CITRUS ELF DOWN
At the heart of the Rockerverb MK III’s tone is a twin-channel Class A/B 50 watt power section with two EL34 power valves. There are four ECC83/12AX7s and two ECC81/12AT7s: in addition to the preamp tubes the reverb is also tube-driven, and the effect loop is tube buffered. There are two channels; Clean and Dirty. The Clean controls are Volume, Bass and Treble. You hopefully won’t miss the lack of a midrange control since Orange amps are usually built with great-sounding mids anyway. The Dirty channel gives you a wider range of customisation with Volume, Gain, Bass, Mid and Treble controls. There’s also an Attenuator control which determines where and how the signal distorts after it leaves the preamp. In other words, you can get some killer grind at lower volumes even before you think about hitting the halfpower switch. You can control the channel selection, reverb on/off and Attenuator via foot switch. I’m a big fan of the Attenuator being foot-switchable since it effectively lets you set two different volume levels for different applications.
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK SABBATH
I tested the Rockerverb MK III with a bunch of different guitars including a Gibson Les Paul Traditional with Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz pickups, a Taylor SolidBody with three mini humbuckers, and a Squier Bass VI. In all cases, the clean sounds remained clear and full of character. So if you’re in an alternative, blues, country or indie band where your cleans are as important as your dirty tones, this is a great choice. Having said that, the Dirty channel is an utter monster. Lurking in here you’ll fi nd everything from loose garage tones to vintage proto-metal all the way up to modern extreme metal. The famous Orange upper-end rawness translates into massive attack and aggression at the far end of the gain spectrum, but it also gives you lots of grunt and presence at more open levels of overdrive. The reverb is also very nicely voiced, with a deeper, fuller and more airy tone than before.
FRUITS OF THE DEVIL
It’s hard to think of a style this amp wouldn’t be suitable for. You can use it if you’re ever called on to join Iggy and the Stooges, or if Ministry needs a sub for a night, or if the local black metal band loses a member in mysterious circumstances, or if you want to play some AC/DC covers, or if you get booked on a country gig and you need a clean sound with plenty of poke.
