I love Orange. Not the fruit so much, to hard to get into, but the amps...
I've gigged with an Orange Rockerverb for many years. The low mids and growl are great for the type of music I like to play and really fill out the band sound. What I didn't love was the lugging in and out of venues with over 80kg of equipment. I'm not getting any younger, despite what I might like to tell myself. Tap dancing on my pedal board is also not something that makes me look graceful.
Enter the Neural Quad Cortex

The thing about modelers
The Kemper was released over 10 years ago now. I remember watching the You Tube videos and thinking that maybe this was a way forward. Any number of amps in one unit. I could never quite fall in love with the look of the thing though and it appeared difficult to use. When Line 6 brought out the Helix my attention certainly picked up. A simple to use floor unit with all the effects one could need and a large array of amps. But I kept hearing how it sounded harsh and that was enough to stop me making the leap.
Enter the Cortex. I think it might have been an Andertons video on their excellent You Tube channel. With a touch screen it seemed so easy to navigate and the blind tests appeared to show that the captures of amps were simply awesome.
I've always been a careful consumer and I spent many months watching the Cortex communities on line. Good and bad experiences are littered over the internet and, of course, there are different and opposing views on the best kind of modelling unit. Some said the power supply was rubbish, the side vents were vulnerable or the interface was hard to use in real time.
The hammer fell
Bax music sent me a discount voucher. Also the bass player in our band, Beergut 100 bought a Helix. So I ordered the Cortex for my Birthday in November.

Wow. Just wow!
My first gig with this was in November. We played all over Christmas and NYE. Load in was a breeze. One pedal board with the Cortex mounted on it, a PA Speaker for stage volume and guitars was all I needed. It sounded fantastic. On NYE we played a large room so I ran the output through the power section of my Rockerverb, just to push a bit more air. The tone was still all Cortex, straight into the return of the FX loop.
"That Orange amp sounds awesome" said one guy.
He is right. It does, but the Cortex does that and so much more.
If you are on the fence I'd be very happy to nudge you over. Alternatively, come see it in action at one of the many Beergut 100 gigs this year. its set to be a busy one...
Happy Riffing
Chris
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