Orange crush 120h and 120c opinions

A friend has one of these 120 watt solidstate heads and I am seriously blown away by how great it sounds very tube like break up and all that. Anyone else played one of these, I'm surprised by how great they sound for £350 for a head or £550 for a 212"combo. They do stack up well against the rocker verb it's meant to sound like especially at that price

mope, but now I am going to. I am always curious to see how I feel about solid state amps purported to sound close to their all tube bretheren.

Today was presents day, my TC Flashback X4 showed up today (wow that was fast) and Lucian got Diesel 10 and Emily for his wooden railway collection. We are both stoked about our toys.

They do sound very convincing and react very simillar to tubes too. I'm tempted to get one to run into a cab and then use a ab pedal and use the laney for cleans and over drive and one of these for distortion, with it being a master volume amp i can crank the dirty channel and then lower the master volume to a levcel not too loud. I have a rat 2 on the way, can't wait to put that out front of the laney. What I was thinking was tuner-digitech od-rat 2-phaser-chorus-ab box-amps. The rat and the cm-2 will be used with the laney for a different flavour but the cm-2 can also work to boost the orange dirt vchannel is ever needed

For a second I thought you meant a diesel amp

But you know I'm suspicious of most really high gain circuits.

If I had to guess how orange pulled that trick off it s proly achieved by optimizing the interaction between the output transistors and the speaker to mimic the dynamic dampening effect of a speaker coupled to an output transformer in a tube amp. I don't pretend to understand all the physics behind this type of solid state power amp, but its been around for awhile as a theory and has been employed recently for guitar purposes in the popular Matrix power amps and their hybrid JCM800-based design (which impressed the shit outta me when I tried it). If orange employed discrete FET stages for the preamp using the good old Fetzer Valve formula from runoffgroove.com that's so popular for amp-n-a-box pedal designs, then I expect it could get darned close to the amp they were trying to mimic. Or I could be way off base and Orange used some other solid state voodoo. I have a certain intellectual curiosity about the Orange Crush amps and the similar blackstar solid state designs that are becoming so popular with budget-minded guitarists.

I expect you'll like the rat. Its a good call with an ac30ish amp for full on distortion at friendly volumes. I ordered some tc nova systems (1 turned to 2 somehow, they were cheap used) mainly because the distortion is a midi programmable rat with independent treble and bass controls. I have been missing a rat. Along with the sd1 its one of those all time great ac30 effects to have on hand.

If you go for an orange Crush head, consider investing in a Radial Headbone head-switcher so you can A/B into one cab. Less to lug. I personally use the weber, but I already have the routing gear out front. The radial takes care of the input switching as well as the output switching whereas the weber only flips the amps outputs between the dummy load and the cab and wants you to have a good signal distribution method out front already. Also, Radial makes 3 versions of the Headbone (optimized for dual tube amps, a tube and a solid state amp OR dual solid state amps) and the weber is optimized for tube amps, so there's some extra circuitry if one of your amps is SS that's used for flipping the dummy load back and forth as opposed to the Radial that has an SS input and Tube input on the model you would want and if you can plug those in alright you are worry free and there are less relays that can fail.

My rat should be here in a few days. Can't wait to plug it in. I'm going to change the gibsons pickups to Burstbucker 2 and 3, a Duncan custom, a custom hybrid, maybe a Duncan distortion set but I don't think that's too usable to me and finally maybe some custom made ones from a guy on ebay but they take like 2-4 weeks and its risky in that I may hate them. None of those pickups are very similar but they do have a pretty fat tone which I want as I feel the 57 plus gets too shrill for me, could be that I play with the bright switch though but the Laney loses abit of its magic with it off.

I'm very tempted to run the Laney through a 212 and swap the v30s for green backs and the orange through a 412 with v30s. Though that will be hassel live to lug down two flights if stairs toss into a car then set it up. Just heavy to move around but would so awesome to me. I'll look into one of those amp switcherrs.

What Kluson tuners do you recommend out if Wilkinson, Gibson, Grover and Schaller?

none of the above, get tone pros sealed kluson style... but odds are the stock tuners are fine and the problem is the nut and saddles being burred as well as you not knowing now to get a Gibson to hold tune well because you are new to legit gibsons

Nah, I have the zero fret brass nut which doesn't bind or anything like that. Just replacing the gforce tuner

Oh, I forgot! The Tonepros sealed tuners that look like Klusons are really nice and may be drop in replacements. MEASURE all the holes and use that to decide, there are no bad options really. I like regular vintage Klusons unlike most guys, but the rotomatics on my LP are great, the kluson sized gotohs on my Greco are killer, the schaelers on my carvin are its best feature (I would look at the m1 minis for an LP), and sperzel's locking tuners are the bomb if you find yourself wrenching the G string outta tune a lot while soloing... I would choose based on screw location and post size because EVERYONE's aftermarket tuners are wonderful.

The holes are 10mm which seems to ve pretty standard these days. I don't tend to get the G out of tune on the gibson so hopefully I shouldn't pull it out of tune after changing tuners. I'll look at all of them and see which I best prefer based on specs and the actual housing for the gears. I really like the Kluson housing but real klusons need the 10mm adapters. Also seen that Stewmac sell a tuner hole gig for drilling the screw holes

try to avoid drilling as much as you can

The G force has no screws other than the actual tuner post holes. I have no choice but to. Maybe I'll get it done by my local guitar store who are also a authorised Gibson dealer and will include strings and a full set up in the price. I trust them there, very experienced luthier who also owns the store since he opened it in the 1970s

No screws. Wow. Bummer... I would just pay the oldster even though i could do the work. Anymore i just wanna play. Apart from general stuff like puckups and maintenance work I cannotbe bothered. My free time is too valuable to me. I learned that modding my strat. As a dad and middle management paper pusher it just ate up too much of my valuable time even though it was fun.

Only downside is changing the damn thing voids warranty but I still would rather just have real tuners as I find it kinda ugly and irratating plus it hides the made in the USA stamp and thats something I want to show off because its my only USA made guitar :P I do wish Gibson sold the zero fret nut so I could buy one for the Epiphone, they're really badass nuts. I'm surprised no one else had done this in the past

Wasn't this thread about solid state amps before? I am losing the script.

I'm going to change the gibsons pickups to Burstbucker 2 and 3, a Duncan custom, a custom hybrid, maybe a Duncan distortion set but I don't think that's too usable to me and finally maybe some custom made ones from a guy on ebay but they take like 2-4 weeks and its risky in that I may hate them. None of those pickups are very similar but they do have a pretty fat tone which I want as I feel the 57 plus gets too shrill for me, could be that I play with the bright switch though but the Laney loses abit of its magic with it off.

I don't find the 57 classic line to be brighter than equivalent output burstbuckers. In fact they are darker.

I'm very tempted to run the Laney through a 212 and swap the v30s for green backs and the orange through a 412 with v30s. Though that will be hassel live to lug down two flights if stairs toss into a car then set it up. Just heavy to move around but would so awesome to me. I'll look into one of those amp switcherrs.

I toured with 2 to 4 marshall cabs for years and multiple amps and poweramps. 2 words: get roadies.

Its meant to be about SS amps. what are the old marshall MG series like? the ones before they put effects in them. I find them really bright in my gibson, like nearly strat bright, its a nice sound but I prefer darker but could just be my amp settings. I have the bass at 4, mids 10 and treble 7 then the tone is on 6. I'll change the EQ, this sounds great with my Epi which has darker pickups but the classic 57s get very bright with these settings. When I can be bothered I'll change the EQ, probably tomorrow as just got both kids to sleep

I'v never tried a Marshall MG. Only solid state Marshalls I have experience with are the old 80s lead combo amp that sounds shockingly good as an 80s rock sound and some valvestates that belonged to other people. The valvestates are kinda amusing but not particularly great. I think its the preamps that sound shitty. Marshall coulda just given them typical Marshall tube amp pres, but they didn't want to use more than 1 tube in the circuit so the pre is areally hybrid and the tube isn't run at full voltage as I recall so its kinda like putting a tube overdrive in front of a solid state amp or into the PA. Weird sounding. I am sure the MG amps suck a dick. Everyone ahtes on them.

Now get ready for my to drop a major snob-bomb on you and share my real thoughts:

To be honest, I won't plug my own guitar into anything that's not handmade and tube based anymore unless you pay me to. I was even looking askance at the AC30HW I bought until I plugged into it because I wasn't sure I trusted Korg to make a proper sounding AC30 since every so called "handwired' amp they have released to date has been partially PCB, loaded with shoddy components AND HAS NOT SOUNDED VERY CLOSE TO AN OLD VOX (even when they had the sense not to load these amps down with pointless modern features, though many of them were totally bastardized on top of the questionable build quality). I was feeling snobby til I turned the old girl up and heard her great note definition, vox sparkle and felt the touch responsiveness as overdrive sets in.

I am sure there have been huge leaps in solid state technology, but I probably will not give any of these amps more than a few minutes of my attention in a store after trying the orange microterror and the ac30vr. Serviceable stage amps voiced to copy some old sounds, but not much in the way of real tone that makes you play better when you hear and feel it. Even mass produced tube amps leave me so flat I have trouble motivating myself to play through them. I plug into an ac30c2 or a generic channel switching amrshall at a store with nothing else and it feels like my tone got sucked down to a 2d, flat impression of my playing. The good stuff just sounds that much better. I try not to be snobby on this site because everyone has different depth pocketbooks, but that's how I really feel. If you aren't going for the top end products with simple circuits that let your signal breathe then all you can expect are serviceable sounds. Anything is good enough for live work though. Summoning amazing tones every night has never made me a dime, but songwriting has. You do the math. I still can't stand a lot of the stuff I get stuck using to try guitars in stores that don't stock high end and boutique amplifiers. Apparently its mostly just me who finds a lot of this stuff to be ear piercing and less musical than what I have at home.

I am still itching to try helix though sicne you can disable the amp modelling if it elaves you unsatisfied and just use it as an effects unit.... I am really into the TC stuff I've been buying though. I really don't want my dry signal turned into ones and zeroes. Its bad enough recording into a computer. Meh.

But yeah, sometimes I have to plug into a marshall DSL or something like that and I get a passable sound in a few knob turns, but its hard to hold my gorge down. Only the knowledge that if I vomit right on the amp the store might make me buy it helps me keep my lunch inside my stomach when I hear what passes for clean tone in most amps made since the 80s.

That's fair enough, if its not sounding good to you then its just not your thing. I personally like the "good" SS amps because of their distortion being harsher and having a much faster attack than tubes do typically. But I also like tubes alot, I honestly am pretty neutral on them both as both sound better than the other for different things I am doing which is why I want both. I hate digital modelling though some digital modelling stuff is good.

I have just watched a video on youtube of a guy taking the gforce off a 2015 studio and underneith it has the holes drilled for the Grover kluson tuners. Other videos I have watches haven't. Looks like a hit and miss whether Gibson drilled the holes or not. Fingers crossed I guess