Hey
I just picked up two old Orange amps. They were used by Noel Redding while he was in the band Fat Mattress. They are the original Orange Matamps - the slave unit and the amplifier. Both are very cool looking. During powerup, everything sounded fine, then suddenly a hissing came out of the cabinet. After the hissing, a smell unlike anything I have ever smelled before came out of the amp. I know this amp needs to be serviced. However, I am curious as to what caused this. They have the original KT-88's - thats probably one of the problems
-Alex
Old Orange Units Malfunctioning
Moderator: bclaire
-
Jeppe Scaramangas
- New Member
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2003 2:02 pm
- Location: Finland
Sounds bad. Something definitely fried in there. All I know is that output transformers for those apparently are hard to come by and having someone wire one for you will be quite expensive.
Every old and abused amp needs to get a carefull look over by a true vintage amp-guru. And after that they will need regular service but an old Orange Matamp is definitely worth it.
Smell huh... Let me tell you that I had rust in my amp. Apparently some sort of liquid had gotten to it. I was in bad shape otherwise as well, ...when my amp-tech started clean up my old rusty OR and started soldering a vicious smell came out. It turned out that it was urine. Probably a dog.So I got a call from him: "Hi Man, the sounds is great, but A Dog has Pissed in your amp!"
I couldn´t believe my ears, but he was really certain that it was the distinct smell of urine. It had been there for probably 15-20 years.
But Now It works great.
So... You´ve got a cool amp. Get someone who knows about Oranges to fix it for you. It will eventually work and it will sound great.
Big Pics OR 120 from 1973
Listen to indie music from Finland at:
http://www.thescaramangas.com
Every old and abused amp needs to get a carefull look over by a true vintage amp-guru. And after that they will need regular service but an old Orange Matamp is definitely worth it.
Smell huh... Let me tell you that I had rust in my amp. Apparently some sort of liquid had gotten to it. I was in bad shape otherwise as well, ...when my amp-tech started clean up my old rusty OR and started soldering a vicious smell came out. It turned out that it was urine. Probably a dog.So I got a call from him: "Hi Man, the sounds is great, but A Dog has Pissed in your amp!"
I couldn´t believe my ears, but he was really certain that it was the distinct smell of urine. It had been there for probably 15-20 years.
But Now It works great.
So... You´ve got a cool amp. Get someone who knows about Oranges to fix it for you. It will eventually work and it will sound great.
Big Pics OR 120 from 1973
Listen to indie music from Finland at:
http://www.thescaramangas.com
-
Gladmarr
- Orange Master
- Posts: 1584
- Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 4:58 am
- Location: Feenix, AZ, USA
- Contact:
Hissing from the cabinet you say...
Do you mean hissing from the speaker cabinet or from the head? Hissing from the speaker cab could be a speaker voicecoil slowly burning up, but that sounds unlikely. Hissing from the amp itself could have been a component burning up. Given the smell, that's probably what happened. Does the amp still power up or did it burn its fuse out? If the smell was really icky like burning hair and fingernails only worse, then you may have burned up a resistor. The worst case is that you've burned up a transformer. That'll suck. You can get replacement transformers from Mercury Magnetics/ Axiom Tone Clone transformers - but they only make them for the OR120/80 type oranges. There's also the possibility of rewinding them, but it will be expensive. Although, like Jeppe said above, for these amps it's well worth the investment.
Gladmarr Audio Laboratories
Do you mean hissing from the speaker cabinet or from the head? Hissing from the speaker cab could be a speaker voicecoil slowly burning up, but that sounds unlikely. Hissing from the amp itself could have been a component burning up. Given the smell, that's probably what happened. Does the amp still power up or did it burn its fuse out? If the smell was really icky like burning hair and fingernails only worse, then you may have burned up a resistor. The worst case is that you've burned up a transformer. That'll suck. You can get replacement transformers from Mercury Magnetics/ Axiom Tone Clone transformers - but they only make them for the OR120/80 type oranges. There's also the possibility of rewinding them, but it will be expensive. Although, like Jeppe said above, for these amps it's well worth the investment.
Gladmarr Audio Laboratories
-
orangewhat
- Tiny Terror
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2002 5:01 am
- Location: USA
Noel Redding R.I.P,take good care of his amps for him,as they just got worth alot more with his passing.
Mains
Frequently occurring in the US: the PT is not suited for todays Mains voltages. That is why the tubes get plate voltages that are way too high. The amp doesn't operate at the voltages it was meant to. This may cause early wearing out of tubes. There is also some arcing risk in Oranges which is certainly not improved by these higher voltages.
good luck
Mains
Frequently occurring in the US: the PT is not suited for todays Mains voltages. That is why the tubes get plate voltages that are way too high. The amp doesn't operate at the voltages it was meant to. This may cause early wearing out of tubes. There is also some arcing risk in Oranges which is certainly not improved by these higher voltages.
good luck
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 48 guests