Dating Orange Speaker Cabinets

randerson

I've heard good things about vintage Orange speaker cabinets but know little about them. Which eras are the good eras and how can you tell them apart from the Gibson re-issues? 

Bygone_Tones

Metal handles on the 70's cabs. You cant really date them accurately without looking at the speakers inside, they all looked pretty much the same in the 70's.

The very early Orange/Matamp ones from the late 60's are slimmer with no handles, just a cutout in the sides. Those are pretty rare though. Nice cabs if you can find them. I've got one here but it's not mine.

The 90's onwards have plastic side handles.

Freebird

I stick to tall blondes 

randerson

Great thanks for the info guys.

DartmoorHedgehog

Bygone_Tones said:

Metal handles on the 70's cabs. 
The 90's onwards have plastic side handles.

They must have gone back to metal again at some point, at least on some of the cabs, because I've got a modern Orange cab with metal handles.  I bought it second-hand but it can't be more than ten years old.  It's a Chinese-made PPC212OB if that makes any difference - perhaps the UK-made cabs have plastic handles.

57Deluxe

this sounds like a Mary Spender topic...

Bygone_Tones

DartmoorHedgehog said:

Bygone_Tones said:

Metal handles on the 70's cabs. 
The 90's onwards have plastic side handles.

They must have gone back to metal again at some point, at least on some of the cabs, because I've got a modern Orange cab with metal handles.  I bought it second-hand but it can't be more than ten years old.  It's a Chinese-made PPC212OB if that makes any difference - perhaps the UK-made cabs have plastic handles.

You are probably right, but the modern metal handles are very different in appearance to the old ones. The 70's cabs have the chrome insert in the center and tend to rust. Same as the old Marshall metal handles. Like this:

 

Bygone_Tones

These are the earlier ones with the orange/matamp badge on the front, slimmer with no metal handles:

DartmoorHedgehog

Bygone_Tones said:

the modern metal handles are very different in appearance to the old ones. The 70's cabs have the chrome insert in the center and tend to rust. Same as the old Marshall metal handles. 

Ah, mine don't have that chrome bit - they're all black.  Otherwise very similar though.