I noticed that the Rocker 30 is available in a head. I know the rockerverb 50 has gotten great reviews, but haven't heard much about the rocker 30. Has anybody played them side by side? What did you think about the 30 compared to the 50?
Rockerverb 50 is fixed bias (4 6V6's). Rocker 30 is cathode bias (2 EL34) I gotta say the Rocker 30 1x12 combo intrigues me as a cool little amp. Never tried one though. taco
I too am curious about the Rocker 30. What I've heard about the Rockerverb 50 makes me want to buy one. But I have no use for reverb, and buying an amp with reverb seems wrong to me, as if I'd be paying extra for this feature that I'll never, ever use.
I just got a Rocker 30 and I'm loving the amp. The Natural Channel is really sweet and fat sounding and really projects the tone of the guitar your playing. The Dirty channel is amazing and goes from clean tones to edgy blues to classic rock to 80's rock and beyond. It's got its own thing going on and its a very good thing. The amp is cathode bias so you can freely swap out power tubes without rebiasing and it's very portable..about 40lbs(for the combo). The only drawback I can find w/ the amp is that to change tubes you must remove the whole chassis to get to them(4 screws..easy but annoying). I have yet to find a bad sound outta the amp though and it takes pedals extremely well to boot. I sold a Shiva to get a Splawn then sold the Splawn for this Orange and I've never been more pleased with my amp until I got the Rocker 30. It also sounds amazing at all volumes as well. The amp just recieved 5 stars in Guitarist Magazine last month and they hit the nail on the head with their review. I got mine for $800 on Ebay and it's every bit as good as some $2000+ boutique amps imo.
The Rocker 30 really interests me, the only thing that it's missing is an fx loop. I suppose that could be installed as a mod afterwards...
My gas runneth o'er. Got to free up a bit of cash and sell some stuff so the wife doesn't go "haven't you got enough already blah blah blah blah?"
I tried the Rocker30 combo and thought it was fantastic. Later I tried the Rockerverb 50 and wasn't as impressed. It may have been the cabinet (Orange 2-12") but to me the 50 sounded more throaty and congested. Still, both are great sounding amps - thick and crunchy.
The Rocker 50 has two major advantages for my situation: 1. Excellent effects loop. If you like delay, this is the way to do it (assuming you don't want to drag around a seperate wet rig) 2. More clean headroom. The 50 has a bit more clean headroom. Perhaps a little better for gigging. Perhaps. It's really #1 that does it for me. As for tonal comparissons...don't know. Congested is hardly the word I'd describe my 50 with. But YMMV. I've got loads of clips if needed and there are a gazillion more over at the Orange Forum.
Right, went and tried the Rockerverb 50 head + Orange 4x12 cab side by side with the Rocker 30 combo. To me the Rockerverb 50 sounded just as good as the RV100 I tried earlier but both had the same problem - not dynamic enough for my tastes, even on clean/low gain tones. Great tone anyway. The Rocker 30 on the other hand was very nice. The simple "volume control only" clean channel sounded quite a bit like my Stephenson LJ-10 on some settings and the dirty channel had some similar traits too - especially the way it was more dynamic than the 50 and 100W models. It didn't have as much gain as the bigger amps but more than enough for heavy metal tones IMO. I bet that through a 4x12 the Rocker 30 would sound a lot like the RV50 and RV100 on the dirty channel. Can't really go wrong with any of them.
Sorry to resurrect the thread, but I am wondering the same question. Any new developments or thoughts to share in the past 18 months?
Well, I wasn't following this thread but have since tried the Rocker 30 and Rockerverb 50. I'm buying the RV50 head. Amazing amp. Very versatile and responsive if you ask me. The best amp I've ever played or heard...and I've tried a few.
I play modern rock, pop and neo-classical from quite mild to very heavy. I played a Rocker 30 for a long weekend and liked it a lot. It reminded me of a good MV Marshall head in some ways although its sound was unique. Overall not quite as wild a ride as I would have liked, so I brought an RV50 in to try out. I bought the RV50. It is much more aggressive than the rocker 30 and can provide me with mild OD to screaming solo tone at almost any volume. Equally pleasing is the clean channel which can do the 'pretty-pretty' thing brilliantly, or crank it and cover your ears. Add to this a reverb circuit with head-turning tone. This is one of those amps that feel light and agile like a glider in an updraft. Whoever designed its circuit loves electric guitar.
