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Orange Tiny Terror Valve Head

 

Review of the Orange Tiny Terror Valve Head by The Man in the Jar

Class A valve circuitry is the most desirable amplification method if what you want the smoothest and most harmonic sounding overdrive for your guitar. But class A valve heads are heavy, hot and sometimes a wee bit smelly... until now.

The Orange Tiny Terror resides in a metal box that is peppered across the top, back and sides with ventilation grilles. The large silver carrying handle gives it the air of an important piece of test equipment that you might find in a nuclear power station. Its only when you peer into the top of the box that the true intent of this beast is revealed - four valves glow menacingly back at you as the heat they create gently tugs at your nostril hairs.

The front panel contains only what it needs to - there are no frills here. Front left to right we start with a three-way switch. Up is off, down is on and the central position puts the amp into standby. In standby the amp is effectively off but the valves are kept warm so that response is instant when the amp is switched fully on.

Next along is a two-way switch that toggles the amp from 15 watts to 7 watts. Valve amps often sound at their best when they are running at their loudest. So by knocking the Terror back to half power you can experience this quality of tone without blowing the windows out. 

A large orange light indicates that the amp is fully on or at standby. Then come the three controls with which you'll shape your sound. There's a single Volume, a single Tone and a Gain control. Next to those is the single input jack.

On the back panel there's the speaker output jacks (2 x 8ohm or 1 x 16ohm), the fuse holder and the AC inlet.

 

Sounds of the Orange Tiny Terror Valve Head

Even with the Gain turned low you can sense the warmth that this little amplifier is adding to your sound. As the Gain increased the sound broke up beautifully and musically giving great crunchy chords and sustaining lead sounds. Push the front end with a power booster or overdrive pedal and settle into metal heaven. I've played some of the larger Orange valve combos and hold them as some of the most desirable bits of kit in the market. The sounds available from the Tiny Terror do full justice to the Orange badge it wears.  

 

Overall impressions of the Orange Tiny Terror Valve Head 

Valves really are better than anything else for purity of tone, there can be no argument. But, like so many things in a modernising world, convenience is the master. Solid state took over from valves because transistors create smaller, cleaner, more convenient packages. On my desk for review sits a PocketPod - 100's of synthesised tones in a package no bigger than a Big Mac, the ultimate in guitar convenience. The Tiny Terror packs real valve tone into quite a small package with surprisingly little compromise. This is about as convenient as real guitar sound gets.

So it boils down to how you feel about real valve tone and the pleasure and improvement having such tone will bring you. The Tiny Terror isn't cheap but it gets you in at the bottom of the real Orange valve sound. For personal use, convenience in home or professional studios or miked up for rehearsal or small gigs the Tiny Terror is the real deal. 

Buy the Orange Tiny Terror Valve Head

The Tiny Terror is a stand-alone amp head and requires that you own or purchase a compatible speaker cabinet.

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