How to repair Orange OR120 100 watt EL34 tube guitar amp famous concert machine

First one in the shop. A very heavy unit. Needed the typical cap replacement and new tubes. Lots of room inside. Giant power and output transformers. Too bad that they used a circuitboard rather than a classic eyelet board for the preamp circuitry. A great piece of history. Doubt that I will have another show up any time soon. Sounded glorious, Not a Fender tone, more on the Marshall side but remains clean all the way up. Cool design.

[@andersf324]

Nice! Nostalgia is burning. I owned a '75 OR120 back in Sweden. Modded it myself with a master volume and some cap value adjustments. Probably the best sounding amp I ever had. When I moved to the States I had to leave it behind. Still miss that amp.

[@buzzedalldrink9131]

Cool wearing the Orange shirt for the video!!

[@embreesmith7613]

Thanks Terry I have an 80 as well as the 120

[@georgebarry8640]

I had a 1972 OR120..and it was the SWEETEST clean I ever heard. Had to sell it when life got tough...it also needed a lil help (back in 96 when I sold it). Based on my recollection...you made this one sound just like my old 1972. BRAVO!

[@RocknJazzer]

Their clean was hard and harsh and didnt stay clean up loud, poor tone control too. glad you liked it but few others do compared to a fender twin or most any other tube amp for clean. These amps were best at distortion. They didnt stay clean. I have owned many the past 30 years

[@billdyke9745]

The best sounding Orange amps are the ones that aren't working. Nobody bought these for their clean sounds, they chose them when Marshalls didn't get dirty enough. I'm old and English. Suffered temporary deafness through many of these back in the day. Enjoyed every minute, strange to say. Plus ça change...

[@sjgreaves]

This is almost the opposite of my experience. Certainly more modern Orange amps get super dirty and distorted, that's how they ended up getting favoured by guys like Jim Root from Slipknot (and many others) but these older models were a very different beast and were not made for heavy distortion at all. Loud, yes but distorted? not so much. That's kind of reflected in the circuit, both have 3 'gain' stages before the PI but the Orange uses a cathodyne PI which is typically less that unity gain whereas the Marshall uses a LTP PI which is effectively an additional gain stage - not that it matters much at the end of the day, whatever works for the guy playing.

[@billdyke9745]

@@sjgreaves A facetious comment on my part, and I bow to your superior knowledge. As it happens I saw 2 videos yesterday of Dave Simpson playing the amp model in question without distortion. In one, with reverb & delay it sounded beautiful. In the other, dry, it was bland in my opinion. No way of telling how loudly he was playing, of course, but it was a domestic setting.

[@Andrew-ry7iw]

Wow, they didn't skimp on the transformers

[@GenetNasty]

Looks good inside, nice wire brading. Loud and brutal in the hands of a player with attitude.

[@hestheMaster]

Great fix Terry. You do know you stuff around wiring. Moving and replacing parallel supply wiring under the tubes fix was a good call.

[@jwilko7998]

Another great job done, love the sound from these amps.

[@kbkman7742]

Fuckin love old Oranges. Great rock n roll and stoner amps

[@Parkwoodparkenfarker]

You could have gotten those can caps. I just did, for a 1978 Hiwatt Custom 50, where the wiring was so beautiful I didn't want to touch it, but I had to! Silver face Fender wiring is a shit show compared to British mil spec. but we are all used to seeing garbage over here so ke sera sera. There is something to be said for neat and clean wiring. You are 10x the tech I will ever be, but look at some pictures of the under side of a 70's Hiwatt if you want to cream your jeans.

[@GregoryHillSr]

Love your videos!! You have helped me understand how amps age and when to send in. If you were closer I'd send my amps to you!

[@rscelectrical7091]

Great job, that's a sweet sounding amp 👍

[@bikerboyaj6539]

Splendid!!! Awesome information Keep uploading videos..... because we love it......👍🏻👍🏻❤

[@rciancia]

Orange meets Fender.... A Forange !! Did you know Orange was originally a make of PC's but when IBM cornered the market, that was over. Great job man, that amp sings.. I have an Orange Tiny Terror 500W Bass ( Hybrid) good stuff for sure.

[@ahmedlasfer8037]

hi guy i really liked replacing the capacitors especially power supply, and installing the new wires is really awesome, your video is awesome thank you very much and see you soon.

[@mostlyoldthings]

Great Job, I liked your sympathetic restoration, particularly the filter cap' replacement. Very interesting about the valve base wiring. I had one of these as a teenager back in the 70's. I worked for weeks in my school vacation to earn the money to buy a brand new OR120. After a while the HT fuse kept blowing. Not having the technical knowledge which I gained later I took the amp back for repair to Orange who did the repair while I waited. I asked what the fault had been and they said that the valve bases were tracking, but I bet the fault was in the wiring to the bases as you explained. This really took me back to my teens! By the way, I used the amp for bass with a JBL 2x15 cabinet. I can confirm that it was very clean and had masses of headroom, I used it for many years, even as a professional musician for a while and it was a great sounding rig.

[@DeadKoby]

Hi Terry... I don't want to be a meanie pants, but right now at CE Dist, you can get a 100uf can cap @500v. There's a double F&T, and a Double by JJ. I don't know if they'd fit the rings. Also, I cringe a bit seeing radials replacing axials... It's just a style thing, and there's no hate.

[@d-labelectronics]

Roger that man. Just following what customers ask for. No worries my friend

[@sjgreaves]

FWIW both F&T and JJ make can caps that should work with this amp but maybe since they are made in EU they are less easy to find in USA. Also - on the filament wiring, I read that you should wire the same 'phase' (ie wire) to the same heater pin to keep hum down because the pairs of tubes in push-pull are out of phase and so hum gets cancelled out to some degree. Old Orange stuff is ok, I'm less impressed with more recent stuff, I had an AD-5 for a while, Chinese transformers, the OT failed spectacularly and when I asked Orange if I could order a replacement they were very unhelpful, refused to sell parts or give any information, basically trying to force me to send it back to them. Well, given that it was a SE EL84 5w amp, it wasn't exactly hard to source a suitable Hammond OT which ended up sounding better too.

[@derrickbaranowsky5715]

Wow man, people here are praising you for a job well done, but those caps are absolutely available and easy to get. Yet you drilled two holes in the chassis of this vintage beauty to cram some others in there instead. Plus, it looks like you didn't twist the filament wires when you moved them. Yikes.

[@RocknJazzer]

Very true, shame he did them wrong just lowered the resale value

[@ChuckCLJ]

I can't believe there was not a bit of silastic on that circuit board. They know these amps sit on top of speakers and vibrate for hours. I don't think I will ever buy an Orange amp after seeing this.

[@RocknJazzer]

There usually is but it dried up over 50 years.

[@thefilthygringo9228]

Awesome to watch..... but something I’ll leave to the pros like you.

[@jdmccorful]

Interesting Cap. Repair on side of chassis. Do no harm,as always.

[@RocknJazzer]

He did harm. He did them wrong and hacked it drilling holes adding boards when didnt have to, see my separate reply above on how to do it like stock like most all techs do, his way is not the right way. hurts resale value not original

[@infectionsman]

Those green filament wires coming from the transformer maybe should have been tightly twisted and shortened like you did with the new green wires. It can make a big difference, I built a high gain amp with ac filaments and virtually no noise thanks to careful layout and wiring job.

[@GregsGarage]

What a cool old piece! 100W is WAY too loud for my taste, but if you're playing to a stadium, they'd rock the house!

[@sjgreaves]

I reckon 100w is just way too loud anyway, it is always funny to see the big names when they talk about gear and they maybe sill use 100w heads on stage but the speakers are either in an iso-cab way off stage or replaced by speaker sims. It seems kind of ironic that guitarists still buy monster 100w heads and then end up wanting to make them quieter with attenuators etc. I used to rock a pair of Marshall JCM900 100w headss and two 4x12 cabs but now my personal choice is smaller amps which I can crank to get 'the sound' without getting stupid loud.

[@BenState]

@@sjgreaves bigger watts = bigger transformer = bigger bottom end

[@sjgreaves]

@@BenState Tweed deluxe gets too much bottom end with a pretty small OT... Sure there are pros and cons but weight and cost would be pretty high on the cons list vs a change in EQ to get the bottom end but each to their own...

[@tomcurrie7249]

Terry, Why not replace the original filter cap cans with drop in replacements such as JJ or F&Ts. Just seems like less of a hassle and cleaner.

[@shiner555]

Yes was wondering the same thing. Some folks would not want new holes drilled in the side depending on the year. I have a 68 pix only OR120! Crazy amps!! Great work always either way.

[@d-labelectronics]

I could not find the exact replacement in the original diameter, so went with the F&T's

[@charlamaignebutt586]

@@d-labelectronics What about simply gutting those old, green Plessy caps and mounting the new ones inside them? They are a bit dumpy but even if the new ones are protruding, they are at least in the right place and look the same from the top. It is a messy job, done it many times but my preferred method.

[@zbaby82]

@@charlamaignebutt586 If it were my amp I'd just have those caps throw into the wastebasket.

[@grhinson]

I wish I still had mine....Now I want to cry....

[@paulrunning9674]

Hey Terry, curious to know the B+ voltage at the output transformer of this amp, I imagine it''s high for 4 x EL34, producing 120W

[@keithmcneil1180]

Dual 100uf cap cans are available. A bit hard to find but yeah...

[@johnnaighley9252]

Yep! You can get them from F&T also ... And even from JJ ...

[@natureandphysics403]

Terry sorted that Orange's electrolytes!

[@RocknJazzer]

he did it the wrong way. dont do that. he didnt have to, you can get same orig type caps, he hacked it and lower the resale value on it now.

[@johnsimms3957]

Cool. Were you impressed with the circuit Terry? Was it quality? I've never owned or played one.

[@bobblum5973]

First off, enjoyed the video, as usual. Just curious, since I didn't see it mentioned, but is there any issue with 50 Hz versus 60 Hz line power since this amp originated in London? I'm not assuming there would be any problem if it was either designed for both or this is a US model. I guess I've watched too many Techmoan videos, or remember stereo gear with configuration blocks or switches to select various voltages. Powerline frequency would affect motors and such primarily, if I recall it would only affect output voltage slightly, so minimal impact.

[@RocknJazzer]

No but the voltage is too high these days for these but he didnt catch that fact

[@oldguyjammin9732]

Question - I’d love to add a bright switch to my Orange Brent Hinds Terror but don’t want to brighten both channels, just the lack luster “natural” channel. Thoughts? I thought I’d throw a 220 uf cap in the signal path of that channel but can’t find a schematic. Thanks in advance - cool channel - subbed :)

[@timburle4980]

I think you mean pf

[@cobberdig]

I have a later iteration of this amp. Still from the 70s but with the master volume pot added. It sounds like sludge.

[@BenState]

I think your friend is pretending to play guitar in order to hang out with you Dr D!

[@grumhagen8385]

How much for a clone of this in a Marshall jcm 800 after market chassis?

[@kengevers8738]

Terry, those filter caps on the chassis are readily available. Sorry for criticism, but I think the job could have been done with a little more thought. Board caps, good job there.

[@johnsimms3957]

I believe F&T caps are better though.

[@kengevers8738]

@@johnsimms3957 It doesn't matter which caps are used. They do the job, great. My criticism was with Terry and drilling holes in the chassis and using a terminal strip and an insulator between them. Terry could have acquired some through chassis caps as was used in the original caps. They are available and no modifications required...

[@BenState]

@@kengevers8738 and are garbage which is why f&ts are used

[@Alex-ze9tv]

Man that is rad how you did the filter caps.

[@RocknJazzer]

that is not rad, he hacked it and did them wrong, he didnt have to do that you can get them same as orig, he just lowered the value of it now lol

[@douro20]

At least it's an older Orange amp.

[@Wizardofgosz]

Did the owner want to keep the look of the original filter caps? I would have been OK with just changing them directly to the new ones.

[@d-labelectronics]

Yes, wanted the look original

[@Wizardofgosz]

@@d-labelectronics It woulda been fine. These people need to get over it! :-)

[@knifeswitch5973]

Not only does it keep the original look, but what to do with the vacant spots? You don’t want to leave them open to let crud into the chassis. Covering the holes will look crappy. Plus, later down the road you might find the replacement cans. I’ve seen folks re-stuff the old cans but that’s a lot of mucking around.

[@Wizardofgosz]

@@knifeswitch5973 Bah. There is already two holes on that chassis for wire pass-thrus. There are solution to every problem. The simple fact of the matter is those caps arent being used, and they're just boat anchors. Replace them.

[@MrMeik1970]

Nice Amp 👌sounds like an old Plexi

[@Finom1]

I would like to buy that amp! Would the owner be interested in selling it? Any schematics for that one?

[@sjgreaves]

There is loads of information on the internet including schematics, just Google it. I would imagine they are not too hard to pick up in UK, try Reverb.com - there are several for sale in US by the looks of it.

[@tubeDude48]

Terry, noticed your can of WD-40. Do you know that they have released: *WD-40* *Contact* *Cleaner* & *WD-40* *Gel* ? They're NO *DeoxIT,* but they now serve a purpose around electronic devices!!

[@d-labelectronics]

Yeah, I heard about that. Need to get some and maybe do a review.

[@jwilko7998]

I just purchased it and used it on my Johnson millennium JD 150 and works great, no crackle/pops any more.

[@hestheMaster]

It is a good replacement for MG Chemicals Electrosolve contact cleaner. At their price you get 2 and half more cleaner per can with the WD-40 contact cleaner. Yes I have used both and they both work the same so get some WD-40 Professional Contact Cleaner at any local hardware store or even Walmart!

[@kbkman7742]

I use the wd40 contact cleaner... it's a good non lubed type. I used it on tube sockets and stuff with success.

[@tubeDude48]

@@d-labelectronics - I bought them through Amazon.

[@bebo5558]

Your not going to fix that orange, your going to "peel it"! Ha Ha

[@embreesmith7613]

Those impedance selectors can lose connection inside

[@tschupbach]

Not sure if I'm the only one this happened to, but the video switched to ads in the middle and towards the end. had to wait on the thing to allow me to skip, still forced me to wait 4 seconds (OMG, so much time :-) to finish. I'm one of your Patreon subscribers and if this is something that is going to happen in the future, will have to reconsider that. Sorry to rant, but a big distraction for me. Tom

[@d-labelectronics]

Hello, Sorry for the ads, I have no control of how they pop up. Plus, I am not on Patreon. Not sure who you are donating to, its not me

[@tschupbach]

@@d-labelectronics oops, red face here. Still hate the ads though. You always have good videos, thanks for making them.

[@hestheMaster]

Never seen a mid video ads with my ad remover app ( Enhancer for KZbin). The only thing it does is before the video starts I get a message on a dark screen with a 15 seconds to go . To fool this I open another window to KZbin and it doesn't do that. Goes straight to a video! Weird huh. Not the video maker's fault at all!

[@kbkman7742]

KZbin puts ads in that's not the creator's fault man

[@peterday7077]

I would have tossed those old filter caps.

[@RocknJazzer]

yeah new same type replacements are available but he didnt know, now he hacked it with added board and holes, such a shame, lowered resale value now