Orange Super Crush 100 100-watt Solid-state Head - Orange Reviews

Just purchased and I am one happy customer. Amp has a near tube feel, sound and response. The clean channel is pristine and warm. The dirty channel has that Orange sound and is good for classic rock to metal. Is it a Rockerverb- no. However, it gets close for much less! Sweetwater and Max made the purchase and delivery easy! Thank you both!

I used to have a Rockerverb MKI that I loved, but sadly had to part ways with. Now that I'm in an active band again, I was looking for a little more firepower than my Micro Dark (which I also love), so I decided to take the chance on this.


While, admittedly, this is not EXACTLY a Rockerverb or a tube amp and it lacks some of that "suck the air out of the room" quality that a loud cranked tube amp can have, Orange definitely nailed the response and the, for lack of a better term, balls, that I've found a lot of solid state amps still lack. Even if the TONE is great,the FEEL is off, you feel me?

Super Crush has the feel. I'm very very happy with it, especially for less than 1/4 of the price of another Rockerverb. They finally converted a tube amp snob like myself.

I was a tube snob for many years. I've owned most of the quality tube amp brands. Orange has changed the game for me. The Super Crush 100 is simply a great sounding guitar amp, without even considering whether it's tube or not, or how much it costs. It has just the right amount of input reactivity for me. Not too little, and not too much like some tube rectified amps I've owned. The available interaction of the channel volumes and the master volume allows for a very broad selection of tones. The onboard digital reverb is very useful and somewhat unique. It starts out sounding like a hall type reverb and can end up sounding like a splashy spring reverb when turned way up. I'm really happy with this purchase and don't feel I settled for something that's "almost". Get yourself one…I don't think you'll regret it one bit. Thanks goes out to my sales engineer, Jim Ridings, and the rest of the Sweetwater team for another perfect guitar gear buying experience!

I needed a 100 watt amp head for a few shows while my main head ('76 Peavey Roadmaster Super Festival) was getting re-capped, so I grabbed one of these used from a local shop. I wasn't expecting much initially, but I'm very pleased with this thing! It's well built, light, and honestly sounds great for what I do (hardcore, metalcore, etc). It takes pedals really well and is fairly versatile. I've found that running an MXR 10 band EQ in the loop gives you more control over the tone than the amp's EQ knobs (and you can use it as a little boost too). This amp lives in my practice space now and my band's other guitarist uses it for practice and shows. Definitely worth the price!

I'd previously had an Orange 20rt that I really enjoyed and have always respected the Orange line of amps, but had never really thought to look into their heads until I saw a review on the Orange Super Crush 100. I was in the market for a high gain head, but I was constantly getting sticker shock. After watching multiple reviews by some of my favorite guitarists I took a chance on the 100. The price is very affordable, iconic looks, and had the features I was looking for with 2 channels, built in reverb(extremely usable, sounds very good), and effects loop. With Sweetwaters return policy if it didn't work out I made my purchase confidently. I expected a high gain amp and what I got was so much more.

I'll start off by saying WOW. Though the amp is analog and not tube the response of the amp both on the clean channel and the dirty channel reminds me so much of a tube amp that I forget that it's solid state. It's got a depth, warmth, and response that is far beyond digital modeling and other solid state amps that I've played through including the Fender GTX50, Boss Katana mk2 head, Boss Katana mk2 50w combo, Fender Champion 50xl, Peavey Bandit 112, the list continues...

The clean channel is so pristine and warm. I can get the sparkling tones of a fender, but with a greater depth. There's something about the clean tone of an Orange amp that speaks to me when I play my Strat through it. It's hard to describe but it's something that you feel. It just fits. The clean channel also has enormous headroom and the amp takes pedals extremely well, although to be honest the tone is so good on it's own about the only pedals I use are a Boss SD-1, and my JHS Series 3 delay. The reverb on the amp is really good at about 1 o'clock and I like a little delay in the fx loop. The SD-1 I run in the front of the amp and the tone is just so sweet.

Now for the fun zone, aka the dirty channel. All I can say is this amp delivers! Just straight to the amp this monster has serious tone. The responsiveness of the gain dial is fantastic! About halfway up I get phenomenal rock tones, but dialed back to about 10 o'clock you're in Texas blues territory. Up it to 2 o'clock and you start getting into hard rock and 80s and 90s metal. Max it out and you get into Nu metal, dropped D, drop C, progressive metal land. Pick and pinch harmonics take zero effort to achieve, and even with dropped tunings the tone doesn't get muddy. This amp LOVES a guitar with active pickups. The growl and snap that it delivers is nothing short of miraculous.

Don't be fooled into thinking this is just a metal amp though. I play mostly metal and blues but I love pretty much any music played on a guitar and dabble in jazz, blues, dirty blues, ambient, all the decades of rock(admittedly 70s rock is my favorite), and even a little funk. This amps delivers usable great tones for all genres. Built like a big Orange tank, and with a price tag of $ it's a no-brainer. I know the purists out there reading this might say, "It's not tube!", my counter is "So what?" Great tone is great tone. I love tube amps and I love solid state. I chase tones and this amp delivers. Try it before you arbitrarily judge it.

As always, a big thank you to the lovely people at Sweetwater and to my Sales Engineer Nico! Love you guys!

PROS:
80's traditional doom tone
Loud
$ after taxes
Lots of good gain
Flexible EQ
No overdrive needed
Has effects loop
Solid build
Sounds full on single notes
Sounds tight on palm mutes
Tracks well playing fast
Sounds exceptionally good even when video recording myself with an Android.


Cons:
Requires noise suppressor in effects loop and front input or will produce lots of noise
Doesn't come with channel/reverb footswitch

Settings I love
MASTER VOL ANYWHERE
VOL CRANKED
MID CRANKED
BASS CRANKED
TREBLE ANYWHERE
REVERB OFF

Nice solid state amp head , I'm loving it.

Such an awesome amp! Perfect for Doom!

This amp completely blew me away. The iconic Orange sound in an up-to-date solid state which mimics the the Rockerverb MKIII tube amp. Reasonably priced & fast delivery.
I found my sound, my Citrus friends.

Hello out there. Let me say I'm new to buying gear online. I'm old-school and prefer to find it in a store and turn it up. Unfortunately those good mom and pop stores ate gone. Guitar center is a whole Lotta crap. I was seeing these ads for sweetwater and thinking wow, they have it all. I'm in a streetpunk band In ca. While we have jobs we also have debts and kids that take a big bite out of the fun budget. Recently I needed a new bass cabinet. I play ampeg exclusively. I decided I wanted the new 6×10 as my old 4×10 was great but too short I had to stoop to use the handle. It was out of stock everywhere. Somewhere I must have asked sweetwater to notify me when it was available. They did. They got it in before anyone else I saw. Then! I saw they had a payment plan. That was very tempting . So tempting it pushed me over the edge and I pulled the trigger. They sent it right away. I had it in a few days and man does it kick, no hidden fees no problems. I found out I have an agent named Mathew who is such a great asset. Any question no matter how silly it sounded to me was taken seriously. Next I decided my guitar needed a better sound. The new supercrush 100 looked soo good on youtube reviews. Bang I had just payed off the ampeg and now I have the orange s.c.100
It's soo easy to have top gear with sweetwater.
Let me say that again. We are a punk band with great gear on a budget. Yes I could have paid full price at one time if I ordered it at g.c. but you never know. I do construction and work is spotty. It has been a blessing to have sweetwater to make this happen. It's so easy and affordable. BTW holy crap is it a good amp.the tone and sustain is amazing
Next were gonna bring in a little ska and we are gonna get the yamaha reface . With the help of the sweetwater staff to help me understand the differences between electric organ and synthasizers. I can't say how much Mr. Lemarch and sweetwater has changed my mind about on line gear. I hope this is helpful to any musician or a struggling g punk or metal band who doesn't have mommy to buy your gear.

I'm floored. I did a trade in of an old Mesa lunchbox amp and grabbed this and some other things clean and clear at a local dealer (sorry SW).

This amp is flat out great. Everyone will crank the dirt channel and go chug on it, but back it off and/or play it with low output pickups and you're in JCM800 territory for all your rock classics.

But the killer vibe is the all pedal platform the clean channel can be. With the channel volume dimed, it's kind of edge of edge of breakup. Like it gets hair on its skin but doesn't quit go all dog on you. It might with higher output pickups, but my guitars don't have those (Tele, Strat, Hollowbody).

Either channel, the sound us punchy and clear. The guys I've been playing with since I got it (including one who has 12 "dream collection" amps) couldn't believe it was solid state. With the tone controls at noon-ish, I've never really had to make an adjustment.

Pedals sound great. Fuzz, distortion, overdrives all work perfectly. The effects loop hasn't been tried because it just hasn't. The built in reverb leaves nothing to be desired. We mic'd my open back 2x12, with Vintage 30s, and recorded the cab sim output…they were so close it wasn't a fight. Not exactly the same, but nothing we wouldn't naturally EQ a little differently anyhow.

Medium weight, so easy to load in and out.

I can't believe this thing has stayed at $. I'm waiting for the gotcha and it does show up. Highly recommend!!!

I have owned quite a few different heads both solid state and tube over the last few years, and i have to say this is the best, the second closest ive owned is a hughes and kettner tubemister but it was noisier.

"This isn't a tube amp." I routinely find myself saying this to amazed other guitarists after gigs. Tonally, this amp hits a sweet spot between classic tube sag and solid-state attack and compression. It cuts through the mix in my band's rehearsal space and fills room at club gigs with ease.

This amp is amazing. I wanted a good pedal platform to gig with my Quad Cortex, so I was going to go with the pedal baby. But I was thinking "What would I do if something were to go wrong with my Quad Cortex?" So I Bought this. Dirty Channel is epic, gain all the way up, Ibanez TS9 on, noise gate on, boom! I've got a great metal tone that works in any mix. Clean channel is just that, CLEAN! It is the perfect pedal platform, even when just running a Hofner Fuzz into it for some Hendrix like tones. When compared to my EVH 5150 Iconic, I prefer this. Not only is it way lighter, but also more reliable than a tube amp.

This thing is just killer tone for not being tube. Put it against my tune amps not much difference when dialed in.

Freaking awesome ive been looking for a good amp for a long time, ive used all different kinds of high end and cheep amps. But for the price i think this is one of my favorite amps ever its light its loud great for metal blues rock and even country most versitile amp ive ever played

Surprisingly very good sounding for a solid state amp!
I was hesitant to buy anything other than a vintage tube amp afraid of losing the feedback coming off the notes when I wanted it.
Great thing is once you figure the adjustments out you can bring that feedback in at any volume level.
It's very basic knob set-up but with a slight touch you dial in any sound you want.

It does awesome cleans, really nice dirty grit and a killer tone overall. The added reverb sounds awesome on a loud clean channel.

All most as good as a Tube amp!

All most as good as a Tube amp!

Brought me back to loving good solid state amps.

I had managed to get my hands on the Crush 20. I was instantly in love and wanted more. So I contacted my sales engineer Zak Borlan and we made it happen. I ordered the Pro 4 12 with it. The amp is a little dark sounding which makes it great for the heavier tunes. I added a DS-1 pedal and it adds a wonderful brightness for a different tone. Cleans are crystal clear. Amp takes pedals right through the front with no problems. I play everything from extreme metal to Classical and this amp will do it all. I have 6 amps from tube to solid state. This is my go to amp.
I would suggest getting the Orange FS2 pedal with your order. It's rather sweet! Over all I love this amp and I feel you can't go wrong with it. Eventually I will stack it just for giggles. It's that good! It will do everything you ask it to do!! Thanks to all the Sweetwater team! Good job!

The supercrush 100 has some phenomenal tone. Great response and sound full. I play a mixture of pop punk and metal so I did end up putting a horizon devices precision drive to shape the tone before going into the amp and that tightened up the low end perfectly. I'm getting great metal tones and impeccable pop punk tones. It's a solid amp that's very versatile in my opinion.

First off I waited forever to get this Orange Super Crush 100 amp head. Wasn't real happy about that! Purchased the black version and it was backordered for months. Within five minutes after plugging it in I knew it was worth every minute of the wait. What a great amp!! I have a Boss noise gate ran thru the effects loop and it's as loud and quiet as can be. I do have a distortion pedal on the front end of it for some extra distortion. PURE tube tone!! The louder you crank it the better it gets!! Beyond satisfied!!!

This amp does exactly what all your YouTube videos says it does... Does it sound better than a mesa tube amp-no way... is it very close to tube sound-yes... your guitar, pickups and pedals make a hell of a difference in sound, keep that in mind... but this amp screams, way too loud for in the house, but I don't care-i like shaking the walls...At this price, I honestly don't think it can be beat, especially if your looking for simplicity in the controls... if you want more of a modeling amp in this price range (actually cheaper) look at the Boss Katana.. its a nice amp for home use... This orange head packs a punch and seriously is plenty for gigging.. no issues... I love this amp and so satisfied that they actually can get a solid state this close to a tube sound, maybe not feel wise... but super close in tone...GOOD JOB ORANGE !!!

I bought this for my husband, and here's what he has to say about this amp;

"This is a 'Players amp'... No nonsense straight forward features for the player... Just the basics, the way it originally began, when you'd plug a guitar into an amp and 'play'... without spending hours searching through 'special effects' and digital amp modeling, etc., With this amp, the sounds come from your 'fingers' as it should be. Two channels, 'clean' for playing nice, or 'dirty' for playing hard, some sweet classic reverb, and the rest is up to you and your hands."

The best amp on the market right now. Period. Solid State or not, this amp marks the beginning of what some of of us never could have... a killer amp head worthy of playing gigs, or a lifetime of personal home jamming, or both!

Thank you Orange!
Thank you Sweetwater!
Thank you Rebecca!

And especially, Thank the Lord. It's time to play music again!

- Paul Cordero

If you are looking for the Rockerverb sound this is it but with a much better clean channel. The amp is loud and as mean as the Rockerverb with a really great built in digital reverb. The clean is really nice and warm and with a high channel volume gets some nice breakup. The reverb is really really good so leave those reverb pedals at home. The clean Takes pedals really well to due to it not having a built in bright cap. It takes overdrives beautifully as well as time based effects in front. The gain channel is really interesting because you can go from a nice crystal clean to searing high gain on each end of the spectrum due to it having 4 gain stages. The channel really comes to live with a booster pedal in front too. With the gain at about 75% I use an Xotic EP booster at minimum gain into a Fortin 33 at half gain and it really drives the amp into this perfectly stacked distortion. It sounds like something you would hear on a polished modern metal album. This amp is truly great and an excellent option for an all tube amp and in all reality could replace many out there.

I own lots of amps and I have the old cr-120 .. The crush pro has a useable dirty channel that will go from zztop to cannibal corpse and it's not near as noisey as the OG crush. It even does "a thing" like a tube amp when you go past 1 o'clock it starts to get fat and bloom like tubes. It's all in the j-fet transistors. The clean channel is chimey and sparkles really well. It's not as loud as the old crush but way better tone but for sure loud enough.. I own tube amps and vintage Peavey solid state amps in 5 min this amp became my favorite because of price and versatility. I cranked it wide open for 30 min it was hardly warm . If you want a great amp and not blow a ton of cash this is the one!!!!

Ive been playing the crush pro 120 head for a couple years, this amp is entirely different to my ears, so other than being an orange solid state amp thats all there is. it sounds different in a lot of ways! It seems to have more balls and fuller sounding than the crush pro 120. I will still keep the crush pro 120 but this is going to be my main amp head for years to come or until orange improves this version lol! Also i do have tube amps and hate to compare because in all honesty tubes are tubes and solid state is solid state. This will be a great addition to any amp head user!

Let me explain I have a bunch of high end tube amps all of them have their voice.
This amp is solid state and gives me a real tube feel and dynamics.
I don't get how it works but it does. I have it paired with an Orange PPC 112 cabinet with a Celestion G12 Cream back
A little underpowered for a 100 watt amp but I don't play really loud it just screams tone.
I think I will be gigging with this little gem. Low maintenance and superior tone.

The warmth, dynamics, and versatility this amp will give you is unmatched, especially when paired with a good cab. Bell like clean channel, incredible and flexible gain channel that will go from on the edge of breakup to chugging territory. I didn't originally intend to buy this for playing Metal but when you stick an overdrive in front and bring the gain on the amp to about 2:00-3:00 it becomes a chugging machine. The rest of my rig has collected dust since buying this. Try one out, you won't regret it.

This was my first dive into Orange. Honestly it took me a little while to decide I would keep this. After a week playing with it I love it. I play just about everything and this works for me. I do wish it had a headphone jack for late night practice.

Phenomenal amp. Easily handles anything you throw at it. Badass dirty channel and pristine clean. I used to use many different overdrives but all I use with this amp is a gate and it's perfect. Sweetwater had it here in one day! That was truly incredible. I only buy here!

I've only had the amp a day.When I first hooked it up i could hear a humming sound. I dint know if the amp was bad or not so I contacted orange UK.While waiting g for a response I began investigating. I finally located the source of the hum to my source audio eq pedal on my pedal board. Why the amp doesn't like the pedal is a mystery since I have had no problems with it on any other head I've used. Ieven tried different power supplies. I'm just letting everyone know that this pedal, and maybe others may cause this amp to be noisy even on the clean channel. Also the clean channel isn't as loud as you'd expect from a 100w head

In the grand-scheme of amplifiers, this is a pretty good one. It isn't overly heavy, but it isn't a tiny Class-D head, either. The tone is kinda dark, but that isn't a bad thing, just something to be aware of. The right set of speakers, pedals, and pickups could change that.

I use a JHS AT Plus into the clean channel for my heavier distortion. I use unknown Duncan pickups and Celestion V30 and H30 speakers in two 112 cabs. It sounds thick - as I mentioned, kinda dark, but note clarity is still there. I use a Timmy for lighter grit, which also sounds nice.

I haven't enjoyed the dirty channel on the amp. I just cannot get it to sound, "right," to my ears, but I've had good luck with multiple distortion pedals. The AT Plus is just my favorite with the Crush.

The reverb is quite nice sounding. It's a plate-style reverb. Single-knob, built-in amp reverb is often limited in control, which is the case here. The trail is a little long for liking sometimes. None the less, I'm happy with it.

I also own a 68 Fender DRRI that I use as a pedal platform. I prefer the sounds I get from the DRRI, but the Super Crush is still good. It also has more headroom and volume, which is something I felt I needed.

So really, the main con for me is that the EQ is just naturally dark and not overly powerful, certainly not as powerful as my DRRI. I definitely wish I had more control over the midrange and presence. I don't like the amp gain. Other than that, no real qualms with the amp. Great for the price.

The amp has a great clean tone. It needed an EQ pedal to get the tone I was looking for. Not a deal breaker. It's more of a bluesy/jazz amp than a metal/rock amp in my opinion unless you use effects, then you can do whatever you'd like with it (that's what I do). Effects loops is great, the clean channel handles pedals very well. If you're a pedal guy, this could be your main amp or a great backup. It's very stable and light. Overall I'm happy with it. I'd recommend it to anyone that wants a really nice warm and clean amp or a pedal platform.

The distortion channel sounds like a cheap fuzz pedal (thin, loose, trebly, annoying). I don't use it anyways.

The clean channel is almost indistinguishable from a tube amp. To create a solid 3 channel amp with boost I run a blues driver and metal zone into the front, it can handle a great amount of distortion and become a great metal amp, as well as achieving dynamic blues distribution that's very responsive to touch which is nice :) This is a great cheaper alternative to a Fender ToneMaster.

I always wanted to try a orange but not being to familiar with them I didn't want to spend a couple of grand either. This sc100 is priced nice so I figured I'd give it a shot, I ran it through a 1960a and it sounded great,the dirty channel gets a nice crunch to high gain and the clean channel is just that very nice and clean even at high volumes,all around a very versatile amp. I gave it 4 stars out of five because since it's solid state I had to pretty much dime the volume to hang at practice. If your playing with another guitar player using a tube head and play metal this is something you might want to take into consideration..For our home studio its a nice addition to add to the collection.Thanks to Ken naces team for taking care of me.

After reading a ton of reviews, I decided to pull the trigger on this head. First off, let me say that this amp does sound really good. The clean channel is clean, and the dirt channel is, well, dirty. Is it what I was expecting? No. After reading all the reviews, I was expecting all the gain you could ever want and more. It will definitely get you into AC/DC territory, but I found it wasn't enough to get into Van Halen grit, even with the gain turned all the way up . Don't even ask "Will it chug?". If you want the higher gain sounds out of the dirt channel, you need to boost the front end with an OD. Having said that, the clean channel takes dirt pedals well, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having a dirt channel in the first place.

this is a decent solid state amp, but definitely not orange's better stuff. It is just an ok tone, nothing great at all, doesnt even serve well as a backup for my other amp well. It does not compare to orange's tube amps, again, It does not compare with a tube amp. A big disappointment and I should've returned it.

I heard a lot of people say this was very close to a Rockerverb, but lighter and cheaper. I didn't find that to be the case. I've owned MkII and MkIII Rockerverbs, plus a TH30, and this amp didn't come anywhere close to the feel or the sound of those amps. No matter how I EQ'd it, the Super Crush sounded weak and thin. It was loud enough volume-wise but didn't have the cut OR the chug to be clearly audible at rehearsal.

Totally underwhelming! This amp is a downgrade from pretty much any decent tube amp. And I'm not a tube snob, I love the JCM900 with its solid state preamp distortion and the BluGuitar Amp1. But this amp feels and sounds lifeless. For only a little more money you could get the OR15 or Rocker 15, not to mention the PRS MT-15 and the 5150iii lunchbox head.

The only good side I could say is that the clean channel sounds pretty good, reminded me of the Mesa Mark V fat clean mode and the reverb was surprisingly decent. But the dirt channel is too bad to play live with or record.

Oh it sounded good for the whole year it lasted. Turned it on one day and a few minutes later it died, Never to turn on again. I expect better than that. ...Have another Orange amp. Dual Terror. The tubes warble and make a scratchy sound from the very day I bought it new. Ive never had junky amps like these and I can assure you Il never own another Orange product of any type!! They are either extremely cheap or their quality control is horrible.. My go to amp is my Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister. Now theres an amp!! Anyhow, Im finished with Orange...