Orange Crush Mini combo, Positive Grid Bias amp 2 & IK Multimedia

Another new amp from Orange unveiled at NAMM earlier this year is the small but perfectly-formed three-watt Crush Mini, an upgrade on the popular but now discontinued Micro Crush. Even though it’s only around six inches high, the Mini is still a proper Orange, with a basketweave speaker grill, powder coated steel chassis, and of course orange vinyl.

The ‘pics only’ controls are all you need, volume, gain and shape, which scoops or boosts the midrange relative to treble and bass frequencies. The circuit is similar to the Micro Dark, but done in solid state. Despite the smaller scale, Orange have still shoehorned in a 4" loudspeaker. There’s a tuner, a headphones socket, an aux in and most usefully, an 8-ohm external speaker outlet, with a DC socket and a 9-volt PP3 battery holder, so you can plug in anywhere.

Sounds

In use, the Crush Mini is capable of the full spectrum of modern Orange tone, from fat cleans, thick crunches and huge distortions at maximum gain. It’s very responsive and suits single coils and humbuckers equally well, with an impressively full sound from the built-in loudspeaker, although for a real head-turner you need to plug it into a 4x12 to hear how big the Crush Mini sounds: it’s insanely loud and full of tone for such a small box.

Verdict

Orange like to throw surprises at us, and the Crush Mini is one to look out for. If you need Orange tone you can take anywhere, this is what you’ve been waiting for. [NG]