Nothing special, nothing new, but still exciting! Thanks to band funds from some gigs and the want for new gear, I started going down the rabbit hole. You may have seen my posts about Ashdown and asking questions about Mesa, but ultimately, I fell in love with what Orange had to offer, specifically with the Terror Bass 500.
Sound samples on YT and some basic familiarity with it, as well as the awesome Official Orange Club II thread here, really got me more and more interested in it, so I pulled the trigger last week.
Fast forward to today and it arrived a whole day early. I didn't have a speakon cable, so I hit up GC yesterday and found a 5 footer for $40. I have a 3 footer coming from Amazon tomorrow, so I may be taking the 5' one back and looking for a 1/4" to speakon adapter instead.
Anyway, I heeded everyone's advice. Plugged in the cab (212 Avatar, 4ohm, 500w), plugged in the power, hit standby. Freaked out for about 1.5 seconds since the power light didn't come on immediately, but did, so all good.
I had my trusty L1000 reissue plugged directly into the amp. I had the pad switch on because the output of the L1k is so hot, but when I A/B compared the pad on/off, though there was a difference, it wasn't huge.
First impressions of the amp: round and full sound. I tried it clean and then not and messed around with the gain and master volume. Dialed in the low/mid/high to taste and just messed around. I could get super fuzz with gain anywhere past 12 o'clock. I could smooth it out by bringing it back.
I tried with my pedals in front of the amp and it all sounded pretty good. I do have a Spark Booster as well as a Tone Hammer DI and with AGS engaged, it was great. With the SB soloed, also sounded great. BUT, I'm feeling like with the gain turned up and the sound fuzzed, it's like the SB or the AGS circuit are redundant. I will have to do some testing to decide.
I tried the pedals in the effects loop and it seemed louder than in front of the amp. Anytime I'd hit my tuner, there'd be a loud pop, so likely I won't use the effects loop.
Busted out my P bass with flats as well and tried it in the amp and it also sounded very nice.
Compared to my Trace Elliot AH200 GP12 Series 6, it's a way less modern sound. It will be interesting to use the TB500; I've been using that TE for the last 20 years or more. I'm super excited to try it out with the band this week and gigs moving forward.
What a cutie!
