Anyone get their Rhodes Orthos yet?

[maddnotez]

I know a couple guys ordered one of these.

From the small group of clips I could find, I am guessing this is one of the most brutal amps out there and it looks killer.

Was curious on the verdict from the guys who got one.

Any clips??

Post your thoughts.

 

[HRC51]

I've had my Orthos for 2 weeks now. Still in the discovery phase I suppose. I've been playing Diezel amps for the last 6 years, so there is a learning period.

Quality is top notch, packed in double boxes, and Kyle Rhodes is a nice guy that really is passionate about his amps.

Brutality -- that's what I was wanting -- brutality without losing clarity. There is definitely plenty of gain on tap, but I have the gain on 12-1. More than that you get saturation and lose some articulation. I was looking for something along the lines of Bullet for my Valentine Temper Temper tone (6505, Recto, VH4) or Andy James Ruin of Man tone (high gain with tube screamer). I'm not sure I'm quite there; however, with the Bright switch ON, you get that TS boost without the extra noise. I think this is a great feature for that extra chug!

Mode 1 and 2 have a subtle difference, but I have been liking 2 better (different mids I think). Tone controls have a good range of variation and the Top and Bottom dials are great for fine tuning, especially for low volume playing. Think Presence and Deep on Diezel's. For a tube amp, this retains it's tone even at low volumes.

I also have a Diezel Hagen that I was planning to replace with the Orthos. I'm not ready to give up the Hagen, but I do see a lot of tone overlap between the two. This is interesting, because the Hagen has Ruby EL34's while the Orthos has JJ 6L6's.

I prefer the parallel loop on the Diezel, but the Orthos has a serial loop only. I know this is what most people prefer, but I'm not getting the mix I want. I may try some pedals in front.

I'm not sure what tone you what, but I think Rhodes (KSR) builds some great modern gain amps. The price of the Orthos is nice too. I don't think you will be disappointed if you get one.

Edit with update:

When I wrote this originally, I did not have enough time with the amp to nail down my settings.
Loop is great and quiet.
Clean channel is good with nice break up
It does modern metal the way I was hoping and no boost pedal required.
Handles drop tuning and sounds amazing in recordings.
Fantastic amp

 

[maddnotez]

I've had my Orthos for 2 weeks now. Still in the discovery phase I suppose. I've been playing Diezel amps for the last 6 years, so there is a learning period.

Quality is top notch, packed in double boxes, and Kyle Rhodes is a nice guy that really is passionate about his amps.

Brutality -- that's what I was wanting -- brutality without losing clarity. There is definitely plenty of gain on tap, but I have the gain on 12-1. More than that you get saturation and lose some articulation. I was looking for something along the lines of Bullet for my Valentine Temper Temper tone (6505, Recto, VH4) or Andy James Ruin of Man tone (high gain with tube screamer). I'm not sure I'm quite there; however, with the Bright switch ON, you get that TS boost without the extra noise. I think this is a great feature for that extra chug!

Mode 1 and 2 have a subtle difference, but I have been liking 2 better (different mids I think). Tone controls have a good range of variation and the Top and Bottom dials are great for fine tuning, especially for low volume playing. Think Presence and Deep on Diezel's. For a tube amp, this retains it's tone even at low volumes.

I also have a Diezel Hagen that I was planning to replace with the Orthos. I'm not ready to give up the Hagen, but I do see a lot of tone overlap between the two. This is interesting, because the Hagen has Ruby EL34's while the Orthos has JJ 6L6's.

I prefer the parallel loop on the Diezel, but the Orthos has a serial loop only. I know this is what most people prefer, but I'm not getting the mix I want. I may try some pedals in front.

I'm not sure what tone you what, but I think Rhodes (KSR) builds some great modern gain amps. The price of the Orthos is nice too. I don't think you will be disappointed if you get one.

Thanks for the review and info. I was unaware about the 6l6 and that's kinda scary. That plus you said your not quite there is alarming. I have no problems with using a boost if I need to but I like to be able to tame it down vs. pushing it to the max to get where I want.

I as well like brutality, modern high gain esque.

Crushing, something that makes you say holy shit but also keeps articulation, very organic and responsive.

Ideally I think an Organic sounding Herbert would be my dream amp. It had one of the most brutal tones I've ever heard, will crush your rib cage. I didn't spend much time with it but it didn't seem organic at all. Reminded me of playing through some old EMGs or something.

I was very happy with the VHT pitbull 100 after some tube swapping and the Rev.2 uberschall with KT88 nailed it. My only quam was the cleans could've been better and seemed like a 1 trick pony but it did that trick very well.

Idk a lot about the advanced tech stuff but would someone be able to mod this to take kt88 or el34? The Rev.2 benefitted from that IMO and that could be a game changer with any amp.

Sorry for the long post. This ones on my wish list and just looking for more info.

 

[7 Stringer]

I've had my Orthos for 2 weeks now. Still in the discovery phase I suppose. I've been playing Diezel amps for the last 6 years, so there is a learning period.

Quality is top notch, packed in double boxes, and Kyle Rhodes is a nice guy that really is passionate about his amps.

Brutality -- that's what I was wanting -- brutality without losing clarity. There is definitely plenty of gain on tap, but I have the gain on 12-1. More than that you get saturation and lose some articulation. I was looking for something along the lines of Bullet for my Valentine Temper Temper tone (6505, Recto, VH4) or Andy James Ruin of Man tone (high gain with tube screamer). I'm not sure I'm quite there; however, with the Bright switch ON, you get that TS boost without the extra noise. I think this is a great feature for that extra chug!

Mode 1 and 2 have a subtle difference, but I have been liking 2 better (different mids I think). Tone controls have a good range of variation and the Top and Bottom dials are great for fine tuning, especially for low volume playing. Think Presence and Deep on Diezel's. For a tube amp, this retains it's tone even at low volumes.

I also have a Diezel Hagen that I was planning to replace with the Orthos. I'm not ready to give up the Hagen, but I do see a lot of tone overlap between the two. This is interesting, because the Hagen has Ruby EL34's while the Orthos has JJ 6L6's.

I prefer the parallel loop on the Diezel, but the Orthos has a serial loop only. I know this is what most people prefer, but I'm not getting the mix I want. I may try some pedals in front.

I'm not sure what tone you what, but I think Rhodes (KSR) builds some great modern gain amps. The price of the Orthos is nice too. I don't think you will be disappointed if you get one.

Thanks for the review and info. I was unaware about the 6l6 and that's kinda scary. That plus you said your not quite there is alarming. I have no problems with using a boost if I need to but I like to be able to tame it down vs. pushing it to the max to get where I want.

I as well like brutality, modern high gain esque.

Crushing, something that makes you say holy shit but also keeps articulation, very organic and responsive.

Ideally I think an Organic sounding Herbert would be my dream amp. It had one of the most brutal tones I've ever heard, will crush your rib cage. I didn't spend much time with it but it didn't seem organic at all. Reminded me of playing through some old EMGs or something.

I was very happy with the VHT pitbull 100 after some tube swapping and the Rev.2 uberschall with KT88 nailed it. My only quam was the cleans could've been better and seemed like a 1 trick pony but it did that trick very well.

Idk a lot about the advanced tech stuff but would someone be able to mod this to take kt88 or el34? The Rev.2 benefitted from that IMO and that could be a game changer with any amp.

Sorry for the long post. This ones on my wish list and just looking for more info.

Don't forget that the Orthos can run a lot of different power tubes so you can really craft your brutality that way. I know that with 6550`s, my Peters gets mean as hell.

I have a Gemini coming soon, was supposed to have it tomorrow but Kyle is on vacation so it will have to wait a little longer

Chris

 

[benduncan]

Nice review

I'm really looking for something that can match the sound that I get from blending my Pittbull/rectifier. I've really been gassing for a Colossus. I'd cheerfully accept a Gemini or an Orthos anyday though I briefly pondered selling both my Mesa and VHT to get a Colossus. Baring a catastrophe, I couldn't sell my Mesa though. If I do get something from the KSR lineup, it will only be when I have tons of extra money lying around, unfortunately

 

[rottingcorpse]

I pm'd moltenmetaltx about selling his Gemini, but he didn't get back to me. I even sold my engl savage to get the down. Guess I'll just put a down on an orthos instead. Really want a rhodes.

What was the build time?

 

[maddnotez]

I've had my Orthos for 2 weeks now. Still in the discovery phase I suppose. I've been playing Diezel amps for the last 6 years, so there is a learning period.

Quality is top notch, packed in double boxes, and Kyle Rhodes is a nice guy that really is passionate about his amps.

Brutality -- that's what I was wanting -- brutality without losing clarity. There is definitely plenty of gain on tap, but I have the gain on 12-1. More than that you get saturation and lose some articulation. I was looking for something along the lines of Bullet for my Valentine Temper Temper tone (6505, Recto, VH4) or Andy James Ruin of Man tone (high gain with tube screamer). I'm not sure I'm quite there; however, with the Bright switch ON, you get that TS boost without the extra noise. I think this is a great feature for that extra chug!

Mode 1 and 2 have a subtle difference, but I have been liking 2 better (different mids I think). Tone controls have a good range of variation and the Top and Bottom dials are great for fine tuning, especially for low volume playing. Think Presence and Deep on Diezel's. For a tube amp, this retains it's tone even at low volumes.

I also have a Diezel Hagen that I was planning to replace with the Orthos. I'm not ready to give up the Hagen, but I do see a lot of tone overlap between the two. This is interesting, because the Hagen has Ruby EL34's while the Orthos has JJ 6L6's.

I prefer the parallel loop on the Diezel, but the Orthos has a serial loop only. I know this is what most people prefer, but I'm not getting the mix I want. I may try some pedals in front.

I'm not sure what tone you what, but I think Rhodes (KSR) builds some great modern gain amps. The price of the Orthos is nice too. I don't think you will be disappointed if you get one.

Thanks for the review and info. I was unaware about the 6l6 and that's kinda scary. That plus you said your not quite there is alarming. I have no problems with using a boost if I need to but I like to be able to tame it down vs. pushing it to the max to get where I want.

I as well like brutality, modern high gain esque.

Crushing, something that makes you say holy shit but also keeps articulation, very organic and responsive.

Ideally I think an Organic sounding Herbert would be my dream amp. It had one of the most brutal tones I've ever heard, will crush your rib cage. I didn't spend much time with it but it didn't seem organic at all. Reminded me of playing through some old EMGs or something.

I was very happy with the VHT pitbull 100 after some tube swapping and the Rev.2 uberschall with KT88 nailed it. My only quam was the cleans could've been better and seemed like a 1 trick pony but it did that trick very well.

Idk a lot about the advanced tech stuff but would someone be able to mod this to take kt88 or el34? The Rev.2 benefitted from that IMO and that could be a game changer with any amp.

Sorry for the long post. This ones on my wish list and just looking for more info.

Don't forget that the Orthos can run a lot of different power tubes so you can really craft your brutality that way. I know that with 6550`s, my Peters gets mean as hell.

I have a Gemini coming soon, was supposed to have it tomorrow but Kyle is on vacation so it will have to wait a little longer

Chris

Hey thanks for this info!!! I did not know that and now I am less scared. I will try to do more research. I have been staying away from that because I do not need the gas and do not have the $ right now.

If this amp can take El34 and KT88 without any mods please do not tell me because I will be very hurt inside.

 

[Pushead]

There's a listing for a NIB Orthos on TGP that I came across earlier today.

 

[Stealthtastic]

I had the chance to meet Kyle and try his amps out at NAMM. I was really impressed and placed my order afterwards for an orthos 50.

Kyle has done a great job keeping me in the loop and giving updates out. Super excited for it!

 

[maddnotez]

I pm'd moltenmetaltx about selling his Gemini, but he didn't get back to me. I even sold my engl savage to get the down. Guess I'll just put a down on an orthos instead. Really want a rhodes.

What was the build time?

I had the chance to meet Kyle and try his amps out at NAMM. I was really impressed and placed my order afterwards for an orthos 50.

Kyle has done a great job keeping me in the loop and giving updates out. Super excited for it!

There is a good estimate. Going on 6 months now, what do you think Stealth another month or 2?

If so, add in the assumption that he has probably had quite a few orders since NAMM.

I would guess at 1 year would be a safe bet I guess you can not rush perfection ey?

 

[peterc52]

I love my Artemis. Pushed the VH4 out of the way

 

[Stealthtastic]

I pm'd moltenmetaltx about selling his Gemini, but he didn't get back to me. I even sold my engl savage to get the down. Guess I'll just put a down on an orthos instead. Really want a rhodes.

What was the build time?

I had the chance to meet Kyle and try his amps out at NAMM. I was really impressed and placed my order afterwards for an orthos 50.

Kyle has done a great job keeping me in the loop and giving updates out. Super excited for it!

There is a good estimate. Going on 6 months now, what do you think Stealth another month or 2?

If so, add in the assumption that he has probably had quite a few orders since NAMM.

I would guess at 1 year would be a safe bet I guess you can not rush perfection ey?

Not sure, I told him not to worry too much about me because I'm super busy with work anyways and I need to buy a cab yet. Your guesstimate sounds right though, maybe less, he just sent me some cool pics about a week ago.

When I tried it out though I was really blown away. It sounded great at low volumes too which is always nice. If you dig the whole slo100/recto/6505/ubershall etc then I think you will dig the Rhodes stuff.

My good friend Paul Ozz will do a pro video review of the orthos for me once it arrives, ill post it once thats all done.

 

[HRC51]

Keep in mind that the Orthos is the entry level model with less features and tone shaping options.

If you are looking for a Herbert alternative, go for the big boy Colossus or Artemis. As mentioned above, you can put the tubes you want in them. They have many modes and switches to get multiple gain stages. One of the modes borrows gain from another channel to get maximum brute force.

Colossus and Artemis offer Lead 1 and Lead 2 channels to find the gain/tone you want.