You Can’t Mess With Orange – Here Are The Reasons Why
They say it’s always the quiet ones you should worry about. “There is no more fearsome sight than when a quiet man goes to war” goes the saying. And sure, there is something undeniably scary as watching someone who you were sure wouldn’t say “boo” to a goose actually flipping their lid. But we have a rather different proposal to put forward. Never mess with the loud ones. Particularly the ones with enormous citric stacks of unholy noise in their arsenal. Here’s the reasons why.
People who use Orange amps aren’t bothered about what you think. It’s not, for us, a cool gimmick or a fad. We choose to use Orange amplifiers for the purest reasons possible. Because they sound biblically immense.
We’ve seen fads come and go. Hell, we’ve created our own fads and watched as others followed. But when they trudge off to the next big evolution in amp technology, Orange people stick to what they know and what they trust.
Trust is a big thing with musical gear. There are those who buy, sell, swap and trade gear to the point of it becoming a hobby in itself. But Orange gear is for the lifers. The players who have that inimitable sound in their heads and won’t stop until they’ve made it their own. People trust Orange to give them a sound quite unlike anything else on the market. Those grizzled mid-range tones, and barking gains. It’s the sound of the player who knows their mind, the player who is completely un-messable-with.
You may also have noticed on our social media channels. Our personality on there reflects the values we preach as a company. We’re a straight up, honest bunch of people. We know what we’re talking about. We stick together. We know each of us has made that life choice to opt for one of the more unique musical equipment brands out there. Mainstream ‘stack them high and sell them cheap’ amps just don’t do it for us. We need something more. Something that attracts those nods of appreciation from others in the know. “Oh, you’re an Orange guy?” Never said without a healthy dose of mutual respect.
We recognise when others do well. The beauty of being a musician is the sheer amount of choice available to us. We know other amplifier brands that make some straight up, 100% incredible gear. We respect them, and we respect your prerogative to play whatever you want. But we also know that what we offer is more than just an amplifier. You want more than the tone you get when you plug in. You want to feel part of something, like you’re the only one capable of extracting your chosen tone from an amp. With an Orange, you get that.
This may be coming across as a love letter. A well-intentioned paean to what is essentially a multi-national corporation. And you may be right. Orange exists, like any other private profit-making business, to make money. Maybe we’re not exclusively chasing paper but we’ve all got bills to pay, right? Besides, there are other examples of brands – we won’t go too much into it here – who use cheaper components or blast huge amounts of their budgets on marketing, but Orange doesn’t do that for the simple reason it doesn’t need to. Sure, the business needs to post a profit – we’re not a charity, after all – but the way we choose to go about that is by thinking about our people and the gear they’d want to use. Then, we design it, make it and put it into your hands. Pretty simple really. There’s no over-arching strategy to penetrate specific geographic markets or appeal to under-targeted demographics. We just make great gear and it’s always been a sound enough proposition for us.
There’s a definite cache to Orange. We know that. We hesitate to the use the word cool because it’s entirely subjective, but there’s definitely something different about us. Maybe it’s the typeface we use on our frontplates. There’s a definite medieval vibe going on there, like the font was lifted straight from the sign above King Arthur’s preferred mead hall. Whatever, it stands out and adds to the image we’ve carefully cultivated for decades now. But an image is paper-thin unless it has the credentials, heritage and reputation to back it up. I think after 40-odd years we’re comfortable enough in our own skin to say we do that.
The point we’re trying to make is that whatever reasons you have for using our gear, whatever caused you to choose us, you’re part of a unique sub-sect of guitar and bass players who won’t settle for conformist, vanilla mediocrity. We’re happy to have you.
This article contains some brilliant psychological manipulation. Bravo!
Beware of taking high doses(1000mg+) of vitamin C prior to plugging in to Orange amps. Adverse reactions often occur including what some refer to as a massive Orange erection, I call it a boner(pronounced BOW-nuh), either located centrally from the crotch, the ears(which gives one an almost demon-like appearance), as well as being located within ones soul and radiates outwardly and is known to impregnate all within earshot. Use caution when shopping around children and those whom are pregnant. Not sure why, but it just sounds risky.
I love this company. Growing up orange was always my favorite color, now my choice color palette has grown and changed, orange is undoubtedly my favorite amp brand. Ive been playing through my RV100mkii for 3 years now. It has seen heavy doses of love and abuse and has never once given me trouble. Recently I had it retubed and found out I had been running it on 3 power tubes for months. While it was queiter it still sounded emense and devistating. Add newly broken in tubes and this baby screams a-new. My only complaint is that 100 watts is to loud for writing in my room in non band settings. You just can’t comfortably get into the sweet spot of the amp without your ears bleeding. To remidy this I chose to get an OR15 as well. Even this pint size dose of OJ is on the verge of being to loud. I’ve since chosen to embrace the hearing damage and let the beasts roar. Everyone compliments my tone and even non guitar people recognize (or are very curious about) the amp. You guys my tone dreams come true. I’d cuddle this amp to sleep if it didn’t weigh so damn much. Keep being awesome you guys and gals!
I’ve always admired Orange for their unique looking outside the box ever since I started playing guitar about 36 years ago. I added bass to my skill set about 30 years ago when I realized how many more gigs I could score with a dual skill set. Presently my guitar rig is an AD30TC combo. I was going to buy the venerable Vox AC30, but I tried the Orange sitting next to it in the music shop and it was like an an AC30, but with an always on “More” switch. My bass rig is an OB-1 500 watt head. I used to biamp my bass rig and wondered if any manufacturer had the brains to even consider putting two amps in one box. No one else but Orange.
I have only one complaint. The BaxBangeetar pedal. I saw a promo and that it featured a cab sim. I thought great. I could use this not only live, but in my project studio when I want to record that riff I just dreamed at 3:00 a.m. before I forget it or just a late night recording session. Families and neighbors don’t understand that the muse keeps not bankers hours. I play some tiny venues where running DI to the board and heating myself in the monitor mix is the best solution. So I started examining the photos and realized there was no XLR DI out. I was gobsmacked. What kind of wankery is this? Orange seriously could not add the XLR out to the design? At most it would have added another 15 quid to the retail and there is room in the enclosure. I’ve built a few dozen different pedals of my own to have some appreciation for the architecture. Why Orange could not have created the perfect Preamp pedal but for the lack of a bloody XLR DI out is beyond me. Orange is beatable until they refrain from committing this kind of atrocious lack of foresight.