Orange Micro Terror
July 2012 Guitarist 123
£439 & £99
Guitar amps
Y
ou have to hand it to
Orange. As we’ve
mentioned previously in
these pages, if imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery then
the British amplifier company
must feel justifiably smug about
the way that the huge success of
its Tiny Terror amp triggered a
practically industry-wide
lunchbox amp craze.
Time for them to kick back,
relax and watch the cash roll in?
Don’t bet on it. Hot on the heels
of such additions to the range
as the none-more-metal Dark
Terror and the Terror Bass
heads comes a pair of new
models: the Signature #4 Jim
Root unit and Orange’s smallest
head yet, the impossibly cute
Micro Terror.
Slipknot and Stone Sour
guitarist Jim Root has long
been a fan of the Rockerverb
100. Orange’s technical director
Adrian Emsley explains the
signature amp’s evolution:
“When I spoke to Jim to
discuss a signature model, he
wanted something that people
could afford, so I suggested we
make it a Terror. The
appearance was Jim’s idea as he
is a fan of the look of the old
‘pics only’ amps, so we came up
with what you see here.
Emsley also reveals that the
appearance of the Signature #4
Jim Root Terror’s matching
PPC212 cabinet (£367) was
down to the oft-masked
guitarist: “He wanted real
basket-weave grille cloth – not
the material used on the bass
gear – but in black. The
speakers are Orange ‘Voice Of
The World’ 12s, which have a
vintage top end but a very fast
and tight bottom end that tends
to speed up with more power
amp overdrive.
“They sound quite different
to Celestion Vintage 30s and
are not a copy. The cabinet
contains two eight-ohm
versions of this speaker, wired
in series to make the cab a
global 16 ohms.”
The head itself is one of the
most flexible Terrors to date,
with a full three-band EQ and a
ECC81/12AT7-driven FX loop
alongside one 16-ohm and two
eight-ohm speaker outputs.
Providing you don’t need a
high-headroom clean sound
then 15 watts might just prove
enough juice to give your
drummer a run for his/her
money, with the seven-watt
mode ideal for the increasing
number of live venues forced to
use noise limiters.
But what if the Root Terror is
just not tiny enough for you?
Enter the Micro Terror. At just
16.5cm (6.5 inches) wide and
weighing in at just 0.85kg
(1.87lb), it would be easy to
assume this is a novelty practice
amp. However, the unit is not
only housed in the same tough
high-tensile steel case as its
larger brethren, but it can also
crank out a cool 20 watts into
four ohms thanks to a solid-
state Class D power amp.
A single ECC83/12AX7
preamp valve gives the Micro
Terror two stages of gain based
loosely on the voicing of the
front end of the original Tiny
Terror head. A 1/4-inch jack
headphone output and 1/8-inch
jack auxiliary input are useful
additions for home practising,
but don’t be fooled into thinking
The Rivals
If you’re after a miniature
amplifier that you can gig,
the Electro-Harmonix 44
Magnum (£109) makes an
excellent back up for your
main rig, but lacks the sonic
quality of the Micro Terror.
The Jim Root Terror’s main
competition probably comes
from within the Orange camp
in the shape of the Dark
Terror (£399) but also be
sure to check out Hayden’s
MoFo (£429) if you need
some dirt in your lunchbox.
Orange Signature #4
Jim Root Terror &
Micro Terror
£439 & £99
We get our mitts on the Slipknot guitarist’s signature amp
and throw the tiniest of all Terrors into the bargain
by Chris Vinnicombe
The success of the Tiny Terror led to
an industry-wide lunchbox amp craze
The Jim Root Terror has two power modes, and eight- and 16-ohm speaker outputs
http://vault.guitarist.co.uk
GIT356.rev_orange.indd 123 5/16/12 10:02:40 AM