Making an Orange AD30 Less Dark

[ad30]

Hello Forum Members,

I have an Orange AD30R combo (single channel with reverb) and love the basic character, but I'd like to open the tone up a bit. Up against my Deluxe Reverb, it just lacks a bit of clarity and presence. It's slightly muffled in comparison and the tone pots won't get me near the Fender.

Can anyone tell me specifically what caps and resistors make it sound dark? What is it about the Blackface amps that makes them so present and clear and can I bring some of that character to the AD30 by modifications?

Here's the AD30 schematic:

http://users.telenet.be/orangefg/OFG...angeAD30_1.pdf

And here's the tone stack from the AD140, the top one in the .pdf I'm told it's the same as the AD30:

http://users.telenet.be/orangefg/OFG...frontpanel.pdf

The AD30 also has quite a honky midrange. I'm not sure if this is the Vintage 30's yet. Any ideas on that?

Thanks.

[Steve A.]

Originally Posted by ad30

Hello Forum Members,

I have an Orange AD30R combo (single channel with reverb) and love the basic character, but I'd like to open the tone up a bit. Up against my Deluxe Reverb, it just lacks a bit of clarity and presence. It's slightly muffled in comparison and the tone pots won't get me near the Fender.

Can anyone tell me specifically what caps and resistors make it sound dark? What is it about the Blackface amps that makes them so present and clear and can I bring some of that character to the AD30 by modifications?

For starters you might want to look at the Phase Inverter. The .047uF cap going in is much larger than the caps used in a Blackface amp (.001uF in the AB763 Deluxe Reverb).

Another difference: the BF has a tone stack followed by a volume pot after the first gain stage. Your amp has a gain pot after the first stage and a tone stack (with no volume control) after the second stage. The signal going into the PI can get pretty hot- it looks like they use a post PI MV as the only volume control.

Both of the first two stages use a 22uF cathode resistor bypass cap which can increase the bass response a lot. I usually like to replace one or both of those with something between maybe 1uF and 3.3uF.

And speakers would make a big difference, too. Can you try plugging in different speakers? I keep a 1/4" barrel plug with me at all times. With that I can connect a head or combo amp to the speakers in another combo amp.

HTH

Steve Ahola

[ad30]

Nice one, Steve.

I did try the AD30 through the 8 ohm out into the DR cab and the DR into one V30 in the Orange. The honky mids were gone but the AD still didn't have the clarity of the DR.

I'm stuck with the general layout as it is but I have found C3 and C5 in the gain stages and C10 going into the phase inverter as you said. I will do some more thinking on that.

Edited to say, I've finally conceded the AD isn't a DR and is best left how it is. Respect to Leo.

[Dave H]

C4 looks like it is two caps in parallel. The value of C4 on the schematic is 2n2. I'd make sure that it really is 2n2 without the extra cap in parallel, the same goes for C10 which really should be 1n or 500p as Steve said. Also the schematic says "Additional 100pF capacitor fitted between V1B pin 7 and 0V". I'd call that a 'dull' cap. Try removing it.

Dave H.