You've added an item to the cart! ×
View Cart Continue Shopping

Tag Archive for: ob1-500

, ,

Interview: Heavy Temple’s High Priestess Nighthawk

Heavy Temple at Psycho Las Vegas by Dante Torrieri

Nighthawk: My history with music goes as far back as I can remember. My parents had a pretty diverse record collection and they encouraged me to play early on. I started on piano and eventually moved to cello as a classically trained musician, though admittedly I hated practicing. I was a music major for a year and then realized I just wasn’t cut out for it. I dropped out, bought my first bass and discovered that playing it came much more naturally to me. I was at my friend’s house getting stoned and he put on Black Sabbath’s first album (for those who are wondering, yes, I didn’t hear that record until I was 20). That’s when I knew what I wanted to do. I also make flyers for our shows, and had made a bunch for our tour that just got postponed. I just really enjoy doing anything creative when it comes to music, be it writing, playing, making flyers, just experiencing it in any way possible. You can check out my flyers here.

What can you tell us about your band Heavy Temple?
Nighthawk: I found myself without a band in 2012 and was rather depressed. I went through the “I’m gonna sell all my gear and quit music forever” phase. Then one day I just sat in the basement and started recording a few riffs that had been kicking around in my head. Fast forward to 2 records, 6 lineups and 8 years later. I feel like we’re really starting to hit our stride as far as live performance and collective writing. We all have different desert island records but also have a strong foundation in heavy rock. Our personal influences span everything from punk and black metal to psych and doom. The Sabbathian overtures on the first two records are obvious but not directly intentional. With this third record, you’ll hear more vibes like Black Angels, Queens of the Stone Age, Acid King, if I had to put a finger on it.  We were set to release that this year on a label, but since the world is ending we might just put it out ourselves.

Is there any artists that stands out as an influence to you?
Nighthawk: I always find myself struggling to answer this question succinctly. If I’m naming bass heroes, I’d say Nick Oliveri (as bassist for Queens of the Stone Age), Bootsy Collins, and Lemmy. The bass playing I enjoy the most is groove based and more complex than you think, like Captain Beyond, early Scorpions, Grand Funk. Overall I’m influenced by a lot of things. Basically whatever sounds good to me. Could be High on Fire, could be Interpol. Could be Tchaikovsky. 

You recently got the OB1-500, how are you getting on with it? Have the neighbours complained yet?Nighthawk: Oh. My. God. I can’t believe I haven’t played through this before. The tone that I’m able to get straight out of the head is insane. Honestly it’s a real game changer for me. The fact that it splits the signal so you can dial in the clean sound before sprinkling that distortion on top is great. And if we’re being honest I like the easy to discern images on the face plate for people like me who sometimes have one too many shots of tequila before playing. As for our neighbors, they’re actually pretty cool. One keeps asking when we’re putting out a new record, so we got that going for us.

You also just released a solo album, what can you tell us about it and the influences behind it? 
Nighthawk: Well, I love Italian horror movies and film scores. I also really enjoy the process of composing, so the album I just released, “The Dimensionaut” (listen here), is really an homage to all of that. It’s nearly a decade of music that I’ve wanted to put out for the longest time, so I figured I’d just go for it. I dig what you can accomplish with synths. There’s so much atmosphere you can achieve. My favorite tracks have a sort of ethereal synth sound with a massively wet reverb guitar track over top. We’re also releasing a split Funkadelic EP on Riff Merchant Records with our friends from Wolf People in a couple of days on the 31st of May which we’re excited about.

by
,

Our interview with Monolord at Desertfest.

Monolord formed in 2013 and hail from Gothenburg, Sweden. The trio have been releasing sludgy metal since then and show no signs of slowing up. Their new album No Comfort was released to rave reviews in September 2019 and their live shows are legendary. Orange caught up with the band at Desertfest 2018 and chatted all things Orange.

Mika: We are Monolord.

We just played at the Roundhouse, it is amazing the feeling, really amazing when come on stage and see all those people in that huge venue, it’s marvellous.

Thomas: Now in London we have played Koko, we have played the Roundhouse and Royal Albert Hall, I don’t know what we do after this.

Mika: What is there left to play?

Thomas: I think most of ones that recognise Orange amps was the early beat club, the German music show where Sabbath and all the other bands played on Orange stuff. After that the Hellacopters used Orange from like early 2000 when it wasn’t that common to play Orange, not in Europe. Around then I bought my first Orange amp, been using it since.

Mika: For me I got my first Orange when I started Monolord but ever since I was a teenager I have been seeing those here and there. A good friend of mine had a dad who had a combo.

Thomas: I am using two full stacks, one on my side and one on Mika’s side. Mika does the same he has one bass rig on his side and one bass rig on my side. On my side I have an old OR120 and the standard cabs and on Mika’s side I have an OR100. Together with that I have the High powered cabs.

Mika: I have the AD200 on my side with an 810 and on his side we have an OB1-500 with an 810.

Thomas: It’s a bit loud!

by
,

International Women’s Day: Women in Rock

Once again we’ve made it through to March and this year’s International Women’s Day. Haters might say we don’t need it, and how can we be equal if men don’t men have a day of their own? Well, men don’t tend to get grabbed and get abuse shouted at them when walking down the street, they don’t get paid less because of their gender, and you know, they don’t have to give birth either so, yeah, we kinda deserve this day – we can grow a human inside us but in some eyes not even that makes us good enough, yikes! Anyway – enough politics for our end, let’s chat music.

At Orange we’ve got quite a few women working for the company such as myself, my name is Ella and I do freelance content creation and artist relations, plus a bunch of other ladies in our offices keeping this ship afloat as well as the wonderful female artists we endorse. Now, there might not be a secret that rock and guitar music might be slightly more male dominated but that doesn’t mean that it’s a boys club, there’s a bunch of rad ladies out there, and today we’ll be shining a light on a few of them:

Orianthi

Rockerverb 50 MKIII
PPC412

Orianthi’s got a pretty spectacularly impressive resume, having performed for Steve Vai at the age of 15, and been asked to jam on stage with Carlos Santana at 18. Her big breakthrough came in 2009 when she played lead guitar for Carrie Underwood at the Grammys, which led to Michael Jackson reaching out to her, inviting her to join his band for his “This is it” concert series, which unfortunately fell through due to his death. Since then, she’s played with Alice Cooper, as well as releasing various solo albums as well as winning the award for “Breakthrough Guitarist of the Year” 2010 by Guitar International Magazine.

Hannah Wicklund, Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin’ Stones

Rocker 30

Despite her young age of 21, Hannah Wiklund, the soulful blues guitarist that could probably fit the description of the love child Janis Joplin and Hendrix never had, has got a remarkable 2000 shows behind her. Hannah was gifted a guitar from her dad an an early age, and had her first ever The Steppin’ Stones band practice back in 2005, with the first ever song they played being Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” By the time she finished high school at 16 they had already played over a thousand gigs together. The band released their debut album last year, and are currently touring and gigging, as they’ve always done.

Thao Nguyen, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down

AD30

Thao Nguyen is a guitarist and banjo player and the front woman of Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, a San Francisco based alternative folk rock band. She started playing music around the age of 11, and ended up starting a country pop duo with one of her friends. Shortly after she began performing acoustic solo shows, before eventually forming Thao & the Get Down Stay Down with fellow students. Thao’s lyrics are often about relationships and childhood, with some crossing over into politics. She has also been featured in the 2017 documentary “Nobody Dies: A Film about a Musician, Her Mom and Vietnam”, which follows Thao and her mum as they visit Vietnam, Thao for the first time, and her mum for the first time since the Vietnam war, where she is faced with the two conflicting cultures that helped shape her and her music.

Laura Cox, The Laura Cox Band

Micro Dark
Rockerverb 50 MKIII
Dual Terror
PPC212OB
PPC112

Laura’s career got a kickstart in 2008 after joining Youtube and sharing videos of herself playing guitar, the response was overwhelming and she quickly built up a following which has now reached over 363k followers and 80 million views. Due to her online success, she formed The Laura Cox Band, which is influenced by Southern legends Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top as well as Aussie rockers AC/DC. There was no other musicians in her family when she was growing up, but hearing her dad play Dire Straits and AC/DC records she felt inspired and intrigued to play that music herself, and was shortly after gifted a guitar for Christmas. The rest is, as they say, history.

Becky Blomfield, Milk Teeth

OB1-500
OBC810

MILK TEETH bassist Becky grew up in a music loving household with a musical and saxophone playing dad who regularly  However, it wasn’t until the age of 11 that she found her own taste thanks to bands such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, which are two of the bands that led here to where she is today. Influenced by the above, punk band MILK TEETH was born in 2013 and have been playing together ever since, although with a few line up changes along they way. The band’s latest release is the single “Stain” which was out just before Christmas, and brings to mind bands such as Hole and Nirvana.

by
, , ,

Interview: Becky from Milk Teeth

Hey it’s Becky from Milk Teeth, I play bass and sing.

I used to go to Hevy Fest a lot, that was one of my first “ins”. I always loved the gear, I like the classic way that it looks, you know an Orange from a mile off, you could be stood at the back of crowd and you will know the cab.

I want something that has the basics, you have good tone, tone is really essential. Does like a decent job but at the same time I like to have some versatility so you can change your sound and stuff. I tend to play quite bass heavy, a little bit of treble, I just like something punchy.

My current rig is the OB1 head by Orange and i’ve got the 8×10 cab which is great, it weighs more than i do, I googled it! I’m not using much gain on it, as I tend to get most of my gain from the RAT pedal. I tend to use it more as a clean, like I said I have the bass really high, I like it to sound deep and bassy. The mids are like eleven o’clock, the treble is actually down I used to turn it up but it’s now down a bit. Its more like ten o’clock but I think it sounds great as it is.

I’m after the next amp up, the AD200 thats on the wish list. But I think for the money the OB1 series is great, it’s just as good, it sounds way more expensive than it is.

Its really cool that Orange has taken me on as part of the roster. I think its really great that someone has put faith in a girl playing bass because some companies not all may be a bit wary, so that is refreshing. I’m surrounded by a host of other great musicians, its just really nice, I mean we are out with Good Charlotte at the moment and they are also playing Orange. So that’s cool, we are matching!

 

by
, , , ,

Interview: Ducking Punches

Thanks so much for taking the time to this interview, and congratulations on your latest record ‘Alamort’ which is out today!
Dan: Yeah thanks! It’s out today, and it’s really exciting. This is album number four, as well as having released two EPs. I initially started it as a solo project seven years ago, then after awhile it kind of just went out of hand, and here we are now!
Ryan: Myself and Marcus have been in the band for about a year, and we have both been apart of this album and writing process. This is the first album with this line up.

Dan: It’s a real departure from what the band has done before, as it used to have quite a lot of folky elements. We’re now playing more melodic punk taking inspiration from the 90s emo genre. It’s kind of more of the music I’ve always wanted to be making, so when these guys joined that just all fell into place and happened naturally.
Marcus: like Dan says, we’ve gone more full electric, with more pedals and force and all that, more noise.

Now, Norwich might not be the centre of the universe, and most people might not be that familiar with the Norwich music scene. Can you guys give us the lay of the land?
Dan: The Norwich music scene is really healthy, one of the reasons I move to Norwich was actually due to the booming Punk scene. All the bands kind of support each other, and that is how we all met, on that scene. That is how Ryan and I met about four years ago.
Ryan: I do sound engineering as well and made a fair bit of people through that, that is also how I met Dan, as I did a few shows for him.

So Marcus, how did you end up in the band?
Marcus: I am kind of the outsider of the group as I initially joined the band as a fan. I was already aware of what they were doing and knew the band quite well. So when I saw there was an opening I just thought to myself ‘fuck it, I’m going to give it ago’. It’s been nice since the lineup had already changed and the band was changing, I got to come in and bring my own opinions and put my own sound on it, I also got to add my personality and stamp on some of the older songs. No one is precious about anything so if any of us comes up with a new idea and it doesn’t go down well with the whole band we won’t do it. Everything we do, we do together.

Now, the reason were all here – Orange amps. Can you tell us a bit about your history and experience with the brand?
Dan: I used to guitar tech a lot for various bands, some of which would use Orange, and I was just baffled by the fact that you could get such clarity and crunch at the same time, you can’t seem to do that with many other amps. I was playing Marshalls for years, but it wasn’t until I first plugged it into an Orange I finally found my sound.
Marcus: I play a Dual Terror, and I was first introduced to Orange by a friend who had a Tiny Terror, and I just loved how you could get that big sound something so small, it’s had this amazing huge sound and it would just really fill a room. Before I started playing guitar in this band, I originally played bass, and I didn’t have any money to buy any pedals, so I had to learn to compensate for that by using my hands and away I would use the settings on my amp. I got that overdriven sound without having to use any pedals, and if they wanted to make it even more overdriven I could just play harder, mechanically. I like how transparent the sound is, and the amps are incredibly responsive to what you’re doing. So yeah, I guess it is just the evolution of not being able to buy any pedals and learning how to work around it and using my amp to compensate. Even today, I still only use three pedals when we play live, as the amp pretty much sorts me out with the sound I want and require, with most of my sound coming strictly from the amp itself. Gain, volume, tone – nothing fancy, just plug and play!
Ryan: My first encounter with Orange was similar to Dan’s, doing shows, working as a sound engineer and seeing bands coming in with different gear all the time. I played bass for years, but had never managed to find that had that was quite right. One day, I was working with a band who’s bassist was using a Bass Terror, he played a 68’ Fender Precision bass through it, and the tone was just unbelievable. Straight after that, I went out and bought to my own which lasted me five years, until this Christmas I decided to put my big boy pants on and get the OB1-500. All I want from my amp when playing the bass its power and clarity, and it is true what everyone is saying, you really can just plug and play.

by
, , , , ,

Interview: Vodun’s Linz Eel

image1

Welcome to the family! What’s your thoughts having just become an official Orange ambassador?
I’m very excited to be part of the Orange family! Orange has been the dream amp or me for a while and it’s an absolute honor to be accepted as an ambassador of the brand. I was invited to the HQ a few months ago to try some amps with the techs and they were super helpful with ensuring I was getting the right tone and the best sound, not only out of the amps, but for Vodun to sound as huge as possible.

What was your first ever encounter with Orange? 
I first came across Orange amps when the Datsuns returned from the UK to New Zealand to play The Big Day Out 2004. Being a keen 17 year old guitarist, I spent most of my time dreaming of guitars and amps, and when The Datsuns stepped out onto the stage in front of bold Orange cabs it blew my mind! I had never seen such a bold, brightly-coloured amp or heard of the Orange brand before. A few days later I did some research into availability in NZ, but sadly being so far away from England, the only amps readily available and affordable were anything getting imported through Asia. It wouldn’t been until I set foot in London 3 years ago with just a guitar that I would be able to get my hands on one at Red Dog Music in Clapham. The guys were really helpful down there and as I plugged into a TH30 they saw my eyes light up – I bought it that day.

Now that you’re officially a part of the family, how does your brand spanking new Orange rig look like?
It looks, (and sounds) amazing. I’m still working on my rig’s design, but then again when has a guitarist ever not got their eye on the next pedal to add to the chain? Big shows means I’m running 3 rigs off one guitar, so I have my original TH30 as stage right, OB-1 500 Bass rig next to it with 4 x 10 cab, and my main amp is a Rockerverb III 100 through a 4 x 12. This allows me to get the feel of a full band, dropping in bass and a second guitar as needed as well as panning left and right. Smaller shows I strip it back to the Rockerverb III 100 and OB-1 500 but they still deliver great tone and punch! I throw them either side of the stage to help thicken the sound. I really love how huge the bass rig has made us sound – the built in gain in the head helps keep my signal as big as possible, where previously it was getting squashed by effects pedals.

Can you tell us a bit about your band?
Vodun is a three piece heavy psychedelic band with afrobeat inspired drums and a soul singer. Although we’re a three piece, there’s no bass player – hence why it’s so important for me to make sure my sound is as huge as possible. Vodun was actually the first band I saw live when I arrived in London and they completely blew me away! I joined after the original guitarist Ollie had to step down, but in true ritualistic spirit his Gibson guitar lives on with the band and I still use it in shows. Vodun as a religion is rooted in animism, it’s positive at its core and celebrates women in its worship of female Loas or Goddesses. As a band, we draw on this for inspiration and we try to make our shows a positive spiritualistic experience.

You guys put on quite the performance when playing live, what’s the story behind the make up and costumes?
The short and sweet answer is “to give you a reason to come and witness live music, for it to be an out of this world experience and so that you aren’t at a show thinking ‘this sounds better on CD’. More than that though, it gets us into character for our live ritual. Zel and I will always start the set staring each other down as if we are going into battle, clearing our thoughts and allowing the music to take over completely. The makeup and costumes are inspired from West African culture to help add to the aesthetic and performance of the band. I don’t think the audience at our shows would feel the same spiritual experience if we just played in black jeans and a baggy shirt. Kinda like when KISS took their makeup off….

How would you explain Vodun’s music to your, mine, or someone else’s grandmother?
I played Possession to my Nan when I was home earlier this year for my sisters wedding, “Nan, this is my loud band from London, I think you’ll like the singer, she has a great soul voice and you have been to one of my old bands shows so you know it will be loud. I’ll start you with Bloodstones so you can ease into it”

To someone elses grandmother: It’s a beautiful chaos that represents the world as we know it; we have the godly soulful voice that brings peace and harmony, we have the loud aggressive beats that can bring the deafening destruction of earth quakes and volcanoes then we have the guitar which drifts between both of these two like the human race, kind and gentle one minute and greedily struggling to be heard over the weight of the world the next – you also might want to turn your hearing aid down…

As an emerging London band, is there any other bands or artists you’ve come across we should keep an eye at?
Being fairly new to this side of the world, most bands I come across I haven’t heard of before as it takes a long time for some bands to get to NZ, so I may have mentioned some bands that have been around a bit longer than newly established but are fresh to my ears.

A couple that come to mind immediately:

Causal Nun – We had the pleasure of having them on the bill at our album release show in London and they’re causing a bit of a stir.

Church of the Cosmic Skull – Recently released their debut album to a sold out crowd. The band members have previously played for some great bands.

His Masters Voice – Genuine down to earth fantastic people, album due to be released soon, but as they are from NZ you wont get to see them live unless you are on holiday there. But go check out their style of the devils blues Jessie has a wicked voice.

Petrol Girls – Pure passion and always blow me away with their genuine execution.

God Damn – the name says it all “God Damn”

HECK – They torn the Big Red apart at the Kerrang nominations and it was just a truly impressive show. 
Slabdragger, Limb, Derelics, Shitwife… There is too much choice in London, I can’t keep up.

How has life been for Vodun since the release of “Possession” earlier this year?
Life has been hectic in a very positive way, the album has been received really well and our small tribe of followers seems to be growing bigger by the day. It’s been fantastic chatting to people after shows who have turned up not knowing what to expect and are then rendered speechless by our performance! We are getting some great gigs coming in, played Stonefree Festival with Alice Cooper and The Darkness as well as the childhood dream gig of playing Bloodstock alongside Twisted Sister, Slayer, Anthrax, Mastodon, I’m really looking forward to playing some more great European festivals next year. we have also had some great press come in – it’s a bit of an unreal experience picking up a copy of Kerrang or Classic Rock to send copies back home to your mum. In short, life seems ridiculous! 

What’s next?
Album 2! it’s going to take a lot of hard work to execute another album like Possession and keep pushing boundaries, but we’ve started gathering ideas so hopefully you should hear some new tracks being vibed out at live shows soon. We’re heading to Europe in October to play Desertfest Antwerp and a few dates in Germany then Italy. There’s a music video in the works and a UK tour with Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats at the end of the year. We’re certainly keeping busy, and it looks likely to be even more the case for next year. All fantastic news, especially now I have my new Orange rig behind me!

by

Tag Archive for: ob1-500

HELP WITH MY GEAR

Contact us

Register Gear

Gear Manuals

SISTER WEBSITES

Orange Essentials

Orange Learn

SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER