Interview – Tim Sult of Clutch
Tim Sult: Tim Sult from Clutch here, i don’t remember the first time I saw an Orange amp but I definitely remember the first time I heard an Orange amp. That was when I saw Sleep play live, when we were recording our first album, that would have been in 1993.
When we were on tour, probably the year after that in 1994, I found an old Orange amp, in a music store in Colorado for $600, so I bought that. It was an old OR120, I was just using it for everything, I just used to turn it up as loud as it would go, that was all I did with it for a while, until I blew it up! Which happened many times!
We have different gear over here in Europe than we do in the U.S. but over here I have got a 40th anniversary OR50 up on stage, I love that thing. At home I found two, old Orange combos, two 70’s combos. I believe they are both OR120 overdrive combos and I have been playing those in the U.S. and those are phenomenal, it would be great if you could clone those old Oranges.
For me I like a clean tone, with just a little bit extra, I don’t really have much luck going with a really overdrivey tone. I usually think it sounds a bit better, more Clutch like if it is a little more clean. So thats what I like about the OR’s they have a big, clean sound, that you can add overdrive into.
For some reason the Orange cabs always seem like they have a little more life than any other cabs that I own, so that is definitely my favourite part about the Orange cabinets. They seem to have more top end and more bottom end, than any of the other cabinets I have.
I usually don’t use a huge amount of effects, I use a phaser, I have a Electro Harmonix Micro Pog, octave thing I always like to use, and I use a wah. I always run my effects through the front of the amp, I have never used any kind of effects loop. If you have a good sounding amp, thats 95% of the battle right there, I think my thing with Orange is to let the amp itself make the tone and not make the pedals themselves make the tone.
With the next album, we have been writing for a good long time, I am definitely going to be trying to work in as much Orange stuff as humanly possible!