Orange Super Bass OR120

[mwpplatt]

Hi guys

Bought this beauty about 6 months ago, sounds fantastic! However, I am having difficulty ascertaining exactly what model it is. I think the head is an OR120 Super Bass 90's reissue. I have only seen one other member on here who has one (Davesounds) who said that his was made by Matamp (his serial number is a slightly lower than mine), but I'm not convinced that mine was made by them (there is no markings). Could anyone shed any light on where, when and who it was made by? I have seen similar models in the 90's catalogues on here and on the Orange Field Guide, but none are quite right!

With regards to the cab, the previous owner drilled the grill on to the front of the cab and then the two parts of the orange logo (picture and writing) too (which I have removed in the pics below). I am in the process of trying to replace these because to be honest its not been done well and the rest of the amp is mint! Again, I've not found anyone who has the same model- its a OR4x10, 600 watt, 8 ohms, When I sent a picture to Orange to get replacement parts they were very surprised at the size of the corners- is that significant? I guess it is possible that they were added later on. The Serial number is 513.







Thanks in advance for any help and if any more info is require to ID the kit please let me know!

[bclaire]

Definitely 90's reissue.

[a.hun]

Hi mwpplatt. Welcome to the forum!

Have to say that both the amp and cab (including corners) look very similar to the ones in the '97 catalogue stickied near the top of this forum. What differences are you noticing?


Andy.

[mwpplatt]

Andy,

Thanks for the welcome! The only thing that does not figure is that in the '97 catalog the model number is SB120, however mine is OR120. The 'OR' is printed on the chassis and '120' has been written in pen - is that of any significance?

Do you know whether at this time were the amps were produced in Huddersfield?

Thanks,

Mitch.

[mwpplatt]

Also, whilst I agree that the cab in the catalogue looks like mine, the model number is BPE410, whilst mine is OR4x10!?

[mwpplatt]

Also, whilst I agree that the cab in the catalogue looks like mine, the model number is BPE410, whilst mine is OR4x10!?

[a.hun]

Andy,

Thanks for the welcome! The only thing that does not figure is that in the '97 catalog the model number is SB120, however mine is OR120. The 'OR' is printed on the chassis and '120' has been written in pen - is that of any significance?

Do you know whether at this time were the amps were produced in Huddersfield?

Thanks,

Mitch.

Well they used the same basic chassis for various models, and there have been plenty of discrepancies over the years.

For example my '78 OR120 'Overdrive' (the master volume model) is labelled as an OR120M. Others of the exact same model are labelled OR120OD. Certainly not a worry, Orange weren't a huge company back then and things like serial number and model number labelling weren't always done logically. And yes they often wrote the model number by hand, on mine too. Oh and Orange cabs have always been a bit of a mystery!

Not sure exactly where they were being produced around then. Matamp may have made (some of) them in Huddersfield, not sure on that though.


Andy.

[bclaire]

It's always hard to say with catalogs. Actual production amps and cabs could have different model numbers as things progress, and like Andy, my OR80 Overdrives say OR80M on the back denoting master volume model but you don't see that in a catalog as far as I am aware...

[jontheid]

I get the impression that this is quite a rare amp. It is a Super Bass reissue but it doesn't look much like the original Super Bass because that amp was made in 1979 when Orange were making 'Series II' styled amps.
I'd be interested to know how many Super Bass reissues were actually made. The original Super Bass is a pretty rare amp but I think even fewer reissues were made.

[sledz]

Hello
Can anybody tell me how does this 90s Superbass sound? Is it a good amp? Why were only few made? I've been looking for 70s OR120 but there is a quite cheap 90s Superbass for sale, so maybe it's an option?

[a.hun]

Hello
Can anybody tell me how does this 90s Superbass sound? Is it a good amp? Why were only few made? I've been looking for 70s OR120 but there is a quite cheap 90s Superbass for sale, so maybe it's an option?

Hi sledz.

Certainly an option. You planning on using it for guitar or bass? Would probably work well for both but clearly it was a bass design. I've never played a Superbass - few have as so few were made, either '70s or '90s.

It'll be a good amp though, and it is pretty close to an OR120. Main thing is to be careful not to impedance mismatch the speaker load as all the '90s reissues had slightly less sturdy transformers than the '70s amps, and their output trannies could fail if mismatched. Apart from that the 90's reissues were also really well built.

The one thing i don't really know is how the clean headroom for bass will compare to an OR120. Put it this way, it couldn't be worse. The OR amps do sound FANTASTIC for bass but they have very little clean headroom when compared to most other similarly powerful amps. I'd expect that they'd have deliberately calmed the gain a bit for the bass version, but can't say for sure. I've been using my OR120 for bass since 1980 though, and if you use good efficient bass cabs and can live with a little edge of dirt on your bass sounds than they do sound wonderful.


Andy.

[sledz]

Oh I forgot, I'm going to use it with bass. I prefer dirty (or rather very dirty) bass sound and I prefered OR120 for it's kinky drive over AD200 or generally most of KT88-tubed amps. So little headroom is not a problem, I'm rather curious if it's simply a good amp... as I saw many people says 90s OR120 doesn't even compare to 70s.

[a.hun]

Oh I forgot, I'm going to use it with bass. I prefer dirty (or rather very dirty) bass sound and I prefered OR120 for it's kinky drive over AD200 or generally most of KT88-tubed amps. So little headroom is not a problem, I'm rather curious if it's simply a good amp... as I saw many people says 90s OR120 doesn't even compare to 70s.

Simply not so, both '70s and '90s ones are great amps to have.

See detailed comments from Nick (fiveightandten) here:
http://forum.orangeamps.com/viewtopic.p ... 0&start=15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Andy.

[sledz]

Thanks!

[Gladmarr]

I'm rather curious if it's simply a good amp... as I saw many people says 90s OR120 doesn't even compare to 70s.

Yeah, that's not true. The two amps are electrically identical except for different manufacturers of transformers and other internal parts. That's why 70s and 90s OR120s fetch about the same price. Based simply on rarity, I'd snatch that SuperBass up. It won't have monster power, for a bass amp, but it will sound niiiice!