OR100 how much gain?

[murkofaeons]

Hi everybody, first post here

How much gain does an OR100 have? Orange specs say it has 3 gain stages, while the rockerverb has 4. I've been wanting a rockerverb for some time but it's a bit out of range for me since I've been unsuccessful at selling my jcm 800. I've seen some OR100s for sale used for quite a but less than a new rockerverb.

I have an OR15 and that's what turned me on to Orange. I usually run the gain between 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock depending on what I'm playing. From what I understand the OR15 is more similar to the rockerverb than the OR100.

[jd261808]

I just bought one and let me tell you, it's terrific. Now mine has JJ E34L tubes which are more gain sounding than the EL34. It's just a fabulous amp. Love it. Buy it asap.

[snickerpuss]

The OR15 does have a lot more gain than the OR100, in my experience. The OR100 does every shade of classic rock beautifully, edging up to those modded/boosted JCM800 tones of the mid/late 80's at about 3:00 on the gain. At that point, adding more gain or hitting the boost seems to just oversaturate and compress, regardless of the guitar. It does not do that mesa boogie/soldano dream theater prog saturation very well, but a joy of this amp is that you can run a boogie-in-a-box into the clean channel and still cop those buttrock tones. I use a nashville tele, a tele deluxe, a strat with low output pups, and an SG.

I think it's a slam dunk to go for an OR100, now. They are unique amps as the only, now discontinued, Orange offering of a vintage voiced two-channel amp with dedicated clean and dirty channels. The rockerverbs, especially the mkIII, are probably the overall more versatile amps (almost certainly if you prefer modern guitar tones), but for me it's actually a bit of a turnoff having so many rockerversions to choose from.

[Tisca]

OR100 has a gain boost which is switchable by pedal. I keep a shorted plug in there all the time for 'on' all the time. I remember reading that the OR100 would have as much gain as a RV with the boost on. Can't confirm.

[Bensnake]

Actually I thought that the OR100 has 4 gain stages. As far as I can tell it has far more gain (and that is without the gain boost engaged) compared to the other 3 gain stages amps in the fleet; R30, TV and OR50.

[Snapjaw79]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I played both the or100 and rvmkiii 100w amps side by side and decided that I liked the OR100 more for what I play. Attenuation is a great feature, but the tone was... different. I simply preferred the or100. I also picked it up for much cheaper than the rvmkiii would have been so that was a plus. Not that I didn't want to spend the money on something "better", more that I didn't think it was "better". It really was a stroke of luck that a friend of mine happened to have both amps in his studio at the same time.

Also, tubes and speakers make a huge difference with these amps, more so than with old Marshalls I've owned. Dialing in the clean channel took some time, I posted some findings in the "technical" board in this forum. I had a 4x12 with 8ohm WGS veterans and another with g12k-100's and I ended up swapping two of the speakers in each and in my opinion they both sound better. Different cabs so a bit different tone.

In the end I'm a tone geek and I have to customize everything so try everything!

[Tisca]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I played both the or100 and rvmkiii 100w amps side by side and decided that I liked the OR100 more for what I play. Attenuation is a great feature, but the tone was... different. I simply preferred the or100. I also picked it up for much cheaper than the rvmkiii would have been so that was a plus. Not that I didn't want to spend the money on something "better", more that I didn't think it was "better". It really was a stroke of luck that a friend of mine happened to have both amps in his studio at the same time.

Also, tubes and speakers make a huge difference with these amps, more so than with old Marshalls I've owned. Dialing in the clean channel took some time, I posted some findings in the "technical" board in this forum. I had a 4x12 with 8ohm WGS veterans and another with g12k-100's and I ended up swapping two of the speakers in each and in my opinion they both sound better. Different cabs so a bit different tone.

In the end I'm a tone geek and I have to customize everything so try everything!

Pre or power? What tube swaps have you made?

[Snapjaw79]

Here is what I posted in the technical board:

I've been doing some experimenting with different tubes in my or100h and heres what I ended up keeping:

Power Tubes = JJ el34ii
v1 = EH 12ax7eh
v2 = JJ 12ax7s
v3 = JJ 12ax7s
v4 = PM 12at7 (stock)
v5 = EH 12ax7eh

So when I bought this thing it had the stock PM tubes all around and it sounded good, but not as good as others I've played, so when I got my tax return I decided to try something different. I bought a bias probe from eurotubes and found/bought/borrowed, a bunch of tubes. I wanted to try some 6ca7's and kt77's but I had a new quad of matched el34ii's already and didn't want to go broke. My plate voltage is at a steady 456v at 122v out of the wall, so i biased them at a high 38ma. First impression of the el34ii's was bigger bottom end growl. I like it. They cut a bit of highs, but I wanted that as the PM's had a more modern tone with more highs that I'm not really into. I had the treble down on the dirty channel quite a bit with those. Now i keep everything around 1 or 2:00 and it matches the clean side better. These new JJ's are really sweet when they are cranked, and thats what I use this amp for. I have my or15 for quieter stuff.

I tried just about every preamp tube (under $30) on the market today and some old ones I had lying around. The EH tubes in the clean side paired with the el34ii's give it a powerful, vintage, early-ish breakup which I totally dig. Kinda makes the clean side perform like an old or80 or something. With the dial set around noon and the middle or neck pickup I get sweet dirty blues. Near sundown with the bridge pickup its total break up and thick fuzziness!!! Awesomeness if you have a nice rehearsal spot to crank up or want to piss your neighbors off.
The JJ's in the dirty channel just happened to seem right when I first stuck em in, and after trying about 15 different tubes in different combos i went back to them in the end. Some of the problems I had with the others was too much high end coming through (tung sol, ruby, PM) and rough break up (sovtek, brimar) to not enough breakup (ecc803) to farty fart town. Some others were ok but this amp and my ears preferred the 12ax7s's.
I don't really use the FX loop so didnt bother messing with that tube.
I can't even really put my finger on why I like the 12ax7eh in the phase inverter socket, but it seemed like the clean channel benefitted from it more than the other tubes for the dirty breakup tones i like.
So that was my day off, just thought I'd share my findings with the club. Now its time for some beer and rockin out!!

The preamp tubes make the biggest difference and there's no need to bias for those so I'd start there.

[jd261808]

Where is the bias meter on the OR100? I am thinking about trying to bias mine myself. I watched a video of how to do it with 2 power tubes. I assume you just repeat the process for 4 power tubes.

[Tisca]

Where is the bias meter on the OR100? I am thinking about trying to bias mine myself. I watched a video of how to do it with 2 power tubes. I assume you just repeat the process for 4 power tubes.

No such thing. You need the extra tools.

Here is what I posted in the technical board:

I've been doing some experimenting with different tubes in my or100h and heres what I ended up keeping:

Power Tubes = JJ el34ii
v1 = EH 12ax7eh
v2 = JJ 12ax7s
v3 = JJ 12ax7s
v4 = PM 12at7 (stock)
v5 = EH 12ax7eh

So when I bought this thing it had the stock PM tubes all around and it sounded good, but not as good as others I've played, so when I got my tax return I decided to try something different. I bought a bias probe from eurotubes and found/bought/borrowed, a bunch of tubes. I wanted to try some 6ca7's and kt77's but I had a new quad of matched el34ii's already and didn't want to go broke. My plate voltage is at a steady 456v at 122v out of the wall, so i biased them at a high 38ma. First impression of the el34ii's was bigger bottom end growl. I like it. They cut a bit of highs, but I wanted that as the PM's had a more modern tone with more highs that I'm not really into. I had the treble down on the dirty channel quite a bit with those. Now i keep everything around 1 or 2:00 and it matches the clean side better. These new JJ's are really sweet when they are cranked, and thats what I use this amp for. I have my or15 for quieter stuff.

I tried just about every preamp tube (under $30) on the market today and some old ones I had lying around. The EH tubes in the clean side paired with the el34ii's give it a powerful, vintage, early-ish breakup which I totally dig. Kinda makes the clean side perform like an old or80 or something. With the dial set around noon and the middle or neck pickup I get sweet dirty blues. Near sundown with the bridge pickup its total break up and thick fuzziness!!! Awesomeness if you have a nice rehearsal spot to crank up or want to piss your neighbors off.
The JJ's in the dirty channel just happened to seem right when I first stuck em in, and after trying about 15 different tubes in different combos i went back to them in the end. Some of the problems I had with the others was too much high end coming through (tung sol, ruby, PM) and rough break up (sovtek, brimar) to not enough breakup (ecc803) to farty fart town. Some others were ok but this amp and my ears preferred the 12ax7s's.
I don't really use the FX loop so didnt bother messing with that tube.
I can't even really put my finger on why I like the 12ax7eh in the phase inverter socket, but it seemed like the clean channel benefitted from it more than the other tubes for the dirty breakup tones i like.
So that was my day off, just thought I'd share my findings with the club. Now its time for some beer and rockin out!!

The preamp tubes make the biggest difference and there's no need to bias for those so I'd start there.

Thx, I'll look into it. I do have another amp that needs new EL34s but I'd rather buy new ones for the Orange and put the old ones in the other amp. What style of music do you play?

[Snapjaw79]

I play in two bands at the moment, one is kind of a stooges-ish type punk rock n roll band and the other is kind of more like grand funk railroad meets sabbath... I also play some super heavy stuff but we haven't played shows yet as it's hard to find local venues that will allow such music unless you already have a name for yourself.

The bias pots for the or100 are inside the amp so I wouldn't recommend you do it yourself unless you know the dangers and what not to touch. If you are dead set in doing it and don't have the tools yet, eurotubes sells a bias probe with a built in meter that will give you a digital readout of the numbers you need to calculate bias adjustment. I have done it many times with a multimeter and don't recommend it without experience. Be aware that any time you go inside an amp and fiddle around, IT CAN STOP YOUR HEART!!!! Like, til you DIE!!!

That being said, it is a fun waste of money to see what tubes sound better in which amp. As I have multiple amps that can use the same tubes, it's not a total waste if I don't like this set in this amp.

I find the OR100 to have plenty of saturated fuzzy goodness on its own for classic rock and blues to something like Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats. The clean side takes pedals pretty well too so you can always do that.

My question is, has anyone tried using different pairs of power tubes in it?!?! Why else would there be 4 bias pots for 4 tubes?!?!