Orange Stroke 4 info

It is a Class A/B SS amp with a weighty toroidal transformer, not a feather light Class D ICE Power Module. That is what gives it the weight.

Orange lists it as 20.83lb for the 300 and 22.16lb for the 500.

I haven't used the 4Stroke but found that the Orange OB1 sounded great with acoustic guitar so I'd imagine the 4Stroke would be even better.

 

I picked up a 4-Stroke 500 some months back. I have not gigged it yet, only played it at home and in the store.

So far, it sounds a bit more open, up top and at bottom, than my Thunderfunk 550B. Not as open up top as my Genz GBE 1200 and a little smoother, by default, than that amp in the upper mids. Nice, dynamic, even sound with the EQ at noon -- cleaner, less grindy, less compressed than what I've heard from Orange tube amps. It's not sterile-sounding -- there's a little something more going on, harmonically, than with a lot of solid-state amps -- but it doesn't have the detail or complexity that you'd expect from a good tube amp or tube pre. Still, I like it.

Four-band semi-parametric EQ is pretty cool. I wouldn't describe it as peaky, but my impression of it, so far (might change my mind when I have it out), is that I wish the Q (width) of the bands was just a bit wider (coming at it from a general tone-shaping rather than a "corrective" angle). Still, I was able to dial in a few different, nice sounds with it and found more than one effective frequency for each band (these can vary, of course, with your cabs, sound goals, mix, and the room).

I think the amp would do pretty well with acoustic (or electric) guitar. There's no effects loop, but I've run a separate preamp into the front end, which seems to handle a wide range of levels pretty well -- I think it would take most pedals just fine, though I'd hesitate to say it would take a hot line-level signal without issue. The overall tone is fairly open without being unpleasant or shrill and the voicing strikes me as more or less neutral throughout its range.

D.I. out is post-master volume (a la the Mesa Walkabout). I might ask Orange if that can be changed, but it might be that, as with the Walkabout, doing so compromises the DI tone in some way. DI levels with the Walkabout were never an issue for me at gig volume -- and you can use the WA or the 4-Stroke without a cab for recording -- but if you're playing very quietly at home and monitoring through a cab (master volume low), the signal from the DI will be on the low side for recording.

The amp has a built-in, one-knob compressor -- I haven't used it much. You might or might not find it useful for guitar.

Overdrive, reverb, etc. would, as you mention, require separate pieces -- with guitar, I would also recommend a separate high-pass filter (something adjustable like the fDeck HPF3 or similar).

 

It's real amp.
No switch mode
No class d
No pointless other features.

Input ,EQ and Amp

All done
Sweet

Di if needed