STEP 2: PROJECTING THE ORANGE SOuND
In December 1968, Mick Dines [above] joined
the company as a salesman in the Orange Shop.
He immediately became
involved in the design of the
Orange cabinets. As a young
bass guitarist he understood
how equipment could be
so easily mistreated on the
road. His first priority was
to make Orange cabinets
the most solid and robust
cabinets available. When
it came to choosing the
speaker front cloth, his main
concern was durability.
Mick chose a tough
material called Basketweave.
Orange speaker cabinets
could now certainly take the
knocks and were appreciated
by the roadies. Guitarists
loved the “thickened” sound
that the Basketweave helped
to create. What’s more,
the Orange 4x12 was 15"
deep—until then, 14" was
the norm. This extra depth
also helped to define the
distinctive “Orange sound.”
[Cliff Cooper continues]
“When I first noticed
the Marshall 4x12, I
thought it was made of
very thick plywood, but
then when I looked more
closely, it wasn’t as thick as
it looked—it had an extra
wooden frame border fixed
inside the front rim of the
cabinet to create the illu-
sion of thicker wood. I had
the idea of having a picture
frame rather than a rim on
our own 4x12 cabs. That
design was a first for us. It
made Orange cabs and amp
heads look very unique.
The design remains almost
unchanged today.
40th Anniversary
Limited Edition 4x12
“Orange marked the first generation of gear that
could actually take the punishment of extended
roadwork. The cabinets were so well made that
it was nearly impossible to damage the speakers,
even by kicking them, since the grill cloth was
thick and as strong as wire.” —Stuart “Dinky”
Dawson, the original Fleetwood Mac’s road
manager (Excerpted from his autobiography
Life on the Road)
or casters, which we found
tended to rattle and roll,
we came up with the idea
of having tough wooden
runners—which we called
“skids.” The original idea
was durability, making
loading and unloading out
of vans or onstage easier. It
turned out that the skids
dramatically improved the
sound by acoustically cou-
pling the cabinets to the
stage or wooden floor.”
