Orange 2 x 12 cab wattages

[CommonCourtesy]

I am playing a festival next weekend with shared backline and have been told I'll be lent an Orange 2 x 12 cab to play through, I have a Peavey 6505+ 120 watt head.

Does anyone know the wattage of the 2 x 12's? I think its 120 but not entirely sure. I will be ok to run a 120 watt head into 120 speaker cab right? I know the guideline is to normally double the cab wattage  to what the head is but I don't have that luxury.

[JDC]

Those cabs usually have a pair of vintage 30s in them which are 60w thus 120w together, technically you could run the head into it if you used a lot less volume (I'm guessing half volume but I'll let someone else verify), to be safe I'd get one of those plug adapters that tells you how many watts you're pulling from the mains.

[Dmoney]

If it's a festival do you have monitors? You're amp won't need to be that loud perhaps.

Some things to note. Half volume is 10 times less power. The numbers of the dials mean very little... 10 is not max output, the output valves are starting to clip much earlier than that on the dial, around 12 noon on some master volume amps. The wattage you put out is a function of the voltage leaving the amp going to the speaker load. The power drawn from a wall socket doesn't come into the equation at all. You can't accurately tell what power you are putting out without having some equipment on the output of the amp, and that isn't practical for a gig.

I reckon you'll be ok really. failing that, crank that sucker up and blow the cab! rock n roll baby! or ask around when you get there to borrow another cab, or take you own cab anyway or ask another band if they happen to be taking stuff. Find a contact for whoever is running the stage/sound or the cab owner and ask their opinion.You have plenty of options. How many guitars does your band have? If its just you take a second speaker cable and use a cab on the other side of the stage... take your cab and run two cabs but have yours away from the cab they have mic'd up so you don't disturb anything. loads you can do.

[CommonCourtesy]

Yes it will have, I believe the stage we are on will be a decent setup.

I rarely have to turn up the master volume past 2 on this amp, and that's through a 4 x 12. I haven't used this amp yet through a 2 x 12 but I can imagine being told to turn down and the bass being tighter.

I can't take my own cab cos of the lack of space, and although they say "a standard guitar amp is supplied" I suspect this "amp" is just a combo, and I ain't using that! In fact the 2 x 12 belongs to the band playing before us, I have a feeling its the Jim Root #4 signature one as I went on their fb page and there were photos of it when they bought it.

We have 2 guitarists, the other one plays a Blackstar HT40 combo.

Is there a way of using both cabs on top of each other and having some kind of jack lead to go into both? Cos our other guitarist won't need a cab so I COULD use both and turn it into a half stack.

[Dmoney]

If the other guitarist doesn't need to use the cab provided for him, you simply need a long speaker cable to go from the second output on your head to the other cab.

The outputs on your head are jacks wired in parallel, so the cabs will be in parallel with each other at the head.

If each cab is 8ohms, switch your heads output to 4ohms. If the impedances on the cabs don't match then it won't work. If the impedance of both cabs is 4ohms individually, you can't set you head to 2ohms... so that won't work either. It's very unlikely they'll be 4 ohms. They'll almost certainly be 8. If the cabs have extension jacks/outputs to daisychain more cabs, the electrical connection to the head is still the same as using two cables from the head, and the impedance matching still applies (if using two cabs!). If you do that you'll be running 4 speakers rather than 2.

[CommonCourtesy]

Yeah that will depend on if they will let me move both cabs to my side of the stage, I don't think I have a speaker cable long enough to go to the other side of the stage, and the sound engineer won't appreciate me moving stuff around during fast changeovers!

Best bet is to pray that cab is 120 watts minimum, and I don't need a very loud stage volume!

[littleredguitars2]

as long as the speakers are stock vintage 30's they are definitely 120watt. granted you'll probably hook to a PA right? so you wont have to push it that hard

and side note, i really never liked my 5150 through my orange cab. sounds much better through the matched 5150 4x12 and even sounded great through an egnator 4x12 that i dont remember the specs of.

[CommonCourtesy]

Yeah I believe its this one:

https://www.orangeamps.com/products/guitar-speaker-enclosures/closed-back/4-jim-root-ppc212-speaker-enclosure/

Says 120 watts, if its the same one they're using. But its 2 x 8 ohm "Orange Voice of the World" speakers, not V30's.
And yes most likely we'll be mic'd up and have monitors. I don't expect to turn up that loud.

Yeah I would have liked to have played through a 4 x 12 but its a festival with shared backline for quicker changeover. You ever played your 5150 through a Mesa cab?

[Alex]

As others have mentioned, there's no way to be sure, but since the cab will be miced, setting the amp's master no more than half-way should be safe. Since you say you usually don't turn it past 2, I think a setting around 3 or 4 should be fine. Normally less volume on stage is preferred anyway.

Also, if the speakers seems mushy and the low end undefined, don't hesitate to turn the resonance down first. The 5150 will probably pump out a lot more low end (and a much clearer and stronger signal) than the 15 Watt Jim Root amp; I'm guessing those voice of the world speakers were voiced to sound very full and warm, to support the small power amp.

[CommonCourtesy]

There's no way I'll need to turn up past 3, even 2 is quite loud and I've been told to turn down loads of times by sound engineers.

Haven't played through Orange cabs much but I know loads of people dig them, maybe cos of the V30's normally but these ones in the Jim Root sig are different. As long as I cut through the mix and my sound ain't mushy I'm alright with that. My 6505+ does a good job of that usually, esp if I whack the mids up and go easy on the gain.

[littleredguitars2]

Yeah I believe its this one:

https://www.orangeamps.com/products/guitar-speaker-enclosures/closed-back/4-jim-root-ppc212-speaker-enclosure/

Says 120 watts, if its the same one they're using. But its 2 x 8 ohm "Orange Voice of the World" speakers, not V30's.
And yes most likely we'll be mic'd up and have monitors. I don't expect to turn up that loud.

Yeah I would have liked to have played through a 4 x 12 but its a festival with shared backline for quicker changeover. You ever played your 5150 through a Mesa cab?

through a 4x12 that i believe was v30s. not sure. it wasnt my cab and to be honest i didnt like it. maybe i just dont 5150s with v30s. i dont know

[Dave Sloven]

I run my 6534+ through an Orange 412 with V30s that is rated to 240W, this 212 will be 120W.

On the volumes, 2 might be loud for home playing but I routinely play mine at 3 or sometimes at 4 in practice.  The other guitarist and the bassist tend to have their amps up fairly loud.  I'm surprised that you'd been told to turn it down.  Peaveys really don't start to sound right until you get up to 3.  Below 2 they can sound pretty bad, and I wouldn't go below 2 if playing for someone else (even though I do sometimes play on as low as 1 for home practice, but if I am playing that quietly I generally use the Classic 30).

[CommonCourtesy]

Yeah I believe its this one:

https://www.orangeamps.com/products/guitar-speaker-enclosures/closed-back/4-jim-root-ppc212-speaker-enclosure/

Says 120 watts, if its the same one they're using. But its 2 x 8 ohm "Orange Voice of the World" speakers, not V30's.
And yes most likely we'll be mic'd up and have monitors. I don't expect to turn up that loud.

Yeah I would have liked to have played through a 4 x 12 but its a festival with shared backline for quicker changeover. You ever played your 5150 through a Mesa cab?

through a 4x12 that i believe was v30s. not sure. it wasnt my cab and to be honest i didnt like it. maybe i just dont 5150s with v30s. i dont know

Hmm so many people have said the Mesa is such a good amp, but I dunno if I can justify spending the money on one at the moment.

[CommonCourtesy]

I run my 6534+ through an Orange 412 with V30s that is rated to 240W, this 212 will be 120W.

On the volumes, 2 might be loud for home playing but I routinely play mine at 3 or sometimes at 4 in practice.  The other guitarist and the bassist tend to have their amps up fairly loud.  I'm surprised that you'd been told to turn it down.  Peaveys really don't start to sound right until you get up to 3.  Below 2 they can sound pretty bad, and I wouldn't go below 2 if playing for someone else (even though I do sometimes play on as low as 1 for home practice, but if I am playing that quietly I generally use the Classic 30).

So in theory that should be alright? Haha.

I've never turned my amp to 4 before, let alone 3. We have a pretty loud drummer and I can drown him out at 2.5 lol. I've played through 2 x 12's before with my old Marshall JCM2000 and I did turn it up but that was a 50 watt amp so I had more headroom to work with.

The stage will have good monitors I'm told and the cab will be mic'd up as I've mentioned, maybe I can get away with it on 2.

[CommonCourtesy]

So I played the show on Saturday, through the Orange 2 x 12, don't know if it was the Jim Root one cos it looks different, so it could well have been V30's. Anyway's it was fine, no issues with the wattages or whatever, and I only needed the volume on 2 like expected to hear myself and be in the mix out front.

I know its a festival but how are you meant to get your tone in 5 seconds when the sound engineer calls for your guitar? If you start playing during the kick drum being soundcheck you'll obviously be told to be quiet.

I found my sound was nice and bright, maybe I should've whacked the resonance up a bit to make it more darker (it was 6/7), had 2 monitors in front of me, for my side of the stage.  Fairly even levels of EQ, bass/mids/trebs on about 6/7. Went easy on the gain, as I used a Tubescreamer to tighten up the flubby tone.