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Impending NA&CD!: Orange TB500 & OBC112 :D

SidNitzerglobin

SidNitzerglobin

Feb 12, 2019
475
1,197
fROMOHIO
#1
Been debating this one for a bit here, but finally pulled the trigger on a new Orange Terror Bass 500 & an OBC112 in black today.

Outgoing to help dull the pain was my OB1-500 (which surprisingly my guy was able to get me what I've seen some of them go for in private sale on my minty trade-in) & I had a small-ish Gear Card reward to help out as well. They were saying likely Wednesday I'd be able to pick them up :)

One of the big attractions was having a pretty darn portable setup that should deliver the goods in the old school hairy cleans & driven sounds departments w/ minimal pedal assistance w/ enough output to keep up w/ most of the band settings I've needed to. Hopefully this combo of head & cab will do it for me (or at least in combo w/ the Epifani UL210 or the OBC115 when I'm feeling strong).

If it winds up sounding anywhere near as good for me as this demo, I'll be super happy:


I'll be sure to update w/ my initial verdict once I get it home. Thanks for taking a look!
 
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#2
SidNitzerglobin said:
Been debating this one for a bit here, but finally pulled the trigger on a new Orange Terror Bass 500 & an OBC112 in black today.

Outgoing to help dull the pain was my OB1-500 (which surprisingly my guy was able to get me what I've seen some of them go for in private sale on my minty trade-in) & I had a small-ish Gear Card reward to help out as well. They were saying likely Wednesday I'd be able to pick them up :)

One of the big attractions was having a pretty darn portable setup that should deliver the goods in the old school hairy cleans & driven sounds departments w/ minimal pedal assistance w/ enough output to keep up w/ most of the band settings I've needed to. Hopefully this combo of head & cab will do it for me (or at least in combo w/ the Epifani UL210 or the OBC115 when I'm feeling strong).

If it winds up sounding anywhere near as good for me as this demo, I'll be super happy:


I'll be sure to update w/ my initial verdict once I get it home. Thanks for taking a look!
Click to expand...

That video was the final straw that pushed me into buying the Terror Bass and in my case that was an excellent decision. Congratulations.
 
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#4
BassmanPaul said:
I just wonder what size of gigs that a 1x12 will cover.
Click to expand...
It's not really an immediate concern for me right now, but in the past I've been fine for stage volume w/ some fairly loud 3 pieces & a singe 2x10 or 1x15 & my PF500 putting out 250W. The bass player I've played the most guitar w/ seems to have volume & lows on tap w/ his Mark Bass 1x12 combo in the past too w/ me cranking a 45 watt plexi-type through a 4x12 fairly good (ie: about half way :) ) & a hard hitting drummer, so I'm hoping the pairing will be able to handle my foreseeable needs when I don't feeling like dealing w/ another/bigger cab(s). I'm curious to hear results from current & past OBC112 users though if they have any feedback on this.

I've got a few others cabs I could pair up w/ it too to push more air & get the full 500W of output: most easily transportable & pretty darn efficient is the Epifani UL210; kinda heavy but providing the most steaze as an aesthetically matching stack would be the OBC115; heaviest but probably the best sounding cab I've had so far is the Eden 210XLT (which I had intended to get rid of after I got the UL210, but it just sounds too good to me...) I had good results w/ the OBC115 + 210XLT w/ the PF500 at an outdoor show I played w/ it.
 
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#7
I got to pick up the amp today, dragged some cabs around & gave it a quick test spin through the OBC115 + UL210:
llJ0sKL.jpg

So far it seems like it's doing what the previously posted demo made me think it would & I think it'll be a keeper :D This bad boy is LOUD w/ those cabs attached, like I can't go past ~9:30-10 o'clock w/o fear for my windows loud :) Also seems like I'll be able to play it on the hottest of days w/o exacerbating the sauna that the music room is to start w/ too much.

Only weird thing so far is some quite prominent high frequency oscillation when I've got the Phase 95 bypassed in the FX loop (completely disappears when the phaser is enabled or I run it all straight in to the front end of the amp), but I'm pretty certain that's related to it being on a power daisy chain w/ a pedal outside of the FX loop.

The OBC112 should come in tomorrow, hopefully early enough I can pick it up.
 
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#8
The Terror Bass is an amazing little amp. Since I'm not gigging (not even practicing right now except with the church band), I can't really tell you much about stage volume. However, when we were practicing, I tried it through a variety of cabs, including an Ampeg 810e and found it very loud.
 
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#9
Flatwound said:
The Terror Bass is an amazing little amp. Since I'm not gigging (not even practicing right now except with the church band), I can't really tell you much about stage volume. However, when we were practicing, I tried it through a variety of cabs, including an Ampeg 810e and found it very loud.
Click to expand...
I can as I have gigged with it many times with 2 OBC115 cabs. I run the Gain at about 9:00 to 10:00, Clean switch on, Pad on and the Master at around 2:00 and it is loud. Raise the Gain and of course it is louder. Turn off the Clean switch and even louder still. Turn off the Pad and you can pretty much figure out the rest.
 
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#11
Well.... the OB112 came in, I picked it up earlier today, & finally got to hooking it up for a spin.

I hadn't even paid attention that these were MiC until I noticed it on the exterior box. Unboxing it looks like they've managed the high level of execution & attention to detail as the US made Orange cabs I have judging by appearances alone & weight & dimension seem very manageable for one-handing.

I figured it made most sense to try it first by itself so I stacked it on the OBC115, flipped over to 8ohms, plugged it in & got to playing w/ the Wattplower. It's a definitely a much different voiced cab than any other I've got, I basically need to flip the bass to ~3 o'clock, roll the treble back to ~ 9:30 & the mids ~11 to get fairly close to what I was getting out of the OBC115 + UL210 at ~ B: 9 M: 1 T: 11:30 w/ the same gain setting (~10 o'clock w/ the clean switch on).

It makes for a nice looking stack to my eye, mismatched as it may be, almost like a step pyramid of groove:
QxlWwMd.jpg

This first trouble in paradise developed when I got the volume up past around 10 o'clock & there's a seriously prominent high pitched vibration I narrowed down to the head itself on any A I play on it while it's sitting on top of the cab. I figure the lunchbox shroud is supposed to be a user removable part at the least so I pulled that off to see if I could further narrow down where the vibration was coming from. With some more aural sleuthing & some light tapping on the chassis I'm pretty sure there's some kind of thin aluminium shielding in between the power section & its steel sheeting portion of the chassis proper that's vibrating sympathetically like the world's most annoying kazoo :(

I know the right answer is probably to box it up take it back & get them to ship a new one to me, but I'm wondering if this is a potentially common thing & the ultimate solution might require opening up the power section of the chassis to allow better attachment or dampening of whatever's vibrating against the chassis (which based on my light tapping really does give the impression of being a thin aluminium sheet I'm guessing there for additional RF shielding). I hadn't come across it mentioned before in my pre-purchase research, & I gotta think these are being hooked up to the OBC112 cabs a whole lot.

I spose another solution could be to see if I can dig up some larger/spongier feet to put on it & see if they'll provide enough isolation from the cab...

Anyone have any suggestions/advice? @bassmachine2112 ,@Flatwound , @Ryan L. , @Wicked G : I'd assume you guys have never encountered a vibration issue w/ yours? Seemed like mine was doing just fine sitting on the larger cabs @ way higher volume...
 
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#13
Well after some experimentation w/ various external dampening solutions I think I could live w/ long term just resulted in shifting the resonant notes that trigger the kazoo effect to any fretted D or D#, I called up my sales guy & we worked out a plan to get an advance replacement shipped so I can continue playing through this one not sitting on the OBC112 while the new one is enroute. He's definitely an example of one of the good GC sales guys :D

Very happy I'll have something to play through over the next week that won't push me dangerously close to heat stoke territory during the ongoing heatwave. I love the PF50T or VT22 just as much as I've been grooving on the Terror the past couple days, but at times like these the heat is a serious disincentive to firing them up.
 
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#14
SidNitzerglobin said:
Well.... the OB112 came in, I picked it up earlier today, & finally got to hooking it up for a spin.

I hadn't even paid attention that these were MiC until I noticed it on the exterior box. Unboxing it looks like they've managed the high level of execution & attention to detail as the US made Orange cabs I have judging by appearances alone & weight & dimension seem very manageable for one-handing.

I figured it made most sense to try it first by itself so I stacked it on the OBC115, flipped over to 8ohms, plugged it in & got to playing w/ the Wattplower. It's a definitely a much different voiced cab than any other I've got, I basically need to flip the bass to ~3 o'clock, roll the treble back to ~ 9:30 & the mids ~11 to get fairly close to what I was getting out of the OBC115 + UL210 at ~ B: 9 M: 1 T: 11:30 w/ the same gain setting (~10 o'clock w/ the clean switch on).

It makes for a nice looking stack to my eye, mismatched as it may be, almost like a step pyramid of groove:
View attachment 3896654
This first trouble in paradise developed when I got the volume up past around 10 o'clock & there's a seriously prominent high pitched vibration I narrowed down to the head itself on any A I play on it while it's sitting on top of the cab. I figure the lunchbox shroud is supposed to be a user removable part at the least so I pulled that off to see if I could further narrow down where the vibration was coming from. With some more aural sleuthing & some light tapping on the chassis I'm pretty sure there's some kind of thin aluminium shielding in between the power section & its steel sheeting portion of the chassis proper that's vibrating sympathetically like the world's most annoying kazoo :(

I know the right answer is probably to box it up take it back & get them to ship a new one to me, but I'm wondering if this is a potentially common thing & the ultimate solution might require opening up the power section of the chassis to allow better attachment or dampening of whatever's vibrating against the chassis (which based on my light tapping really does give the impression of being a thin aluminium sheet I'm guessing there for additional RF shielding). I hadn't come across it mentioned before in my pre-purchase research, & I gotta think these are being hooked up to the OBC112 cabs a whole lot.

I spose another solution could be to see if I can dig up some larger/spongier feet to put on it & see if they'll provide enough isolation from the cab...

Anyone have any suggestions/advice? @bassmachine2112 ,@Flatwound , @Ryan L. , @Wicked G : I'd assume you guys have never encountered a vibration issue w/ yours? Seemed like mine was doing just fine sitting on the larger cabs @ way higher volume...
Click to expand...

You say you put the 112 on top of the 115 and plugged it in by itself on 8 ohms and the you had to raise the bass to 3:00 because the cab is much differently voiced? I'm thinking you probably didn't realize that the 112 was not coupling with the floor since it was on top of the 115 and so you lost all your low end and you were being slammed with mids.

You would need to put the 112 on the floor for it to couple with the floor to do a proper a/b with your 115. Not sure if you were aware of this? Lift that 115 up on top of the 112 and run it by itself and it is going to sound quite different as well.

As far as the Kazoo sound, I've never experienced that. Try running it again loud on the 115 only and see if it does it again. If not, you may have been pushing that 112 too hard with the bass at 3:00 and that sound could have been from the cab. Sometimes weird noises like that come from other areas that you might not realize. Just a thought. Good luck.
 
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#15
Wicked G said:
You say you put the 112 on top of the 115 and plugged it in by itself on 8 ohms and the you had to raise the bass to 3:00 because the cab is much differently voiced? I'm thinking you probably didn't realize that the 112 was not coupling with the floor since it was on top of the 115 and so you lost all your low end and you were being slammed with mids.

You would need to put the 112 on the floor for it to couple with the floor to do a proper a/b with your 115. Not sure if you were aware of this? Lift that 115 up on top of the 112 and run it by itself and it is going to sound quite different as well.

As far as the Kazoo sound, I've never experienced that. Try running it again loud on the 115 only and see if it does it again. If not, you may have been pushing that 112 too hard with the bass at 3:00 and that sound could have been from the cab. Sometimes weird noises like that come from other areas that you might not realize. Just a thought. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Hey, thanks man! Yeah I figure it's likely got a lot to do w/ the floor coupling. I like the OBC112 in isolation & decoupled so far for what it's worth just needed to dial the EQ pretty different coming from the OBC115 + UL210 (which is definitely the way I want to stack those w/o a riser, the UL210 is crazy on the lows sitting on the floor).

I'm fairly sure I've got it pretty well narrowed down to the inside of the power section box for the vibration, cab doesn't seem to be flinching whatsoever w/ the volume up to ~1:30 & bass @ 3 w/ the Terror sitting on another cab (but my windows certainly were :) ) I think it's just a lot more active cab than the UL210 as far as transmitting stuff up through the lunchbox feet into the chassis. All in all it's seeming like an impressive little cab to me, just a different animal than my 2x10s or 1x15s & a lot more mid detail than the 16 ohm Eden EX112 that's been my only other 12" bass cab so far.

I apologize for firing up the Bat-signal on you guys when I should have just gone w/ my first instinct: get another one on the way to replace this one. Hopefully that should solve my issue.

With another 45 mins or so playing through it w/o the distraction of the vibration, I think the full light weight setup of the Terror Bass + the OBC112 will completely hit the mark for me assuming the new head doesn't have the same vibration issue when sitting on the cab. Wound up tweaking to about B-1 M-10:30 T-3:30 & I don't think the Wattplower has ever sounded as good to me :woot: I think it'll do just fine for me for jam/stage volume too most of the time w/ just the OBC112 (& certainly more volume on tap than I need through a manageable combo of the cabs I've got on hand) if I ever get the opportunity again, damn 'rona....
 
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#18
Ryan L. said:
The only vibration issue I had wasn't a noise, it was that the head liked to dance around on the cab at gig volumes. I remedied it by putting softer rubber feet on the head, and it seemed to stay put after that.
Click to expand...
I actually have a spare set of good rubber Penn Elcom feet on hand but I was bummed to see it looks like the feet on the Terror Bass are glued on rather than screwed on. Did you take the stock feet off or find some that fit over them?
 
#19
Hiho,I,ve never had any issues with noises,can,t even hear the fan.Mind you it,s the coolest running amp I,ve ever had,doesn,t even get warm even at silly loud.
settings-bass-9oclock,mid-12 oclock,treble-10 oclock,Gain-10 oclock,volume 10 oclock plenty loud.Hope this helps by the way they love a preamp pedal in front of them.
 
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#20
Got the new Terror Bass in today, got it hooked up & unfortunately, while it's so far limited to just the highest B on my 4 strings, it's got the same kazoo issue when sitting on top of the OBC112 :(

I'm starting to feel like the solution would involve going into the power chassis to secure what ever the heck is rattling in there or returning the OBC112 & giving up on having cabs that don't risk my back every time I move them from Orange...

I guess I could exchange for another OBC112 & see if the trouble persists w/ another example of this cab, but the problem really seems like it's w/ the power section of the head not being properly dampened rather than the cab vibrating too much.

I'm open to any other ideas if anyone has any.

I'm really loving the amp otherwise. I do think I like the OBC115 better than the OBC112 sonically for a single cab setup & the OBC112 + OBC115 doesn't quite do it for me like the UL210 + OBC115. I could see a pair of the OBC112s working a good bit better for me & letting me load in the whole amp rig in one trip w/o a cart, but not w/ the crazy vibration it seems to produce in the head.

Sent the following to Orange UK from their webform FWIW, hopeful it isn't interpreted as snarky & they have some useful suggestions:
"Hey, just got a Terror Bass head & OBC112 cab new last week & am having really horrible vibration emanating from inside of the power section of the chassis when I hit a resonant frequency w/ the head sitting on top of the OBC112.

I've already exchanged my initial Terror Bass for the one I brought home today w/ the retailer (Guitar Center) & the newly received Terror Bass has the same behaviour when sitting on top of the OBC112, just at a different resonant frequency (this one seems to be the highest B on my 4 strings). If I were to guess, there's some thin aluminium shielding inside the chassis that isn't properly damped in there.

What's my official, Orange-supported solution here? I've got several ideas of how to fix it, but don't want to do anything that screws w/ my warranty and/or ability to return the whole setup if you guys can't provide a fix that amounts to more than "keep exchanging the amp via the retailer until you get one that is usable".

Thanks in advance!"
 
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