BG250 died - Orange vs Laney

[RafaelWeber]

Greetings fellow bassists!
You may remember me from my previous 2 threads where I was asking for your opinion on a bass combo. So, even though I was a bit doubtful, I followed the general opinion and bought a TC Electronic BG250.
Now, the problem is that everything went exactly the wrong way round as I expected after purchase:
- the treble knob didn't really do much difference, yet I soon realized, by reading older threads, that it only worked with active basses;
- and then, 6 days after unboxing it, my doubts became true: I turned the amp on but no sound was coming out!

Thankfully, I recieved my money back. But I'm gonna go with my gut this time and not pick that model again.
I am not bashing TC Electronic, since I haven't seen any other cases- must have picked a bad one out of the batch...

Now, my present situation:

I plan to jam and perhaps play in small to medium sized gigs, in a progressive/hard rock band.
My friend can make me a discount on two brands of amps: Orange and Laney.
- I have played a Orange crush 100, whose tone I loved, however I am a bit worried if it will be enough for anything bigger that may come (I didn't crank it up at the time), even though I'm sure there'll always be PA support;
- I'm keeping an eye on a Laney RB8, which appears to be quite loud and can add an external cabinet but I haven't had any experience with it (only with an RB3 which I liked) and word tells that you must be a "wizard" if you can EQ it to make one sound great.

Either way, I plan to buy a sansamp to use as a preamp and DI, but can it be used to alter the laney's muddy tone?

 

[B-string]

Wow put on your fire suit. All those "BG250 is the greatest thing since sliced bread" are surely loading up the flamethrowers.
You found an amp you like the sound of, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush! Go Orange.

 

[ErnieD]

I would hope OP wouldn't get flamed for replacing the BG250 for other brands. (but yes Ive seen it here too many times)

Especially, since he had issues with his almost out of the box. I bought my BG250 from all I'd read here which is usually how alot of stuff gets bought round here.

I just planned to use mine for home/band practices, auditions but I found I'm getting alot more use of it. And I am not one to want to ever own a combo for live band use. This can be proven by all the variety of cabs and amp heads in my spare bedroom.

I have seen where some of the BG250's have gone up in smoke and I prolly never go back to the same amp/combo if it did that to me. Here's hoping mine lasts awhile, though I've got a crapload of backup gear so I'd never own a BG250 or any other combo as my only rig. Good luck OP, let us know what you end up with.

 

[RafaelWeber]

You found an amp you like the sound of, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush! Go Orange.

I suppose so, but do you reckon that it will do alright if connected to PA on medium gigs or alone at pub ones?

 

[B-string]

While I used 215's for many years with 100 watts, I would guess with one 15" you would do fine in pubs and with PA it is just your stage monitor anyway. It is all down to how loud (or uncontrolled) are the people you play with.

 

[RafaelWeber]

Thank you for your advise.
Orange it is then!

 

[IPYF]

I'd go the Orange. I find that those who dig the tone of Orange bass amps will be satisfied with little else. The wattage reduction will be substantial though on the Crush and I wouldn't like trying to go up against a rock drummer with one. Maybe have a think about what you can spend and try and find a Bass Terror to have a go at. I reckon one of those guys plus a isobaric 12 cab would be what I'd go looking for in a small rock rig.

It's a pity about the BG250. I've heard nothing but good things. There's always going to be a few bad ones in any brand line though.

Avoid Laney like the plague. I reckon they're one of those bands that you need to ignore unless you can afford their proper top shelf gear.

 

[hsech]

Are those your only two choices?

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Go Peavey... they never die

 

[phishaholik]

You're not the only one. Mine died after a month and there have been others too. I loved the tone of mine, but it's hard to rely on something after that. I've honestly debated getting another one, but I would always be worried that it would leave me high and dry.


Michael

 

[AuntieBeeb]

Looks like I'm too late to this thread to advocate a Laney...I upgraded to an RB8 about a year ago and I've been very happy with it. Maybe it's just me...

 

[RafaelWeber]

Looks like I'm too late to this thread to advocate a Laney...I upgraded to an RB8 about a year ago and I've been very happy with it. Maybe it's just me...

Just out of curiosity, do you have any complaints to do on the laney, in terms of tone, EQ and speaker response?

 

[Phlipper]

I vote Laney also. The RB8 is 300 watts, has an Fx loop, speaker out, etc. The RB is said to be very reliable, also.

 

[AuntieBeeb]

Just out of curiosity, do you have any complaints to do on the laney, in terms of tone, EQ and speaker response?

Only the fact that it's solid state! I've owned several different Laneys to date, and the RB8 has really impressed me. I'm surprised some people called the tone "muddy" as I've found it copes really well with the neck mudbucker on my Epi EB-3.

I tend to run the EQ quite flat myself, so I've not really tested those controls to their extremes; nonetheless Laneys have always had a reputation for being versatile, and I think you could play just about any genre of music with one. I can't say whether it offers the sort of extreme tone-sculpting that some funk/fusion players go for, but it's coped perfectly with me playing blues and prog-rock through it!