Orange amp head OR model Year and wattage??

[100MPH]

I recently aquired an Orange amp head and matching 4x12 cabinet. I don't believe the the cab is vintage, it is loaded with 4 matching Celestion G12 16ohm Vintage 30's dated the 26th of May 2006. It could just be loaded with new speakers, I really don't know. I am unsure of the date of manufacture and the wattage of this amp. I have done a bit of research and seem to have a couple of conflicting facts. From my research, the front of the amp has the characteristics of a 90's reissue ie; smaller font on the A and N, smaller knobs for Bass, Treble and Presence, return and send jacks are not capitalized. The back of the amp on the otherhand seems to look like a 70's version including a serial # of 016088 indicating a 1979. The wattage and ohm selectors are the pull out pin style. The model also only states OR with nothing printed or written after. I have included a few pictures, any help would be appreciated. Thanks Mike

[100MPH]

The amp head has 4 power tubes. They are a matched set of Electro Harmonix 6CA7EH EL34 clones made in Russia. I am guessing this would indicate the wattage would be 120? Any Thoughts? Thanks

[a.hun]

Hi 100MPH / Mike. Welcome to the forum!

Yeah, strange one. The faceplate certainly suggests a '90s RI, but the ser. no. says late '70s, probably '79. My suspicion would be that it maybe started life as a 'Series II Overdrive' head, with a totally different faceplate, which someone decided to replace later on. How they'd get hold of a faceplate is a good question, but that's my first theory on the amp anyway.

Internal pics would help, but don't go touching anything in there under the chassis due to potentially very high stored voltages - valve amps don't need to be plugged in to kill you!!!

Yeah, 4xEL34 (/6CA7) = a 120 watter. Well, at least with strong power valves you can expect that sort of wattage. Not quite sure how those EH 6CA7 valves hold up to the particularly high voltages of an OR120. (They are fine - very nice in fact) in my Rocker 30 combo, but that runs them at lower voltages. OR120s really do need strong power valves or they'll go through them like you just don't want to know.

I'd suggest (this goes for every s/h valve amp BTW) getting a tech to check the amp over for safety and reliability and to fit say a set of JJ EL34s or 'Winged C' brand SED Svetlanas. They will handle the amp and last well enough if biased fairly cool. If they took internal pics when it was open we could probably tell more about exactly what you have there.

Still, I'd imagine what you have is a monster of an amp. All the old ORs were ferocious sounding beasts, and LOUD...


Andy.

[100MPH]

Thanks for the info Andy. I will post the internal pics of the amp when I get home this evening. Mike

[bclaire]

Faceplate is 90's reissue, but the back panel is 70's. The lack of a model number makes me wonder if the amp was old stock parts used with newer parts when they went back into production in the 90's...

Four output tubes means OR120M/ two tubes would be OR80M

[100MPH]

Thanks Billy! I will be posting pics of the inside tonight. Mike

[bclaire]

I seem to recall seeing another one like that a while back actually...

[100MPH]

Here are the pictures of the internals. Hopefully this will clear things up. It would make sense that if they still had parts from the 70's that they would put them to use in the first reissues of the 90's. I really appreciate all the help. Thanks Mike

[100MPH]

Well guys after alot of reasearch I have come to the following conclusions:

MODEL: Orange Overdrive OR120M 120 Watts

CABINET AND FRONT PANEL: Early 90's Reissue

CHASSIS: Definitely Late 70's With Serial # 016088 Indicating a manufacture date of 1979

INTERNALS: They appear to be a mixture of old and new. I am posting a pic I found of the internals of a late 70's OR120. I am also posting another pic of the internals of my amp for a side by side comparison. The circuit board in my amp seems to be the same as the vintage.

Since the cabinet and face plate are for sure reissue, I can only assume that Orange still had some NOS parts they wanted to use. I would also assume that this particular OR120 would have been a very early reissue. The question is how much of the internals are from the late 70's.

Check out the pictures posted and please offer any opinions you might have. Thanks for all the help!! Mike



VINTAGE OR120 INTERNALS




THE INTERNALS OF MY AMP FOR COMPARISON

[bclaire]

The components in your amp definitely look more modern/ recent!

I really should do a comparison photo between my 1978 OR80M and my 90's reissue OR80M especially since 1978 is the last year basically for the vintage OR80M's before the Series II's.

Add it to the list of things I have to do!

But seriously, maybe Friday since I have the day off, I might be able to do that....

[100MPH]

I agree Billy, you should post a comparison pic. So many posts don't have very good pictures, especially of the inside internal components. It took quite a bit of searching for me to come up with a good picture.

[jontheid]

100MPH's board looks to me like a late 70s PCB that may have had the electrolytics changed on it, the rest of the components look period.

[Gladmarr]

I'm inclined to agree with a.hun on his initial assessment of this amp. Your amp probably had the Series Two faceplate (unfortunate that is was changed, because that is a much rarer faceplate), and it likely had the Contour control that Orange went to on the late 70s amps. Your FAC control has an odd set of capacitors on it, they don't match the rest of the amp, and they don't look correct or consistent for that period. This was likely put together by the person who modified the amp from the Series Two specs back to Orange Overdrive specs.