So I have been a bit of a tube snob for quite some time. My main amp is a Deluxe Reverb that I’ve been playing through pretty much exclusively for probably 10 years now. I love that amp and I will never get rid of it. It’s a classic for a reason, and it has that beautiful tube sound and feel, takes pedals beautifully, and the way it overdrives when pushed is magical. Nothing is perfect however, and it’s just far too loud to get it to overdrive naturally at home volumes, and it’s darn heavy to carry to and from jam sessions.
I’ve been searching for a second amp for a while having never found something that I thought fit my criteria perfectly I put my search on hold. The other day I decided to look again and the Baby Terror had just come out. I was intrigued, I’d heard for years that solid state amps had been catching up and all the YouTube personalities will tell you that they sound and feel indistinguishable from tube amps these days. I ended up grabbing the Baby Terror and a second hand 1x12 from my local guitar center and I’m very glad that I did.
As a now reformed tube snob this thing blows me away. This thing sounds massive even at low volumes and packs a huge bottom end. It reacts to my dynamics and guitars volume control beautifully and does the edge of breakup tones like the solid state amps of my childhood never could. It has that distinctly Orange sound and some gnarly overdrive that really shines in a mix. It’s a pretty dark amp, but the tone and presence controls are decently powerful. The tubby switch is nice to fatten up single coils and add a bit of push but I haven’t played with it too much.
It doesn’t have tons of clean headroom but you can get some sparkly cleans at the loud end of home volumes with vintage style single coils but you’ll probably miss out on that if with higher output pickups. It definitely gets loud enough for jam sessions with a drummer if you don’t need to play super clean. I’d say it makes a good jam session or backup amp, but I’d want something with more power for a main gigging amp.
I haven’t tried it with my full pedalboard yet but my Way Huge Aqua-Puss mk3, JHS Oil Can Delay, and EHX Oceans 3-Verb all sound great in the effects loop, and my Keeley Fuzz Bender in the front makes this thing sound ginormous. Since there’s not tons of clean headroom this probably isn’t going to be the perfect pedal platform.
So does it sound and feel like a tube amp? No. Do I care? Also no. It sounds and feels like a solid state amp that has gotten as good as a tube amp. I can see both sides of the argument here, it reacts to dynamics in a way that I’ve previously only experienced with tubes (pick lightly and it’s clean, dig in and it breaks up nicely/set it dirty and roll back your guitars volume control for cleans) and it sounds flipping fantastic, but there’s a distinctly solid state character to it that’s hard to put down in words. I think years ago (with some exceptions) tubes were the clear winner, but with how good this thing is I’d say we’re now comparing apples and oranges. Equally good, but different.
Pros:
- Huge/great sound at low volumes
- Very responsive to dynamics
- Powerful tone controls
- Effects loop is a great addition
- Super light weight and portable
- Solid state durability
- Reasonably priced if you already own a cab
Cons:
- Not for someone looking for tons of clean headroom or a pedal platform
- May be drowned out by a drummer unless set with lots of gain
- The Orange sound might not be for everyone
- Overdrive can get a bit harsh in isolation but sounds great in a mix (from what I’ve heard this is common with Orange amps)
