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Orange Amplification is delighted to welcome JJ Julius Son, frontman and guitarist with the worldwide phenomenon Kaleo, as an ambassador for the company.

Kaleo are one of Iceland’s biggest musical exports. Their breakthrough album, A/B, took their music around the globe with its three hit singles, the Grammy-nominated No Good, All The Pretty Girls and the chart-topping Way Down We Go, which have featured in more than twenty hit TV shows including Suits, Orange Is The New Black and Grey’s Anatomy. The band’s Fight Or Flight tour, supporting the release of their critically acclaimed third album, Surface Sounds, has taken them across the USA, including appearances at Coachella, and seen them opening for the Rolling Stones in Europe.

Jökull Júlíusson, better known as JJ Julius Son, is the frontman and guitarist for Kaleo. As the primary writer for the band, as well as lead singer, guitarist and pianist, he leads the blues-driven group with passion and musical skill. Demonstrating a wide range of musical genres and influences, the diversity of JJ’s music moves from cinematic, classic rock through soft, folksy blues, into hard-hitting stomp rock. JJ appeals to a mainstream audience with his grungy guitar riffs, crying leads and electrifying performances.

JJ Julius Son uses an Orange AD30 on tour, in the studio and at home. Speaking about the amp, he said ‘the Orange AD30 is the only amp I’ve found that can handle the wide variety of tones and instruments that I use in a single show’.

The Orange AD30 is a one-stop shop for all shades of pure British chime and crunch. From shimmering cleans, edge-of-break-up jangle or fire-splitting classic crunch, this amp has it all, in a simple, road-proven package.Check out orangeamps.com for an interview with JJ Julius Son coming soon.

Long-time Orange ambassadors Wishbone Ash are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their iconic 1972 album Argus, and are embarking on a five-week UK tour tomorrow to support it, followed by an EU jaunt and US dates early next year. A full list of shows can be found here. In celebration of the anniversary, we spoke to frontman and guitarist Andy Powell about the album that changed the band’s career forever.

What can you tell us about the recording of Argus, and the impact that the album had on the band’s career?

Recording Argus was exciting because we upgraded from 8-track to 16-track. This allowed us to double-track the arranged guitar lines and vocals, which is why they stand out so well. Back in those days there were no effects pedals — reverb effects were achieved by using a plate echo and we tuned and intonated our guitars by ear using a tuning fork! I remember the release well, as the fans and the critics embraced it. Rolling Stone described Argus as an “essentially excellent” album and Sounds crowned it “Album of the Year”. Keep in mind our competition were albums like Deep Purple’s Machine Head and Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick. We were all so proud of the recognition at the time…and still to this day. It completely changed the band’s career! It took us into the big league as we started to headline our own tours in the UK. Prior to that, we’d been the opening act for bands like Rory Gallagher’s Taste or Mott the Hoople. Then we went over to the States, and landed the opening slot for the Who on tour. The first show was in front of 35,000 people at the Mississippi River Festival. It blew my mind — the sound system, the sheer number of people, the outdoor stage even had its own air conditioning for the performers. We learned so much from touring at close quarters with that band. That’s also when we first started to ship our Orange backline over to the States. The Orange gear would always impress sound guys due to its power and clarity on the big stages, and much of the guitar sound came from our Orange backline. At one point I was using two 200-watt Orange heads at shows! 

How you feel about the album five decades later?

It’s the gift that keeps on giving — the jewel in the crown of our back catalogue. We’ve made some great records but this one was the perfect album at the perfect time in rock history, and that’s the difference. Albums are kind of like that. They can capture the times that a band is living through, and for us, Argus was exactly this kind of album. The riffs, intros and outros on the album have become timeless. Songs like The King Will Come, Warrior and Blowin’ Free are still received so warmly, 50 years on. I still today enjoy playing my song Leaf and Stream, as well as the anti-war song Throw Down the Sword, one of my finest moments as a soloist on the album. Sometime World is another song with a solo of mine that I’m really proud of. We had no idea that the arranged twin lead guitar harmony sound that we developed would go on to become the inspiration for so many other bands in the rock and metal fields, including Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and Opeth. Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham shared with me that when Thin Lizzy moved to London and witnessed Wishbone Ash at the Lyceum, bassist Phil Lynott said afterwards that Wishbone had the sound they needed. Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris even remarked to Guitar World in 2011, “I think if anyone wants to understand Maiden’s early thing, in particular the harmony guitars, all they have to do is listen to Wishbone Ash’s Argus album.”

I agree, it truly is the gift that keeps on giving and it’s really stood the test of time. How does it feel being able to share it with newer generations, and seeing such a wide variety of ages at your shows?

I love it when I look into the crowd and see mothers and fathers with their kids at shows. That wouldn’t have been the case back in the day of course when a good 80% of our audience would have been young lads, but now it shows that our music can stand the test of time and be universally appealing, and of course so many girls love playing rock too these days. I love that. Seeing and hearing these crowds join in on the rousing chorus of Warrior confirms to me that our music can fire up the imaginations of new generations of fans. Recently, young wounded vets have come up to me after shows and told me how Warrior kept them focused during their fight. That’s very humbling, and reaffirms the power of the music and lyrics. “A slave I couldn’t be”, especially, rings true with the struggle in the Ukraine and I can bet, without a shadow of a doubt, having played there a few times, that there are still actual young warriors who turn to this piece of music for their strength. 

Ordinarily, the world of school physics lessons is a million miles from guitar heroics (unless, of course, you’re Angus Young and wear the same outfit for both). However, if there’s a place where they overlap, it’s on the back of your amp and speaker cabinet — and knowing what those scientific symbols and warnings written beside the jack sockets actually mean could be the difference between getting the best from your gear and shelling out for a repair.

The two symbols you’ll see most commonly are W, which represents power, measured in Watts, and Ω, which represents impedance, measured in Ohms, and the idea of this blog post is to explain what you need to know about them without blinding you with science. So here goes.

WATT ON EARTH?

The first thing you’ve probably noticed is that you don’t need to plug your cab into the mains. But those speaker cones have got to be powered from something, and it turns out that that’s your amp’s job. However, if your amp gives your cab too much power, you’re in trouble, and this is where the W number comes in. It’s a fairly simple but golden rule: make sure that the number of Watts (W) written on the back of your amp is less than or equal to the number of Watts written on the back of your cab. For example:

  • If you’ve got an Orange Rockerverb 100 amp (100 W) going into an Orange PPC212 cab (120 W), then happy days, get shredding (don’t fret about the spare 20 W).
  • If, however, you put the same amp into an Orange PPC112 (60 W), the amount of power that the amp will serve will be more than the cab can handle, which is bad news.

OHM-Y GOD!

So far, so straightforward. When it comes to Ohms, though, it’s a little more complicated, and there are endless web forums full of stuff you really don’t need to know on this topic, but it really boils down to another golden rule: make sure that the total Ohms (Ω) of your cab matches the total Ohms written above the relevant jack socket on the back of your amp. For example:

  • If you’ve got an Orange Rockerverb 50 amp, you’ll see two sockets marked “8 Ω” and a single one marked “16 Ω”. If you’re plugging into an Orange PPC212 cab (16 Ω), then you want to use the “16 Ω” socket on the amp. 

If you’re running two cabs out of the same amp, though, here’s where you need to take real care, because two 8 Ω cabs plugged into the same head don’t together make 16 Ω — they actually make 4 Ω, which is obviously a bit counterintuitive. Sorry about that. Exactly why this happens is not that important here, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re daisy-chaining your cabs together or plugging them both directly into the amp. But you do need to know how to work out the combined Ω number of your two cabs, and the step-by-step trick to doing this has two routes, depending on if you’re more comfortable with fractions or decimals:

THE FRACTION WAY:

  1. First, put a “1” over the Ω number of each individual cab (so 16 Ω becomes 1/16, 8 Ω becomes 1/8 etc).
  2. Then, add up the two respective fractions (so, say, 1/16 + 1/16 = 2/16)
  3. Then, reduce the fraction until there’s a 1 on the top (so, say, 2/16 becomes 1/8)
  4. Finally, the number on the bottom of the fraction (in our example, 8) will be the total Ω of both cabs combined. Two 16 Ω cabs plugged into the same head make 8 Ω.

THE DECIMAL WAY:

  1. On a calculator, type in “1 ÷ [the Ω number of each individual cab]” (so 16 Ω becomes 0.0625, 8 Ω becomes 0.125 etc).
  2. Then, add up those two decimal numbers (so, say, 0.0625 + 0.0625 = 0.125)
  3. On your calculator, type in that total, and then hit the “1/x” key. The answer to that (in our example, 8) will be the total Ω of both cabs combined. Two 16 Ω cabs plugged into the same head make 8 Ω.

So, if you have two Orange PPC212 cabs (16 Ω) and an Orange Rockerverb 50 amp (with two sockets marked “8 Ω”), you want to plug the two 16 Ω cabs into the two sockets marked “8 Ω” on the back of the amp, as the combined Ω of the two 16 Ω cabs are 8 Ω.

What if you don’t match the Ω numbers, you may be thinking? That’s a question for another time, but the short version is that it messes with your tone, and you don’t get the best out of either your amp or your speaker.

So, match your Ohms, and don’t exceed your Watts — case closed.

Check out the interview our Marketing Director Charlie Cooper did with The Guitar Channel:

“It was during 42 Gear Street that I had the pleasure to meet Charlie Cooper, son of Clifford Cooper, the founder in 1968 of the legendary British amp brand Orange Amps (orangeamps.com). A great opportunity to learn more about this iconic manufacturer that supplies Jimmy Page, for example.”

Powered By Orange Amps In Partnership With Volume.com

Orange Amps is proud to partner with Volume.com and Marcus King for a free livestream concert when King plays two sold-out shows at the historic Ryman Auditorium in his hometown of Nashville this week, on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th September. 

These exclusive livestreams will see the GRAMMY® Award-nominated artist, performer and songwriter headline the Ryman for the first time along with special guests. Orange Amps and Volume.com will be there to broadcast these much-anticipated concerts, shot in high-definition 4K using nine camera angles for a full cinematic experience and livestreamed direct to mobile phone, computer or laptop.

This summer, King released his second solo album Young Blood, which debuted at number one in the Billboard Blues Albums charts and which he has been touring worldwide. The Ryman concerts this week will see him play tracks from his new album using his 30 watt all-valve MK Ultra signature amp, which he helped design in collaboration with Orange Amps.

Both shows will be livestreamed for free exclusively on Volume.com at 9 pm CT on 29th and 30th September, and can be watched from The Marcus King Band’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, as well as Orange Amps’ YouTube channel and Facebook page. Viewers can watch the first 15 minutes of the concerts on these pages, after which the show can be viewed for free at https://marcusking.volume.com (please note that five minutes later, viewers will be prompted to enter an email address to continue watching). The shows will be available to view for free on demand for 30 days after each concert. 

Volume.com is a 24/7 free livestream platform that allows engagement between artists and fans to help musicians build and monetise their craft from ticket sales, subscriptions, merchandise purchases, or by using Volume.com’s unique online tipping system.

Find out more about the Marcus King MK Ultra signature amp at orangeamps.com, and see details on the latest Marcus King show dates at marcuskingofficial.com/tour

Today, Orange Amplification announces the return of three iconic effects pedals — the Orange Phaser, Orange Sustain and Orange Distortion — with the trio’s vintage characteristics reworked for the present day. 

The modern story of these classic units starts in 2019, when an Orange message board went crazy for a photo of the long-discontinued Sustain pedal from the early 1970s, with its outsized form-factor and art nouveau typography. Not long after, a hand-drawn schematic diagram, complete with teacup ring marks, scribbled-out Biro and wobbly writing, emerged following an online call for help about what was inside the sturdy orange box. 

The rest of the story writes itself: as more evidence was unearthed about the Sustain and its two brothers the Distortion and Phaser, the wizards in the Orange workshop set about remaking these beasts, retaining their most-loved qualities and incorporating the contemporary features — LEDs, DC inputs etc — expected on 21st-century effects pedals. The result is three seasoned UK-made pros retuned and ready for the modern age. 

First up is the Orange Sustain, which smooths and regulates guitar sounds, acting like an overdrive for clean tones with added chime and warmth. Boosting volume without scuffing purity, and making soft parts louder and loud parts softer, it offers an expressive, nuanced and three-dimensional take on the sustain/compressor effect. 

Then there’s the Orange Phaser, the most elegantly simple of the reboots, with just one knob and one job: to bring sweet psychedelic swirl to any rig, its dial modulating guitar tones from woozy sweeps to choppy stabs via kaleidoscopic insistent, whirling pulses. With four-stage circuitry rebirthed from the original schematics combined with modern techniques inside the box to reduce the noise floor, the Orange Phaser adds maximum spin with minimum fuss. 

And finally there’s the Orange Distortion, with vintage appearance up top but all-new circuitry below deck, replacing the original’s back-to-back diode design with an amp circuit and tone stack with a user-adjustable treble. New design doesn’t mean new sound though — the Orange Distortion retains all the bite and growl and warmth and howl of its 1970s forefather, from fat gravelly textures to red-hot screamers and maximum saturation.

That’s quite the box set: together, they make up a trio of effects pedals that’s not just a perfect homage to one of rock’s golden ages, but also ripe for any modern set-up. With a large-footprint, tank-strength aluminium chassis and classic looks, a mere glance at the pedals will offer a 50-year-back teleportation. Then, stomping on the footswitches completes the time-travel: these might be new for 2022, but with the Orange vintage pedals, the song remains the same. 

For more information about these new UK-made pedals, view the launch video at https://youtu.be/zwi3AZT_xts and learn more at orangeamps.com.

Orange Amplification joins the nation in mourning  the sad loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Il and we offer our sincere condolences to the Royal Family at this time.

Receiving the Queen’s Award in 2006, 2009 & 2012 was and will always be a great honour for us.

We celebrate her unprecedented devotion to duty and her dedication to a life of public service and a unifying presence for us all.

Sincerely.

Cliff Cooper and all at Orange.

Tyler Shelton from The Northern Kentucky Derby sent us these photos of his dream Orange amp, which he drew up himself (disclaimer: this is not an actual amp or work in progress):

We’ve teamed up with Boris to giveaway 2 x sets of tickets for their upcoming US tour. There’s one competition running on our Facebook page and one on our Instagram, so why not enter both to double your chances?! All you have to do, is simply leave a comment with the show you’d like to attend, and tag the person you’d like to bring.

Good luck!