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Reverb, attenuator and channels are all footswitchable

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We'll admit to raising an eyebrow at the Thunderverb's 200-watt specification and wondering exactly who really needs 200 valve watts these days? That said, with a half-power mode, built-in attenuation and bass-amp functionality, there's clearly much more to the Thunderverb than a big power stage.

Although the preamp valve complement is identical to Orange's Rockerverb 50 and 100 heads, the Thunderverb has three gain stages on each channel, rather than a four-gain-stage lead channel and more traditional clean/dirty channel configuration. This means that each of the Thunderverb's channels has the same amount of preamp gain on tap, so unlike the majority of twin-channel, high-gain amplifiers, channels A & B here aren't simply dedicated clean and dirty channels.

The main distinction between channels is found in the way that each channel's individual EQ allows you to sculpt its sound. Channel A's complement of treble, middle and bass controls are characteristically powerful - completely killing the sound when all three are set hard left - while channel B features a 'shape' control that acts like a mid contour, scooping the EQ as you twist it clockwise and boosting the extremities of treble and bass. Towards hard left gives you mid-spiked 'vintage' and hard right offers 'modern' hi-gain.

Equipped with 6550 power valves, the Thunderverb can also run KT88s or a pair of each, which opens up some interesting possibilities for tone shaping. Attenuation defeat, channel switching and reverb on/off are all footswitchable, and each can be controlled via a standard latching footswitch.

The Thunderverb's innards are housed in a chunky, confidence-inspiring birch ply casing that's identical in dimensions to the Rockerverb heads, and approximately 40mm deeper than the 30-watt AD series units. We hooked up the Thunderverb head to Orange's new stereo PPC 412HP8 cabinet (UK RRP £699) that features a quartet of Celestion G12100K drivers.

Unconventionally, when run in stereo, the speakers split into two 16-ohm, 200-watt diagonal pairs. Orange designer Adrian Emsley explains: "We preferred the sonic spread of this diagonal speaker configuration when used with two heads and a Space Echo."

In use

Beginning with channel A, we managed to quickly dial in a delicious, slightly foggy clean tone with the volume wound up and the gain backed off to around 10 o'clock that absolutely loves a Strat neck pickup and Little Wing-style embellishments. Add a touch of reverb and it gets even sweeter, with everything from a touch of ambience to a pretty authentic Albatross-style depth around half way, right up to the illusion of a church-like cavernous space on full that works really well with volume swells.

Cranking up the gain and backing off the 'verb, with a PAF-style bridge humbucker the sound is quickly in classic rock territory, moving from Oasis-style singing chords that retain note definition even with complex voicings, through an Angus Young metallic grind into more aggressive alt-rock levels of dirt. The sound is truly majestic throughout and is the definition of mush-free overdrive.