Projecting the Orange Sound (1968)
Orange cabs earned their rugged reputation early on, with basketweave cloth, deeper builds, and Mick Dines’ road-tested design thinking.
In December 1968, Mick Dines joined the company as a salesman in the Orange Shop. He quickly became involved in the design of Orange cabinets. As a young bass guitarist, he knew first-hand how gear could get mistreated on the road. His top priority was to make Orange cabinets the most solid and reliable on the market.
When it came to choosing the speaker front cloth, durability was the main concern. Mick settled on a rugged material called basketweave. Orange cabinets could now take serious punishment (something roadies were quick to appreciate!) while guitarists loved the thickened tone the cloth helped produce.
There was also a change in cabinet depth: the Orange 4×12 was built to be 15" deep, where 14" had previously been the norm. That extra inch helped define the warm, punchy midrange that would soon become known as the Orange sound.
Signature Style, Signature Sound
Cliff Cooper, Founder & CEO, remembers: “When I first looked at a Marshall 4×12, I thought it was made of very thick plywood, but it turned out to be thinner than it looked, with an extra wooden border inside the front rim to give the illusion of thickness.
“I had the idea of doing something different, with a picture-frame design rather than a rim. It gave Orange cabs and amp heads a totally unique look. That design was a first for us, and it’s barely changed since.”
The 4×12 cabinet was built to be solid and stage-ready. It featured a baffle centre post, 13-ply (18mm) birch-faced marine plywood, and a durable orange vinyl covering called rexine. Basketweave cloth gave the sound more definition and character, rounding off the cabinet’s sonic identity.
Instead of plastic feet or rattly castors, Orange cabs used wooden runners known as skids. Originally added for durability and ease of loading, the skids turned out to offer a hidden bonus: they acoustically coupled the cabinet to the floor, boosting resonance and projection. Another accidental innovation that stuck.