2014 Orange Thunderverb 50

Overview

This amp came out back in 2007, and lasted roughly 10 years before being discontinued. During this time, it was a popular amp with quite a few rock acts, and especially with a boost can do high gain metal with ease. I have the 50w version (2x EL34’s) but there is also a Thunderverb 200 which as a quad of 6550’s (KT88’s).

At the time of release, this amp ran alongside the 6V6 powered Rockerverb Mk 1, with which it shares the deeper headshell box and basic circuit board design and layout. The Rockerverb sports a gain channel with 4 stages, and a clean channel with 2, but this Thunderverb has two channels with nearly identical amounts of gain (3 stages each) but a key difference - the EQ. Channel A has a more traditional treble/middle/bass EQ section, but Channel B offers a shape control, which cuts mids above noon, and cuts treble/bass below that. This allows you to set up the amp with two dirt channels each with their own signature, and which you prefer for rhythm/lead will depend a lot on your ear and the style of music you intend to play.

Also available at this time was the more stripped Rocker 30, also with EL34’s, but that amp has a Class A power section. The Thunderverb is a more common AB setup, and playing the two amps side by side the Thunderverb has a bit less bass and fullness to the low end, on both channels, but some of that low end can be brought back with the EQ. It also has substantially less gain than the Rockerverb. It’s a feature heavy amp, with a tube buffered effects loop and spring reverb. Similar to early Rockerverbs, the spring reverb on this amp can get really oversatured quickly - I usually use it below the first notch on the control, and even a hair more than that and you’re in surf guitar heaven. I can’t imagine much practical use for anything more than that, but it is fun to play around with ambient sounds with the reverb maxed out, and you can get lost in the swimming reverb easily. This amp is more of a mid-gain amp than either of the Rocker/Rockerverbs, and I don’t think it has quite enough gain saturation for chug-style heavy metal without a boost. However the voicing is really great - this is one of the most transparent amps I have for letting boost pedals show their character. Using an SD-1 adds some brightness and punch, while on the other hand my TS7 is smoother with rolled off highs. Very cool.

It’s worth mentioning that this amp likely had some hand in the development of the still-in-production TH30 and TH100 amps. Those have a higher gain channel with the shape control, similar to Channel B on this Thunderverb, but those are a bit different in design, with a cathode follower style tone stack (except just the shape knob), and a standard 2-stage clean channel. I wouldn’t call them directly comparable by any means, but you can see a little bit of that TH DNA in this TV’s design.