Orange OR15H 15-watt Tube Head Reviews

I am, admittedly, new to Orange amps. After a few years of hearing really positive things about the OR15 I finally decided to give it a try and bought one two months ago. Holy smokes, this amp is incredible! First off, I love the traditional orange tolex shell and package it comes in, very distinctive and classic. Super simple controls, responsive EQ, but the gravy are the tones. From clean, to slightly dirty, to full saturated gain (and there is way more than I expected!) the note separation and clarity of chords are really hard to find better. I run mine through one of two 4x12's, depending on preference. One has Greenbacks and the other Vintage 30's. I love this amp! For the money, well worth it.

This amp is the most versatile amp that I've ever played through. Just wow. With Mogami cables and nice, clean power....this baby sings! I've had it for a couple of years now and was purchased through Greg Savino (the most incredible salesman ever) here at Sweetwater. So my review is based on a couple of years with this beast. It's loud, clean and paired with the Orange PPC112...it's glorious. It handles pedals with ease. Such an incredible amp for sure. I also have the Rockerverb 100 mk1, and it's definitely voiced after it. So, if you're looking for a baby Rockerverb that packs a punch....you've found it!

Killer! Perfect for my basement practice setup.

Nothing to be disappointed about here. For a 15 watt it has plenty of punch and an impressive range. Pushing my Gibson SG through it, sounds great. Intended to use it just for a practice amp but seriously considering uswing it for giging as well.
Great job Orange.

Very versatile amplifier. I have an L5T-112 Laney. It is Plexi-ish. This Orange has better bottom. I like this preamp, it has almost an active feel to it. Set your EQ and work the Gain and Volume all night to darken or brighten your tone, make it fatter or thinner, edgy-er or cleaner. Great jam amp at any price. I play this one thru a BD12 loaded SUPRO cabinet. A keeper...

My partner got me this as an early birthday present and it's soooooo good! For an amp with such few knobs - it packs a huge sonic pallet. If you only need a only channel amp this sucker is amazing. I would love to record with this amp once I have a better studio space. I use the Crush 4x12 cab with it and it sounds perfect.

Not sure why I ever waited so long to get this head. It sounds great, and I love it. Now I see/hear why all those reviews I read and watched sang in praises. Even reviews demoing speakers that were using this head ended up complimenting it. It's that great. Super loud, which I've barely gone past 3 since I'm not gigging/playing live with it. It definitely sounds like it would hold up in a practice setting, maybe even small gigs. A lot of people that have tested it say it does, and I can see why. But for a bedroom setting, it's plenty.

Only possible complaint is with the one channel, in a live setting, you'd have to manually adjust between clean/dirty tones. If your a one tone player, then shouldn't be any issues. Aside from that though, it's great from shiny cleans to full on gain and everything in between.

I almost regret not buying this amp years ago. Im weird about regrets, though I should have bought this when I first saw one. This amp gives you all the stoner/ doom tone you want! If you want more……Pedal up front… we all know the drill. The amps got what Ive been listening for for 4 years now. One channel, 7/15 watts, both ways sound great. It can do clean, do you really want clean? No, this is Orange! They do gain, high. This is a little high gain, single channel, power halving, effects loop in the back monster that is all Orange, just smaller than the others. Still loud though. Gets over drums, small bar/ club worthy. Run it to the house sound and bam! Instant big sound and no back aches. Go round and buyith thy ampeth for it is good, great actually. A lil pricey, for myself its worth it. Found sound thing and all.

As a relative newcomer at 50 years old, terms like "creamy mids" or "glassy highs" mean nothing. I don't gig or record. Buying gear is hard when everything is great in its own way. The OR15 is easy to understand and use. I bought a few "entry level" amps with the gimmicks and marketing. The OR15 feels REAL. It's a serious piece of hardware. It does all the things you read about. Pedal behavior is predictable. With limited abilities, my playing is awful BUT...the sound coming out of the speakers makes want to play more. I feel more confident having real gear that sounds really good.

Let me start off by saying that at first I really didn't "get" this amp. I loved the high gain sounds, but I found it really hard to dial in a great shimmering clean sound. Once I learned how to drive this amp and I learned how to dial in the "sweet spot" I was blown away. I am running a Telecaster primarily along with an Xotic RC-Booster V2. Once I did some research and learned the general consensus that this amp "hates" drive pedals I began a journey finding the "perfect" boost pedal. I tried the MXR micro, Fulltone Fatboost V3 and the Catalinbread Epoch boost. All of which did excellent jobs boosting in their own regard and even stacked well together. I wanted something that could do it "all in one". So I took the plunge on the Xotic RC Booster V2 and it does the the job perfectly! I set my guitar's volume to about 50% and feed into the booster with the first side set to a clean boost/gritty tone and the second side is set to obliterating high gain and it really helps goose the the OR15H into full blown rock tones. With the guitar volume rolled off a bit there is plenty of room to ride the volume higher for more gain too. The next pedal i'm going to get to have further control over gain staging is the Catalinbread Naga Viper, in which I will run into the RC Booster V2 to goose the front end of that pedal. So I will say buyer beware with this amp. It's not your run of the mill high headroom clean amp that sores as a pedal platform. This amp is a little picky with some pedals, especially drive pedals.

I've had this amp for several years now, and I'm a sucker for the classic look; it just makes me smile every time I see it. It seems like a strange thing to talk about first, but I think our lives need more of this.

I run this through the matching closed-back 1x12, with an OX between them, and it works well with the OX on either power setting. As others have mentioned here, this for certain isn't the endless clean headroom that you get out of, say, a FHD, so if you've got a serious pedal addiction, there are other options you might want to look at, but that's the only caveat I'd give for this amp.

I think it's a great package in that you get an all-tube design with an effects loop, and then it stops right there; it's very much everything I want, and nothing that I don't want. The controls are extremely simple, so I'm not buried in knobs, and, seriously, there are just so many outstanding reverbs available -- I want the ability to just put the one of my choosing in the effects loop, rather than having it on the amp. It takes very little time to get comfortable with how the volume and gain controls interact, and then getting the tone you want, whether from the amp itself or with pedals in front of it, is quick and easy.

I really love it, lots of Fun.
I plug it in with my DSL 40 combo speaker on 16 ohm until I have an orange cabinet and that Sounds really great!
I play (not Metal) almost everything I used to play already with my Fender amps and Marshall but with an orange touch and it's good!
The (little) down (personal opinion) I will say of this amp is the clean sound, it's not as good as my Fender amps but of course that depends on what you want to play.
Again super cool, killer sound, killer look and lots of fun! :)
Bedroom practice: OK.
To upset your neighbor who does not like music because it's to loud (for them): OK.

The OR model is great. Its 15/7 watt but very loud. I use it with the orange ppc212ob cab and it sounds amazing. Sounds modern and i use it mostly for stoner doom metal.

I got this to tide me over until my matamp is done being built and gets here, was not disappointed in the least. Mostly use it with the Gibson's and run it hot but sounds great with the strat and tele too. From blues to doom this thing can do it.

The sound quality is outstanding working with the two notes captor along with wall of sound is a god blessing I get really nice clean and really heavy drive this thing is really easy to work and will live in my studio I can't wait to play this more I'm also playing a bass vi into it it does not mud up at all highly recommended this for all players out there

Love this amp Great classic rock sounds.

For years I played an OR50. Now I live in a tiny apt and had to down size quite a bit. This amp is lush! Overdrive is fantastic. Construction is second to none. Plenty of clean overhead. Effects loops is handy. And loud. Wow! This is loud enough to keep up with a band. No problem. Fantastic.

Hello there! I play guitar in the style of Stoner/Doom metal. This thing is a must-have if you are on a budget. Paired with a 2x12 and a decent pedalboard, and of course a Les Paul or SG, you will absolutely melt faces.

This is a must buy. No contest. If you Worship Iommi, Pike, Kilmister, and the Riff Tree, you have to have this amp.

I have been doing a lot of recording with this amp.
I am a huge fan of Doom metal/Stoner Rock (Corrosion of Conformity, Down etc) in other words enormous Pepper Keenan fan lol
Anyway... Whether you play on the clean with a fuzz pedal or just use the preamp in this app you can achieve these tones with the greatest of ease.
I was a little concerned about using a 15 watt amp for my project.
NOT NOW!
This app has a lot of gas! You could literally gig with this amp.
Obviously a Rockerverb or Thunderverb 50 would be more ideally suited for that but I'm telling you this or 15 is extremely loud!
Kind of like petting a snake.
What I love most about this amp is; it gives back what you put into it. If you chug hard it will be very percussive. On the other hand slightly dialing back the volume pot and strumming softly will allow this to clean up immensely.
This amp bundled with Sweetwater's tremendous service it is a full 5-Star!

I feel like Orange knocked it out of the park with this one. It's very popular for a reason. I've been through a lot of amps and this one is going to stay. It just really inspires me. It pretty much has a voice of its own. Words I would use to describe it. Thick, chewy, open, organic. Lots of harmonic content, a little chime and squishy tube sag. It's super versatile for a single channel amp and does everything from edge of breakup to full on metal well. The only thing it doesn't really do is super clean. I use it with an Orange 1x12 with an Eminence CV7516, a Two Notes Captor and a Helix. It takes drives and effects well from the Helix and works great in 4 cable method. I really like using it with the Captor in the effects loop of the Helix also.

This little guy is amazing. Only 15 watts but a super loud 15 watts. I've grown fond of stacking over drives but with this guy, I run my ego compressor, ED plumes and a reverb in the effects loop and that's the tone I've been looking for. As everyone else has noted this amp has plenty of gain but I have mine set to 3 or 4 on the dial, and just play around with the master. This isn't a super clean amp as to be expected, but how I have it set it's perfect for gritty blues. My wife hasn't seen me much since receiving this amp. I've found a new love. As usual, Sweetwater's service is second to none. Ordered it on a Tuesday night and it was waiting for me Friday when I got home from work

This head sounds amazing!! Running it through a 4/12 Marshall 280 watt cabinet with G12vintage speakers,even on 7 watts nasty !!! Planning on getting a 2/12 cabinet can't wait!! I brought this head to a jam with friends second night everyone loved it they took turns playing my 61 SG reissue!! Everyone was very impressed!! I highly recommend this head !! Very powerful!!!! Also my friend Andy Hoye gave me a great deal!!!

I was in the market for a small, easily portable head and my sales engineer, Kenny Stratton, (great guy and incredibly helpful) said the magic words — "this head is Van Halen I in a box." He is spot-on. This amp has great tone, from chimey cleans to high gain mayhem. Four stages of gain like the Dark Terror and Jim Root Terror, but with a more classic rock voicing. It is incredibly versatile, and is great for blues, classic rock with the vintage British crunch, and even some metal. As Ade Emsley says, not many knobs, but the controls it has are very reactive and really allow you to shape your tone. It takes pedals both in front of the amp and in the effects loop beautifully. I"m running my G-system based rig through the effects loop and it is incredible. No noise, and great articulation of each effect. Effects loop sounds even better than through my Carvin Legacy 3, and that is saying a lot. The amp is also very responsive to the guitar"s volume, giving you great control over the gain level right from the guitar. Note articulation is exceptional, even at high gain settings. As other reviewers have noted, clean tones might have headroom issues if you don"t mic up a cabinet at gigs, but this amp is loud enough to gig in small venues, even if your drummer, like ours, sports the nickname "Animal." Running this head through an Orange PPC-112 1X12 cab with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker with a Les Paul in front is the definition of rock and roll. Solid, high quality construction, great tone, easy portability, and classic good looks all in a package that doesn"t break the bank. What"s not to like? Buy it. You won"t regret it.

I love this amp. It literally sings with tone. The clean sound is the best, & it's very pedal friendly for low volume gigging. I'm using it with the 1-12 Orange cab, great combination. Joe Schafer at at Sweetwater is great to deal with!

This amp delivers in its own unique way and I dig it. Yes its loud and yes you can gig with it and being single channel will no limit your ability to crank out some very warm tone, and tone is what it is all about this amp has it. Be patient and take the time turning the knobs and you will find yourself not wanting to stop playing thru this amp. Pedals, yes it takes pedal very well. All time based pedals thru loop along with a clean boost and if I can help lend some advice to my fellow musicians, TS 808 tubescreamer, BB Xotic preamp and electro harmonix soul food are excellent overdrives for this amp. I like to take the amp to the edge of breakup and let these pedals push it into high gear. I use telecaster with vintage noiseless, a tele with hotrails and a strat with pearly gates both single coils and humbuckers pack a punch thru this amp. PPC112 cab with half of the back cut out works great for me so I see a 212 open back in my future I do believe the 212 will unleash the full potential of this amp. All in all this amp is killer if you love vintage tone with that orange punch this will take you places in that era. Thanks to Cliff and all of Sweetwater for great service and keeping great product on the shelves. Rock on fellow musicians!

In the most vulnerable of honest conversations that a guitarist could have with another, one would find that looks do matter more than initially indicated, or more than most would be comfortable to admit. Vanity is always a deciding factor. Visual association is inevitable for us humans and therefore cannot be ignored when discussing something so utterly subjective as guitar tone. I can remember the first guitar rig I ever saw on a stage. It was Mark Tremonti"s Mesa Boogie Triple rec and Bogner Uberschall with matching 4x12 cabinets. Now, it"s almost impossible to disassociate Tremonti"s metal tonality apart from Boogie and Bogner. The point is that one of the many elements to the subjective nature of guitar tone is the look. If it looks heavy, there"s a good chance it will be. If it looks aged and vintage, there"s a good chance it will be. Orange, in my humble opinion, is the exception to this pseudo-rule. Orange neither looks aged or heavy. Orange looks like Orange. For that, it has my highest praises.

Unfortunately, for many years as a heavy guitar player, the look of an Orange was never indicative of crushing metal tone. In fact, most guitar players that I came across who used Orange amps all had a similar look and sound: Tight-rolled, faded jeans around worn out fashion-forward boots, short-sleeve button up shirts with bow ties, jag" or jazzmaster guitars strung up to the neck, and a plethora of EHX pedals all set to maximum treble, delay, and reverb (sans low end) planted in front of a some sort of Orange amp. Such a look and sound never suited the style to which I related. So, Orange was always overlooked. Yet, I never could get over how they looked. There was always an unknowable quality to them that I wanted to discover, but never had the courage to invest. I prefer the heavy stuff, but I also prefer the classic "not-so-heavy" look. A couple of years ago I finally decided to try one for myself. I couldn"t ignore the sheer number of positive reviews. Hardly a scathing critique existed. Were there that many bowtied hipsters tap dancing on thirty pedals as guitarists, or were there numerous other players with different sounds that I could relate to that I wasn"t seeing or hearing?

Here it goes. The Orange amp I tried was the single channel, Class A, Orange OR15h. I was immediately and immensely impressed. I never doubted that it would achieve a warm and glassy clean tone that also provides dynamic chime, nor did I doubt that I could achieve classic rock tones. However, skeptical I was when it came to creating believable modern heavy tones, similar to the likes of Gojira or Lamb of God. Sure, I could have invested in an amp identical or similar to the ones that those bands use, but I still couldn"t get over the look of an Orange, the mysterious quality that I didn"t know about. One could imagine my surprise when that was exactly what I got. Using a lower tier Ibanez RG guitar with ceramic pickups (off the shelf) and a tube screamer along with some tone searching resulted in me playing non-stop for almost two hours. The sign of great gear is when they encourage you to play and encourage you to write. I was sold. Without any real attempt at being cliche, this amp changed my musical life.

Ever since, I"ve become this player that prefers amps in its wheelhouse, especially for tones of heavier ilk. And now, I"ve a new philosophy on tone. Bands such as Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Hendrix, Metallica, Priest, Queen, U2, all created iconic albums and timeless songs using gear that oftentimes was NOT built to accommodate their purposes. They had to rely more on their creativity. They had to rely more on being pushed to discover and/or create what they wanted to hear. What modern guitarists like to see as limitations in older gear I see as possibility and artistry. I believe any guitarist would be hard-pressed to find an album that they enjoy even as the times change that didn"t use older, more vintage gear. I"d bet that there is a laughably small number of hard rock and heavy metal albums that didn"t use a Marshall JCM 800 or Superlead for even the slightest bit of guitar tracking. I"d bet the very same for albums that didn"t go a single day of guitar tracking without using an old Fender or Vox, or perhaps the now classic 5150. The point is that it"s never a matter of a single element creating what we want to hear. It"s an amalgamation of many.

If you"re looking for an amp that will encourage your creativity, push you to play and write, inspire you to try new things while ignoring what you think to be limitations and hindrances in the face of simplicity, the Orange OR15H is an amp that will do just that. So besides the crystal clear, chimy clean tones and the tightly saturated high gain tones one can achieve, what is the secret? What is the mysterious, unknowable quality? This is what it is to me: everytime you look at your Orange your visual and tonal associations will be wonderfully confused You"ll hear both tones that you knew would come from it and tones that didn"t think possible. All the while your eyes will be continuously tricked. You will say to yourself: "I didn"t expect that". And, I guarantee you, if you allow it, owning this amp, or an amp like it, will change how you hear and create guitar tone in this day in age. This is amp is for the guitar player, not the person who just wants to strum strings. Like the person who doesn"t want to buy the latest car with lane and brake assist, or cruising distance control and auto parallel parking, this amp is for those who want to drive.

I have had a couple of other "Lunch box" amps, from other major companies, before I settled on this being the best. It only has one channel but that's all I need. I have a Boss ME-80 that has 2 preamps that I can expand with. Now those other amps had a lot of knobs that seemed to complicate things a bit. This OR 15 does all they did with so many fewer knobs. This amp is simple, has lots of gain, and loud.

sounds great through my 1960 lead 4x12 with greenbacks.

I've wanted an Orange for a long time, so I finally decided to pull the trigger. After checking out some reviews and videos on the tones you can get, I wanted something versatile, but not necessarily high gain. This amp checks all of those boxes!

The first thing I thought when I took it out of the box was "man, this is small!" But like the saying goes, great things come in small packages. This is a single channel tube amp head with the classic "pics only" design from Orange. It has your basic controls, volume, treble, mids, bass and gain, but also has a 7-watt and 15-watt switch. There is also an FX loop built into it if you wanted to hook up your pedals that way.

First thing is that this amp is LOUD! Which is a good thing if you play in a band. I hooked this up to my Marshall 1960A 4x12 cab and it suits it well. You can roll the gain down and get a nice, bright, sparkly clean tone or turn up the gain to get little to a decent amount of crunch/overdrive.

I tested this out with my pedals and it takes them well in my opinion. I used an analog delay, digital reverb, tremolo, and my distortion pedal. The distortion pedal would take some tweaking with this amp, but you have to go on that quest for your own tone.

This amp can cover many styles, but if you're looking for a high gain amp without using a pedal, you might want to check out the Orange Jim Root, Dual Dark, or Dual Terror amps instead. I can't recommend this amp enough! You won't be disappointed.

This amp is the full package. Let's talk some of its non-sound features first. It's small enough for easy movement and transport from home to studio to venue without any hassle or unnecessary bulk that a larger amp might have. It is sturdy, extraordinarily well-built, and compact. But enough about the little things. Let's talk TONE. UUUGH THE TONE! This head puts out legendary British crunch and cleans like modern pop puts out trash music! You can not dial in a bad tone on this head. Not only that, it is LOUD. This little fifteen watt amp head is plenty to play any gig you might have (besides a stadium if you're not mic'd up). I highly recommend this amp to beginners, intermediates, experts, professionals, non-musicians, anyone. Buy this legendary little box. You most certainly will not regret it.

Blown away is right! I've been a "Marshall Guy" forever. But I've been disappointed in their lower wattage offerings. I gave this head a try after seeing a few online demos. I don't play live much these days, so 40+ watts is way too much for me. When I got this home, I found it to be incredibly versatile. The tone controls are very responsive. There is a ton of gain on tap, if you want it. But preamp gain settings below 1 o'clock bring on a much more classic overdrive. Turning up the master volume past 11 o'clock brings out a nice, but not overwhelming chime (EL84 power tubes). Low frequency is not sacrificed at all. I play mine through a sealed back oversized 1x12 cabinet loaded with a single G12M. Just lovely! By the way, when jamming with a friend who was using a DSL50 and 4x12 cab, I had to turn DOWN to about 9 o'clock on the master to keep from blowing him away. I use an attenuator to keep the wife happy. ;-)

I recently purchased this amp not knowing its capabilities, and man was I blown away. I can't believe the amount of volume you can get out of this little guy. The gain at about noon sounds like a 70s or 80s type feel, and if you go to about 3 or 4 o'clock it really starts to turn 90s with a more Pantera, and Metallica feel. I have the Hall Of Fame Reverb hooked up with this and its perfect for blues if thats what you're into. And on top of it, this thing is so light I forget I'm carrying an amp with me!

An update on my first post. My OR 15H quit on me yesterday, so I called Tech Support & they shipped me 2 new power tubes. I got them today, but it didn't fix the problem. I called again & they are shipping a new Head. I have never gotten this kind of support before. So long story short you can count on Sweetwater to take care of you when you purchase from them. They also told me to keep the new tubes for spares.

Would have gave 10 stars if I could. Took a while to adjust, but I got it now. I a/b it with a Peavey 100 wt valveking 2 & the or 15h was much warmer , not as sterile sounding. The peavey had a bad tube on 5 wts so I am sending it back or it would have gathered dust. Thanks to Bart Good.

I bought a dark micro terror and if was just so dirty and one dimensional. I bought that amp from someone other than Sweetwater. I returned that amp and bought my OR15 here super nice amp I use it at home and it is all I need. I rarely use any pedals but they work well with the amp when I do. I am a somewhat new guitar player and this amp has a short learning curve not overwhelming for a rookie. I think this is the cream of the crop in 15 watt range. I am stoked with my purchase. Aaron my sales guy was great and I am now a loyal sweetwater customer.

I have been using this head now for over a year and from experience,it can do it all. Initially I had plans to upgrade to the OR50 eventually because i was worried about volume levels,but this thank cranks. Thats right,its loud! Though it sounds great through Orange Cabinets, it responds very well to other cabinets. Not to mention the FX loop is a plus. Modulation,Delay, and Verb comes through like butter. The tone is amazing. Dialing in your sound is easy,the high mid and low respond way more than i could have wanted. Also, I have tried a lot of overdrive/dist pedals with the head and honestly,the provided gain stage on the OR15 beats them out every time. If your looking for a light compact head worth the money,buy this one...now!

Having never owned a tube amp before this amp is absolutely brilliant. The cleans are good and usable, but the gain structure is the selling point, as it goes from a bit of break up, to classic rock, and even some heavy metal. I tried a vox ac15 HWX (also a very good amp) in a store and by comparison I found that the OR15H had a harmonic richness and intuitive, simple controls that the vox didn't, indeed the OR15H with my orange open back 2x12 with celestion v30's simply sounds better - best 15watt amp i have ever heard.

Pinch harmonics are so easy with this, seriously they just jump off the fretboard, love it!! Sounds great with both my strat and les paul, punk, punk pop, rock, funk, indie, heavy metal this does them all so well . A word of caution, this is a loud 15 watts (so I use a JHS little black amp box so it is more useable in an apartment) but this has that orange sound that is incomparable in my opinion. Couldn't be more pleased with this.

massive tone

I just received this amp a few weeks ago and it instantly became my favorite. For a 15 watt amp it is very loud and very warm sounding. I own several tube amps that all sound great in their own right but this little amp has caused me to put everything else on the shelf for now. I could not be happier with this purchase. Finally a company that got the low wattage amp truly right.:)

This is my favorite amp (have a Marshall Silver Jubilee, Handwired Vox AC30, 65 DRRI in the wine red with that other speaker, some 5150s, and others). Each amp does its own thing, but this one has the sweetest distorted tone out of them all. I couldn't quite get it with those amps or an arsenal of pedals, but plugged into this head and it was instant.

The real magic is in a combination of input and output distortion. Try the output at 8-9, then crank the input gain until you get that sound you're waiting for.

I love this little amp. Totally exceeds my expectations for a $700 amp. The tone is what matters the most with any amp and the little OR15H delivers. Excellent gain structure...not too little...not too much...Just right. Pairs extremely well with Celestion V30's and it definitely has the classic 70's Orange tone albeit without needing to kill your ears in the process. And yet there's plenty of volume here. Even with the amp in 7w mode I still use a Swart attenuator when driving a 4x12 Mesa Recto cab. Plenty of volume in 7w mode for band practices here. Hard to believe it can sound so big for such a low wattage rating. Sounds massive. As expected the 15w mode just gives you a little bit more headroom but the 7w mode sounds superb when pushed. Unbelievable performance and tone for $700. Wow.

All I can say is WOW ! Had no idea a little amp could sound so big this amp ROCKS ! I have been looking for a new amp for about a year played a bunch of amps in that time but as soon as I turned the Orange on there it was that sound that I have been looking for since I was a kid and all I had to do was plug and play

What a distinctive sweet sound. The amp clean sound warm and clear, and when you turn the gain knob up watch out. Even though you get the distortion of an over driven tube you still maintain the warmth. It doesn't rip your head off and you can play for many hours without getting fatigued of this sound.

I could not be more impressed with this amp and cab. These amps really soar. I love the effects loop with my G system and the EQ is a nice upgrade from the Tiny Terror. I highly recommend this amp to any one who is looking for a low wattage amp with a effects loop.

I purchased this head in 2012 and am still loving it two years later. It covers a great range of drive tones, and is very easy to dial in to a sweet spot with the 15 / 7 watt options. I play in a worship band for my church and an alt rock group and this amp works wonderfully for both. I am constantly complimented on my sound and asked about this head.

This Orange 15 watt amp blows away most heads costing over $2000. The many killer tones this amp provides will blow you away. The low end thump this amp provides should be impossible on an amp this size, or any size for that matter. Fire breathing metal, shimmering cleans, and a library of classic amp tones live under a single hood here. And pushing the power tubes into a beautiful ringing clip is an every day occurrence. I was so impressed I bought a second one just to make sure I will never have to live my life without the joy the OR15 provides!!!!

This thing is unbelievable! I can get great rock n' roll tones and I can plug a EQ pedal in the FX loop and get hella metal tones, love it! And it's very simple to dial in a good sound. Not much clean headroom , but that's just fine, just roll your volume knob back and you can get some great dirty cleans. Which is what I like!

This is a must have for any rock and roll rig , I have every amp in this class and this amp kick ***, it get nicely clean and had some great gain on tap , I was blown away!!!

The Holy Grail of rock tone in the perfect small studio package. After trying everything in the 5 to 25 watt range, I couldn't find anything that came close to this perfection. I've found it impossible to get a bad sound out of. Obviously not the shiniest clean sound but if you are looking at this amp you should already know that. The simplest of controls, but more variety in sound than other amps with 5 times the knobs (you know what I'm talking about). Take a look at the Jim Root Terror if you want a more modern sound, but after trying both I felt that I was able to get a very similar tone out of the OR15 with some fiddling. I really don't think you will find anything better in the 5 to 25 watt range than what Orange is putting out. Last note, this thing cranked maintains amazing definition.

I think the stores need to stock up on this Amp.
Every guitar player needs to have one, Killer sound
WOW ! A lot of guts and the 7 to 15 watt switch is like having two amp.s Orange out did it with this one.

Nice full, thick classic sound. And don't let the 15 watts detour yor decision , this amp is loud! It's got the sound I've been looking for

let me start by saying that i am very impressed with orange amps in general,a very good product.i have owned about 20 different amps in my years of playing,starting with a solid state crate 10 watt when i was starting out. i now only buy tube amps..there is no comparasen. tubes just make the sound warm and you feel the notes drip off your finger tips.and when you sound good, you play better..simple as that . well this is the second 15 watt mini amp i own from orange,the other being the dark terror.the amps are voiced differently..the or 15 is a more vintage british sound, with a 3 band tone stack you can make every old school rock and roll tone you can think of.its like old hiwatt or marshall tones at a volume that your neighbors wont throw a brick threw your window. thats the magic that orange has,the best tones at a freindly volume. no need for distortion pedals,the tubes cascaiding into each other is the real deal. if you need loud switch it to 15 watts. i tried it only to knock my parrot off his pearch no kidding.$$ well spent..marc bruhn is my sales engineer and my friend,and sweetwater is the only place to buy gear from.no demmo stock sold as new,fed ex shipping and candy in the box,oh yeah NO TAX..thats a lotta $$ left to buy other stuff!! thanks mark and thanks SWEETWATER

I wrongly stated the OR15 is not cathode biased. It is. I contacted Orange about and they told me it is cathode biased. So disregard what I put in my previous review about needing to bias it. You don't.

The amp is performing excellent still and sounds awesome!

Ok. I admit I liked Orange Amps the first day I seen some old 70's footage of some band and seen the orange setup. I usually play in the living room until I fill out the rest of the band. Ok. First I plugged into my orange 1x12 cab and plugged in my les paul studio 15 watt setting volume at 9oclock. all eq noon and gain at 1 oclock. Banged an open E power chord and was like wow!!!! Played around and was like this is not going back. Pulled out my Weber attenuator put the attenuator volume at 2, it goes to 10. I then bought the volume to 2 oclock and kept the gain at 1 oclock. WHOA!!!! The amp sounded like it was mad at me, roaring and trying to come out the speaker. It has that beast sound that I like. Do not underrate power tube distortion. It was loud, probably too loud for apt or sensitive neighbors with the attenuator on 2 but man!! If you are looking at this amp page, you know about Orange. They did not disappoint. Put effects thru the loop. No issues. No noise. I am digging this amp. I changed the V3 chinese 12ax7 to a tad 12at7. I feel it make the amp tighter. I also noticed on the board it says Jim Root Terror. I have not heard the Jim Root Terror but I take it that this is some modded Jim Root Terror with a different voicing. But all in all if you want want an amp to growl, bark, while you are rocking out . Look no further. Tone is there

This is a classic hard rock amp that to my ears has a bit of vintage Marshall in it hehe. I own a 78' JMP 2203 and a DSL50 so I love classic Marshall tones...not modern. This amp crunches up very nicely and from noon on spits fire like a hot rodded 800 would. Good grief I'm having fun with this.

The amps voicing is vintage to me and even though it has so much gain it still remains in that vein. I would say it will do 80s metal but for me that stuff isn't modern voiced saturation. More hard rock-ish. It has lots of useable gain and stays pretty defined. I have mine plugged into a 412 loaded with Greenbacks. I'm a blues, classic rock and hard rock player. This amp excels at this. I like my cleans rolled off from my crunch settings using guitar volume. This amp does that well. Otherwise the clean only is average and headroom little which suits me fine. Non issue. I prefer a little break up or a dirty clean.

The amp will need to be biased if the power tubes are changed. It isn't cathode biased like the TT is. Not a problem for me cause I can bias my amps but those that won't will have to have a tech or someone who knows do it for them.

I love playing this amp and I have some nice amps. I'm getting callouses on my callouses cause I won't leave it alone. It's not the best amp "evar" but it is fun as hell to play.

I'll try to keep this short. I play lead electric on the weekends at a local church that plays modern praise and worship songs, ie (Chris Tomlin, Hillsong... etc...

I used to own a Rockerverb 50 and have dearly missed it since I had to sell it. I tried other orange amps (Rocker 30, Tiny Terror, Dual terror, Dark Terror, Thunder 30) None of these seemed to fit right, I'd given up on Orange since I need an FX loop and it seemed they only put FX loops on their modern hi-gain style amps......Until the OR15

This looked to be just right, vintage orange flavor with plenty of gain (too much for me, I changed my preamp tubes to Jan-phillips 5751 to clean up the preamp section a bit)

The OR15 reminds me a bit of the Rockerverb 50, harmonically rich, musical midrange and great low end presence and the highs stay present without being harsh. Overall, it's tone is extremely balanced but with Oranges typical fat harmonic midrange that I love. This amp can really sing.
As the other reviewer stated, it doesn't have much clean headroom, but this is to be expected from a single channel orange amp. It does the cleanish bluesy breakup thing in spades and will do classic to hard rock and beyond no problem.

Pros: great sound with great dynamics. I can set the gain at 3.5 (edge of break up) play softy and get a decently clean tone then just play harder and it crunches up really nice (much better than the Mesa dual rectifier I had). I use this setting a lot. Gain set to 5 has a nice hard rock tone. Gain at 6-7 great classic metal tone. Gain 7+ full on metal. At all gain settings it doesn"t turn to mush and has good note definition. 7/15 watt nice. 15 watt more than enough for rehearsals and smaller venues. Best spending amp I"ve owned in 20+ yrs of playing.

Con: I bought a Bstock one and it stopped working after about 1 hour of playing reason for half star reduction). Matt Alexander (my sales engineer and tech support Greg) got it resolved immediately and had a replacement overnighted. They were great and no hassles. If only other companies would adopt this concept because Sweetwater has earned my loyalty for the foreseeable future; not to mention the dozens of people I"ve relayed this experience.

After playing solid state amps and digital modelers for the past 12 years, I decided to purchase my first all tube amp. Needless to say, I am extremely happy with it. The amp is very responsive to picking dynamics. In addition, I have to say that tube distortion is far more pleasing to my ear than any solid state distortion I've ever heard. I should have made this purchase earlier. Currently, I'm no longer playing live and I just play for my own amusement at home. I was worried that the amp might be too loud but it's totally manageable with an Orange PPC112. This is in a detached house in the suburbs. The Orange Crush 35RT I have is a decent sounding amp but a bit uninspiring and underwhelming. The OR15 is super simple as it's a single channel and gives you a wide range of tones. The best part is that the amp sounds fantastic even with the everything set at noon. No need to tweak constantly. That's a plus for me because I'm a minimalist and that's what draws me toward Orange amps in the first place.

I was looking for a lightweight setup. This amp head and a 212 cab filled with Celestion Century Vintage neodymium speakers does the trick. I love this amp with my Les Paul, Strat and Tele so far. Easy to dial in with minimal controls. I play classic rock and some country mostly Small gigs under 100 people. However, my music interests also include 70s punk, 80s thrash, and 90s metal/rock. As some mentioned it is not as clean as a Fender Reverb, but I like the clean tone. I set the gain below noon and use an 808 to push it if need be. I do believe for harder rock it is great at noon to 2 on the gain. I think this is a versatile amp (much more than the Dark Terror) and weighs a lot less than my JVM. Thanks to Rob for helping me choose this one.

This is a great little amp. There is plenty of gain. It does clean up at 20% gain or lower, depending on your pick ups. This amp does keep up with a drummer. Our drummer hits hard and can still hear me. I run mine into an Orange ppc112 loaded with a Celestion Greenback (my speaker of choice). I can evoke everything from a jazzy chime to an all out throttle. The EQ is fully usable throughout its range. No harsh highs or muddy lows. A series effects loop for running modulations or placing a line booster (great for lead punch v. my co-guitarist). The head is light and small enough to maneaver through tight passages to the band room and stage. Your back will appreciate that. With a standby and half power capability, you will not be disappointed.

Exactly as advertised. Nice sounding one channel amp. Great as a tool to learn how to get may different tones by just using your guitars volume knob.
Only problem with this amp is it will have you lusting for one of its bigger brothers to gig with!!

I had preordered one of these, had to back out and then got lucky enough to catch one in stock on the 1st shipment. Glad I got mine because It is a very agressive little amp.
Don't let the size or power rating fool you, this is a pretty loud amp and plenty loud for smaller gigs or anywhere you will be miked up.

The only area that shows any weakness in the clean headroom but thats not something you expect much of in a 1 channel Orange. You can get a decent volume with the slightest bit of bluesy breakup in there which I like better than a totally clean tone anyway. If you want Fender like cleans, look elsewhere. If you play a lot of rock and use a few clean tones this is one to check out. I find the best cleans come from rolling the guitar's volume back on a more or less overdriven amp in this situation.

The four gain stages actually morph the character and voicing of the amp in a positive way. up until 9 o'clock it's all clean then it kicks in pretty fast with stage 2 which is much more early 70's British to start with then ends up being very overdriven quickly as you reach noon on the gain dial. Stage three kicks in and you get really good tone that really makes me think Marshall JCM800 when I hear it. The gain gets tighter and holds together well as you go up to fluid sustain. Stage 4 is modern madness and I rarely find the need to get the gain past 1 o'clock on this amp.

This amp screams. It really reminds me of the character of a good much larger Marshall, I tend to think JCM800 inspired tone by the way the notes explode out of the speakers and it really will cut through very easily. It really has a great amount of harmonic content that you can hear in chords, It's amazing how the notes come across as a chord but you can hear the complex little details of each string.

I would say the amp is voiced both vintage and modern within the same channel if that's possible. I never expected the surprise I got from the 1st time I played this amp. I ended up just rocking out and not wanting to stop for a good while. This amp has what I call "bounce" just like the Orange guy in the demo videos on youtube describes it. It just begs to be rocked out.

I use Celestion G12H30 loaded cabs and a 4/12 with the same speakers and I think the amp would really sound much more modern on Vintage 30's. I guess it depends on your style as far as that goes for preference. I mean we are talking serious classic rock tone here that easily handles the newer stuff too on the higher gain settings.

I surely like the full tone stack on this and the knobs have a drastic effect on the tone so expect much better fine tuning than the terror series offers. Even though this amp uses a simillar setup to a tiny terror it is not even close to the same thing. Think of this as more of a flame thrower and you will be a little closer to the ballpark. Really the notes just explode off the neck and speaker this amp is so responsive.

Highly reccomended for the rockers among us who want one amp that will cover all the tones you need at a show!

Nice little amp for the money. Loud enough for small clubs
Switch out the tubes with better quality ones and it will sing.

If you had any reservations about this because it's only 15 watts, rest assured, it's definitely LOUD! It pushes both my 4x12 and 2x12 cabs with ease at the same time. It takes pedals exceptionally well in both the front and the loop. It has a good range of clean before going into distortion, and as you really crank the volume knob you can hear the power tubes begin to sag for that dynamic and authentic tube sound. The 3 band EQ is smooth, adding an EQ pedal in the loop greatly expands on any limitations you may find in the amp's EQ. It doesn't win the prize for the best amp I own, but I'm not disappointed either.

To preface, I have exclusively run this tiny beast through a brand new Orange 1x12 that is definitely not fully broken in. Let the record reflect that.

The OR15 is loud. Let's start there. Don't let the numerical wattage fool you. Running a Fender Jazzmaster (60's Lacquer), the guitar is bright and chimey on the bridge pickup, with the tone rolled down between 5 and 7. A turn of the pre-amp gain yields anything from light crunch, to full on saturated amp gain. It might feel like "one-trick" at the beginning, but knowing how you can push the amp, and in what ways you can push it, are the real tricks. For a truly magical tone, I recommend parking the pre-amp gain low, around 8 or 9 o'clock (yes, barely turned up at all), and getting the master volume up into the 2-5 o'clock range (yes, it will be loud). This will give you the best emulation of what the OR15's higher wattage brethren sound like. Having owned a few of those along the way, it was strangely comforting, like getting reacquainted with an old friend.

The amp takes spatial effects very well in the fx loop. Honestly, with low to moderate gain, you can get some very unique tones from your delay and reverb pedals while running straight into the amp, but pushed too hard, they become muddy and indistinct. In the fx loop, the true quality of those effects will shine, and be uninhibited. The former seems like it would be better suited to a recording environment. Distortion and fuzz pedals are much more finicky when run straight into the head. Too much pre-amp gain on the amp will result in a highly compressed sound that will actually quiet your signal when engaged. There is a fine line that is unique to any given gain pedal, where the amp and the pedal will cooperate in their awesomeness, but again, too much amp gain will render your most expensive and boutique fuzz pedals largely inert. (To clarify, I typically have a fulldrive, a GE fuzzface, and a ram's head muff running into an amp).

I recently ran this in stereo with my Fender Deluxe Reverb (blackface RI), and it was an excellent complement to that amp. Whereas the Fender is open and airy, the Orange is tight and focused. Together they were amazing.

You really can't beat the price point on this amp, and for a small amp, you can really get a lot out of it. It delivers some very authentic Orange tone, when run in particular settings, but otherwise delivers excellent "rock" tones, and is very malleable to your specific playing. It can do jazz, rock, blues, psych, garage, etc...

I will start by saying I was a little hesitant when buying this amp. I loved the looks and sound of it from the demos I watched but I also heard it didn't handle pedals really well. After having it for a little over a week and trying all my pedals on it I think I've got a somewhat fair assessment of this rock machine.

I'm running the OR 15 into a Orange 2x12 open back cab and this amp has some of the nicest lead sounds you can get on this price range. It only has one channel but it responds incredibly well to your picking dynamics and volume knob. So, if you're looking for a great rock sound that doesn't need much alteration I'd highly recommend you look into this amp.
As far as how this amp handles pedals goes...
The OR15 takes delays, modulation and reverb pedals really well both into the FX loop and in front of the amp(when running clean). I have run my Timeline, H9max and BlueSky reverberator on both the FX loop and on the front of the amp and they sound as good as they did on my previous experiences using a Hot Rod deluxe or a Blues Jr. However, I was surprised at how this amp handles overdrive pedals. When you are running the OR15 clean it will take just about anything. However, when you set the amp to a mild overdrive it changes the way it reacts to dirt boxes. For instance, more mid focused overdrives seem to make the amp compress a lot harder than more open sounding overdrives. So, my clean boosts/transparent ODs push the amp into greater levels of rock and roll well while my TS808 circuit makes the amp compress the mids a little too much. Which is fine by me, since I've never been much of a tube screamer kind of guy.. All in all, I'd say the OR15 is definitely not an amp for the person that depends mostly on pedals for their sound. It is for the person that depends mostly on the amp but likes pedals for extra flavor.

In closing, I just want to say thanks to my sales engineer Patrick Cobley, and thanks to the warehouse team that handled my order. Great job guys!

Full disclosure, i have had my OR15 about two weeks, so i cannot comment on reliability. I am running it through a 4x12 cabinet loaded with Celestion V30s. This little amp ROCKS. I'll be brief with what everyone else has already said: it's loud! There is quite a lot of volume to be had from its few watts. It seems to be well built. It looks great. What i'd mainly like to address are the sounds. It sounds really nice clean, and i feel like it's got a good amount of clean headroom as long as you are thinking reasonably. In terms of gain, it does several dirty sounds well. Bluesy breakup check. Classic rock, check. Classic metal, check. Modern Metal, check. The gain knob isn't quite as expressive as i'd like it to be, but contrary to a lot of the reviews i've read, this thing can do a nice modern metal sound. I have tried it in several conventional 6 string tunings from 440 down to drop C and a couple of 7 string tunings including standard and drop A. Pickups make a big difference. Vintage/moderate output pups may not be enough to take you there and you may end up trying to get the sound from the fizzy quarter of the gain range (past 9 o'clock or so). But all of my seymour duncan loaded guitars get into nasty modern metal territory with no problem before 9 o'clock on the gain dial. It also plays well with pedals in the loop provided you use high-quality power sources. Hope this has been helpful.

This is another one of those things that I bought thinking I wouldn't be impressed. I have a handwired AC30 with Alnico Blues, a 5150-type thing, and a handful of other amps, but this fills a niche that the others don't. It has a tight, warm tone, which is perfect for classic rock, but it also has a very warm clean or edge-of-breakup thing going on that's a very different color than the AC30. What really shocked me is that it can go into heavy rock territory without sucking. The key to good drive on this guy is definitely to start with the output cranked, then to raise the preamp gain to taste. The output distortion provides a different flavor than the preamp distortion, but a tasteful combination of the two provides a really rich tone that works well with a Les Paul. I used the Rivera attenuator to make this happen without blowing out eardrums or angering neighbors. The attenuator makes the good tones possible when at home. You might not be impressed if you try it with the output down, because that's truly where the magic lives.

This guy won't give you the sound of a 5150 or AC30, which is why you should try it out; it's a different tool with a different tone . . . very warm . . . and will make a great addition to your arsenal.

I wish the gain taper on the preamp knob was more like an AC15. And the knobs on it are surprisingly cheap. The first one I got (not from Sweetwater) had a broken tone knob. The second one had a really microphonic fx loop tube. The master volume knob goes from nothing, nothing, nothing and then quickly an audible tone just before the first notch on the dial. And the preamp knob goes from a fuzzy boosted sound to pretty well cranked from about 9:30 to 12. I would have liked to it have had a little bit longer or smoother taper. It does sound very good though both clean and cranked. Perhaps I should have bought the Rocker 15 instead. I haven't found as much of a use for playing around the house with the OR15 as I thought I would. Amps in this price range are tricky nowadays. Hopefully the digital features keep improving on them.

First off, I ordered a demo model from Sweetwater. Received the excellent customer service we have all grown accustomed to by Sweetwater! The amp arrived to my door step less than 48hrs after ordering and was in fantastic condition. I absolutely loved the simplicity, versatility, and sound of this amp. It functioned flawlessly for about 3 years. Unfortunately, started blowing the HT fuse. After it blew a couple HT fuses, I replaced all the pre-amp tubes, power tubes, and effects loop tube. Still kept blowing the HT fuse. I got it functional and sold it to a local music store. Bummer, because I really liked the amp.

First the good - Rugged build quality. Like a tank. Good gain tones, could dime the gain and still keep volume low for bedroom if needed, on either 15 or 7watts. Usable FX loop.

The bad - cleans aren't good. Wouldn't recommend if you need a good clean tone. Mine also came with a super noisy gain pot, so I had to return it, and I did not ask for a new one to replace it.

Pretty expensive for something made in China.

Let me start by saying Sweetwater is the best place on the planet to buy any musical gear. My rep is Ed, and he's pretty awesome. The Orange amp, not so much. My buddy has a Rockerverb which I thought sounded really good. Great cleans, and nice overdrive. The OR15 isn't anywhere close. The cleans are really muddy even through an open cabinet; and that's with the bass on 0, and the treble and mids all the way up! The overdrive/distortion is very grainy, like a cheaper fuzz. You also will have a difficult time striking a balance since it's only a one channel amp. I could have lived with that, but not the muddy, dark and lifeless tone.

If you want the Orange tube head tone, this is the best way to do so at an affordable price. The hairy, flamethrower distortion is unparalleled. I would love to give it a higher rating, but this is the 2nd OR-15 that I've had with a power section failure with very light use. For background, I've had several other Orange tube amps that have never had this issue, connected the same way. Sweetwater did a great job replacing the first one with my current unit, which has now suffered the same fate. The 3 hours of play I had on this unit were glorious, but this is not acceptable for a brand that is world renowned with such a rich history. I'm still within the SW warranty period, and I trust them to make it right. In hindsight, I'd have been better suited buying a Peavey.