The number of the micro beast!!!!!!
"First off i must say im highly impressed with this amp. not only does it have a great tone but its louder than a pack of rabid wolves. With that being said this amp is highly recommendable to anyone wanting an inexpensive amp on a budget, new guitarist wanting an orange (because they are cool) or an older guitarist not gigging any longer wanting a good sounding amp that the wife wont complain about price.
Size and Initial impression.... First this amp is a hybrid, it does have one small tube that helps warm the amp up. After an hour of solid play the housing never got hot. Its very small, and I am thinking about picking up the 1x8 cab. its a great space saver if you don't have much free space.
Over all its very loud even at low volumes. I have a hard time getting past 2 with out the wife complaining she cant hear the tv. I am running it through an old Marshall 1960A cab which really brings this amp to life. I am also running my pedal board straight in and im not having any trouble with buzz. I am running a Boss noise suppressor at the end of my signal chain. BTW I have about 20 pedals, ranging from modulation to a few overdrives, you name it and its there.
Tone: I was able to easily dial in a clean tone with no problem. The dirty sounds easily ranged from AC/DC to modern doom and stoner rock/metal. your not going to get a modern boogie or scooped sound from this amp. Think Priest, thin lizzy, ac/dc, pearl Jam.
Band/ live: Yes you can use this amp with a band or live. but it will need to be miced. it should be able to handle a budding garage band as long as they are using at least a 2x12 .I also found that after about 12 o'clock it had a very hard time pushing my cab and the sound would go in and out. So this is were the power section lacks and one of the reasons i gave it 4 stars.
options: there is none, its bare bones and as simple as it gets. no effects loop, only one tone control, gain and a volume. But these three knobs do their job well.
My guitars: Schecter diamond series (2002) C1+ With EMG 81 and 85, Schecter diamond series Omen 6 w/ Duncan JB and 59, Fender American Telecaster (stock).
Over all this is a great amp for the value. It sounds good and is perfect for practice and recording, As well as small gigs.
Cons: power breaks up and has a hard time handling a 4x12 cab after 1 o'clock ( gain and volume cranked). no effects loop and only one channel, Hybrid.
Pros: Diverse and well priced for a value amp great clean tones and distortion/ overdrive.
BTW.... I also have the Orange Dark terror and that is on a another level. Im actually going to buy 2 orange 2x12 cabs and AB/Y them together and use the Micro for clean and slightly over driven sounds. while using my Dark terror for the heavy stuff. this will make a great amp set up for under $2,000. Way cheaper than a Boogie.
Any questions please ask away."
Orange Juice!
"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!"
