bonedish":1ip4078b said:
Man, that Orthos sounds great! What are the tonal differences between the Orthos and the Gemini?
Thanks!
The Orthos is basically the Clean and Lead channels from the Gemini, minus a few mode switches. The Clean only has Bright, and is basically equivalent to the Gemini with Fat Off and Voice Off.
The Lead channel is like the Colossus Lead 1 and Lead 2 channels with the Fat switch On. Or, the Gemini with Mode Blue, Fat Green, and Voice Green or Orange. The Voice switch on the Orthos switches between Colossus Lead 1 and Lead 2 voicings, otherwise known as Gemini Green and Orange.
Confused yet?
Essentially, the Orthos has what I feel are our essential sounds, plus added flexibility of having a couple Voice and Bright switches for some tonal options.
I feel the unique feature is the foot switchable dual Master Volume controls with assignable functions. When MV1 is selected, the top row of Bright/Voice/Loop switches is active, along with Gain 1 on the Lead channel. Then MV2 is selected, the bottom row of Bright/Voice/Loop switches is active, along with the Gain 2 control on the Lead channel.
This gives you 4 basic sounds foot switchable with two buttons on the floor -- Channel and Master. Thus, covering your clean and dirty tones in both rhythm and lead volume/gain.
My favorite feature is the assignable loop. You can set it to be active any or all of the time. For example, you may only want it active to add delay to your solo tone, so simply flip all the Loop switches down except for the Lead MV2 switch up. Or, you may want to run an effect all the time, in which case you'd just set all the Loop switches up.
Yeah when I called him about doing it we were in total agreement on making this amp affordable for all with the idea in mind of up grades that would also be available.
