History

Cliff Cooper – Founder & CEO One day in 1978 – without giving any notice – building contractors appeared on the scene, closed off New Compton Street and prepared for demolition work of all the shops… including ours. Customers and...

Born out of the advanced technology and design of the OMEC Digital Programmable Amplifier, OMEC introduced an entire range of 150 watt transistor instrument and public address amplifiers. ORIGIN OF THE OMEC RANGE John James – Designer “In the mid-1970s...

The world’s first digitally programmable amplifier. A world first. The OMEC Digital Peter Hamilton – OMEC Digital Designer “I designed the OMEC amp in 1974/75. Before that, I spent a few months as a student fixing amps part-time in the...

Cliff Cooper – Founder and CEO “OMEC stands for Orange Music Electronic Company. We chose the word ‘electronic’ to suggest digital and transistorised amplifiers, as opposed to the valve amps that had established the Orange brand in the early 1970s....

Mick Dines – Production Manager Jimmy Bean was Cliff’s idea – to create a guitar stack in denim and leather… “At the time, everyone was wearing jeans, so we thought the Jimmy Bean idea might start a new trend in...

1974 – The Pics and Text Adrian Emsley – Technical Director “The big difference between the Pics & Text and what came before was that the Pics & Text had a DC- coupling concertina phase splitter, which improved the sound.”...