Orange Micro Terror 20W Hybrid Guitar Amplifier Head

As noted elsewhere, this unit is amazingly tiny: 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 3 inches. But man, what a cool little amp! It totally lives up to the hype--and then some. The unit pumps 20 watts, with one 12AX7 tube in the preamp and a solid-state power amp. There are a grand total of 3 (!) controls: volume, tone, and gain. By tweaking these, you can get a fair range of sounds within the spectrum of bluesy British hard rock. For a first road-test, I played a '78 Les Paul Custom, with the amp gain maxed out, volume at 3:00, through a Tube Works 1x12 cab. I found 4 highly serviceable sounds with this set-up by fiddling with the tone control. At 9:00, you can dial in Clapton's classic Cream-era "brown" sound. At 11:00, you're in Brian May territory, a la "We Will Rock You". At 12:00, it's Mick Ronson and "Ziggy Stardust". At 1:00, it starts to get nasty, like Iron Maiden or other '80s British metal.Other observations:With the tone and gain at 12:00, i.e., dialing back the gain, you get a nice clean but crunchy Hubert Sumlin-type tone. Not the bell-like sound of a Fender amp, but that is clearly not what the Orange is designed to produce. It's amazing just how "British" this amp sounds--even compared to a Marshall (I also own a JCM900 4502). Another remarkable thing was the big difference between having only the bridge pickup on vs. both pups: it was massive. With both pups on, the volume was about 50% louder than with just the one, which definitely does not happen with the Marshall.Downsides:No reverb is a bummer--as is the lack of an effects loop.The sound through headphones is kinda crap. This is to be expected, however, since in that situation you're not hearing the speaker's influence on the tone, nor the liveness of the room.As others have noted, the thing is so tiny that one wrong move could knock it over in a heartbeat. However, it seems to be constructed tough enough to handle a few dropkicks.Beware: this is not a shredder's amp. For that, you'd probably want the Orange Dark Terror (at a much higher price point).To sum up:You can definitely practice with a full (loud) band with this sucker, even play small clubs if properly miked. If you want massive, juicy British tones in a small package, this is your buddy. I would've gladly paid twice the $150 it cost me. Color me Orange!

This is a five star amp for what it is: an easily portable amp that that will handle rehearsals, as well as a live gig if you put a microphone in front of the cab.After the amp arrived yesterday, I placed it inside my Pedaltrain hardshell case along with: my pedal board loaded up with pedals, cables, song charts and power supplies. Yes, it's THAT small. This thing weighs about what a pedal does, depending on the pedal.Arriving at rehearsal, I unplugged the head that was in the room, and plugged this into a 4x12 and cranked it up. Nice.This amp is a hybrid -- you have a tube preamp and a solid state power amp -- it's why they are able to make it so small. If you're not cranking your full tube amp loud enough so that the clean channel is breaking up, then you're not getting power tube distortion. If you're not getting power tube distortion, then you aren't really loosing much by going to an amp that's a hybrid.Let's talk about the pre-amp.... I had the gain at 12:00, tone at 12:00. We played the song "Come Together", I was on a Les Paul. Throw on the neck pickup, and with a soft touch, you get a nice laid back tone for the intro riff. Keep it on the neck pickup, but start to dig in just a LITTLE bit, and you have the soft grit for the verse. Throw it on the bridge pickup, and really dig in, and you have the chorus. No mucking about with volume knobs, pedals, etc. From an amp that looks like something my toddler would own.Next, move on to "Something"... don't change the amp settings, just keep it on the neck pickup and use your right hand to control the dynamics -- the lead intro with just enough right hand to get a singing tone, and then the gentlest of strums in the verse. Awesome.I haven't played a show with it, but that is on the to-do list... I mean, I've had the thing less than 24 hours and I'm totally sold.One tip: bigger and more speakers = better sound. I haven't tried the 8" speaker they sell, but you certainly notice the change when you go from an Avatar Speakers 1x12 (which sounds great) to a 4x12. The micro terror looks silly on top of a 4x12, but in a cool Spinal Tap sort of way.

I love this little thing. I even use it at rehearsal an practice some nights. It has great volume. I play in a 6 piece band with a horn section, we pump out some volume and this holds its own! With the 12ax7 in the preamp those warm punchy tones really come alive. The first time I saw it I thought "OMG it's a toy" after playing through it, it's FAR from a toy. I travel a lot playing and this works fantastic for late night practice. I plug my phone into the aux and it blends perfect through the head phones when learning new stuff. It makes learning new songs a breeze. I even use it in the bedroom and it doesn't bother my wife lol. Yes she's a heavy sleeper an the sound of an electric guitar not plugged in doesn't wake her but if I had it plugged into an open amp she wouldn't let me live if I had it turned down to even one lol. Look this thing is a great tool. It has all the warmth, tone, bite, smooth sweet sounds of an amp 10 times the size and price! You know the ole saying, size really doesn't matter? That couldn't apply more than here with this amp. Its a gr8 travel companion in that on the road in hotel rooms every night and I can play all night as loud as I want and not get kicked out. That alone is worth the price!