Orange Dual Dark 50 tube guitar amplifier head

General

Orange shoehorned all of their guitar-making expertise into the Dual Dark guitar amplifier. The Dual Dark 50 has 50 watts of power and is a prime example of what this British company is capable of. Apart from an orange streak, its housing is fully clad in black. Inside, it has two EL34 tubes working hard on the overall amplification and an ECC81 for the effects loop. The Dual Dark top has the classic British guitar sound on offer, expanded with new tone options. It is excellent for guitarists who adhere to the Orange legacy, while setting out to explore new tones and new sound settings.

Dual Dark 50: controls

The Dual Dark 50 is a two-channel amplifier. Channel A allows you to adjust bass, mids and treble. Channel B has gain control and Shape Control, which allows you to adjust the curve of the frequency. Turn the knob left for a mid-heavy sound, turn it right to keep only the bass and treble. An optional foot switch allows you to switch between channels. On the back, there are connectors for both a Channel switch and an (also optional) Attenuator switch.

Attenuator and power switches

A great feature of the Dual Dark 50 is that it doesn't have to be shatteringly loud to be able to use the full valve character. Thanks to the attenuator, you can easily turn down the volume, without detracting any tube lustre. Additionally, you can switch between full or half power (25 watts). At half the power, the tubes will distort sooner. 50 watts allows for more headroom, to keep sounding clean even when the going gets tough.