Orange Rocker 15 Terror

Ik was al een tijdje op zoek naar een goede buizenversterker die ik ook zou kunnen gebruiken als oefenversterker voor thuis. Na een hoop shoppen, ben ik uiteindelijk op deze versterker terecht gekomen en ik moet zeggen dat ik zeer tevreden ben.

Op z'n hoogster stand geeft deze versterker 15W, met een optie om deze terug te brengen naar 7W op de Half setting. Beide settings klinken gigantisch en zijn ideaal om met een band of live mee te spelen. De Bedroom setting (verkregen via de schakelaar achterop de versterker) brengt het maximale vermogen terug naar 1W en 0,5W op de Half setting, waardoor deze versterker ook ideaal is voor thuisgebruik.

Het Dirty kanaal geeft een geweldige Marshall-style overdrive sound en de 3-band EQ zorgt voor een plethora aan opties om je tone aan te passen. Het Clean kanaal heeft jammergenoeg geen EQ controls, maar geeft wel nog steeds een hele mooie tone, perfect voor mijn stratocaster.

De enige minpunten die ik met deze versterker heb zijn het gebrek aan EQ controls voor het Clean kanaal, en het gebrek aan een voetschakelaar. Ik vind het eerlijk gezegd een beetje onzin dat je de voetschakelaar (Orange FS-1) apart moet kopen, zeker gezien het prijskaartje wat aan deze versterker hangt.

Al met al ben ik zeer tevreden met deze versterker en denk ik er zeker nog vele jaren plezien van te hebben!

I've been on the lookout for a new Amp for more than a year before settling on the Rocker 15.
After having used my Peavey Vypyr for about 8 Years, I wanted a low wattage tube amp.
Out of a few british amps at a similar price point I liked the sound of the Rocker 15 the most.

My first impression was basically "wow that thing is LOUD".
I play in my flat and even though I use a silent cab, I still run the amp at one watt most of the time.

What I like:
* A nice range of sounds from crisp cleans to quite high gain
* The way it reacts to my playing
* The ability to dial it down to 0.5 watt
* The effectsloop
* It takes gain pedals quite nicely
* The simplicity of the interface

What I don't like:
* The channel switching footswitch is a separate product not provided with the amp
* I think the highs of the dirty channel could be a bit more focused (is almost a non issue, but I thought I should mention it)
* There is a switch between half and full wattage on the front, however the switch between the "headroom" and "bedroom" settings is at the back. This could have been moved into a single 4 way switch at the front.

What to expect:
* An out of the box good sound, just plug it in and it will work
* A good base for pedal usage
* A loud amp that can easily keep up with a drummer

What not to expect:
* An absolute high end metal beast
* A quiet amp, that can be played in your flat at night (to be fair it can do that, but not at optimal sound)

Regarding the features:
* As previously mentioned I would have liked the footswitch to come with it
* You receive a nice bag for the amp, which is adequate, considering it is not that heavy

Regarding handling:
* Most of the front is described by pictograms instead of text, that might initially not be intuitive, but for a quick look it works a lot nicer and makes the front look a lot cooler.
* The clean channel has no way of adjusting the sound, however I don't think it is necessary, it already sounds phenomenal

Overall I am absolutely happy with my purchase and for my current situation it was definitely the right choice.

Disclaimer: I was previously playing through Orange Micro Terror so I do like the "orange" sound.

The packaging: the amp comes with a padded bag that is very nice to use and does not come with a footswitch. I personally think that orange footswitches are a bit bulky so this was not an issue for me.

The sound: I was always a fan of Orange breakup tones and this does deliver everything I was hoping for. In my one-man-band setup it fills the sonic space nicely and has a really punchy mid-range (paired with a V30 cabinet). I can get a really nice variety of gain tones and It all works really well. What I was surprised with is how much I liked the clean tones and how much I end up using the clean channel as a result.

The amp is loud, and I do mean LOUD. The headroom/bedroom switch as well as half/full power work wonders for this. I am yet to be able to take it off the headroom mode for either practice or live as it gets plenty loud. I find that even in 1W mode it is loud enough to hold its own with my small drum kit.

It does have fx loop which is great for delays/looping.

Overall I love the amp and it suites my needs perfectly and so this is going to be the last amp I buy for a long time.

Small negative points:
- Handle does not fold so I cannot set my backup on the top (not really a big issue)
- Aformentioned lack of bundled footswitch (not a problem since I was planning to get a smaller footprint one from a third party anyway)