The Orange Rocker 15 Terror is my first venture into the realm of Orange Amplifiers. Having owned and used it for the past several months here are my observations:1. The clean channel is very nice. No EQ but it isn't sterile. There is a nice degree of warmth with clarity that holds its own as a true clean or a nice pedal platform. It doesn't chime like an AC30 and doesn't pull off the coveted Fender clean. I doubt most people are purchasing this amp for the clean channel apart from a place to run pedals... which is does very well. Might not be the top of the list for true clean players but it can and will do cleans that are more than satisfactory.2. The gain channel is fairly diverse. Light grit, classic rock, and depending upon your definition of metal... yes it can do metal. It will need a boost or some other type of a pedal if you like a tighter metal gain or want to go into sludge territory. It has that distinctive orange darkness to it that has just a touch of hair/fuzz when cranked. Perhaps the gain could be described as a bit loose but not saggy if that makes sense. The gain is tighter when dialed back to pull of some great crunch tones. 3. The EQ. I hate to say it... but... this is why I picked the Rocker 15 rather than the OR15, Dark Terror, or TH30 when shopping around. Those other amps have a 'general' EQ knob that they call a shape control. The reason why I 'hate' to say it... is that the EQ controls don't really have a lot of useful range on the Rocker 15. At best… read more they are effective on the extremes of 0 or 10. The middle range of the sweep is just kinda there. You can have no bass or all the bass. You can have no treble or all the treble. You can no mids or all the mids. And everything between 2-9 on the dial is very subtle. It's there. It does something minimal. I've found keeping most of the tone controls on the EQ around or slightly above noon nets the best result. Anything above or below that doesn't do a lot until you hit the shallow or deep end of the sweep. That being said... it sounds great with everything right around the middle of the range. I mean that. It sounds really great. In other words: if the three band EQ is what is pushing you in the Rocker 15 direction over others... don't let it factor in that much. Let the other features such as the FX loop, headroom/bedroom, and small package be the guiding light. Especially if you're not looking for over the top gain like the Dark Terror. 4. I haven't spent much time with the 'bedroom' setting on the amp. If very low wattage cranked is your thing it does it. I typically run the amp through an Orange PPC212 in my home jam space on the headroom setting at the 7 watt power level. The volume is very easy to control while maintaining good tones at the quiet jam/practice levels. Since I don't have to compete with an acoustic drummer (he's gone digital) keeping up with the drums hasn't been a concern. The 15 watt setting does provide a significant volume jump over the 7 watt mode. I assume cranked it would do fine in a band mix at a small venue without a massive PA to help along. I know it gets more than loud enough to make these old ears hurt a bit when cranked up. 5. It's a lot of amp for such a small package. It's been a great practice amp as far as transport is concerned. It comes with a nice gig bag to load your amp, cables, and other small items. Oddly enough for practice I run it through an old Peavey Classic 115 extension cab that I leave with the drummer. Sounds great even through an old cheap speaker. There are bigger options for a slightly higher cost in the Orange market that will give you more headroom on the stage. A 100 watt DSL from Marshall sits in the same price range as well. But, for those looking for a small amp that can be used for home or even light gigs - or big ones if you have a full front of house - this Rocker 15 can cover the bases and has great tone in a small package. I can't give it a full 5 star rating because of the limited EQ capabilities of the amp. But, for a plug in and rock out amp without the frills or tweakability... it's a great platform.

Musical Background:
30 years guitarist

Musical Style:
Rock Alternative read less