Orange Amps Forum

Posted: **Mon Jul 15, 2019 11:38 am**

groundmeat wrote: ↑
Sat Jul 13, 2019 8:15 pm
Took the amp to the Guitar Center in Atlanta, the main one for my state. Talked with their best "amp guy" who was on duty. We plugged the amp up among the sales floor amps to demonstrate the noise, but... it's the Atlanta Guitar Center, so there's NOISE NOISE NOISE always, and we really couldn't hear it. When I sat down in front of the cab with the guitar, I could hear it, but with all the noise going on (2 old guys camping out all day on the Fender amps using the place as a jam space, drums, other guitars, basses, people in the DJ area, it was nuts), it was camouflaged. So... he did a really swell thing, and he went the extra mile, and he grabbed a 4x12 with wheels from the floor, and we carted my amp back to one of the lesson rooms in the back to really hear it. He said... it was a normal thing. He also said he personally owns a Mk3 Rockerverb, and his does the same. He grabbed a Boss Noise Suppressor pedal and hooked that up and tried to show me how it might help. It did a little bit on the dead air spaces, but there was still that white noise thing just behind the notes.

Anyway. Did what was recommended here by people. Actually got some friendly help this time, and it seems like it's a "normal" thing. I dunno though. I'd still like to dig further and see what I can do with different tubes to at least alleviate SOME of the noise if it's at all possible.

I tried to get the guy at Atl Guitar Center to see if it was kosher with the 2-year warranty to swap out preamp tubes, but he never got a text back from the person at Orange he was trying to contact.

So if anybody from Orange reads this... HI! And is it cool if I swap out preamp tubes? NOT poweramp tubes. And not the two 12AT7's for the reverb and FX loop. I would ONLY replace the four 12AX7's for:
clean 1/2
dirty 1/2
dirty 3/4
phase inverter

Go ahead and swap them out. FWIW, I switched out my preamp tubes for some NOS Philips i65's and I believe I got reduced background noise as a result. I can't fully verify that, because I also swapped out the power tubes at the same time. You can't hurt your amp by trying preamp tubes of the same value.

Posted: **Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:16 pm**

It won't invalidate the warranty to swap out any valves, power valves included.

Orange uses Shuguang ECC83 usually, and I have found them prone to excessive hum and general microphony.

If you're trying to reduce hum, ad suggested earlier, paying a little more for a few selected low noise ECC83 sounds like a good idea.

Posted: **Thu Jul 18, 2019 2:53 am**

Les Paul Lover wrote: ↑
Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:16 pm
Orange uses Shuguang ECC83 usually, and I have found them prone to excessive hum and general microphony.

When I took the amp to the Atlanta Guitar Center, a few of the people I spoke with asked what brand of tubes were in it. I didn't immediately know. We looked in the back and saw the EL34's had a "PM tubes" logo on them, and we couldn't see the preamp tubes as they were all covered in tube shields, but I imagine they are likely PM as well. They had never heard of PM before, and neither had I. I did some looking online, and apparently they are a British owned company, but their tiny partly-broken website doesn't say where the tubes are actually made. Other places online, say that PM is a British company that simply re-brands tubes they buy from China, most likely Shuguang tubes, as you've said.

Posted: **Thu Jul 18, 2019 7:05 am**

groundmeat wrote: ↑
Sat Jul 13, 2019 8:15 pm
So if anybody from Orange reads this... HI! And is it cool if I swap out preamp tubes? NOT poweramp tubes. And not the two 12AT7's for the reverb and FX loop. I would ONLY replace the four 12AX7's for:
clean 1/2
dirty 1/2
dirty 3/4
phase inverter

I'm not from Orange, but gave you the same answer days ago.
If the hum is loud on dirty channel, just swap the dirty 1/2 12AX7.
The good thing with preamp tube is that you can swap them without damage.

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