Gear, Video

Orange Micro Crush amp

07.23.08 | 53 Comments

Last year I started exploring some different options in guitar amplifiers. As a personal fan of Orange Amps, I was very intrigued by their “Crush” amp line. So I picked up the Orange Micro Crush, the smallest of the Crush family (and one of the smallest amps that I have ever seen).

This tiny terror measures 14.5 x 14.5 x 8 cm, small enough to stash in your backpack or strap to your belt. The Orange Micro Crush looks just as cool as the rest of the Orange products, including the Orange basket weave tolex, woven speaker grille, and signature “picture frame” edging in the design.

I purchased mine for a little under $60, a reasonable price for a portable amp. The price is even more justified by the face that the Micro Crush doubles as a guitar tuner, with an easy-to-use LED tuning system. Unfortunately, the tuner is pretty lacking. The system only tells you A) what note you are playing and B) if you are flat, sharp, or in-tune. Alas, the flat/sharp LEDs are not very precise, so I still prefer to use my regular digital-needle tuner.

Another highlight of the Micro Crush amp is the Overdrive function. The overdrive is decent, and definitely offers some crunchy distortion. And for portability’s sake, it’s nice to have this built in. The overdrive switch was the biggest complaint that I heard about the amp before I bought it. But I can honestly say now, that I don’t have any problem with it. The overdrive isn’t amazing, but for portability’s sake, it’s a damn nice feature to have.

The amp also includes a volume nob, tone nob, headphone out, and uses 9 volt batteries. The amp also supports a DV power cord, which unfortunately is not included with the amp. I would either suggest investing in rechargeable 9v batteries or purchasing a power cord, because you WILL be burning through a lot of the disposables.

If you are looking for a decent tuner, you would be better off spending 15 bucks on a digital one. If you are looking for a plug in-in amp, you would be better off looking at the rest of Orange Amps’ line. But if you’re looking for something portable, that you can use to rock out in the park with, then this is a must buy.

53 Comments

speak up

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site.

Subscribe to these comments.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

*Required Fields