Orange Rockerverb 50 MKIII

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Deleted member 27494

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Hey everyone!

I'm so excited! I got an Orange Rockerverb 50 MK III! I've wanted one forever, such a dream amp!

I started collecting the smaller Orange lunchbox amps a couple years ago. I really dig those small amps because they really have that true Orange tone. It's not a tone/sound that everybody can appreciate but I think once you're into it it's hard to let go :) So the Jim Root and OR15 are supposedly similar to the Rockerverb, heck, the Jim Root was marketed as basically being a mini-Rockerverb based on Jim Root's Orange. But I wanted one of the bigger Orange heads so I got the TH30H, which I really dig. It's a great amp, definitely a proper Orange. Still with EL84's in the power section but definitely powerful enough for many situations. Still I couldn't scratch that Rockerverb itch....

So I ordered one, finally and now I actually have one, which is almost hard to believe haha! It's quite a heavy amp and it's a little bigger than the TH30 surprisingly. The RV50 has a bit of a deeper chassis. I love how it looks with the hieroglyphics instead of the regular words. The old Orange logo looks cool although I personally prefer the slicker look of that modern logo, not a big deal though.

So it's a very sturdy head, it feels very well built. An interesting touch was the fact that all the controls are stepped! I thought it would make the amp less tweakable but in fact every control has plenty of steps. I think this can come in quite handy for recalling settings, which is basically why Ade included this feature.

The clean channel is very powerful with plenty of headroom but when you crank it you can get some nice overdrive. I don't know if this is pre or power amp distortion but it sounds cool! You have to crank it up very loud to get that break-up so that's when the attenuator comes in very handy! Love this feature on the amp. It's cool to be able to dial in the channel volumes and then turn them down again. Would be cool if every amp had this feature :)

The dirty channel is where the magic and mojo is at. The small Orange amps sound great but this thing really is on another level. The saturation sounds so thick, full and huge but the character of this channel still has enough midrange bite/cut. So it's not overly 'fluffy' like some of the other Orange amps. Just amazing how this sounds. Probably my dream tone right there!

The reverb is also quite nice although I don't often like to use amp reverb. It's a little subtle until you turn it up quite a bit.

Of course I had to make a little video to demonstrate some tones. I've got some high gain, crunch and clean tones here so you guys can hear how it sounds:

 
Nice demo and playing. I enjoyed your unique note choice and timing too Jon. Welcome to RT.
 
Enjoyed the review!
I think the RV50 is my favorite amp sound. It's the model I use the most in my AxeFX.
If I had the need for an actual tube head, I would definitely buy one.
I did have a TH30H, and really liked it. I'd definitely own one of those again, too.
 
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