ShortScale.org

Hello,

I've been reading these here pages for a while now from afar without ever really contributing(which I probably should of done before now!) so I thought I'd ask the advice of the people on here as you seem pretty clued up on all things gear!

I'm currently using a Fender Blues Junior in my band and I've been toying with idea of getting a new amp for a month or so now. I'm being pretty indecisive and can't decide whether I truly want to get rid of my Blues Junior(because I actually do love it but can't afford to keep both if I choose to get another amp) or I'm just going through a phase of wanting to try something new. I've been looking at the Orange Rocker 30 watt combo as a replacement, went to try one out yesterday and liked it for what it was but couldn't really get a good idea of what it would sound like with my setup and whatnot. I'm after something more powerful than the Fender as our singer plays through a Vox which is ridiculously loud and seems to have far more presence than me when it comes to his guitar cutting through.

I suppose what I'm trying to ask is whether I'd be going down the right route with the Orange, something I'm not that familiar with and seems to be more distortion focused rather than generally being louder, or sticking with the Junior and working out ways to try and have a bit more presence(I understand that may sound a bit stupid but I'm no expert)

Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Well, what about your current amp do you not get on with and would like to change?

It's mostly just not being powerful enough in a band situation really - I love the tone of it and how clean it is but I don't want to take a step up to a Deluxe or DeVille. I do like the sound of the Orange amps in general but just worried I'd get it and it turns out it's not the amp for me!

I had a Blues Jr and I now have an Orange Rocker 30 Head and they are very different amps. I use pedals for my distortion and I never really liked the Blues Jr for when I played distorted, which is the majority of what I play, but for clean stuff it was great. On the Orange I always use the Dirty channel and have the gain set just below where it adds a bit of grit to the sound so that cleans are still pretty clean but when boosted or with distortion (via pedals) the amp naturally adds a bit of its own distortion to the sound. I think the amp sounds amazing with distortion pedals and I really like the clean sound too, although it is not as 'clean' as the Blues Jr was. I don't use the natural channel on the Orange. To me the Blues Jr sounded a bit boxy, I also had a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and that didn't sound boxy at all and distorted it sounded much better than the Blues Jr.

One downside with the Rocker 30 against the Blues Jr is lack of reverb, but as I don't use reverb it doesn't bother me.

Regarding volume, I have read comments on forums that the Rocker 30 isn't loud enough. I don't know what these people are on as I play it at a quarter of the volume on the dirty channel, at the settings I discribed above, through a 1 x 12 cab and that is more than loud enough to compete with a very loud drummer.

johnnyseven wrote:I had a Blues Jr and I now have an Orange Rocker 30 Head and they are very different amps. I use pedals for my distortion and I never really liked the Blues Jr for when I played distorted, which is the majority of what I play, but for clean stuff it was great. On the Orange I always use the Dirty channel and have the gain set just below where it adds a bit of grit to the sound so that cleans are still pretty clean but when boosted or with distortion (via pedals) the amp naturally adds a bit of its own distortion to the sound. I think the amp sounds amazing with distortion pedals and I really like the clean sound too, although it is not as 'clean' as the Blues Jr was. I don't use the natural channel on the Orange. To me the Blues Jr sounded a bit boxy, I also had a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and that didn't sound boxy at all and distorted it sounded much better than the Blues Jr.

One downside with the Rocker 30 against the Blues Jr is lack of reverb, but as I don't use reverb it doesn't bother me.

Regarding volume, I have read comments on forums that the Rocker 30 isn't loud enough. I don't know what these people are on as I play it at a quarter of the volume on the dirty channel, at the settings I discribed above, through a 1 x 12 cab and that is more than loud enough to compete with a very loud drummer.

Yeah, I use distortion and OD pedals with the Blues Junior now and to me it sounds OK but it's pretty much just using the amps clean channel and the pedals are the only thing creating the crunch in the sound. Whereas with what you've said about having the added distortion of the amp on the Orange it sounds amazing. I've only ever owned the one valve amp and so I've never known anything different to the sound I have now(apart from when I've used a friends Orange on various bits of recordings). I guess I'm just on the never ending quest for improvement in my tone! I use a Holy Grail so the reverb never gets touched on the amp.

It's stupid because I know I'd probably fall in love with the Orange if I bought it, it's just the transition between the two. I can tell that they're completely different amps and I think the Orange wins for having a bit more charachter really.

The Rockers are going for £600 right now, I just need to find someone to buy the Junior!

Thanks for the reply!

One thing to note if you do get the Rocker is that at first I didn't really like it when I used it at home, but then I changed the valves to 3 x Tung Sol 12AX7 pre amp valves and 2 x JJ E34L power amp valves and took it to band practice and cranked it and throughout the session I grew to like it more and more, now I think it is the business. However don't feel that you need to change the tubes in order to get a great sound out of it, cranking at band practice and playing at home will make it sound very different.

From what I read, alot of people rate the stock tubes so don't feel that you'll need to pay the cash to change them once you buy the amp, it's just that i'm really fussy and wanted to get the best sound I possibly could out of the amp. I bought it 2nd hand and it had 2 x JJ EL34's in it anyway which I believe were stock. The E34L's are similar, they just have a bit tighter bottom end apparently. I have a 1969 Carlsbro 50 Top which I have JJ E34L's and JJ ECC83S's in and it sounds awesome, I wanted to get a sound as close to that from the Orange which is why I changed the tubes. I bought the Tung Sol pre amp tubes over the JJ ones as I was recommended them by the retailer.

I hope I haven't waffled on too much. The important thing to remember is that if you do buy the Rocker it may take a bit of tweaking with the amp and your gear to get a sound you truly love, but once you get it it will be worth it.

johnnyseven wrote:I hope I haven't waffled on too much. The important thing to remember is that if you do buy the Rocker it may take a bit of tweaking with the amp and your gear to get a sound you truly love, but once you get it it will be worth it.

Nah man, not at all. It's all been taken in and processed! I think it's just that as I start to get more familiar with gear and how I think things should sound then the more I start to question myself. It was easy when I first bought the Fender as I'd only ever played through solid states before, so the difference and improvement was there immediately.

It's figuring out how the orange would react to my pedals too as I have about nine on my board as it stands!

I was in a similar situation to you, my first valve amp was a Hot Rod Deluxe which to me at the time sounded awesome. However after I scored a vintage Carlsbro 50 Top I realised what all the people who slag those amps off meant. The 50 Top just sounded so much better, as does the Rocker 30. I thought my Blues Jr, which I had at the same time as the Hot Rod as a spare/home amp, didn't even sound as good as the Hot Rod, so you should be in for a treat if you buy the Rocker.

I use loads of pedals too and the Rocker can cope with them without a problem. I have about 15 pedals, 4 drive/distortion, 6 modulation, 1 volume and the rest are things that either just stay on all the time or are there for non-sound changing purposes (?) - tuner, looper, EQ and noise reduction. They are set up in loops (through a true bypass looper) though so my guitars sound only goes through a few pedals at a time.

Blues Jr's have a decent resale value and are pretty popular so I doubt you'll have trouble selling it. I don't know what you paid for yours but I would expect a price of £300 wouldn't be unrealistic for a 2nd hand one, obviously depending on the condition.

Yeah, I've advertised it on a local music forum for £300 to see what interest it gets but they're all tight fuckers on there so I'm not that hopeful of getting rid of it that way. Last thing I want to do is stick it on Ebay as its a bit of a chore. It's pretty much in the same condition as when I bought it a year ago brand new. I don't think I'd go for anything less than £300 really.

Glad to hear it's alright with pedals, the junior can be a bit hit and miss sometimes and can give off some pretty irritating noises! even with the Diago power supply.

Secondhand prices on Ebay look like they're closer to £250; just a heads up if you're wanting to shift it.

I forgot that mine had a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker so I could justify a slightly higher price for it, therefore Doog maybe right in thinking that £250 is a more reasonable price. But then I suppose it depends on how quickly you want to get rid of it and what price you're willing to accept.