Although it arrived on the scene a little later than the
other UK-based amp companies often cited as having
“the British sound,” Orange quickly expanded the perception
of that tone and established a reputation for loud, delectably
raunchy amps with equally transfixing cosmetics and eminently
giggable construction. Players as diverse as Jimmy Page, Johnny
Winter, B.B. King, Paul Kossoff, Peter Green, Ike Turner,
and T. Rex’s Marc Bolan were fans of early Orange amps.
Though the company had its ups and downs—including
a run of extremely reduced production through the
1980s, in addition to a period when Gibson built Oranges
under license—it has experienced something of a renaissance
over the last 13 years since company founder Cliff Cooper
returned to the helm. Highlights of the last decade include
the Rockerverb, AD, and TH series guitar amps, Isobaric
bass cabinets, and the venerable Tiny Terror series—the latter
of which rocked the entire guitar-amp universe and started
the “lunchbox amp” craze of the last few years.
Orange recently released a new book,
The Book of
Orange, to celebrate this proud and storied legacy. The
“flipbook” has two sections—“The Book of Orange” and
“Building the Brand”—each of which begins at one end of
the book and meets the other in the middle. It covers everything
from glorious gear-nerd details to the entrepreneurial
struggles that Cooper faced while establishing the company.
Regardless of which you’re more interested in, you’re bound
to enjoy
The Book of Orange—for even those with an encyclopedic
knowledge of the brand are bound to come across
some rare tidbits heretofore unknown to the vast majority
of guitarists. With the kind permission of Cooper and his
iconic company, we’ve selected a few portions we found particularly
fascinating and excerpted them here.
In the Beginning…
The CTI Pixy Mk V
Transistor micro
guitar amp |
“In 1966, I built my
original studio on
the first floor of a commercial
building I had
rented in Amity Road,
Stratford, East London.
Neighbours soon started to
complain about the noise,
so I had the idea of making
a miniature transistor
guitar amp and fitting it
with an earpiece.
CTI stood for ‘Cooper
Technical Industries.’
About a year later, other
companies were bringing
out similar products
which could be used with
headphones.
I made the Pixy amplifier
on a tag board and I
found that this worked
very well. The earpiece
was a crystal design made
by ACOS and the amp
itself was powered by a
9-volt battery which [fit]
into the base of the unit.
For the case, I rolled thin
aluminium using a metal
form, and covered it in
black vinyl. The circuitry
[fit] into this case. I named
it the CTI Pixy Mk V …
there weren’t any earlier
ones but I figured Mk V
was a good starting point.
I remember going to the
Melody Maker offices, where
I met two journalists—
Chris Hayes and Chris
Welch. I showed them the
Mk V and asked if they
could give me a write-up in
their weekly music paper.
They told me that they
couldn’t personally help
me, but put me in touch
with the advertising department,
who then quoted
me what I considered to
be a small fortune for a
half-page advertisement.
Needless to say, I decided to
economise and take a small
square space advert instead.
I was really surprised when,
within a month, I had sold
about a hundred for just
under £2 each.”
My first ever trade advertisement
Step 1: Creating the
Orange Sound
In the early 1960s,
Yorskhireman Ernest Tony
Emerson was a member of
The British Interplanetary
Society—a group of H.G.
Wells-inspired, space-age
futurists. He designed a
state-of-the-art hi-fi amplifier,
the Connoisseur HQ20.
His friend, Mat Mathias,
owned Radio Craft—a small
repair business based in
Huddersfield. In early 1964,
Mat employed Tony as a
design engineer, and with the
HQ20 as a starting point,
Mat then built his own
guitar amplifier called the
Matamp Series 2000, which
was initially a 20-watt, and
then a 30-watt model.