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The Thunderverb 50 offers great Brit rock tones

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The Thunderverb is practically noise-free in operation; there's maybe a little hiss if you wind up the gain controls, but that's about it. This is, of course, how it should be on any guitar amplifier, but very few brands manage to contain noise as well as Orange does across its entire range.

As we mentioned above, the Thunderverb 50's two channels are more or less the same in terms of gain, but very different in terms of EQ. The best vintage tones come from Channel A's conventional three-band EQ layout, where the Thunderverb goes from rich full-sounding cleans through to that thick woody overdrive tone with just the tiniest hint of fuzzbox, which typifies the classic Orange sound.

If you want more then look no further than Channel B, where the shape control will take you from ultra warm to hi-fi cleans with a scooped-out mid-range and accented bass and treble. Push up the gain control and those tones translate into anything from country-rock to blues to stoner to thrash. It's the shape control and all the tones you can get from it that makes this channel special. Another benefit is that with just one tone control you can find settings and return to them much easier.

In a typical 'bass, mid and treble' tone stack, the three knobs are interactive - in other words as one control is moved, the frequency curve for all three controls varies, making it difficult sometimes to zero in on an exact tone. With a single control EQ circuit like Orange's shape control you don't get the interactivity, so that great tone you found at rehearsal is much easier to duplicate at the gig two days later.

Both channels have plenty of gain - more than enough to let the weedy single-coils of a standard Strat push them into meaningful overdrive, while any humbucker-powered guitar could cover anything from super-clean jazz to Santana sustain with ease.

The attenuator control is very cool: it acts on both channels simultaneously to lower the postmaster volume signal and reduces output as you turn it clockwise. With the attenuator set almost fully 'up' (turned clockwise), you can get realistic cranked amp tones at conversation level, while turning it down progressively increases the Thunderverb's output level, of which there is plenty.

This may be the small amp in the Thunderverb family, but 50 watts is more than enough for any gig, especially through one of Orange's specially tuned cabinets. The spring reverb has a nice warm decay and is pleasantly noise-free, but there's perhaps too much of the effect available for some tastes.

Like all Orange gear the Thunderverb 50 is a delight to use, especially if you're into vintage Brit rock sounds. But it's worth pointing out again that this amp can do much, much more, especially on channel B. That shape control is stupidly simple to use and devastatingly effective in action - there's an enormous range of sounds available from it and they're all easily repeatable.