The Thunderverb 200 (2006)

A high-powered, versatile beast, the Thunderverb delivers huge tone for heavy players, great for guitar, bass, or both together.

Ade Emsley, Orange Technical Director, talks serious power and flexibility: “The idea behind the Thunderverb was to design an amp for players who wanted plenty of preamp distortion without having to push the power amp too hard. There’s a whole breed of seriously heavy guitarists — often running a 1×15 and a 4×12, maybe with a 7-string guitar — who need tight low-end, aggressive tone, and a lot of control. The Thunderverb is the amp we made for them.

“Unlike the Rockerverb, which features a two-stage Clean Channel and a four-stage Dirty Channel, the Thunderverb gives you two three-stage channels. That means you can get clean tones or overdrive from either channel. Channel B also introduced our Shape control for the first time — dial it one way for all mids and no bass or treble, or swing it the other way for the opposite.”

Lead or Bass. Or Both.

Launched in the summer of 2006, the Thunderverb 200 was designed to do more than one job. It works equally well as a bass amp, a lead amp, or both at once. The bass stays clean right down to 30Hz, and if a valve fails mid-show, the amp automatically switches to 100W mode, keeping the gig going without missing a beat.

“We also built in a 100W setting that deactivates two pairs of tubes, giving players a different tonal character when cranked,” adds Emsley. “In 2007, we used that same preamp design for the Thunderverb 50 — a smaller but equally powerful amp powered by a pair of EL34s.”