Hi. I’m here at NAMM and we’re launching the Orange Valve Preamp. Very, very excited about this, I’ve been involved in this preamp for a number of years when I first met Dennis Marshall, who was doing some pioneering work really, on preamps (that is) valve preamps for acoustic guitars. We got together, and he showed me one of his preamps and I started to road test it. Every time I came back I’d say, “Yeah. This is fantastic.” Everywhere I went, sound engineers whether I was doing live concerts or in the studio would say, “Wow. What is that? Just sounds absolutely great.”

I then suggested a couple of things to Dennis about having a dual preamp so that we could have a valve and solid state channels. The valve to plug the guitar into and solid state for the microphone as well. That then moved onto the involvement with Orange and then it just went into another – it was already fantastic – it just went into another level again.

I started then road testing the Orange pre amp. I’ve been all over the world, touring in America, Far East, Europe the UK. It’s great, it means that wherever I go I’ve got this sound that’s been in my head for so many years. So it doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m plugging into, I’ve got this sound. The sound of my dreams really. It’s absolutely fantastic.

I’ve been playing the guitar since 1960/1961, I’ve toured all over the world. For 11 years I worked with Stephane Grappelli, the legendary jazz violinist, who along with Django Reinhardt formed The Hot Club of France, so for 11 years I sat in Django’s chair and working with Stephane. Then I started to pursue a solo career, I’ve got a Grammy nomination, I’ve got many music industry awards, guitar awards. I’ve been given two honorary doctorates and I was made an MBE by The Queen in 2002 for services to music. These were all nice little bonuses that have come along the way. All I’ve ever wanted to do is just play the guitar, but it means I have some things I can put on the shelf in my studio which is really, really nice too.

I cannot begin to tell you just how excited I am about this preamp, it’s a dream come true. I’m so pleased for Dennis Marshall who’s really the man who had this brainchild of doing this and we’ve managed to work with the best people in the business here at Orange.