Record player through Orange PA120

[steamboat]

All that said, I suspect that the sound output is going to sound like ass. I've run music through a guitar amp before and it was pretty abysmal.

Yea I hear you but I guess I was hoping to get a better sound using the PA head vs. OR head...I'm sure you have seen the turntables orange used to sell in the 70s why would they have sold them if they sounded bad? I'm assuming they powered there turntables with PA heads and slave heads right? I wasn't around back then to hear one first hand but I would hope they wouldn't sell it if it sucked. Well wish me luck I hope it sounds good because the PA120 wasn't cheap and if it does sound like crap I probably wasted a lot of money. Not sure what else I'd do with a PA120. Its not near what today's PA amps are so I would never use it for vocals with my band in a live situation. I bought a decent phono preamp so hopefully that will help the sound quality some.

[bclaire]

You have to figure a PA120 is one of the first master volume amps... it'll probably sound great for guitar.

[Gladmarr]

You have to figure a PA120 is one of the first master volume amps... it'll probably sound great for guitar.

Unless the input channels are voiced for microphones and not guitars.

[steamboat]

Well here she is...

seems to be re-capped and a better power chord installed. other than that it looks all original.

Seems it was in the possession of ampaholics at one point in it's life. i'm guess that's who did the work on the amp. theres a small sticker from there shop on the inside.

I really dig the looks of the earlier pics only pa120 with the plexi front panel but I'm glad I bought this one because on the plexi pics only some of the valves are mounted right on the circuit board. But the pics/text version I bought the tubes are all mounted off the circuit board it's alot more hand wired which is nice I think for less of a chance of wrecking something when changing tubes.

This whole set up is very heavy! I could not believe how much the head weighted. These bouncer cabs are tanks as well. You could never move it by yourself. The picture doesn't do justice. The bouncer cab is about twice as deep as my guitar cabs



Here's a shot to try to show how big these bouncer cabs are. It's next to my vertical 2x12 Closed back. Which If you read on the forums most people complain the 2x12CB is too heavy of a tank. Check out the depth!




Ok so I have a question. this is my first 1970's orange amp. I just want to make sure I know how to use the speaker selector correctly.




If i'm only running ONE cab i'm thinking I put the selector to 16 ohm for a 16 ohm cab and put it to 8 ohms for a 8ohm cab.
What about if i'm running TWO 16 ohm cabs or TWO 8 ohm cabs? Would I set it to 8ohms for two 16 ohm cabs? and set it to 4 ohms for two 8 ohm cabs?

Thanks for any help.

[FleshOnGear]

You have to figure a PA120 is one of the first master volume amps... it'll probably sound great for guitar.

I agree. Steamboat is about to find out for sure! Leslie West got that early Mountain tone using PA heads. I imagine the PA120 will sound great for guitar if it's plugged into a guitar cab, and decent for the turntable if plugged into a full-range cab.

Looking forward to hearing how it works, Steamboat!

[steamboat]

You have to figure a PA120 is one of the first master volume amps... it'll probably sound great for guitar.

I agree. Steamboat is about to find out for sure! Leslie West got that early Mountain tone using PA heads. I imagine the PA120 will sound great for guitar if it's plugged into a guitar cab, and decent for the turntable if plugged into a full-range cab.

Looking forward to hearing how it works, Steamboat!

I actually run my ad30 single channel through the Bouncer Cab when i'm home It sounds great! I just wouldn't lug it around playing live that's forsure. too heavy and rare. The guy I bought it from never had a chance to use the bouncer cab he didn't have a PA and never thought about using it for guitar, so when I went to buy it he hooked up an old Marshall head he had just to at least show me it worked and it sounded so good he almost wouldn't sell it to me after he heard it!

So i'll have to compare it through the bouncer cab as well as my 2x12 vertical.

I can't wait to get to using this. Right now i'm waiting on new fuses for the amp. it came with 220v spec fuses in it and i'm using 115v so I got to change that out, and some cables I need to hook the turntable up. I'll let you guys know how it sounds in the next few days.

[steamboat]

Can anyone comment about my question above about the speaker outputs? I'm getting ready to fire this amp up and want to make sure I understand the vintage speaker selector.
Thanks

[jontheid]

If i'm only running ONE cab i'm thinking I put the selector to 16 ohm for a 16 ohm cab and put it to 8 ohms for a 8ohm cab.
What about if i'm running TWO 16 ohm cabs or TWO 8 ohm cabs? Would I set it to 8ohms for two 16 ohm cabs? and set it to 4 ohms for two 8 ohm cabs?

Yes, exactly right.
The two speaker sockets are wired in parallel.

[steamboat]

Well I got everything hooked up. The amp works great. i replaced the fuses with the correct ones and there are no issues. all the controls work. I hooked up my Ipod and record player and they both sound pretty darn good. I'm very happy with it. Has a nice vintage sound to it. That bouncer cab can sure put out some heavy bass for it's time and the whole set up can get really really loud! In the end I did not use the phono preamp. my record player had a switch on the back for phono or line output. so I just switched it to Line and it sounds great. I cant express enough how cool it was to rock some old records through a vintage orange PA. I have yet to plug into it with the guitar but I think it's going to sound just fine! I'll let you know for sure soon.

[bassdrop]

You'll want to get one of the inputs modified or a DI or preamp of some kind that can convert the impedance and level to what the input on the PA would like to see (this in addition to the required phono preamp). This may or may not be easy and with a vintage piece of gear like that you'll probably just want to leave it alone and not it mod it excessively. Just my two cents, but you'll probably be better off getting a tube hifi receiver, vintage or otherwise.

[steamboat]

You'll want to get one of the inputs modified or a DI or preamp of some kind that can convert the impedance and level to what the input on the PA would like to see (this in addition to the required phono preamp). This may or may not be easy and with a vintage piece of gear like that you'll probably just want to leave it alone and not it mod it excessively. Just my two cents, but you'll probably be better off getting a tube hifi receiver, vintage or otherwise.

I appreciate the suggestions but I got everything working and it sounds great. I could not stop smiling last night listening to records. The sound is just huge coming from that cabinet.

[bassdrop]

Ah, sorry about that. That's sweet that it worked out that way! It probably helps it was a PA head and not a bass head like the time that I tried to run my receiver's preamp out into my AD200.