You've added an item to the cart! ×

Tag Archive for: PPC212V


Orange ambassador Nicke Andersson runs us through his Hellacopters rig

“Orange amps deliver classic rock and roll tones and specifically has the oh so important mid range magic covered. Unscooped mids is where it’s at and with Orange amps I couldn’t be happier.”- Nicke Andersson

I’m not going to lie, the pandemic sucked most of fun out of my A&R role here at Orange, as my day became primarily emails, spreadsheets, and existential dread, so it might not come as a surprise that I am mentally jumping with joy about the return of live music, and everything that goes with it. This Thursday just gone I had the pleasure of witnessing the pure force of one of our 2021 signings; Swedish rock’n’roll connoisseurs The Hellacopters play at Sentrum Scene in Oslo.

Having recently released their latest album Eyes of Oblivion (their first release in 14 years!) through Nuclear Blast Records, the return of The Hellacopters was long awaited, and even more so considering the show had been re-scheduled several times over the past two years. Finally, it was Oslo’s turn to boogie!

As the house lights dimmed and the band took the stage in front of a sold-out crowd, guitarist Dregen hobbled across on crutches with his right leg in a big plastic boot, before sitting down on an Orange PPC212V, which doubled amazingly as a chair (what a selling point!), and powered through the set like an absolute champ despite most likely being in excruciating pain, which is 400% badass in my eyes. As we all know, the show must go on, and go on it did.

Backed by three TH30 heads, one Super Crush 100 head and four PPC212V cabs, the band sounded absolutely huge as they took us on a musical journey from their High Visibility heyday through to recent singles from Eyes of Oblivion, as well as covers of Roky Erickson’s Night of the Vampire and the Ramones’ I Just Want to Have Something to Do. This of course led to some audience members excitedly hurling their pints in the air, which, considering alcohol prices in Norway, we can all agree is pure madness. If you ask me, those drops should be cherished as if they were tapped from the fountain of youth by Zeus himself.

At the end of the night, The Hellacopters had proved repeatedly why they are one of the best rock’n’roll bands of the 21st century. We’ll have some more exciting Hellacopters news coming your way soon, so keep your eyes peeled and sign up to our newsletter (at the bottom of our main page) for further updates.

I’m Tim Montana and I play for Tim Montana, and that guys an asshole!

First time i saw Orange amps, I was driving through Montana and I started to fall asleep and there was one f*cking was right in front of me in the road and I swerved – overturned the vehicle – and the thing just stayed there like it was sent from the heavens… and so I cranked it up, and the rest is history. It’s f*cking gorgeous.

Country music to me is a hot dude in yoga pants sitting on the stage playing the tracks. But, what Country Music used it be is what I’m all about. It’s speaking your mind, truth… it’s that in-between.. you know, the woods and rock and roll. It’s Country boys speaking their mind, and the country boys I know love to party.

So we got our first Orange Amps, probably 3 years ago, and we’re doing 100 dates a year out there… driving ourselves but we’re hammering the sh*t out of these things on stage, in the trailer – I mean, we take a lot of wild roads, we hit a lot of guard-rails and deer… we just keep blasting but these amps… they’re built to last, they’re built tough and we treat them accordingly. We’re not being you know… I used to have different amps I bring out and you’d wanna treat them like vintage gear, like ‘oh careful, you’re gonna break the tubes!’ but these [Orange] things… we use them constantly, every night out there. Between the Crush amp, which is a solid-state amp – which people used to be like ‘oh you gotta have tubes’ – but that Crush is perfect for clubs. The Rockerverb 100 is amazing for some of the stadiums and outdoor events that we do and they have all of our bases covered and they’re built for guys that want to beat the sh*t out of these amps and have them work every night.

So Orange – obviously they’re a British Amp company, but they sure make some American and Country Rock and Roll sound real f*cking good. And the clean channel, the dirty channel, we can go from ZZ Top to a Waylon Jennings thing in no time and they’re just versatile. They have everything that I need and the Brits got something right. The Brits may have lost the war but they won the amp battle and that’s why Orange is the voice of Country Music.

Sean: Hello I’m Sean and I play guitar in the band Shame.

Josh: My name is Josh and I play bass.

Eddie: I’m Eddie from Shame, I play guitar.

Sean: On the amp I pretty much only use the natural channel, if i’m not using in combination with another amp I will probably use the dirty channel, just to give it a bit more drive. But I usually get that from my pedals, I like a clean tone as a base.

Eddie: Live I’m using the Tiny Terror channel but when we have been in our rehearsal studio i’ve been using the Fat channel and I have been experimenting with that. For me it’s a lot more accessible than a lot of other amps because i’m not really into the whole EQ’s on amps thing, I have an EQ pedal. I prefer to work from my pedal board rather than the control settings of my amp and for me Orange really works great for that because it’s quite simple.

Sean: I would say the Rocker 32 is a base for it because you already get a full, round sound from just that one channel.

Sean uses the Rocker 32

Eddie: I think Orange amps are almost built for those guitars in a way, I think it really helps capture every element of it and really pushes the sound well. I am now playing a Telecaster with humbuckers, so I think having two Orange amps with guitars with humbuckers sounds really good. Obviously the differences in our pedal setups, there is a distinction when there needs to be a distinction but also our guitars can blend when they need to, which is a very important part of our sound.

Sean: This amp is perfect for me, as its just got one knob, just the one!

Josh: The controls of this amp are very easy to use, there is just a bass, mid, treble, which I like. I never really mess around with graphic EQ’s and stuff like that, so it’s perfect for me.

Josh uses the Terror Bass

Eddie: The simplicity was a really big, factor for me, they also just look like really iconic amps, it’s the sort of thing you associate with big stage shows. It’s just really iconic british tone.

Sean: One of the best things is its size because its only like this big and its really light. I’ve never been a big believer in needing a massive amp or a massive stack to get a good sound. I think simple is usually best for me. I say it translates really well, we have used it all across this year, like we used it on the main stage at Reading and that’s possibly the biggest stage you can play really, and then to smaller club shows in the UK and it’s just great.

I’d say for me Orange is all about the tone because there was a period when I destroyed my fuel tank on my pedal board when we were rehearsing for this tour. So we were just playing and this amp doesn’t have reverb and i was just playing through the clean channel with absolutely nothing on it and it just sounded brilliant. So I would say the tone, it’s the kind of amp, I mean I put pedals through it but it’s the kind of amp that you wouldn’t need to put anything through it to make it sound amazing.

I think I had always been scared, I kind of stick to what I knew, never really try anything else. But then we came in and played through it, it just sounded so much better, instantaneously. I think it is the simplistic aspect but also Orange does have a legacy, especially from Britpop in the 90’s.

Eddie: To be honest i’d always associated it for some reason with heavy bands and it might be just a visual thing with the amps being mostly really big cabs. I think the connotations of the name like Tiny Terror stuff conjures images of really heavy, hard rock bands. Since trying them, the versatility of the Orange equipment was definitely opened up more to me a lot more. I wasn’t expecting them to be able to offer a really nice warm clean tone but also handle gain really well, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Alright, I’m Mike Vennart and I play guitar for my own band Vennart and I play guitar for Biffy Clyro.

I look for articulation more than anything, I think it is fair to say when your playing through an amp or when you are trying any instrument or anything like that. If it brings the best out of you then it is a source of inspiration. What I need personally on a very specific level is a clean sound that is articulate, defined, really crystal clear, really brings the most out of each individual note attack but will then act as a great foundation for pedals.

Check out the full video.

What’s great about the amps I use with Orange is the distortion is a very thick distortion, you get a very warm, full articulate sound. But the clean is of equal importance for me. So there is an awful lot of things that I need but with Orange they are incredibly simple. This one has got six knobs on it and yet for such little control, it does so much, it does everything i need it to do.

This guitar in particular is a weird beast because you have this big hard rock humbucker at the back and this really vintage sounding single coil at the front. With that there is a lot of sounds in there and with a lot of amps, they can’t really cope with this mismatched idea. But the Orange, I play everything from really detuned heavy riffs to really spangly, jangly wiry clean stuff that I love and I need an amp that can cut it and do those different things. To be honest most of the amps I have tried can’t.

I decided that the Retro 50 was the amp for me after I went to see Pavement several times over the period of a year, as I am a big Pavement fan. Everytime I came away saying “What is that guitar sound?” Not only was the clean full and very precise but it was nicely broken up and it took the pedals great, it was just huge. So I did my research and I think that was when I pressed go on contacting Orange and saying I need this amp in my life. And that was nearly ten years ago and like i said I have never entertained the idea of getting anything else, as its just perfect, the best!

When i’m out on tour with Biffy, i’m using the OR100 because it is a split channel amp. It has a really pumping distortion channel and again the clean channel takes pedals really well. I use a lot of fuzz, big muffs, delays and stuff like that, it does it all, it’s a really good amp.

The primary thing about using the vertical 2X12, in an ideal world we would all want a wall of Orange amps behind us. But the places that I play in my band Vennart, they are all quite small anyway and its not needed to have an awful lot of volume on stage. Nevertheless, I tried this thing out, not only does it sound huge and it’s perfectly loud enough, it’s incredibly light so it’s actually quite a pleasure to load in and out of these absolute toilets that I play. I just love it, it sounds great!

I think it is recognisable the way that Orange has been since the late 60’s, early 70’s up until the present day. It hasn’t dabbled in anything other than what it is, it is a tool for guitar players. It’s not trying to be anything that it isn’t, so you don’t have any of these digital components and scrolling menus. When you play through one of these it’s an inspiring thing to actually put your heart into and it brings the best in your playing. I don’t really get that feeling with digital products myself.

I’m absolutely delighted to be an Orange ambassador because I don’t know, there is something inherently attractive about having one of these things onstage behind you. I love the logo, I’ve got an Orange tattoo, by the way! I’ve got this exact symbol on the back of my neck! They are just cool, I hate using that word cool. Somethings are cool,something aren’t cool and there is no tangible explanation for what makes something as cool as it is. This is the shit!

My name is Mary Spender, I play the Orange Rocker 32 and most recently, the Rocker 15 head with a 212 vertical cab. I started playing guitar when I was 12 because I saw some boys at school with a Squire and I was very envious because I was doing classical music! Although i was enjoying it – being in orchestras, playing the viola and singing, playing violin – I found it restrictive in some ways because I wanted to write songs. I was listening to pop music (if I can be honest) as my mum introduced me into things like Jodie Mitchell and I just wanted to sing and accompany myself so I played guitar. I started on electric and bought a Yamaha Pacifica 112 and it’s kinda just gone from there.

I chose the Rocker 32 because of the stereo features but I’m totally guilty of not having stereo pedals right now! I also chose it because of the 3-band EQ on the dirty channel. Aside from the set-clean tone, it’s useful to change between the two channels for my style of playing. Orange was a strange choice for my style of music but then it’s very complimentary in the same way… it’s just cool having my Rocker 32 on stage. It was on stage for my UK tour most recently and everyone just said how good the tone sounded so I’ll take that as a compliment!

My Vigier GV Rock in revolution green is my favourite guitar. It’s short-scale, I love it, it has a very slim neck and it’s just beautiful. I’m a singer/songwriter and I’d describe my musical style as intricate, slow guitar playing with a little chicken-picking… but not quite… there’s a mixture of influences such as Mark Knopfler… so that sort of style… but sort of failing at it… so I just came up with my own thing!

The Rocker 15 Terror was released in January,  so seeing the Rocker as a head (rather than a combo) was great… and to be honest, It’s all down to the bedroom/headroom switch. Being at home, you don’t want to annoy the neighbours… too much! Although I love the Rocker 32, especially those 2 stereo speakers, I just loved the idea of having a vertical cabinet and a head!

I first saw the PPC212V at NAMM and Charlie (from Orange) actually told me it was lightweight. I tested it, and obviously carrying amps is bad for your back if they are too heavy. That’s why I chose the Rocker 32 rather than a cab and head before hand… but picking up the 15mm ply-wood vertical cab was better… it was so light. Now I just need to buy a bigger car!

Tag Archive for: PPC212V