PRODUCT REVIEW
ORANGE
Tiny Terror Combo
BY JORDAN WAGNER
by the illustrious Orange Amplification,
entered the battle a few years ago to tackle
this issue head on. Its cute, lunchbox-sized
exterior deceived many, who laughed at
first glance, but its incredible tone and
flexibility quickly drowned the giggles
and scoffs. The miniature tube head soon
became a very highly sought after item,
leading the architects at Orange to put
their heads together once again to come
up with something that could improve upon
the original idea. The result is one of their
newest creations, the Tiny Terror Combo.
Low-wattage tube amplifiers have been
enjoying a newfound surge in popularity
among musicians recently. While their larger,
raging counterparts still reign supreme on
stage (in most situations), smaller combos
and heads are starting to get more and more
attention because of their unique tone and
feel. The sound of low-wattage tube ampli-
fiers can be harnessed in the studio and
on stage in a lot of ways, producing results
that their muscle-bound, 100-watt brethren
can only create when pushed to the brink.
Countless artists have realized this, including
Brian May, Frank Zappa and most notably
Jimmy Page, whose creative use of small
Supro tube combos crafted the massive
sounds of early Led Zeppelin recordings.
Micing a powerful half (or full) stack can be
tricky, as the best tone is usually achieved by
pushing the power section of the amp, thereby creating a situation that can easily lead to
congested, muddy and compressed sound.
Basically, the Tiny Terror Combo is exactly
what it looks like: a Tiny Terror head packed
into a 1x12 cabinet. Orange decided not
to fix what wasn’t broken, and kept the
layout as simple and clean as possible. The
head still bundles all the features of the
standalone model, including three separate
speaker outputs, switchable output between
15 and 7 watts, and a straightforward set of
Gain, Tone and Volume knobs. It’s encased in
a solid, 18mm plywood cabinet, which also
houses a Celestion G12H- 30 speaker—
certainly capable of handling the amp’s power
without an external cabinet. The tube compliment, like the Tiny Terror head, consists
of two EL84s in the power section and two
ECC83s in the preamp.
In more recent times, this situation has been
addressed with modeling consoles and
amps that aim to simulate that tone while
providing the benefits of a controlled studio
space. On the other hand, not all guitarists
are convinced it’s the best solution. Thus,
the Tiny Terror, designed and produced
The handle is located on the side of the
combo, and there are rubber feet on the
opposite side as well as on the bottom, so
the amp can be placed either upright or
on its side. After examining the top of the
combo, it seems designed this way because
there wasn’t enough wood there to create
a comfortable balance when carrying it, so
it was placed on the side instead. But it also
adds to the seventies vibe of the amp, as
a lot of cabinets back then had single side
handles as well.
