Orange Crush Mini Reviews

Orange

Great product. Everything I needed.

It's a portable practice amp, what do you expect?

I wanted something portable, and that's what I got. Sound could be better, as these controls make it a bit difficult to get clean tone, but it's not bad by any means, and it's decently loud too. Overall, it's serviceable, the build is pretty good and you get some nice features for the money. It survived many a trip in my gig bag. Would be nice if the headphone jack was 6.3 mm tho.

Very disappointing mini amp, sent it back

I looked for a long time for a good mini practice amp, and due to the size, my expectations were fairly low. However, I was quite disappointed in this amp's performance and I returned it after testing it with several guitars and finding similar results with all of them.

I mostly play clean, and part of the reason I was interested in this amp was that several reviews praised the clean sound. YouTube demos also showed off the nice cleans. I'm not sure how they achieved that; in my experience it was impossible to get a good clean sound out of it. First, you ALWAYS need some amount of gain on the amp, so it'll never be completely "clean". The user manual also states that the gain and volume knobs must both be turned up past zero to make any sound.

So ideally, to get a good clean sound, you'd have the gain low and the volume higher. Well, that results in a lot of static hiss. If you raise the gain and lower the volume, it starts to distort. It's just not possible to get a good clean sound out of it.

Even so, the distorted/overdriven sound was not great either. It sounded clipped and crushed (not in a good way).

On the plus side, the build quality is good and the amp is quite cute. But the sound just didn't do it for me.

Quite as expected

Good if you expect a cute little box to practice. +++ you can use it as cabinet head, but I haven't tried that yet

wanna walk the streets with an amp?

this is a lovely little amp nice features like...... if you want you can plug into a cabinet now that's fun!!!

plus built in tuner!

i have a small belt amp from other brand but this has way better featured and the tuner! just great way to walk up and down garden or round the house if you add a strap to it 10/10

Kind of weird tone adjustment, but that's standard on Orange amps

This little thing is great for throwing around. It can also get some surprising high-gain sounds. The sound-shaping middle knob takes some getting used to if you're used to 3-band or full parametric control, but definitely provides usable results.

Surprisingly good

Don't expect a miracle from such a small amp, but it does sound more like an amp than a small speaker. The single tone pot is not my favourite solution, but it does make sense on such a small thing. The built-in tuner is so good to have, especially if you're using this on the road – one less extra thing you could forget to bring with you.

Last but not least, the fact that it can both take a 9V battery (on which it runs for a decent amount of time) or a power supply is super convenient.

So yeah, very happy with it!

Great

and lovely amp. not as good as for example Blackstar Fly 3, but beutiful and simplier.

WOW

I wasn't expecting this amp to be SO GOOD ! I Plugged it for a short test, then spent hours playing !

Small, portable, battery powered and actually sounding amazing for what it is!

I think that title says it all. I just received this little thing and it is actually smaller than it looks on the photos. This is good as it is very easy to carry around and power (single 9V battery). Of course that it lacks low end. And I wish it had more controls for the tone. But at this price I am surprised that it can do what it does! The drive allows for clean to pretty squashed and saturated sounds and the tone control gives different enough variations.

Perfect for the money

Lovely little amp, gives you everything you need, portable and avoids the big mess off wires we all already have. Simple but super effective and can’t really go wrong with it.

Mini and Practical

The Orange crush mini is a great little amp for practice in a small room, with or without headphones.

It is robust, solid and great value for the price!

It has built in tuner that is accurate and excellent. It has an input for Aux mp3 or backing track and also an external line out that you can connect to an external cab/larger Wattage speaker... and it then acts as a mini head!

The 3W amp does not give you a super sound at high volume, obviously, but its feature make up for the lack of power.

This is the Best Value for Money ANYWHERE!

Ok, we all know Orange. It seems like we know it for ever thanks to Led Zeppelin and their peers bringing us for a swim in that deep, sparkling, reverberating pool of delicious orange.

This is not an investment. This is just fun fun fun. 9v and 3W of fun.

Go for it, have a giggle.

First I will say I bought this a bit in the dark; Very few reviews available; Good ones but failing to describe the full characteristics of this amp. Nobody talks about the clean sounds!!! I have a few 4x12s cabs., 2x12s. 1x12s (etc.) and valve amps, so I played it trough my cabs, and compared it to good valve heads. This little orange has fantastic and loud clean sounds: From spanking clean to all shades of warm cleans, from distinctive to warm. From Jazz neck pickup warm and tasty 60s Jazz to modern Jazz like clear. To spanking neck strat clean, to tele country (If u add a comp, pedal u r there!), and all sorts of cleans u can imagine. AND IS DAMN LOUD, Cant really delivers spanking clean to play with acoustic drummer, but below that It has clean volume to annoy neighbors.

So I got loud and crystal clear cleans, or overdrivy warm cleans, always classic, either trough 4x12s or 2x12s with single coils. They r not Fender or voxy, but not lesser, just great classic analog Orange clean sounds. How good u ask? Very good. If u really want that valve compression 100%, and u r a purist, this maybe not be for u, but It can easily pass as valve driven sounds. I have valve amps to record with, and I will record with this Crush Mini. May motto is not how valve it sounds, but how good, and this small amp can sound as good or better then many valve amps. I guess the fewer wattage is great here because u can overdrive it at more moderate volume, and to play and record at home this is important. Good tone and not volume! I wish more makers would introduce small trans and valve valve heads with lower wattage. This orangy is a SERIOUS tone machine, addictive and flexible. So dont think becouse of the wattage It cant deliver cleans! In overdrive It has the classic Orange overdrive, and again can be loud or bedroom level. Turning down the volume, you can play late at night trough a 4x12 with good sound. Im not reviewing this amp for guitar practice or as a combo, is ok for that I guess, but just search elsewhere, Im reviewing it as a head to use with cabs! From the manual, u can use it for 8ohm or above: Whit my Orange PPC4x12 with V30s I could not believe how fatty, tasty, It sounded... Back off the tone know on the amp If u play with singles, or open it If u play with humbuckers and u will have great fat overdrive tones. I had to give the guitar to a friend and I stood in disbelief for 30 minutes, just listening this amp... Everybody loves it for the sounds, either cleans or overdriven. U can play all sort of classic overdrive sounds, and they r all great. For solos I would use some boosters or overdrives, or u can use the volume for this depending on the style u go for. With pedals u can have more modern metal sounds, or u can turn back the gain and use pedals for different overdrives or distortions, and this is specially true If u want to use reverb or delay, as they will have to be placed after your overdrive/distortions pedals, with the gain back out because It dont have effects loop. I wish Orange would launch this as a head with effects loop, no tuner or phones, and no speaker and tuner! But for what it is, is great, and If u want to play/record at home and moderate volumes, and u own some good cab(s), or need to record at decent volumes, well, this can be a very serious amp. Dont come with power supply, and u will have to spend a bit of coin on a decent one as the battery will not last for consistent use. I use a Boss because with one Ispot it made noise, for sure the Boss is the best power supply. It is a bargain for the tones u can take out of this thing. I have to say that the Micro Terror is much louder but only better If u need loud practicing or live playing volumes. For tone diversity, and quality, with cabs, is unreal value.

beautifull look, guitar amp

beautifull look, surprised about the strenght of the volume, and sound quality. closing door for batery could be stronger

Impressive performance

It's quite amazing how much power this little amp brings and the overdrive sounds delicious.

Since the pre-amp distorts almost immediately, howerver, it's almost impossible to get a clean sound with decent volume out of this.

But if you're looking for a tiny amp to carry around that will deliver some serious crunch, look no further!

Crushing it

This is an amazing practice amp. There built-in speaker isn't great, but adding the speaker out is a stroke of genius. Hook up a cabinet and this amp becomes a monster. Also the built-in tuner works great.

Good enough if sound quality is not a priority

I use this tiny amplifier at home for practicing with an acoustic or electric guitar, with another instrument (other person playing bass guitar) and for writing music. I would not think it could be used in the practice room because of the low wattage.

Volume is enough and the controls are just enough, although it overdrives a bit if you want a bit more volume, as gain control has to be adjusted higher in order to get more volume.

I thing it is a great advantage this amp can be used with 9V battery or pluged into the wall.

One disavantage is the sound is quite like a "radio" kind of sound because the small size; but it can be an advantage if you like that effect. The only comparison I can provide in the same category is with the Marshall MS-2 mini amp, and Orange one sound better.

I once enjoyed the combination of this little amp with an acoustic guitar, as you can mix the acoustic sound of the guitar with the amp signal and even use effects, like tremolo and reverb.

Overall this amp is very well constructed and usefull if you need your guitar to sound to practice or have fun.

The best orange mini amp so far

The speaker is useless (good plus is speaker out for external cab) everything else is ok