effect or preamp?

[DanFold]

Hello!
My First post on TB, i have been reading for a while and now finally signed up!

I'm lucky enough to play through an Orange AD200 Mk3 bass head with an Orange 4x10 cab, i wouldn't change it for anything. And i mainly use my Fender 1962 vintage Jazz bass.

I love the gain i get when i drive the amp, the problem is, i also want a clean sound, so does anyone know of a pedal or preamp i can use to clean up the gain? but without changing the tone of the amp too much!

Or am i just asking too much here?!

Looking forward to hearing you thoughts/solutions!

Cheers.
Dan.

[Sub5ound]

I don't know if you can clean up the natural gain of an all tube amp. Try an outboard EQ maybe?

[DanFold]

In the studio we have been to, the guy there told me it may work to clean up the sound, i will try the EQ though, thanks.

[bongomania]

I heard if you wash your feet, and then wade through a mud puddle, your feet will come out clean on the other side. It doesn't work that way with audio either. You cannot run a signal through one "clean" processor, then through a "dirty" processor (the Orange) and expect that the signal will come out clean on the other side.

Now what he may have been trying to suggest was that if the Orange has an fx loop or a "power amp in" jack, you can bypass the tube preamp by plugging a clean external preamp directly into the power section of the Orange. At least that way the only dirt comes from the power tubes, not the preamp tubes. But there is no way to clean up the power tubes other than playing at low volume.

[excane]

^ Bingo.



Or should I say Bongo. ba da ta da da!

[Mark Olson]

I play some tube amps, and I find that I can preset them pretty clean, and then employ a boost in front of the amp to push it into overdrive. Any simple booster would probably do this just fine, for example the MXR Micro Amp is perfectly decent and relatively inexpensive. I also use a Treble Booster (Analogman Bass Beano Boost, which is optimized for bass) which is much like a regular clean booster after it's modded for bass, but will allow you to get heaps of dirt with a tube amp when you kick it on in front of the amp, even with the amp set normally clean. Not a lot of people use Treble Boosters for bass but something like the Bass Beano Boost is very effective with bass and a tube amp.

[Goose55]

That's the way I use my orange ad200b. Set my sound clean with a little dirt. My catalinbread booster, the old green one, pushes the preamp into overdrive. Works great for me.

[DanFold]

I have managed to clean up the amp how i said, not to pure clean, but enough! but the signal has dropped a little, what you don't want,

What's the a good booster pedal to drive the amp then? without changing the tone of it too much, a lot of these pedals seem to do that on for bass
If a few could be listed would be ace! so i can go round them all up! thanks a lot!