ORANGE
DARK TERROR
BY JORDAN WAGNER
It seems as if every amp company has cast its iron into the low-wattage-amps
fire. Orange, however, has consistently risen
above the crowd with its massively popular
Tiny Terror series—which, of course, started the whole trend back in 2006. The Tiny
Terror was so well received because it has a
genuinely unique and robust voice—
including the juicy, flowing overdrive that Orange
is famous for—in an incredibly compact
and transportable package.
After the success of the Tiny Terror
among rock and blues players, the com-
pany has now focused its sights on metal
guitarists. Forbiddingly dubbed the Dark
Terror, Orange’s newest low-power amp
builds upon its predecessor’s winning
recipe, while piling on heaps of molten gain
and smoking overdrive that can stretch your
notions of just how huge tiny can get.
Brother from another mother
Like the Tiny Terror, the Dark Terror takes
a simplistic approach to making big sounds.
Just three controls—Gain, Shape, and
Volume—grace the little black devil’s front
panel. The Standby switch is a 3-way affair,
too, offering the option of knocking power
from the maximum of 15 watts to 7. Aside
from the amp’s tube-driven serial effects
loop, there’s not much else to tinker with.
There’s no channel switching—or any sort
of clean option to speak of, for that matter.
Standby/half-power switch
Simple controls,
including vintage-style
Shape control
