Guitar Amp Blog

Orange Amplification is a British electric guitar and PA amplifier manufacturing company, famous for its distinctive bright orange tolex covering on amplifier heads and speaker cabinets. It was founded in 1968 by Clifford Cooper of London. Orange amps and P.A. (public address) were made by Clifford Cooper.

The Orange range has evolved from the oldest 4xEL34 non-master volume amps (described as Graphic amps) to the current range that has types from a 1xEL84 amp that puts out 5 Watts to a 200 Watts Bass amp with 4×6550 tubes.

From 1995 until 2006, Cliff Cooper made Orange amplifiers in England, with the exception of the small Crush Practice Combo amps, which are made in Korea. The completion of a new manufacturing plant in the United States signifies that only the US-distributed Oranges cabinets are made in the States, while valve amps are still manufactured in England.

Orange amplifiers are primarily high-gain valve (or vacuum tube in North America) amp heads, designed to be coupled with a matching speaker cabinet. Their most popular guitar amplifiers were the OR120, usually referred to as the “graphic” model for its use of graphics instead of text to indicate each knob’s function, and the later OD120 overdrive model which was equipped with a master volume control. Most guitar amps were based on output circuitry which used the EL34 tubes popular among British manufacturers like Marshall Amplifiers and Hiwatt, and were available in the separate amp head and speaker cabinet format.

The Orange factory closed down some time around the disco era, but production was restarted in the early 90s. The “Graphics” models were fitted with Standby switches and a few new models were developed. In November ‘98 the “Class A” combo’s were launched. However they are most likely not really Class A in the electrical meaning of the word since they are push-pull amps. This range of amps consists of brand new 2xEL84 and 4xEL84 amps that are considered to be worth their money (and they’re not exactly cheap). The AD5 (April 2000) is probably the only real “Class A” amp.

New in January 2001 were two twin channel amps: the AD30TC combo and AD140TC head. Somewhat more exclusive is the custom AD140 Lead that features point-to-point wiring. At that Orange also introduced the Orange Crush series. Orange also made a range of very successful all-tube combos, such as the AD 15/12 and the AD 30R. The AD 15/12, a Class A, single speaker, 15 watt model, is now out of production and highly sought after.

Orange Amps have been used and endorsed by many rock guitarists, including Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Matt Sharp of Weezer, The Edge of U2 and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.