Crush CR60C 1x12" 60-watt Combo Amp Review

Tubes? We don't need no stinkin Tubes!

This is my second Orange Amp. My first was a Dual Dark head. Made in England. It was tough to choose a foreign Orange after that. After buying this amp, I do not have the Dual Dark anymore. If you know what THAT amp is, it says so much about how great THIS amp is. It is incredibly more versatile. Maybe I didn't have the right appreciation for inherent gain but the EQ, clean… read more or dirty, on the CR60 is far superior. Ease of use and the 'tone' (for lack of a better word, I hate that term) is much greater. You don't need tubes. This amplifier was built right. Immediately after opening, I tried all of my pedals. Worried that some pedals were only for, or best with, tube amps, I was relieved. My main fuzz, a Fuzz Lord based Russian Muff was killer. It sounded better on the Crush than the Dual Dark! Boost? Do it. It's not just for pushing valves. Add some wah, reverb, echo, distortion, whatever you want. Does it all. And well! I think it made me a better player. Definitely sparked more creativity. Some homemade effects are a little noisy but it is not the amps fault. The onboard reverbs are great. The hall reverb has been my go to. More prominent and better sounding than the plate and spring. It is a nice addition when other reverb types, echos, and delays are in the pedal chain. This amp kills the tube vs solid state argument which is a joke to begin with. Seriously, it's dumb. Play well, sound well. David Mikaudatze is a cool dude. Always been there. Quick to respond. Magical in making out of stock items appear. If I need or want anything NEW, it's coming from Sweetwater.

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Exceeds ALL Expectations

I've had my CR60 for 5 days now. It has exceeded all of my expectations. I have an Orange Crush 20 and enjoyed it so much, I was pretty certain I'd be happy with the CR60 and specifically the dirty channel for blues. And I am. The Effects Loop is great for my time delay pedals. I had no idea they could sound so good. An I've found no need for any of my dirt pedals on the dirty channel.… read more So nice to simplify my rig. It is the clean channel that utterly surprised me. With just a treble and bass control, I didn't expect much, but wow! I have no regrets that I got rid of my problematic tube amp and went with Orange. So many great features and a reasonable cost. Love this amp!

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Very Solid Solid State

This is the Orange rockerverb with op amps in place of tubes. It is an awesome and quite versatile little combo that has a TON of gain on tap, but can do everything from nice cleans to blues crunch, to full-on metal. If you pop a boost or overdrive pedal in front of it, everything gets juiced up a notch. I will say that you have to tweak and mess with the EQ to really get an… read more idea of what it can do. I'd recommend setting everything to the lowest setting and then tweaking from there. Dave Simpson's youtube channel has a lot of great guides on how to get different tones using only the amp (no pedals). He uses a CR120, but the idea is the same. This amp tends to run a bit dark, but as I said, you can tweak it quite a bit with the EQ. Another thing to keep in mind is that this has a master volume and individual channel volumes. This means that you can control the amount of headroom and use this amp at very low volumes, notwithstanding the fact that it is a giggable amp (so I'm told--I don't gig). If you turn the channel volume all the way up and the master down to 1 or 2, you get an ear-friendly overdriven sound. I was able to get a really nice tweed fender sound out of this by doing that. All in all, if you want a wallet-friendly and reliable amp (no tubes means nothing to break and replace), then give this amp a try. It is really awesome and can do so many different sounds. It takes pedals pretty well, but you really don't need to tweak too much to get good sound out of it. It doesn't have the myriad of settings and effects like a Katana, but its beauty is in its simplicity. You just set your tone and play.

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Amazing !

Love this amp ! Have the 35rt and it's a wonderful amp, but I needed something louder. Great build quality and unbelievable tone outta this amp...I'm in heaven. Nothin against tube amps, but I am very satisfied with Orange solid state amps...will never part with them, and about all I use anymore. Do yourself a favor and pick one of these up today, you won't be sorry. And TU Sweetwater… read more ! You are the best in the business !!

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Great Tones, No Frills

This is a great amp. It's able to dial in a good clean tone, or heavy distortion without being too buzzy, and the reverb is way better than most other digital reverbs I've heard. I particularly like the clean channel pushed all the way with the master volume dialed back, which produces a nice gritty tone even at comfortable in-home volume. And it looks spectacular!

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