The Tiny Terror Combo has headroom, but not
in spades. The design is very sensitive to the
guitar’s output—which is also one of the amp’s
best features. A Telecaster will certainly cut
more than a Les Paul, but with the Tiny Terror
the differences are even more noticeable. With
a 1978 set-neck Ibanez Iceman running through
it, the inherent upper midrange of the guitar
pushed right through, providing a very pleasing
growl. The gain doesn’t need to be set very
high to get a nice, raunchy tone, either. The
Tiny Terror has plenty of it, to the point where
some players might want to change out the
ECC83 in the first stage with a lower-gain tube,
such as an ECC81/12AT7.
speaker outs, the thinness subsided somewhat.
Either way, the tone itself was fantastic: that
fat, killer midrange that Orange is known for is
present, combined with that loose, liquidy feel
of a small-wattage tube amp. With the preamp
gain at 10 o’clock, tone at 11 o’clock, and
master volume at a hair past 2 o’clock, the Tiny
Terror Combo produced a great, completely
usable classic rock tone that was a blast to
play. On top of it all, the amp exhibits another
famous Orange trait: it cleans up very well
when rolling down the volume knob.
try a tube change, as the Tiny Terror has a
massive amount of gain on tap. Some might
want to try a different speaker setup. Orange
made the potential weakness of putting the
Tiny Terror in a combo a strength by leaving the multiple speaker outs. Combined
with impressive tone at low and moderate
volumes, and great input sensitivity makes it
highly recommended as a tool for recording
studios everywhere. In the case of the Tiny
Terror Combo, less is certainly more.
Celestion’s G12H- 30 70th Anniversary speaker
surely handles the output well, but at times
sounds a little thin and nasally. This might
be due to the stiffness of the new speaker,
because when a well-worn Marshall 1x12 with
the same speaker was plugged into one of the
The Tiny Terror Combo is a great… no
scratch that, an excellent resource for the
recording musician. Playing small shows with
it is also certainly feasible (and encouraged),
and larger gigs if it’s mic’d up. It’s a great
representation of what made the original
low-wattage tube amps classics; their inherent simplicity in design allowed for great
tone and feel. Some players might want to
Buy If...
You want a simple, vintage-looking alternative to micing a raging loud amp to get great tone.
Skip If...
You need multiple channels,
an effects loop, 3-band EQ
and other amenities.
Rating...
4.0
ONTHEWeb
Click on the speaker button to
download sound clips of the Tiny
Terror Combo. For descriptions of
the clips, head to
premierguitar.com
Orange Amplification
MSRP $819
orangeamps.com
