Orange Micro Dark

This is a compact, but surprisingly powerful, lunchbox size, one channel amp. Paired with a 12 inch speaker from my old Vox combo it’s really surprisingly loud. You can get good clean tones, although a bit harsh for my liking and there is only one knob for equalizing the tone. I think that with pedals such as reverb and a bit of delay (and it does have an FX loop for that) , it would soften the sound a bit. I don’t have those pedals. The amp does really good dirty tones, which is what Orange is known for. However, I also have an Orange Crush 35RT and I think the Crush has a superior sound, all round. The Orange Crush is 35W, not much more money than the Micro Dark (only CHF 50 Swiss Francs difference at the time of writing), has clean and dirty foot switchable channels, a pretty good quality 10 inch speaker, good quality really solid cabinet, built-in reverb and a tuner - does much better cleans (IMO) than the Micro Dark and very good dirty tones too. It’s not much money for all those extras. The advantage of the Micro Dark is it’s size and that you can pair it with any speaker you want. I do think it’s a good amp and I think it would be a good platform for someone playing higher gain stuff than me and with pedals. Also, I only tried it with single coil teles and a strat. I suspect that the harshness on the clean tones would be much less with humbuckers. Perhaps that’s where to find a better tone than with my single coil guitars. It’s a hybrid amp, meaning it has a valve in the pre-amp and a SS power amp. It really sounds like a SS amp and I would say even more like a SS than the Orange Crush which has no valves at all. Actually, the Crush clean channel breaks up really nicely when you start to push the amp. I also have a 20 year old Vox VT50 hybrid amp with the same valve as the Marco Dark in the pre-amp and that has a much warmer valve-like tone.

However, I still think this is a good amp - perhaps just not ideal with my gear and probably for higher gain stuff than I usually play.

I originally purchased this amp thinking it would make a good home practice amp and I'd buy an all-valve Orange head later to take into the studio and on tour (I now also own a Dual Terror but this little beast still gets regular outings).

What can I say? It sounds great even when you forget the size, price AND the fact that it's not even all-valve. It sounds simply unbelievable when you take those things into consideration.

I've used it in the studio a lot and it's always sounded great (clean, crunchy or just cranked loud for hard rock sounds) and it takes pedals very well too - I use it a lot with a Maxon OD808 in front but it responds very well to boosters and overdrives in general (and the effects loop works great). The one thing I'd prefer would be a tone knob rather than the shape knob, but that's just my preference.

I have also taken it on tour (being sick of schlepping heavy amps) and the laughter that came from the other band members quickly turned to shock and awe. It can easily drive a 4x12 cab and is absolutely up to touring. Absolutely recommend this to anyone who wants something lightweight that sounds good and won't break the bank.

Wanted an amp to carry arround and practice that has good sound and lighweight. Decided to get the Micro Dark and the orange 8 inch speaker cab.
I was in a surprise when I tried the amp, the clean sound really blew my mind, very enjoyable and clear sound. When you turn up the gain it can get you anything from classic rock to heavy metal distortion (however with the 8 inch speaker from the matching cab it will get a bit muddy).

It is a very good and versatile amp.
Just to note that the shape knob it is not a normal tone knob. Counter clockwise boosts mids, clockwise scoops mids and boost treble

Very happy with this small amp