[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1442342585' post='2866263']
The first Orange heads were built by Matt Mathias at Matamp and badged Orange. Orange was just a music store in London at the time selling mainly second hand gear. Matt was a purist and perfectionist who was not at all keen on hi-gain. It was one of the reasons Matt and Cliff Cooper fell out, as Cliff was pushing for more dirt.
So vintage Orange will be cleaner. Plus all the older Orange stuff is 100% hand-wired and very reliable, unlike the new Chinese built printed circuit board stuff. I don't think you could even compare them, two totally different things.
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Late seventies/early eighties I had a Marshall Superbass 100w valve head with two 412 cabs. Boy it could fill a room but I wanted a clean sound back then, but it was unachievable with the Marshall. Knowing what I know now tho it would probably be tone nirvana for me these days!
I remember Matt at Matamp giving me a factory tour and demo of his 100w Matamp. He took great delight in showing how loud it could go, but it was no more than a distorted mush. Had an Orange valve head back then too. It used to cutout midsong every gig, same song everytime.