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Orange Music Electronic Company is an glish amplifier manufacturing company, noted for their products' distinctive sound and the bright orange Tolex-like covering of their heads and speaker cabinets. The company was founded in 1968 by Cliff Cooper, who decided to build his own amplifiers wh vdors refused to supply his West d musical instrumt store, Orange Store, due to Cooper's youth and countercultural image.
The brand's early amps were adopted by Peter Gre of Fleetwood Mac and were used on Stevie Wonder's Superstition, which brought Orange worldwide recognition.
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The brand's Pics Only models—nicknamed for their use of symbols rather than text on their control panels—were released in the early 1970s to much success and established a signature Orange sound. However, large-scale production of Orange Amps ceased in 1978 and Cooper spt the '80s building and selling amps in limited numbers.
After a line of reissue models licsed by Gibson in the early '90s proved unsuccessful, Cooper regained control of the brand and found new success with the 1998 release of the AD30, with notable fans like Jimmy Page. In 2003, Orange released the Rockerverb series, which has become a favorite amp among heavy metal guitarists.
And oped premises at 3 New Compton Street in London's West d. Initially, Cooper used only the basemt as a professional recording studio. The original studio featured an IBC mixing console originally owned by Joe Meek, producer of The Millionaires. Because the studio failed to meet its business costs, on September 2, 1968 the ground floor premises were oped as a music shop. In order to cover wage costs for the business, Cooper sold his own electronic musical equipmt.
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Difficulties in obtaining stock meant that the new Orange shop at first dealt only in second hand equipmt. Many musicians around that time preferred older, used, or beat-up guitars as they were considered to be of better quality and have more character than the new ones available. The Orange shop was the first to cater for this market. The difficulties faced in stocking the shop led Cooper to design Orange's own amplifiers. In late autumn of 1968, Huddersfield based company Radio Craft, owned by Mat Mathias, was appointed to produce the first Orange-branded amplifiers.
Whilst in London, Orange shop salesman Mick Dines became closely involved with the design of Orange cabinets. Because Dines was a touring musician, he understood how road travel strained equipmt and lead to breakdown. Dines sured that durability was at the forefront of the Orange design, with features such as the basketweave grillecloth. Additionally, wood skids provided strgth and improved the sound dramatically by acoustically coupling the cabinet to the stage or wood floor.
It is a common misconception that the earliest Orange amplifiers were jointly produced by Orange and Matamp, the brand name that Mathias used on his own design of amplifiers. This was not the case. Radio Craft produced hi-fi guitar amplifiers which, whilst ideal for bass guitar, produced a tone far too clean and flat for electric lead guitars. Early Orange Matamp amplifiers were built by Radio Craft to Cooper's specification to provide a new geration of guitarists with the sustain they demanded. The front d was modified and Cooper changed the chassis from lightweight aluminium to amelled steel. The Orange logo was designed to be clearly visible on stage. Wh the design was delivered to Radio Craft, Mathias suggested that a small Matamp logo be added. As a courtesy to Mathias, Cooper agreed to this request, making Matamp a model name.
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The first of the Orange Matamp amplifiers were 100 watt valve amps and were produced in very small numbers in the rear of a tobacconist shop owned by Mathias. Demand for Orange amplifiers grew quickly and Radio Craft was unable to keep up with orders. It became appart that larger premises were required for business growth.
Mathias was unable to finance the move at the time. In 1969, Cooper Mathias Ltd was formed to replace Radio Craft. Cooper's feeling was that a 50/50 partnership would be to the advantage of all parties, rather than to simply finance Radio Craft with the befit of cheaper overheads in Huddersfield than in London. The ctral plan behind Cooper Mathias was to increase capacity and productivity to a level at which the service could be offered to other amplifier companies.
The factory in Cowcliffe near Huddersfield was oped in early 1970. Mathias would drive from Huddersfield with a small number of completed amplifier chassis which would be fitted into sleeves, boxed, and despatched from the Orange Shop in London. At this time business in London was moving very rapidly; however, the situation in Huddersfield was much slower. Whilst visiting the factory for a production meeting, Cooper was struck by the slow pace of production. Large numbers of back orders meant that production at Cowcliffe was failing to keep up with demand and the low number of units being produced caused the operation to be non cost effective and not covering its overheads.
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The decision was tak to d Orange's relationship with Matamp. Cooper and Mathias remained on fridly terms despite the split, with Cooper describing Mathias as a real gtleman for whom I have always had nothing but the greatest admiration. After the decision to cease production in Huddersfield, Cooper located premises in a derelict shop on the corner of Neil's Yard and Short's Gards in the Covt Gard area of London. This move was to increase productivity and to provide more room for cabinet making, amp testing, and storage, with cabinets being produced on the ground floor and amplifiers in the basemt.
In 1971, whilst driving in London, Cooper noticed the new road signs being introduced into the UK used graphic symbols rather than words and asked the design team to come up with a set of custom symbols that would clearly show what the control was for and would make sse to users who may not be familiar with glish.
It was in 1972 that John James, Orange's Research and Developmt gineer, designed what would become one of the world's most iconic amplifiers, The Graphic Valve Amplifier, nicknamed simply Pics Only, which was a referce to the unique front graphic panels. Early models of the Pics Only were known as Plexis because they had a plastic reverse printed perspex panel secured on an orange steel backplate fixed to the chassis. With later models the front panel was not plastic but silk scre printed metal plates. The Pics Only was the start of the new sound now associated with Orange and has remained the influce for the design and sound of Orange Amplifiers. With demand for Orange amplifiers still increasing it was necessary once again to seek larger premises and locate a proper factory facility.
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In 1973, production was moved to 17 Upland Road, Bexleyheath, in Kt. There a proper production line was possible, and this resulted in a marked increase in the number of amplifiers and cabinets being completed, an average of one amp per worker per day. This more industrial approach meant that amplifiers and cabinets could be lined up, 20–30 units at a time, and completed sequtially. This period saw distribution of Orange products in the US for the first time. It was also in 1973 that the Pics Only was redesigned. As well as some electronic modifications, the front panel was amded resulting in the Graphic 120 Pics & Text amplifier which was launched in 1974.
In 1975, Orange launched the Custom Reverb Twin MKII which was introduced to compete directly with the Fder Twin Reverb; similarly priced, this amp featured a Hammond spring reverb, a tremolo, and a master volume. It was initially available only as a 50 Watt but the success of this model as a versatile studio amplifier led to a 100 Watt version being produced. Unusually, this model featured black with silver fleck speaker cloth rather than the iconic Basketweave grille cloth.
The Orange brand was well established as a manufacturer of valve amps by the mid-1970s, but Cooper was ke to diversify the Orange product range and include solid state amplifiers for the first time. OMEC, which stands for Orange Music Electronic Company, was formed. Cooper gaged designer Peter Hamilton with the brief to design a computerised amp. The only way to achieve this was with the use of SSI and MSI (small and medium scale logic chips.)
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At the time there was a stark choice, largely due to cost, betwe TTL (transistor-transistor logic) which consumed a large amount of power but was readily available and well prov or a new technology from RCA called COS-MOS which was low power consumption but prone to static damage. At the time COS-MOS was considered too risky to use. That technology led to today's CMOS microcontrollers with built in static protection, low power consumption, and
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