# After a year with an Orange Dual Dark



## jomgooz (Sep 14, 2016)

It&#8217;s been over a year now that I owned an Orange Dual Dark 50. I know there&#8217;s some kind of hype/mystery about this amp and I just want to demystify some information.

There&#8217;s not a lot of demos and sound clips available and most of the demos on Youtube are making me want&#8217;s to puke. When you read at reviews: Best amp in the world! (like every amp&#8230. So, here&#8217;s my experience with this amp. (English is not my first language so bear with my spelling )

I was an Orange amp hater. I thought that they were overpriced and that most people who wants an Orange amp didn&#8217;t even know how they really sound like (just for the cool look). I hated the orange sound based on the patches on my POD X3 and later my POD HD Pro. I play metal for over 20 years and I have played/owned/tried a lot of amps since. I mostly play ultrafast riffs with a .... load of palm mute and weird chords.

I bought a Dual Dark on the spur of the moment about a year ago. I was on the market for a Mesa Mark V but the deal for the DD was good so I have decided to give it a try.

For the first week I was in love with the amp, and then I was not so sure. It took a couple of month to get used to it but now it just rips! My main cab is a Recto oversize with v30. I also have a Marshall 1960A.

First, *THIS IS NOT A MODERN GAIN AMP*. This is not another declination of 5150/6505/5150 III/Dual or triple rectos/Satan/Rev generator/Archon/etc. If you worship that tone don&#8217;t even look at the Orange. It has a very distinctive voicing. So you&#8217;ll need to be aware that your sound won&#8217;t be what you are used to.

*What&#8217;s the &#8220;Orange tone&#8221;? :*
A massive low end with something &#8220;fuzz-like&#8221; in the lowhigh frequencies. Orange amps LOVE mids. This is where they shine. When you roll off the mid --> fizzy as hell.

*Hipsters vs Gain vs Metal Myth:*
Ok, this amp has more gain that you&#8217;ll ever need. Orange serves well the hipster crowd so here&#8217;s the result on demos: &#8220;O! Look, this amp can do metal --> Bass 10, Mid 0, Treble 10, Gain 10, low volume&#8221;.

*The 2 channels:*
This is not a 2 or 3 channel cascading gain amp. There is no boost button, kill mode, xyz toggles&#8230; It&#8217;s more like having 2 single channel amps that can do clean to fire breathing gainy tones (imagine 2 massively hot-rodded jcm 800). The cannel A is more flexible then the B but you can get similar tone out of them. They both clean up amazingly with the volume rolled off (beefy chug chug to crystal clear).

*The bass:*
This is where everybody fall into the trap. The amp has a huge amount of low end naturally. It sound like .... when you do palm mute and staccato riffs with regular bass settings (like 13 o&#8217;clock on a 5150) with a drop tuned 7 string guitar. At rehearsal volume level, it&#8217;s flobby and your cab will literally tells you that he would prefer to die. This is mostly why in all the reviews they tell you that it&#8217;s a stoner metal amp where palm muted tight and defined riffs are absent. So, by rolling off the bass everything is tightening up really well. On channel A just drop the bass knob between 8 to 10 o&#8217;clock. On channel B, turn the knob counter clockwise.

*Mids:*
Give this amp mids! The worst thing you can do is to scoop your eq. It&#8217;s going to turn in a fizzy .... hell. You won&#8217;t even hear yourself in the mix. For tight riffing, I&#8217;m boosting the amp with a TC spark with the toggle switch to &#8220;Mid&#8221; setting (taming the low end at the same time).

*Power tube clipping vs attenuator:*
Modern metal sound is provided by the preamp tube only. This is why metal players tend to use 6L6, KT88 and 6550 power tubes. They are pretty hard to clip. Power amp clipping is what you want for crunch. The DD has EL34 as stock tubes. I haven&#8217;t changed the stock tube on mine yet. That being said, the attenuator on the Dual Dark is a patented PPIMV. It works just like a normal PPIMV but it also change the clipping point of the power tube. It&#8217;s pretty neat! I don&#8217;t use it at rehearsal volume level but at bedroom level, it does the job pretty well on crunch tone. For metal or clean tones, it&#8217;s not a &#8220;must have&#8221; feature. The attenuator, the volume and the gain controls are reactive with each other. To tame the fizz at low volume, you can roll off the gain, crank up the volume and the attenuator.

*Input sensitivity:*
The DD is freakin&#8217; responsive. I have played on a Randall Satan and on a H&K Switchblade a couple of days ago and on both amps every pick stroke seems just a bit delayed with the sound. This is where I connect the most with this amp. Even with the gain at 10, you can still hear every single string of your guitar. You can hear a clear difference between guitars you plug in. I used to hate EMG81 but with this amp, they sound great. In this amp, I prefer not to high output humbuckers. My favorite so far: Seymour Duncan Pegasus.

*Conclusion:*
This amp puts a freakin&#8217; smile on my face every time I plug a guitar in instead of only getting the job done. It&#8217;s extremely versatile but you have to know how a tube amp work to dial in the right tone.

*Worst demo ever:*
*Gear gods* (https://youtu.be/HRKzKwOCoAo) --> Greenback &#8230; really? Too much bass and not enough gain for what he plays.

*Guitar world* (https://youtu.be/oQJY9s9qfvY) --> Volume is too low! The amp is not breathing. Way too much gain. Fizzy ..... Come on guitar world! You can do better! Garrett Peters nailed it with 1/100 of your budget.
I can&#8217;t imagine that somebody said : &#8220;Ok sounds good!&#8221;

*Best demos:*
*Garrett Peters* (https://youtu.be/X46JCl2Ol8o) --> seems to be the only one who knows how to dial an amp.

*Mike Martin* (https://youtu.be/rbuCWuxcNhY) --> Best demo to demonstrate the versatility of the amp

Hope it&#8217;s been helpful to demystify this amp.


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## AkiraSpectrum (Sep 14, 2016)

Amazing review, very thoughtful and precise. 
Thanks!


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## op1e (Sep 14, 2016)

Bravo. The first thing I look for in an amp is attack. Tones can be dialed in, but if too compressed or mushed then it takes a lotta joy out.


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## Esp Griffyn (Sep 15, 2016)

Great review. I like Rob Chapman's review of the Dual Dark 100, that amp has so much grind and balls. You can get decent note separation and definition - though not on the same level as a modern voiced amp, but there is just a huge, roaring sound to the gain and low-end response.

I really like these things, they have a great and unique voice. You'll definitely stand out from the crowd playing one.


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## Bearitone (Sep 15, 2016)

This is my actually my dream tube amp (I hope they make a solid-state version)

Thanks for the detailed review!


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## chassless (Sep 15, 2016)

Great review very insightful! 



kindsage said:


> This is my actually my dream tube amp (I hope they make a solid-state version)



You could always try the Micro Dark, sounds pretty good honestly


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## ncfiala (Sep 16, 2016)

Nice review. I just picked up a Dual Dark 100 and an Orange 2x12 myself.


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## Bearitone (Sep 17, 2016)

chassless said:


> Great review very insightful!
> 
> 
> 
> You could always try the Micro Dark, sounds pretty good honestly



I tried one in store side by side with a Dark Terror and it sounded like a cheap distortion pedal. I think if they made a full size effort with a circuit that more accurately emulates the Dark Terror sound they would be on to something.

Kind of how the CR-120 is based off of the Rockerverb, It would be awesome to have a DR-120 (or something like that) based off the Dual Dark.


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## wakjob (Sep 17, 2016)

kindsage said:


> This is my actually my dream tube amp (I hope they make a solid-state version)
> 
> Thanks for the detailed review!



Seeing as how you're a big AMT pedal fan... have you thought about the O2?


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## Dawn of the Shred (Sep 17, 2016)

Good review man!!


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## Bearitone (Sep 17, 2016)

wakjob said:


> Seeing as how you're a big AMT pedal fan... have you thought about the O2?



I'm actually thinking about it!
And you're right I'm a total AMT fanboy. I honestly think they will be the ones to convert tube guys to solid-state. 

But, I contacted AMT and they told me the O2 is based off of the Orange AD-30.
I checked out a lot of demo's for the AD-30 and it just doesn't seem to be voiced modern enough. I think I may eventually give it a try but, I'm putting money into other parts of my rig for now.

I was also thinking of having Electronic Audio Experiments build me a one off, solidstate "clone" of the Dark Terror's preamp in a pedal.
I hear nothing but good things about EAE as well


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## chassless (Sep 17, 2016)

^ the AD30 is not a metal amp. An amazing one for sure, just not made for metal.


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## wakjob (Sep 17, 2016)

kindsage said:


> I'm actually thinking about it!
> And you're right I'm a total AMT fanboy. I honestly think they will be the ones to convert tube guys to solid-state.
> 
> But, I contacted AMT and they told me the O2 is based off of the Orange AD-30.
> ...



The O2 + boost pedal does sound tempting though.
I bet it could metal well enough...


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## Harry (Sep 18, 2016)

I played through one of these while on tour, as it was a backline amp one of the band's let me use.
I didn't find it all that loose. Perhaps my D-Activators and TS-9 helped play a part in that, as well as slightly adding some mids before the set started, but even with the 7 string (Bb standard), the lower mids and bottom end help together well.
I listened to another guitarist that night playing through it, tuned to C# on a 6 string from memory, and I close enough to the stage that I could hear the amp and not FOH sound, and again, it sounded tight enough 
Granted, it may not be quite tight enough for super technical metal tuned to F, but I'd say it's plenty tight enough with a TS-style pedal and well dialed i settings for the vast majority of heavy style guitarists out there.

GREAT sounding amps I think. I can definitely recommended them if you want an alternative to the high gain 'usual suspects'


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## chassless (Sep 18, 2016)

what's FOH sound ?


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## noise in my mind (Sep 18, 2016)

chassless said:


> what's FOH sound ?



Front of house. Where the guy is mixing the live sound of the band.


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## Bearitone (Sep 18, 2016)

Harry said:


> I played through one of these while on tour, as it was a backline amp one of the band's let me use.
> I didn't find it all that loose. Perhaps my D-Activators and TS-9 helped play a part in that, as well as slightly adding some mids before the set started, but even with the 7 string (Bb standard), the lower mids and bottom end help together well.
> I listened to another guitarist that night playing through it, tuned to C# on a 6 string from memory, and I close enough to the stage that I could hear the amp and not FOH sound, and again, it sounded tight enough
> Granted, it may not be quite tight enough for super technical metal tuned to F, but I'd say it's plenty tight enough with a TS-style pedal and well dialed i settings for the vast majority of heavy style guitarists out there.
> ...



I agree with you to an extent.
My Dark Terror (which is suppose to be channel B of the Dual Dark) with a boost and EQ didn't sound vintage and stayed pretty tight.

Would it be my first choice for precision tech-death and prog? No but, It was definitely tight enough for my needs. I wouldn't necessarily call it a "loose" sounding amp, especially compared to everything else Orange puts out.

And that was just the 15 watts. I can only imagine how a full 100 watts really keeps that low end together.


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## WhoThenNow7 (Sep 20, 2016)

Thanks for the review! I've actually been in the market for a real good amp with some crunch, or can do that nice 70s/80s rock tone. It seems it's a pretty versatile amp with a specific sound. Can't wait to hear some of the links you posted when I have a chance.


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