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Orange Tiny Terror


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I picked up a used MIK Orange Tiny Terror on TGP. The amp arrived yesterday, but I wasn't home last night. Fired it up after work today into a Mesa Recto 1x12 cab with a Celestion V30. The outside portion of one of the speaker output jacks came off during shipping, but I found it in the bag and put it back on. I am not a fan of board mounted input or output jacks on an amp that's supposed to be good quality.

The amp fired up just fine and I was able to get some tones I was really pleased with, especially with a 3 hole duotone. It also cleaned up nicely with the guitar's volume control. If I played in an original band and could live with one sound, I could gig with this rig. But, I play in a cover band and need more clean headroom. I could see using this as my dirty amp and a Fender as my clean amp with an A/B/Y switch and some pedals.

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For a little more clean headroom the easiest thing to do is order a set of power tubes from Dougs Tubes or your favorite vendor, rated for later breakup. You can ask him for pre-amp tubes that are a shade less gainy as well stay with the 12ax7 If you use a 12at7, 12ay7, 12 au7, you will effect the overall tone of the amp as they are not direct replacements for a 12ax7. The correct alternative is a 5751 and that will give you less gain without impacting the overall tone.

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I used to have a Giller amp based on a Matchless Lightning circuit... not all that different from the Terror. Tried a load of tube combinations and finally decided that with a 15-watt EL84 amp, there ain't so such thing as clean headroom unless you play without a drummer. The dirty sounds are great but I switched to using 30 watt EL84 amps 'cos I HAVE to have more volume and headroom.

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For a little more clean headroom the easiest thing to do is order a set of power tubes from Dougs Tubes or your favorite vendor, rated for later breakup. You can ask him for pre-amp tubes that are a shade less gainy as well stay with the 12ax7 If you use a 12at7, 12ay7, 12 au7, you will effect the overall tone of the amp as they are not direct replacements for a 12ax7. The correct alternative is a 5751 and that will give you less gain without impacting the overall tone.

I have some NOS 5751's sitting around for just such an occasion. I love the breakup on this thing with the gain around noon, well really anywhere on the dial. A midrange control would have been nice, but my ear adjusted to the tone after about 20 minutes. I need to plug in some P90s and a Les Paul.

I used to have a Giller amp based on a Matchless Lightning circuit... not all that different from the Terror. Tried a load of tube combinations and finally decided that with a 15-watt EL84 amp, there ain't so such thing as clean headroom unless you play without a drummer. The dirty sounds are great but I switched to using 30 watt EL84 amps 'cos I HAVE to have more volume and headroom.

That's why I was thinking that a dual amp setup would be ideal. Fender clean and TT gain. Man, that would rock. Or even a Classic 30 for clean, mid gain and then the TT for higher gain plus combinations....

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I used to have a Giller amp based on a Matchless Lightning circuit... not all that different from the Terror. Tried a load of tube combinations and finally decided that with a 15-watt EL84 amp, there ain't so such thing as clean headroom unless you play without a drummer. The dirty sounds are great but I switched to using 30 watt EL84 amps 'cos I HAVE to have more volume and headroom.

Well if you want to get technical most low power amps are not going to give you any real clean headroom, it is the nature of the beast.

You can however maximize whatever is available. The correct tubes are one step in the that direction. The other steps involve circuit changes.

The great thing about low power amps is the grind you get so I think it defeats the purpose. I do get folks that ask me to tweak their amps for that little extra clean headroom. Hey, it's been keeping me busy. :rolleyes:

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I used to have a Giller amp based on a Matchless Lightning circuit... not all that different from the Terror. Tried a load of tube combinations and finally decided that with a 15-watt EL84 amp, there ain't so such thing as clean headroom unless you play without a drummer. The dirty sounds are great but I switched to using 30 watt EL84 amps 'cos I HAVE to have more volume and headroom.

Well if you want to get technical most low power amps are not going to give you any real clean headroom, it is the nature of the beast.

You can however maximize whatever is available. The correct tubes are one step in the that direction. The other steps involve circuit changes.

The great thing about low power amps is the grind you get so I think it defeats the purpose. I do get folks that ask me to tweak their amps for that little extra clean headroom. Hey, it's been keeping me busy. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah... I found that something as simple as using JJs instead of Tung-Sols helped immensely. I just shrug when I hear "15 watts", "Clean", and "Gig volumes" in the same phrase. Our second guitarist uses an AC15 with an Alnico Blue and her tone is nice but NEVER clean unless we're just twiddling around while the drummer's in the can.

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Oh yeah... I found that something as simple as using JJs instead of Tung-Sols helped immensely. I just shrug when I hear "15 watts", "Clean", and "Gig volumes" in the same phrase. Our second guitarist uses an AC15 with an Alnico Blue and her tone is nice but NEVER clean unless we're just twiddling around while the drummer's in the can.

Actually, I can get my AC15 w/ celestion blue pretty darn loud and clean. Enough for my taste. The TT definitely gets dirty faster, but like Brewey said, that's the nature of the beast and I'm liking that nature.

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I like mine!

Try some "better" tubes in there if she's still runing the stock ones.

Fun little amp's...

tttt1.jpg

i use my crate vc20 with 2 el84's for gigs, what i did was put some nos rca 12at7's in place of the stock 12ax7's and also put some tube doctor el84's in there, it's pretty clean now and i run it with master on 9 and pre on 5, it's right at the edge of slight breakup, i have a looper that i use for solos that has a compreesor and a ts-808 connected to it, best sound i've ever had...............

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I'm convinced that the dual amp steup is the best for sonic spectrum spread or SSS as they call it for short.

Matched with a fender it would sound really good.

I had a Peters/Mataamp dual set-up that rocked but I'm downsizing so the Peters went.

I had a terror and it was cool for dirty sound but lacked the depth of my bigger amps.

If you keep it you might want to get it modded a bit to extend the tube life as they run hot. I think AdmiralB gave me the scoop on the mod but I deleted the email.

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those tiny terrors look like a lunchbox, ha.

the crate vc20 i had sounded great, like a lil marshall, but it was not clean enough for our jazz/funk/ska stuff. my 6V6 powered superchamp xd has great chimey fender clean sounds, perfect tone and volume for our band. i actually stopped using my switchblade because the xd has better cleans, better effects (and is less than half the weight). the SB does rule the high gain stuff, tho.

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I've switched from my TSL601 to a TT with a Carl Martin PlexiTone in front.

I'm guessing I should have held onto my PlexiTone as I heard one in front of an AC30 and it sounded great. I got mine dirt cheap and it sounded like ass, but I can't remember what I plugged it into. Seemed like a great concept with lousy tone, but apparently I plugged it into the wrong thing!

So Dave, are you running the TT clean or with a bit of gain or what? And if clean, what kind of settings and did you swap tubes?

Thanks

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So Dave, are you running the TT clean or with a bit of gain or what? And if clean, what kind of settings and did you swap tubes?

Thanks

Clean-ish. Settings will vary but the volume will always be slightly higher than the gain, tone at about 1 or 2 o'clock. Not a tube swapper.

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Nice box... heh heh....

I actually don't mind the lunchbox look and while the case isn't as nice as the Crate Powerblock's, it'll do. Not sure if I'll gig it as I'm quite happy with my L6 Spidervalve. Go ahead, laugh. :-)

Thanks for the info Dave!

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those tiny terrors look like a lunchbox, ha.

Mine doesn't look like a lunchbox...

hamertime026.jpg

thats kickass!!!

I've switched from my TSL601 to a TT with a Carl Martin PlexiTone in front.

i got a plexitone (traded harry my vc20 for it and another fancy pedal).

it kicks arse, even w/ my powerblock.

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A NOS 5751 in front and a pair of late-breakup JJ's in the back helped me with the clean headroom a bit. It gets really plexi-ish now. But I still can't dime the gain AND the volume without getting serious whistles and such, regardless of the guitar. Below that, though it's delicious.

I run it into an open-back Avatar 2 x 12 that has the extremely good-sounding Weber Blue/Weber Silver combo in it. It gets pretty loud, but if the drummer were to get aggressive it would probably get washed out. As it is, I get compliments/comments on my playing from the neighbors a couple of doors down. With the windows closed.

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those tiny terrors look like a lunchbox, ha.

Mine doesn't look like a lunchbox...

hamertime026.jpg

How'd ya do that??? Was it costly? Easy? Hard?

A guy by the name of R.L. Mott in Florida custom built it for me -- price was quite reasonable. Here's his website... I just picked up an Orange 40th Anniversary sticker that I'm going to convert into a logo for the cab...

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