Orange Amps Forum

You guys who have this amp- is yours pretty dark? My clean channel is set to 3 o’clock treble and probably 9 o’clock bass and it’s still pretty dark. Similar but not as extreme on the gain channel. Did you roll preamp tubes? Which ones might brighten it a bit? I’ve run it in 3-4 different cabs with different speakers and it’s always dark. Any tips?

Where's the clean channel volume at? And where do you have the attenuator turned up at all? There is definitely a loss of high end at low volume levels/high attenuator levels.

Well, it's a bit of a dark amp, but still plenty bright.

What ECC83 do you have in V1? I find JJ ECC83 a bit darker than the Russian (EH, Sovtek, new mullards) or Chinese valves.

I would point out that no valve change will alter the nature of the amp - bright, with big fat low end and lots of low mids, giving a warmer, darker tone than a twin / deluxe reverb when it comes to cleans.

The 100w gets extra low end too. My RV50 at 50w feels fine for me.

The volume is normally around noon, attenuator around 12:30. I rolled some NOS Amperex 12AX7’s in spots 1/2, then tung sols in 3/4. Definitely brightened it up some. It was much darker before.

Snowdogyyz wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:24 pm

The volume is normally around noon, attenuator around 12:30. I rolled some NOS Amperex 12AX7’s in spots 1/2, then tung sols in 3/4. Definitely brightened it up some. It was much darker before.

I've gone with NOS tungsram in V1, V2 and V3 recently . Those old valves really do bring extra top end, in a very pleasing way.... not only top end though, they do make all frequencies sound better, low end, mids & top end.

I will add, I had a Laney Lionheart PPC212 with 2 G12H30 speakers for a short while. That cab has very little depth compared to the Orange PPC212, and it almost made my RV50 clean channel sound like a fender deluxe reverb - not quite, but closer than i thought possible.
The Orange PPC212 is designed to emphasise low mids and low end and to help Orange amps sound pretty thick and huge. It doesn't work for everything, but that's what they do.

Have you tried diming the treble and rolling out all of the bass? One thing I have learned about oranges over the years is to ignore what an eq setting should LOOK like and just go by what sounds good.

I run my eq sections pretty weird compared to what Mesa guys and Marshall guys all run but I love the sound I get and where it sits in the mix.

If you find that setting to be too bright then you can start backing off but who knows, it might be exactly what you are looking for.