Orange Amps Forum

I like the idea for this amp - compact and light so I don't have to lug my TH30 around. However, the premise is that you can turn up and plug into any backline. Sometimes the venue cab doesn't have any markings on it or may only be 4 ohms. Where as my Mesa Boogie 8 ohm tube head can safely handle 4 or 16 ohms (according to the manual), this pedal baby says 8 or 16 ohms only.
How strict is it? What if it does get plugged into a 4 ohm cab?
I want to get this but the uncertainty of what i'll find at the venue is blocking me.

The product manual has an exclamation point at the end of the warning to not run it below 8 ohms. And as a general rule, with solid state, higher is usually ok but never go below the minimum rated impedance.

Tube amps need a transformer between the tubes and the speakers. That's sort of a buffer, so a 1:2 or 2:1 impedance mismatch usually isn't a problem. (Max power when matched, lower power into either a lower or a higher impedance load.)

But Class A/B transistors connect directly to the speakers and operate close to Ohm's Law: power goes up as load goes down.

The Pedal Baby should put out less than 100W into 16 ohms, probably closer to 50 watts. (Orange is always skimpy with specs -- I might even say they're sometimes misleading with some of their ss stuff.)

But into 4 ohms, it'll try to put out 200 watts when cranked. At best, that would pop a fuse or trigger a thermal cutoff. At worst, the amp melts down.

If you keep the volume down so you're not asking it to put out more than 100 watts, you could run it into a 4 ohm load. But halfway on the knobs isn't likely to be half power. A quiet coffeehouse gig would probably be safe into a 4 ohm load. But if you need to hang with a loud drummer you might be flirting with disaster even without the knobs being set really high.

(Some Class D ss designs are very picky about impedance -- they dislike too high just as much as too low.)

Hi Riw59
That's a great comprehensive reply! Thanks for taking the time. It's certainly reinforced in me the need to be careful compared to my tube amps.