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Thunder by name, Thunder by nature.

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First unveiled at Winter NAMM 2010 back in January, the circuit inside Orange's new Thunder 30 head and combo is something of mash-up, combining elements from the Thunderverb, Dual Terror, Rockerverb and the now-discontinued Rocker 30.

Although there's plenty to be said for the mighty roar of the company's 50 and 100-watt amplifiers, for this writer at least, ever since the AD30 arrived in the late nineties, there's been something a little bit special about EL84-loaded Oranges with 30-watt power stages.

Will this TH30 combo be another citrus-flavoured hit? Time to find out.

It's fair to say that the last few years have seen Orange prove that it can do small valve amps rather well. If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then the Tiny Terror's success can be measured not just in units shifted, but also by the huge number of copycat designs that followed.

Evidently, the TH30 is a much less radical proposition, but for all the revolutionary force attributed to the electric guitar when it's played in anger, we guitarists are a seriously conservative bunch.

Although there are few cooler onstage sights than an Orange head sat on top of a couple of the company's fantastically overbuilt 4 x 12 cabinets, years of hauling heavy amps up narrow pub staircases is enough to steer even the most nihilistic rock 'n' roller towards pragmatism.

Your spine, your shoulders and the soundman will all thank you for turning up to soundcheck with a 1 x 12 combo; leave the stacks to the handful of fortunate souls with their own road crew.

We've said it before, but a 30-watt, 1 x 12 valve combo is in many ways the perfect gigging amp. Bigger 2 x 12s are often too heavy to carry around with one hand and far less inclined to sit safely on the passenger seat of your car.

While some players can get away with less wattage, in most cases a sensibly designed 30-watt valve power stage hooked up to an efficient speaker will provide more than enough clean headroom to compete with even the hardest hitting Butterbean look-alike tub thumper.