Orange Rocker 30 Combo

Brian Whyte
May 26, 2009

Rating: 7/10

Features: Two footswitchable channels (clean and OD). The footswitch for these channels is not included but any latching footswitch will do the job just as well as the Orange one (although the Orange one looks that bit more funky). The clean channel has a single volume knob with no EQ section. The idea of this is to let your pickups do the talking without being too coloured by the amp. On the dirty channel you have the usual 3 band EQ (bass, middle and treble) along with a gain knob and a dirty volume knob. The amp could really benefit from a built in reverb tank which is something that in reality no guitarist can do without. There is no effects loop which is something that I also find to be a bit annoying in such a high-end amp. It\'s a class A amp and comes with a single Celestion vintage 30 12inch speaker. There is the option for additional extension cabs with a 16ohm and two 8ohm outputs on the rear panel. It\'s got 3 ECC83 tubes in the pre amp and 2 EL34\'s in the power amp.

Sound Quality: Orange were once described as the company that marshall tries to emulate and this is for a very good reason. The OD channel has the most gorgeous crunch you\'ll hear in any amp under a grand. Think ACDC, Led Zeppelin or pretty much any big British rock band. In terms of gain it has more than enough for any classic rock sound up to hard rock, it won\'t do metal on its own but with the held of a good OD you will easily coax some nice metal tones out of it. Rolling back the volume knob on your guitar seems to cean it up quite nicely and result in a nice change in tone. The OD channel really works with your guitar to bring out its natural tone rather than covering it up.
The clean channel is very basic and just a bit lacking in that chime and sparkle of the likes of the Fenders and the AC30. Nonetheless it is possible to achieve a nice clean tone with the Rocker 30. Adding stomp boxes such as chorus and delay can really bring this clean channel to life, it responds remarkably well to any stomp box i\'ve ever tried with it. Generally when i\'m using the clean channel I use an EHX Holy Grail+, an MXR Phase 90 (script modded) and an Arctec Analogue Delay. It\'s probably not the loudest clean channel in the world but it doesn\'t break up until nearly full volume and even then it\'s just a slight overdrive.

Reliability: People seem to think that tube amps are less reliable than solid state transistor amps but I can tell you now that is no more than a myth. This amp is extremely built and I have never before had a single problem with it nor have I ever heard of anyone having a problem with it. I\'m confident enough of it that i often gig without any backup amp.

Overall impression: Great amp for crunchy rhythms with a British voicing, at 30 watts RMS it\'s also as loud as you\'ll ever need from an amp with as much clean headroom as you\'ll ever need too. The Celestion Vintage speaker is a great choice although a 2x12 option would be nice. The clean channel is a little bit disappointing and the lack of a built in reverb is very disappointing. Overall i would highly reccomend the Rocker 30 in terms of its OD which really is hard to beat but if you can afford it the Rockerverb 50 is certainly a better alternative.