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Orange Superbass
- Thread starter tomas_almeida
- Start date
You can hear the sound of the amp from BTO (Bachman Turner Overdrive). IMO they were nice sounding, build quality??. But still dependable. Made in Canada if I remember correctly.
MAde in Canada?? WOW I didn't know that!! I thought all ORNGE stuff was all UK made -even back then. If it's ANYTHING like the MARSHALL SUPERBASS 100w all tube amp- they're beauty's. If I didn';t have a Ampeg V4BH already I would've snapped up one by now!
Sorry I can't help re the OT.
Sorry I can't help re the OT.
You are correct, I remember wrong. Matthew Mathias design them, built by Cliff Cooper in Huddesfield, Yorkshire, England. Concidered an up-scale to Marshall in Europe. Not imported a lot to the US but distributed in Canada (also as Matamp in northern England).
Thanks. So does anybody know if the amp is actually usable? Or does it have almost no headroom? 100 watts seems too little.
Hi, Tomas.
If the amp in question is in a good condition cap/tubewise, it'll blow Your (and everybody elses) socks off
.
I'd take a 70's vintage tube bass amp any day, over a new one with similary marketed power ratings.
It all depends of the price, but compared with a Fame BVH300 for example, I'd say that while the available power might be a tad lower, the tone is even better. In fact a lower wattage is an advantage if the gnarly tube grind is the sound You're after.
Try it, and if the price is decent, buy it.
Regards
Sam
If the amp in question is in a good condition cap/tubewise, it'll blow Your (and everybody elses) socks off
.I'd take a 70's vintage tube bass amp any day, over a new one with similary marketed power ratings.
It all depends of the price, but compared with a Fame BVH300 for example
, I'd say that while the available power might be a tad lower, the tone is even better. In fact a lower wattage is an advantage if the gnarly tube grind is the sound You're after.Try it, and if the price is decent, buy it.
Regards
Sam
The problem is that I'm not able to try it. I'll talk to the seller. I'm getting really excited (because tube grind IS what I'm after).
Perhaps you're thinking of Garnet Amps which BTO used.
Garnet's were made in Winnipeg.
TD
B-strings sorta on the track..
Mat Mathias started making Matamps back in the 60s.. Peter Green was probably his most famous client at the time. Later on, Cliff Cooper contracted him to make amps for his Orange Music Shop in the UK. These all said Orange By Matamp on the faceplate and you can see em all over Led Zeppelin live pics as Jimmy Page used them.
Somewhere along the line, they had a falling out, Mathias went into business as Matamp again, and Cooper took over and renamed the amps Orange Voice Of The World and started making them elsewhere. Matamp made stuff here and there until he passed away. In like 1993, a couple of guys resurrected the name and factory and began making what we now call Matamps. The original lines were actually built on NOS leftover Orange chassis and parts from the 70s.. Well some of them were NOS, others were actually POS's that required another $1000 or so worth of work AFTER you paid the almost $2000 to get it to the US before it even worked properly and would stand up on the road.
To be honest, knowing the way Matamp rated their amps, that 100w is modest and its probably putting out a lot more. Their 80w advertised heads actually put out about 120w but then again they rate them differently then US manufacturers do.
If you really want a history lesson, Invalid Link Removed has it..
And they can probably answer any questions about the amp for ya.
How much can you get it for? Hell I know a couple websites where you could turn that thing around for some nice money if it turns out it doesnt suit your style and needs. Id get it for sure.
Mat Mathias started making Matamps back in the 60s.. Peter Green was probably his most famous client at the time. Later on, Cliff Cooper contracted him to make amps for his Orange Music Shop in the UK. These all said Orange By Matamp on the faceplate and you can see em all over Led Zeppelin live pics as Jimmy Page used them.
Somewhere along the line, they had a falling out, Mathias went into business as Matamp again, and Cooper took over and renamed the amps Orange Voice Of The World and started making them elsewhere. Matamp made stuff here and there until he passed away. In like 1993, a couple of guys resurrected the name and factory and began making what we now call Matamps. The original lines were actually built on NOS leftover Orange chassis and parts from the 70s.. Well some of them were NOS, others were actually POS's that required another $1000 or so worth of work AFTER you paid the almost $2000 to get it to the US before it even worked properly and would stand up on the road.
To be honest, knowing the way Matamp rated their amps, that 100w is modest and its probably putting out a lot more. Their 80w advertised heads actually put out about 120w but then again they rate them differently then US manufacturers do.
If you really want a history lesson, Invalid Link Removed has it..
And they can probably answer any questions about the amp for ya.
How much can you get it for? Hell I know a couple websites where you could turn that thing around for some nice money if it turns out it doesnt suit your style and needs. Id get it for sure.
The price is not decided yet. The amp is in the UK and that seller doesn't seem to be ablo to ship it. He says that he will not ship it because he doesn't want the amp to brake in pieces. I'll try to convince him that amps can be shipped without breaking... (what an "intelligent" person haha)
Oooof.. Since its coming from the UK Ill warn you those things are HEAVY.
And I dont just mean like Black Sabbath heavy either hehehe.
And I dont just mean like Black Sabbath heavy either hehehe.
I believe that. Hahaha
But that's not a problem for me, I'm still very young.
But music stores do ship 400 watts Mesa Boogies, and 8x10 cabinets, don't they?
But that's not a problem for me, I'm still very young.
But music stores do ship 400 watts Mesa Boogies, and 8x10 cabinets, don't they?
So, it's like I won't be buying the Orange afterall because the seller only wants it to be picked up. I found a Marshall Superbass. Is this one a good bass head? I've heard it's nice on guitar, but I don't want a super overdriven tone.
You are going to have to try it with your speakers. It can get an over driven tone. Yet I've use one with 2 2x15 cabs and it was great. The Superbass can have a bass coloration that you might like or not. It is a simple resistor change to get it to sound like a Superlead which to me I repeat to me sounds more balanced across the freq range with a bass.
Bridging the inputs with a short cord allows you to dial up the sounds of the dark and normal channel on the SB or bright and normal on the SL heads. More fun. I actually want one though I'm set for amps.
Superbass is pretty much a Superlead but with a different tone stack no??
Its not as thick and fuzzy as the Orange's natural sound wouldve been but hell Id get it.
You like Motorhead? Lemmys been using those forever.
Its not as thick and fuzzy as the Orange's natural sound wouldve been but hell Id get it.
You like Motorhead? Lemmys been using those forever.
I know, but I'm not really after Lemmy's tone. I also found an SVT-II (non pro), maybe I'll buy this one instead.
I ran across a pretty knowedgable bassist that had gigged a fairly similar 4 x el34 powered Orange head for years. (Overdrive 120) He told me his Orange had just slightly less clean headroom levels than his Ampeg V4.
I own a V4 and a SVT-II (non-pro). Playing in my loud-ish rock bands, I've found my V4 to many times be lacking the clean-ish headroom levels I needed but my SVT-II has never disappointed me in either its available volume or tone.
When correctly serviced, those old SVT-II's can be trully wonderful amps and they're usualy priced as one of the absolute best bargains of all the different all-tube SVT models. With that said, I'd still like to get a Orange AD200 some day...
I own a V4 and a SVT-II (non-pro). Playing in my loud-ish rock bands, I've found my V4 to many times be lacking the clean-ish headroom levels I needed but my SVT-II has never disappointed me in either its available volume or tone.
When correctly serviced, those old SVT-II's can be trully wonderful amps and they're usualy priced as one of the absolute best bargains of all the different all-tube SVT models. With that said, I'd still like to get a Orange AD200 some day...
