So, I come bearing some Orange news for you guys here! Orange has released the Orange Rockerverb MKII head and combo! Lets go down to the nitty gritty of what exactly this whole MKII thing is because honestly when I first saw this I was thinking how the hell have they possibly improved the Rockerverbs well heres how! Lets start with the Rockerverb 50 MKII Combo since the Combo and Head have the same features going on! 😆
Right off the bat the folks at Orange have moved the controls from on top of the amp to in front for easier changing during gig's and such. But besides the cosmetic difference there is a sonic one as well! The clean channel has gotten a middle control where as the older Rockerverbs just had a volume, bass and treble so now the clean tone can be more shaped something I think was a good idea! Other then that the clean section has really remained the same. The distortion channel has remained the same because there isn't much you can improve on that singing Orange distortion! However the new MKII runs on EL34's and features switchable output valves so you can use EL34s, the old 6L6s, KT88s, or 6550s wish just the flick of a switch. The effect's loop now uses 12AT7 tubes for more definition in the reverb and for more transparency.
Additionally the Rockerverb's will now be available in 1x12's something totally new and cool for the players who don't have all the space for 2x12's and all that. So it seems the MKII isn't much of a radical departure from the old Rockerverb's just a few updates to the line for the benefit of the players out there, these changes are in both the combo and the heads.
Coming in August of this year will be the new TH30 Combo and Head, I don't have much news on what exact features these will have since they aren't out yet but I assume they will be a lower wattage Thunderverb. I can tell you they will be switchable from 30 watts to 15 and 7, and they will use 4 EL84's and 2 ECC83's so be on the look out for these bad boys soon! I'm sure I'll have an update on features and all that once they hit the market!
