Light weight, heavy tones, and a very accessible price.
Tube-like touch sensitivity and dynamic range not common for solid-state amps.
Doesn’t come with a footswitch.
$499
Orange Super Crush 100
orangeamps.com
Tube amplification remains the gold-standard for most players. But the growth and acceptance of digital modeling has made the issue much less black and white. In this more open field, where the presence of tubes has ceased to be a must, solid-state amplification may be finding a new audience. And light, inexpensive, and excellent sounding options like Orange Amplification’s Super Crush 100 may expand that audience even further. Taking inspiration from the company’s all-tube Rockerverb, it’s a flexible, 2-channel, solid-state, 100-watt, class A/B amp that can be had in head and 1x12 combo versions for $499 and $699.
Just Stacked Enough
The Super Crush 100 isn’t lean on features, but it’s pretty easy to navigate and work with. There’s a built-in digital reverb and a balanced XLR output that you can put to work via Orange’s CabSim speaker emulation technology, which offers closed- or open-back options via the CabBack switch. A channel switching footswitch isn’t included, but you can manually switch channels from the front of the amp. If you anticipate moving between clean and dirty a lot, Orange’s FS-2 footswitch ($41) is a worthwhile investment.
Like all Orange amps, the Super Crush 100’s control panel can be a little confusing to decipher if you’re new to the brand. Pictographs rather than words describe the function of each knob, but knowing what’s what becomes intuitive quickly. Otherwise, the layout is pretty straightforward. Master volume and reverb are shared by both channels. The dirty channel’s controls include volume, treble, middle, bass, and gain. The clean channel has controls for treble, bass, and volume.
- Mic Centered 1" Away: Clean
- Mic Centered 1" Away: Dirty
- Mic Centered 1' Away: Clean
- Mic Centered 1' Away: Dirty
- Mic Left of Center: Clean
- Mic Left of Center: Dirty
A Clean Slate
To gauge the Super Crush 100’s ability to, well, crush, I ran the amp through a Celestion-equipped 1x12 cabinet and tried it out with an Ernie Ball Music Man Axis Sport and a Schecter T-7 7-string guitar, as well as a Line 6 M9 patched into the fully buffered effects loop for delay.
The clean channel has two gain stages and sounds warm, if not super loud. With treble and bass knobs at noon and the channel volume up around 3 o’clock (and the master volume set more conservatively), the Orange had the lively feel and sound of an amp pushed right to the brink of distortion, but remained balanced and even in the high and low ends. Low E-string notes were robust and fat. And though I expected some solid-state brittleness from the highest strings, I was pleasantly surprised that the treble tones sounded just as full.
At lower volume levels (noon or less), the Super Crush 100’s clean channel is a fantastic pedal platform. The overall character at these settings is somewhat neutral and darker than a sparkly Fender-type clean. But if you’re like me and occasionally have a hard time matching certain pedals with the super sparkly voice of some Fender amps, the Super Crush’s capacity for optimizing pedal pairings will impress.
The Super Crush 100’s clean channel is a fantastic pedal platform.
Crushin’ It
Over on the dirty channel, I started in with the gain set low and noticed something interesting. Between the full-counter-clockwise and 9 o’clock positions, the gain control doesn’t deliver much in the way of volume or dirt. At 11 o’clock the amp starts to sound and feel discernibly loud but remains relatively clean. Once you get to about noon, though, power chords sound robust and beefy, and I found the sweet spot for both crunchy rhythm and lead guitar to be right around 1 o’clock and 3 o’clock. Within this range you can summon enough grit and sustain for heavy rock soloing and rhythm rock, or liquid, near-infinite sustain. Solos feel effortless and energetic at these settings—especially with a bridge humbucker in the mix. And even with this much gain, there’s lots of crisp definition and low-end clarity, and the amp feels responsive and fast. It’s also touch sensitive, with a dynamic range beyond what I’ve come to expect from a solid-state amp. At the 1 o’clock gain setting, I could clean up easily with a light picking touch or sound hyper-aggressive and commanding when I hit the strings hard.
Recording Ready
The Super Crush does a great job of facilitating creative recording, too. The XLR and CabSim emulation—which I routed to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, MacBook Pro, and GarageBand—make it easy to lay down tracks and take on silent recording tasks. The CabSim’s open- and closed-back options offer very different characteristics and, at least for the track I recorded, the open-back setting sounded more present and alive than the closed back. But both options are very useful, and the closed back will offer more low-end thump if that’s what you’re after.
The Verdict
If you’ve always lusted after an Orange Rockerverb but don't have $2,000 to spare, the Super Crush 100 is a killer alternative at a quarter of the price. While some tube purists might decry the lack of certain glassy tonalities, it still shines in the top end without sounding brittle and has lots of low-end power. But many more-convenience-minded players will revel in the Super Crush 100’s low maintenance and light weight (25 pounds) and amazing bang for the buck.
Bogner's beastliest amp is made miniature—and still slays.
Excellent sounds in a portable and very affordably priced package.
A footswitchable clean channel and onboard reverb would make it perfect.
$329
Bogner Ecstasy Mini
bogneramplification.com
The original Bogner Ecstasy, released in 1992, is iconic in heavy rock circles. Though it was popularized and preferred by rock and metal artists (Steve Vai and Brad Whitford were among famous users), its ability to move from heavy Brit distortion to Fender-like near-clean tones made it appealing beyond hard-edged circles. Even notorious tone scientist Eric Johnson was enamored with its capabilities.
At nearly $4K, a new 100-watt Ecstasy is out of reach for a lot of players. But the new Ecstasy Mini, a 30-watt, class-D, solid-state amp that weighs less than four pounds, does a surprisingly great job of capturing the original Ecstasy's essence in a tiny, portable package
Mini Monster
The Ecstasy Mini comes in a package small enough to be mistaken for a shoebox. Don't be fooled by the diminutive size, though. It's a badass little screamer that can rip heads off. It can also play it cool: Even though it's based on the original Ecstasy's mighty high-gain red channel, the Mini still moves between screaming hot lead tones and near-clean sounds with relative ease.
The control panel is pretty straightforward. There are six chicken-head knobs for volume, presence, treble, middle, bass, and gain. Above the knobs are four mini toggle switches that help you shape the amp's tone and feel in more specific ways. There's a variac mode that approximates the function of a variable voltage transformer—reducing headroom and producing cool takes on Eddie Van Halen's brown sound. A gain switch lets you choose between a plexi-type sound or a modern, ultra-high gain setting, and a mid-frequency switch lets you choose which midrange band (800 Hz, 1.6 kHz, or 3.2 kHz) is shaped with the mid control. A pre-EQ switch, meanwhile, provides three baseline voices ranging from relatively mellow to bright. There's also an effects loop on the back of the amp for patching in effects like reverb and delay. The amp's 24V power supply is universal and the amp can be used anywhere around the world without a step-up transformer.
The Ecstasy Mini's build quality is excellent. Throughout my test—even with the volume and gain cranked—the amp was impressively quiet. With guitar volume at zero, you probably wouldn't even know that a raging amp is sitting idle, ready to pounce.
Lethal Low Gain, Hellacious High Gain
I started my tests in low-gain mode with the gain knob at noon. Even at these less aggressive settings, I could feel the room rattle when I hit an A chord. There's a lot of available volume and single notes really ring with sustain at these settings—particularly when the variac setting is on. The amp is a surprisingly great match for blues-rock and pop-rock at these settings. (I was even compelled to have a go at Steve Lukather's solo and tone from Toto's "Rosanna." It sounded pretty spot-on.)
Even at less aggressive settings, I could feel the room rattle when I hit an A chord.
High-gain settings transform the amp from simply muscular to monstrous, reminding me why the original Ecstasy is so coveted. I tuned my Schecter T-7 7-string's low string down to A and played power chord riffs with the gain around 1 o'clock, the variac off, and tone knobs all at noon. Here, the Ecstasy Mini was razor-sharp and never flabby. Picking response feels fast, and even low open 7th string tones were crisp and tight.
Switching to the variac setting brought a noticeable drop in volume, a bit more warmth, and spongier, more compressed response. In general, I preferred the variac setting for solos. Obviously, it's less well suited for ultra-precise single-note runs and detuned rhythms, but a high-mid boost from the pre-EQ's B2 switch helps solos cut through more effectively without sacrificing too much of the forgiving sag you get via the variac mode.
Time to Clean Up
For a single-channel, high-gain amp, the Ecstasy Mini does a respectable job of generating clean sounds at gigging volume. With the gain knob around 7 o'clock and the mini toggle for gain in low mode, single-coils readily produce cleaner tones at lower guitar volumes. Humbuckers introduce more grit, but you can still hear lots of individual note clarity and effectively move from clean-ish to dirty sounds via picking and volume control dynamics. The amp's dynamic response is impressive at the highest gain settings, too. And though you won't get pure clean tones here, active adjustments of guitar volume make the amp capable of cool, dramatic shifts in mood, tone, and intensity.
The Verdict
Bogner's Ecstasy Mini is versatile for an amp so clearly designed for maximum power. It will sound huge and hang with a loud band when miked through a PA. But you can also stow it in a gig bag as a backup, use it in the studio, or at home if you're tight on space. It may not rival an all-valve 100W Ecstasy for body, richness, and sheer power. But unless you're playing Madison Square Garden, there's no reason it can't cover most of your gigging needs. The Ecstasy Mini is a killer high-gain amp with a street price that's not much more than a pedal. And that combination of power and value makes it pretty hard to beat.
Cedric Burnside's new Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb has the same controls and features as a classic non-master-volume Twin, but, with its solid-state circuitry and light speakers, half the weight.
In a one-man battle for louder, a Fender Tone Master Twin and Ampeg Portaflex duplex rig triumphs.
I admit it. I was once part of the Arms Race. When I was in my '90s alt-rock band, Vision Thing, I bought a Marshall half-stack. Then the other guitarist got Fender's 100-watt The Twin, which he cranked. And the bassist got a Trace Elliot AH500X. And it was on. Volume and gear escalated until we were damn loud, and it was a constant battle to hear and be heard. Eventually I kinda won, but it was a pyrrhic victory. I was doomed to lug around two 4x12s: one with a 50-watt Marshall Super Lead and the other with a 100-watt Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Trem-O-Verb. Yes, it sounded fantastic, but … damn! My back!
Grammy-nominated blues artist Cedric Burnside recently fought his own Arms Race—with himself. And emerged a winner both tonally and physically. Take it away, Cedric: "I have an Orange Crush 35RT, and I like it. I don't use pedals, except for a booster for solos, so I like to play clean, but the Orange wasn't loud enough for big stages. So, I started looking at bigger Fenders, and I tried a Twin Reverb and a couple Deluxes, and then I found the Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb. At 200 watts, it's got balls and it's light as a feather. I figured, 'This is for me.'"
But the rub is that Burnside, who fronts a guitar-and-drums duo, splits his signal between a guitar amp and a bass amp, and his Peavey Basic 50 was suddenly a Roman candle to his Tone Master's ICBM. So, he upped his louder low-end ordnance: a 500-watt Ampeg PF-500 head with a 115HE Portaflex cabinet. Détente resulted. "I love having a solid-state rig for gigs," he says. No tube issues, and, with the Tone Master weighing in at 33 pounds and the bass rig at 45 and change, his schedule is the only thing that's heavy.
Cedric Burnside Wins the Arms Race | Love & Sockets
Clearly, this isn't the ideal for everybody, but Burnside plays rad 'n' trad Mississippi hill country blues, a subgenre that relies on spare, fat riffs, grinding hypnotic rhythms, and ringing single-note lines and slide, with every raw edge left dangerously rusty. He learned the trade expertly while playing drums for his grandfather, the great hill country singer and guitarist R.L. Burnside, and just a pocketful of years ago emerged as a potent 6-stringer and songwriter. In fact, there is no finer living proponent of the mesmeric style. For proof, listen to his 2018 Benton Country Relic, a fuzz-infused fusion of traditional and exploratory sounds. Since then, despite COVID, Burnside has been on a fast track. The album was nominated for a Grammy, he starred in a feature film (the racial-injustice period piece Texas Red), played a slew of festivals, opened for Great Van Fleet and other rockers, and cut a new long-player, I Be Trying. He was also named a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow.
Cedric on the Tone Master Deluxe Reverb: "At 200 watts, it's got balls and it's light as a feather. I figured, 'This is for me.'"
Although Cedric thanks "God and R.L. Burnside" for his success, he doesn't play exactly like either of them—even when playing songs by his legendary "Big Daddy." He has a more pointillistic soloing style, with a wickedly barbed tone, and flurries of notes that are more akin to Ali Farka Touré or the modern school of Tuareg guitarists, like Bombino and Mdou Moctar. He's heard none of them, although the central artery of both the desert and Mississippi hill country sounds is clearly African.
Rig Rundown - Cedric Burnside
As for those amps, Burnside sets his Fender's bass at 4, mids at 6, and his treble at 6 or 7. It has 12" Celestion Neo Creambacks. "I think a lot of the sharpness in my tone is in my fingers," he offers. Usually, he skips the reverb and will occasionally use a tad of tremolo for effect. For the bass head, he turns the treble off, sets mids between 3 and zero, and pumps the bass full up. It's a no-nonsense sound for beautifully direct and unironic music. And he plugs in a guitar built by Mike Aronson of Aronson Custom Guitars. The body is a single piece of ginger-colored shedua, and the neck is mahogany with a pau ferro fretboard. The pickups are Harmonic Design Z-90s. There's a 3-way toggle switch and a volume knob. "All I do is turn the volume up and down, so I told Mike tone knobs weren't necessary," says Burnside. (For a close look at this distinctive guitar, see our April 2020 Rig Rundown with Burnside, or check out the online video he made to demo his Tone Master, where you'll also get a full-fretboard view of his technique.)
"I'm not really a super-sophisticated player," says Burnside, "but I know what I like, and I know what I want to say, and with this guitar and these amps, I've got everything I need to say it."