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Tag Archive for: Dual Dark

The Voice of Doom, The Voice of Orange? No, as we’ve stated in previous posts, such as February’s “Voice of Clean” is that Orange is much more than stoner and doom amps. However, that stoner and doom bands and artists across the globe have all seem to fall for our heavier than heavy amps might not just be a coincidence; with our dirty and creamy tone we work great for heavier sounds, some might even say excellent, and we often became an obvious choice for these artists. See a selection of our finest Doom 

Matt Pike, Sleep & High on Fire

Dual Dark 50
Rockerverb100 MKIII
Crush Mini
PPC412 4×12 Cab

You’re probably not surprised we started this list with Matt Pike, are you? Our favourite shirtless hero and alien expert, singer of songs and player of electric guitars. Whenever Matt Pike comes to town we clear out our backline suppliers within a 50 mile radius before his crew gets given the most exhausting job any road crew has had since the days of Terry Bozzio touring with Frank Zappa. Matt Pike has pioneered doom metal with his band Sleep and become sort of a legend while still alive – he’s also fronting his own band High on Fire which is just as heavy, but faster, like Motörhead. His average Sleep set up normally contains of nine heads, mostly Rockerverbs and Dual Darks, and twelve cabs. Haters will say they ain’t all plugged in, but haters are wrong. For those of you who’s ever been lucky enough to attend a Sleep show and have had the same religious out of body experience as oh so many others while watching Matt Pike tear shit up, you know they’re plugged in and turned up to 11. He also has a dog, and we LOVE dogs over here at Orange.

Monolord, Thomas & Mika

Thomas:

Crush Mini
Rockerverb 100 MKIII Head
PPC412 Speaker Cab

Mika:


OB1-500
OBC810 8×10 Bass Speaker

We have been avid Monolord supporters here at Orange for years now, and have enjoyed seeing the band grow and develop from playing Camden’s Underworld, to be one of the bands closing Desertfest London on the Sunday at the iconic Roundhouse. The Swedish doom vikings have proven themselves to be masters of their kind, and one of many exceptional bands coming out of Gothenburg in the past years. When asking singer and guitarist Thomas V Jäger what the reason behind this Gothenburg explosion could be, he simply replied: “Have you been there, to Sweden? It’s dark as hell and it always rains, no one ever wants to leave their house so instead they stay in and practice their instrument.”, which only leads us to believe that this is the real deal, pure Nordic doom fuelled by darkness.

Boris, Wata

Rockerverb 100 MKIII Head
PPC412 Speaker Cab
At the start of their career 27 years ago, Boris began as a hard core punk act, before venturing into the unknown touching base with drone, doom, and experimental metal. Guitarist Wata is a proud Orange ambassador, and claims that she wouldn’t be where she is today wasn’t it for our brightly coloured amps; “The first amplifier that I purchased was Orange OR-120. Its loud orange color and cute design lured me to try out the model. Contrary to its look, I was astonished by super loud yet warm sound, and the mid-to-low frequencies that shook my body! I still use it to this day. I am extremely grateful for your support when we tour many countries. Orange amps have become my trademark. Orange amps are so compatible with my favourite Les Paul and fuzz pedal that my musical career would not exist without Orange amps.”

Weedeater, Dixie Dave

Weedeater’s Dixie Dave, who on the band’s Facebook page claims “We do what we can’t!” is another doom connoisseur holding the sweet Orange amps close to heart as he “Loves the tone and ass-kicking rumble.” Last I saw of Dixie Dave was in the AMs at the closing party at last year’s Desertfest London where I’d earlier seen them deliver an impeccable performance at the Electric Ballroom, which was the first and last time I saw them with the incredible drummer Carlos Denogean who tragically passed away later in the year. Despite these tragic events, Weedeater is still going strong, with previous drummer Travis “T-Boogie” back behind the drums.

Conan, Jon Davis

Thunderverb 200 Head
OR100 Head

Liverpool based band Conan’s Joe Davis first fell for the Orange tone using some vintage Orange heads;  “I’ve been using some excellent vintage amps for several years, including some old Orange heads.  I wanted to buy some modern amps that give me the tone and warmth of the vintage heads I have become accustomed to.  I’ve used several modern Orange heads at festivals and these have included the Thunderverb 200, the OR50 and  OR100.  I was initially curious about the sound and then became pretty much hooked on them.  They have all the warmth of the older amps I like, but none of the reliability issues.”

Hey this is Graham Whitford with Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown.

I just kind of naturally started picking up the guitar, I don’t know what exactly it was but I just started looking at them and I kind of went that thing looks kind of cool, maybe I should play that. I started picking it up and just naturally started practicing all the time. Any time there is a guitar in the room or a drum set for that matter, I still have the horrible “Oh god, I need to play that right now!” It’s like I’m an addict or something!

Well Orange I actually started playing pretty recently, within the last year. I plugged into the Dual Dark 50 and I was blown away by how good it sounded. It had this really beautiful mid range, punchy, fat sound to it.

I just love the sound of tube saturation and a little bit of gain but not too much gain, just enough. I’ve always been fascinated by that bell tone that you get, Orange does that great. They are workhorses, they are really sturdy, we haven’t had any problems with them breaking down, that happens on the road when you are moving around so much.

I would say tone, first and foremost but also reliability, cuz they are really reliable, they are built like tanks. They sound really good, i’ve always heard about Orange over the years but never got a chance to really check one out and especially check one out in a live setting. They just sound really good and they look cool!

The Dual Dark, as Lead Designer Ade Emsley describes it, is an Orange amp “for guitarists who don’t usually play Orange amps.” The Dual Dark is a completely different beast, both in terms of gain and voicing, from every other amp Orange has ever produced. It’s tighter on the bottom-end and has an almost percussive nature to its attack. And while all Orange amps tend to have massive amounts of distortion, it’s the searing brutality of the dirty channel (Channel B) on the Dual Dark really sets it apart from amps like the Rockerverb MKIII.

There are a lot of similarities between the Dual Dark and our now discontinued Thunderverb series. The Thunderverb 50 and 100 were the first Orange amps to feature attenuators and shape knobs. The attenuator is great for the studio and bedroom practice, since it allows the volume to be decreased without affecting the tone. The shape knob is actually a mid-scoop that takes the player from classic rock all the way through to mind-melting metal. These features, when introduced originally, were received well by Orange enthusiasts so it only made sense to keep them on future models (the Rockerverb MKIII also has an attenuator).

The similarities end when it comes to the voicing of the amps. If the Thunderverb was a true modern Orange amp, and the Rockerverb MKIII a melding of classic and modern tones, then the Dual Dark is the amp that bridges them all together. Channel A on the Dual Dark is extremely versatility, boasting a wide range of tones from Brit-rock to R&B. On this channel it can even be made to sound similar to our flagship AD30 head. But switch over to Channel B, the assumed “dirty channel” for most players, and let the shape knob rocket you into Thunderverb 200 high-gain metal territory (this, for example, is the channel Matt Pike from Sleep prefers).

It’s the Dual Dark’s voicing is what allows for such versatility. By backing off on the “fuzziness” that is inherent in most Orange amps (a desirable trait to most of our fans), Lead Designer Ade Emsley has made the Dual Dark capable of mimicking a wider variety of amp voicings. If other amp companies make “fizzy” sounding amps, and Orange is normally known for “fuzz,” then the Dual Dark occupies that in-between “fizz-fuzz” that makes it so unique.

There’s something for everybody in the Dual Dark series. Here are some examples of Orange Ambassadors from a wide variety of genres that have made the Dual Dark their go-to amps.

Matt Pike – Sleep, High on Fire

The Dual Dark 100 is always the first amp Matt requests on his backline riders. He prefers it above all other current production Orange amps. For him, it’s the gain and the gain alone that he desires. If we could supply him with 50 Dual Dark 100’s per show he’d take it.

Al Cisneros – Sleep

After Matt Pike started using the Dual Dark 100 regularly, Al got in touch and said he was interested in giving it a shot. Al uses a huge stack of bass amps, yes, but he also runs his signal through a guitar half stack to achieve a more grindy, trebly top-end to his tone. The Dual Dark 50 has become his go-to guitar amp since 2017.

Graham WhitfordTyler Bryant and the Shakedown

“It’s one of those amps you can plug straight into without a single pedal and get everything you need. I love it.”

Dave Catching – Eagles of Death Metal

We’ve had EODM’s lead guitarist, the absolutely most awesome dude on earth, Dave Catching, playing the Dual Darks on stage for several years. Coming from a Marshall/Fender background, he like a lot of our Dual Dark Ambassadors was turned on by the fact it doesn’t sound “classically Orange.” Dave also found that the Dual Dark can works wonders in his studio, Rancho De La Luna, with bands ranging from CKY to Kurt Vile.

Pop Evil

Both guitarists Davey Grahs and Nick Fuelling of Pop Evil are playing identical set-ups consisting of Dual Dark and Rockerverb 100 MKIII 100 watt heads. For their stage volume needs it’s the perfect combo. It’s a loud, LOUD rig and between both the Dual Dark and Rockerverb MKIII they’re able to recreate the full spectrum of Orange tones.

“If sounds were a person, the sound Orange produces would be the Dos Equis guy.” – Davey Grahs

Photo by Bennett Raglin

You were very young when you started this band, how did it all come about, and how did you get into this kind of music in the first place?
We got into metal from hearing the background music in anime cartoons like Naruto, and in WWE. Jared was already playing drums at this point, and I had just started having guitar lessons, then Jarad just had the idea of starting a band.

Unlocking the Truth’s first claim to fame was playing in Times Square which gained you a lot of social media attention – who’s idea was it to take the band to the streets?
It was my parents’ idea to take us to Times Square, they knew we had talent and wanted to get us the best exposure, and what’s a better place than being in the center of Times Square with tourists from all around the world? People with cameras and phones taking pictures and recording? It just made sense.

You’ve got some incredible accomplishments for such a young age, is there anything in specific that pops to mind as a highlight, or a ‘pinch me’ moment?
Everything should have been “pinch-me” moment like performing at Coachella, Bonnaroo, opening for Manson, Motörhead, Living Colour and Metallica. I guess we were so young and didn’t know how big of a deal these things were. Now when I look back, I realize most people will never get to say things like they opened for these bands – and we have accomplished all that before high school. It’s really amazing to think about and it keeps me going.

You’ve also had a documentary ‘Breaking a Monster’ made about yourselves, how was the experience of having someone so up and close in your lives, and sharing it all with the world?
I had fun shooting the documentary. The cameras weren’t as personal as you might think. They were pretty much like flies on the wall and sometimes I forgot  they were even there.

Now to the reason we’re both here – Orange Amps! You’re an Orange ambassador, and we’re very excited to have you! What’s your history with the brand?
I’m very excited and proud to be an Orange Ambassador, it’s such a great brand! The first time I heard about Orange was in a tutorial video by Slipknot’s Jim Root, I loved the rawness of Orange, whether it’s the smooth clean or rich and but distorted tones. I also remember skyping Alex Auxier (Orange A&R) back in 2014, where he asked us a bunch of questions about which bands we liked and what sound we were going for to give him a better idea of what we really needed. The next thing I knew, these giant boxes arrived, including the Jim Root amp and speaker cab, and I just screamed! Later I graduated to the Dual Dark 100 and 4 x 12 cabs. My guitar sounded so real, everywhere I perform, I must have an Orange Amp.  It just sounds right – it sounds perfect!

You released your debut album ‘Chaos’ last year, and you recently independently released your single ‘My Chains’, can you tell us a bit about the song?
Yes, we independently released My Chains on August 29th.  This song came about while recording demos at home in my basement, it started out with the main riff and then I built the electronics, verses and chorus around that. After a few days of testing different song structures, we had a solid song idea which was enhanced once again by our producer, Kenta Yonesaka (Germano Studios NY). I love this song because it’s something new and a little different from the stuff we usually do, we’re finding our own sound and I think people can tell, so expect more change and growth from Unlocking The Truth, this is only the beginning.

With the release of this single we have to ask – can we expect a follow up to ‘Chaos’ in the next foreseeable future?
I don’t want to give away too much information as of yet because we are still planning, but we sure will have more music coming in the very near future, so stay tuned.

Tag Archive for: Dual Dark

Tag Archive for: Dual Dark

100 Watts of controlled, high-gain mayhem