass, and treble. As I understand it, the bass control also handles the mids to the extent that turning it up is supposed to cut some of the mids. That does seem to be the case, though that obviously means that you have to have more bass if you want to cut the mids, which is not always preferable. The treble control does what you'd think it would do, though there seems to be a range on most of the controls on this amp where there are only slight adjustments possible, despite what seems to be a huge tonal difference from one side to the other. Having said that, two controls is plenty for the Legacy, which sounds really great through this amp. It's warmer than, say, a Vox Night Train (which is what I was using until now), but definitely not as bright/present as that amp (or a Twin Reverb, probably). As I said, that works out quite well for the Legacy, but The Paul could use a bit of brightening up, in my opinion. It is a bassy guitar and not as bright as the Legacy, but cutting the bass some helps. It's fine for live, though I'd probably EQ it when recording. At the end of the day, I guess I would say that it's a fairly standard Orange clean tone. It can go pretty loud, but turn it more than about halfway with the Legacy (and less with The Paul) and you'll start getting some crunch in there. Not that that's a bad thing, but it does inhibit the clean volume.
Flip it to the dirty channel and you have gain, shape, and volume controls. Cranking the gain control way up provides more gain than I will ever need and certainly enough for any type of metal. With The Paul, palm muting gets a little less chuggy and a bit more spongey on higher gain settings, but rolling it back some and putting an OD pedal in front of the amp clears that right up. The Legacy doesn't suffer from the same problems, probably because it's not as bassy to begin with. You can also dial the gain way back and get a clean sound, or just stick somewhere in the middle for more of a rock sound. The shape control is useful to an extent, though I suspect I will likely just leave it where it is. All the way counter-clockwise gives you nothing but mids; conversely, all the way clockwise gives you all bass and treble. I don't think I would use either extreme, but just a bit scooped (about 2 o'clock) is where I like it best. A bit more to the left and you'd get a more classic rock tone. Actually, the scooped tone could be useful on cleaner gain settings to drag a bit more sparkle out of The Paul.
Taken as a whole, the amp gets quite loud, perhaps a little louder than my 50-watt speaker is ready to handle. Hum is more prevalent than I remember it being on other amps I've owned (a Fender Blues Jr. and the Vox Night Train), but seems to be mostly related to the Legacy. Some better shielding and some ground loop elimination would probably go a long way.
I also use the effects loop, though only with one pedal. It is very transparent with just my TC Nova Delay in the loop, though adding a custom reverb pedal seemed to quiet the signal down and change the color a bit. I decided that was probably the pedal's fault and took it back out. The Nova Delay gets subtle enough to be mistaken for reverb, anyway. It's also worth noting that I run a rather full pedalboard in front of the amp and there doesn't appear to be any major tonal changes vs going straight into the amp.
All in all, the Thunder 30 is a very good, relatively versatile amp, though it is not perfect for all situations. It is more of a modern rocker than a classic rocker, though that depends on the classic band we are referencing (it would do Van Halen quite nicely). Not as sparkly as a Vox or a Twin Reverb, but the dirty channel absolutely blows away anything you'll find on amps from either of those companies, so decide for yourself what's most important. I, for one, am not disappointed.
Excuse me while I go and ROFL.
