It had a nice clean channel and a decent drive channel. My first impression was it's just alright. I had it in an amp room, so I was able to crank it pretty high. I plugged it in with a Marshall 1960 4x12 and Gibson Les Paul. I know it has had mainly positive reviews, especially for being an SS amp. It was used for $420, so I thought it was worth a look. In the end for me, the CR120 was better and I could own two for the price of the TH30.I came across my first Orange CR120 head today. I have a Dual Terror for that, so the TH30 didn't fill a niche for me there. When you can record at 7w, you increase the types of mics you can throw in front of it. For that modern metal voicing, the TH30 is the best Orange I've played.Īnother big perk of the TH30 is the variable wattage. It could pretty much get there, but not quite. But again, for your needs? The CR120 couldn't quite attain that thundering low with top sizzle modern-metal that the TH30 could. I could hear myself much better in a dense band mix. Even then with direct A/B comparisons at rehearsals, the CR120 sounded bolder and punchier with similar EQ. I wasn't happy until I had pulled the Shape knob back to about 9:00. on the gain side The Shape control of the TH30 is very limiting for me. The CR120 dominates for my tastes in EQ flexibility and response. The CR120 continues volume increase all the way up to 3:00 on the master. TH30 runs out of volume at noon and is about as loud as you'd expect a cranked 30 watter to be. My all time A+ reference rock sound was my old Rocker 30 that was sadly stolen or the wonderful albeit over $2K Rockerverb.įor modern metal voicing, the TH30 beats the CR120, but the CR120 has more clean headroom and volume on tap.

I usually have the treble at 11:00, Mids at 2:00, Bass at 2:00, Gain at 1:30.įor overall rock tones, the TH30 gets a B+, CR120 gets a solid A. Again, I'm using it for (well, everything) stoner rock currently. The CR120 has tons of gain like the TH30, and I can still get a big scooped metal tone (if I ever want it), but it hits especially hard in those mid gain tones with lots of articulation and a low-mid hump to push it through a big mix. That said, for my tastes, the TH30 was lackluster compared to the CR120. That nice EL84 chime can't be beat! The TH30's clean gets an A- from me and the CR120 cleans get a solid B. The TH30 is superior in the clean department. So, that extra volume is likely not going to be something you'd need unless you're playing crazy loud. The TH30 has a little more sizzle on top and tighter low end. By the time the TH30's master is hitting noon, you're into output valve distortion. In terms of volume, the CR120 easily had a decent amount of additional volume on tap over the TH30. The upside is that through the CR120/Rocker/Terror voicings, your individual notes are bigger. What this voicing makes difficult is really concise palm mutes that work well in metal.

One of the reasons I love the CR120 is because of its voicing more towards the Dual Terror/Rockerverb style - big mids, fatter/sloppier gain structure, and thicker note phrasing. The TH30 is great at the modern metal voicing and lacks in the thicker midrange push that I like from Oranges. I used the CR120 with the TH30 in the same band (stoner rock).

When the Shape control is over towards right or above noon, you get that big bottom big top and scooped mids tone in spades. The TH30 is definitely geared more towards a modern metal voice. I owned both at the same time this last Spring/Summer.

Orange cr120