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NAD - 1970 Orange Matamp OR200


umcoo
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This is it...this is the holy grail!

Shipped over from Sweden, this is a 1970 Orange Matamp OR200.  As used by Jimmy Page and many others back in the day.  I believe they were only built for a few years and they don't come up very often, so I snapped this one up when it became available.

Fell in love with these back in my teens when Weezer's original bass player used one on their first couple of albums and been after one ever since.  The UPS guy was pleased I was in to help him with the box, but out of the box it's not terribly heavy...the two handles make it relatively manageable.  Not had chance to really crank it, but just take my word that it sounds really good 😁

Anyway, pics...

IL5IUpg.jpg

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ROBCQVI.jpg

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Nicely done! That's a damn good packing job too.

A couple of month back I would have offered to look through the serial book at the factory but I've a new job and can't get over as much as I used to. If you gave Jeff a ring he might have a look for you if he's not snowed under.

What's the sn? Mine is 393 and it's from 73. They made them for orange until 75 and I think the final number of them went up to the mid four hundreds but don't quote me on that. 

 

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Thanks guys,

I'm out of the country at the moment so not sure on the serial number. I seem to think it's in the 250's, and the front chassis is different, very early 200's. I'll double check when I'm home. 

I have a Matamp GT100 from 1976 that Matamp serviced for me, Jeff gave me the build date from the book. I'll perhaps ask them to date it at some point. Was told it was a 1970 though. 

Have you moved on all your old Matamp gear now Dave?

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One of my mates has an OR120 in his recording studio. Its never gigged by him as he reckons its too old and could be unreliable but what a bloomin tone it has. I tried one day i was in his studio with my Jazz bass and it was deep, smooth with clear mids but the presence it had. So hard to describe but just the sweetest, mellow bass tone i've ever had.

I even considered buying an Orange head to match the Orange rig i have but never got round to it.

Wishing you all the best with that and keep us up to date on how it sounds to you.

Dave

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I hope you’re somewhere nice and sunny and you’ve got your feet up.

The power and pre amp serials don’t often match up as Matamp delivered the completed chassis to Orange who then put them into the boxes which they sourced from elsewhere. There were a few different formats for the pre amps including the PA mixer, slave and lead/bass/organ variations. 

A fair chunk of the collection has gone now. I’m waiting on my or200  getting fixed currently, then I’ll refurbish the box and put that up. 

I finished my masters last month so I’ll have a bit more time to get stuff moving. 

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I'm in Florida so yes, very hot but can't really say I've got my feet up 😂

I'm surprised at how high I can push the volume and it still be a reasonable level actually. I'll try and book a practice room soon and really crank it to see what it can do 😎

Shame you moved on most of your collection, bit it's defo worth experiencing a Matamp at full tilt at some point in bass-playing career! Congrats on the Masters! 👍

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Nice! 

Yeah, all the Ormat stuff is pretty clean. I’ll bet you could rattle the fillings out of your teeth with the right cabs. 

Im disappointed that it’s all going, but I should be left with a good wedge when it’s all gone and that’ll be used for something sensible rather than more gear (famous last words). 

Cheers for the congratulations too.  I’m chuffed to bits. 

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  • 3 months later...

If you want, by any chance change it to '72 blueline ampeg SVT, I'm ready to do a swap. 

By the way, OR200 is not the sound on the Blue Album, which was entirely recorded on Ampeg B15N (due to noise/electrical problems in the building with OR200). Don't remember what ended on Pinkerton.

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9 hours ago, boroman said:

If you want, by any chance change it to '72 blueline ampeg SVT, I'm ready to do a swap. 

By the way, OR200 is not the sound on the Blue Album, which was entirely recorded on Ampeg B15N (due to noise/electrical problems in the building with OR200). Don't remember what ended on Pinkerton.

Hi,

 

Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll be keeping the OR200 for some time.

Good Weezer knowledge, you are correct it was a B-15 on the Blue album.  Pink was the OR200 for everything except Tired of Sex, which was a GK 800RB

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On 12/02/2019 at 19:51, umcoo said:

Hi,

 

Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll be keeping the OR200 for some time.

Good Weezer knowledge, you are correct it was a B-15 on the Blue album.  Pink was the OR200 for everything except Tired of Sex, which was a GK 800RB

Glad to know! Love the sound of both records. What distortion pedal was used then? Big Muff?

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  • 1 year later...

I was able to finally buy one! The first thing I did was full re-cap and screen grind resistor change (bigger value/bigger wattage). So the amp will not blow using current production KT88s which are nowhere near to the GEC KT88 these were designed for. The same sound, more reliability.

Edited by boroman
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8 hours ago, boroman said:

I was able to finally buy one! The first thing I did is full re-cap and screen grind resistor change (bigger value/bigger wattage). So the amp will not blow using current production KT88s which are nowhere near to the GEC KT88 this were designed for. The same sound, more reliability.

Pics!

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1 minute ago, umcoo said:

Pics!

Will try to post tomorrow! Need to make some shots. But it's the same unit without matamp logo like here: http://orangefieldguide.com/OFG_MAT200.htm - I have never seen another one like this, and these were one of the VERY last ones made. Some resistor values (amp was dead stock) were a bit different than in Ormat schematic I got but they still were stock. E.g. 100k vs 150k resistors etc... might be a just a circuit tweak that happened over the years. 

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