OrangeAmps Crush Mini 3W

The Orange Crush Mini is a Real Deal Orange amp, and not just some novelty (though it’s priced like a novelty). Yes, it’s portable, it’s also very durable too. Heavy construction. Surprisingly good sound, especially for a mini amp, much more powerful than most other micro amps.The two real surprising features on this are the built-in tuner, as well as the Cab Out to allow you to use this mini amp to power a speaker cabinet (like that 4x12 that could use a low watt amp to let you crank the amp to max and not blow your ears out at home).

Love the 3w oranges I had an older model that I sold when I went on hiatus. This new model is far better in my opinion because of the shape knob and speaker jack on back so you can use this as a head. headphone jack and aux Jack plus tuner and no power switch. I like that you can use this with or without battery as well. This thing gets extremely loud and has great tone and lots of gain.

I originally tried to buy a completely different amp, but there was a mixup with the order so I got this as a cheap temporary solution I just needed SOMETHING to plug the guitar into for a little while. With that said, I certainly wasn't expecting anything spectacular, I knew what I was buying after watching many reviews on YouTube. For what it's worth, I'm using the Ibanez GRX70QA with Infinity R/Infinity RS pickups.First off, the build quality seemed pretty decent for the price. Solid enclosure with metal back and top, no play in the jacks, nothing really stands out in terms of glaring flaws. It even included a 9V battery already installed!As a 3W battery powered amp with a 4" driver, it's not supposed to be loud nor does it get that loud. This is not a 10W combo with an 8" driver, it's a tiny practice amp that fits on the desktop (or in a backpack). It can be surprising for the size, but don't expect miracles where volume is concerned.It may be hard to get a clean sound with a useful volume since the power amp starts to sound distorted pretty early, but it's not impossible. It's a balancing act to adjust the gain, amp volume and guitar volume. With the gain set to zero, there is no sound at all.For my guitar it seems best to keep the gain at or below 2 o'clock, amp volume below noon (preferably 9 o'clock or less), guitar volume to suit but generally quite low to avoid early breakup when it's not desired. With these settings, cranking the guitar volume will give some good crunch, while rolling it back to almost off will go clean without getting too quiet.I knew the speaker wasn't going to sound so great, it's only a 4" driver in a tiny box. It's not supposed to sound great, but it does seem to distort rather quickly. Playing with high gain is just a complete disaster of noise, and with a clean(ish) tone it's rather quiet by comparison and oddly colored. The spectral balance is dramatically different from what is heard in headphones. Overall I find the speaker to be undesirable, but not entirely useless.I find it much easier to just use headphones instead since the volume will be much better, and the sound will be more balanced.This also makes it easier to avoid distortion from the power amp when trying to get a good clean tone at reasonable volume. Playing with high gain sounds better in headphones, but due to my hearing loss I'm unable to elaborate or even provide a more objective statement in this regard.I do feel this amp has great potential when paired with an external speaker or a DI attenuator, but I am unable to test it myself at this time. Just be mindful of the low headroom, it is only three watts. I have not tested it with an external power supply yet, but would highly recommend it since this amp will eat batteries for breakfast.The tuner is half the reason I bought this little amp specifically, the other half is price and the fact that it's an Orange amp. With a fresh battery installed, the tuner responds immediately to a plucked string and changes the lights accordingly. I cannot speak for accuracy as I've no other tuner to compare it with, but it works and is quite convenient.As the battery drains however, you may find that the tuner takes longer to do its thing and can be slow to respond when changing strings. At worst it might even stop responding altogether, and the sound of the amp will also seem to change, becoming kind of fizzy and spitty even when set up for a clean tone. This is caused by improper bias of the electronics due to the lower voltage and may be mistaken for early distortion or even the amp going bad. When/if it gets to this point just change the battery and all should be well again.In conclusion, I would strongly advise looking to YouTube for some demos of this amp since not everyone likes the Orange sound. If you can accept the bad speaker and low power for what it is, then this could be a great little practice amp with either headphones or an external speaker, but don't rely solely on batteries! Get a 9V power supply rated for 500mA. For the low price, small size and included tuner, I can't complain too much.

You will like this little Amp IF u know you'r getting A PRACTICE AMP. I already have a Roland Street Cube which actually sounds pretty decent at LOW volume but proved to be a bit too loud to use in the middle of the night when others are sleeping (or trying too). Most large amps really don't sound good turned down low b'cuz their not designed to sound good turned down low. I was looking for something small (for practice), something i could easily move around and this little guy is the smallest i could find. I wanted something that sounded good too. This little guy sounds really good with ear phones (which mute the speaker). I only used the speaker once to see if it worked and have not used it since... but c'mon, what would you expect from a 3 inch speaker :) If you want something to practice with THAT ONLY YOU can hear... you might like this little guy? But if you want something to show off and impress your friends... you might not? I've only had her a week but so far i luv her... AS A PRACTICE AMP!edit: i've had the amp for two weeks now and started using the speaker every day too. it sounds good and i like the amp evn more :)

Got this to set up home karaoke for the kids. Got it hooked up to a mixer for two mics and an iPad. Realized sound quality was not great right off the bat. Used it anyway. Next time we tried to use it, it wouldn’t work. Used my husband’s small guitar amp instead and realized then that the mics I got were pretty good, but Crush was not. Not very impressed, especially for the money. I would avoid.

This little amp is awesome, it can run on a 9v battery or a non-included wall adapter. Has a built in tuner, the grill cloth is the same as orange cabinets as is the orange tolex. When you crank the gain it sounds a little trebly/weird, but hey, it's running on a 9 volt. The craziest thing about this little speaker is that is has a 8 ohm speaker out that can POWER MY ORANGE 2x12 AND SOUNDS GREAT!!! It's a cool little portable amp that you can take to the beach, camping, wherever you want to go.