Orange Terror Bass 500 Limiter and "pop": anybody get theirs working right?

I just bought an Orange Terror Bass 500. I was offered a very cheap deal because there are known issues with this unit, I figured I'd take a gamble and see if I could get lucky with it.

The amp works fine for "bedroom" volumes. I took it to practice with my band and I experienced some problems. At what should be about half volume, when I dig in there is a "pop" sound then the volume cuts out for about a second.

I've tested it with both passive and active basses, the pad button on and off, at 2 different houses, and on 2 different cabs, and gain/volume knobs at various settings. I can recreate the problem reliably. It only becomes an issue at volumes approaching what is needed to keep up with a drummer and guitar amps.

The amp is currently not useful for playing with my band.
Fortunately, it is useable for home practice....and as a bonus, it also sounds pretty cool playing a guitar through as well.

I've seen other threads where people have dealt with a limiter issue, though I haven't seen where anybody got theirs resolved. It also seemed like there wasn't always a "pop" associated with the limiter on theirs.

I've opened up the amp to look for possible cold soldering, loose wires, etc. I noticed that there are two green LEDs and when then amp cuts out one of the LEDs shuts off as well.

The amp is marked as a 120V model. I have a power conditioner with voltage LEDs, my power is usually between 118-122V. Has anybody tried using a voltage regulator? There is a reasonably cheap one at a local electronics store that can regulate 120V +/- 6%. I'm not sure if that would do it or not.


Sooo....anybody had this issue and found a fix?

Thank you

 

There is a certified Orange tech in town that I'll take it to. Unfortunately I'm the second owner and it is now out of warranty. I was just hoping to hear from someone who has had a similar issue with this amp and has successfully had their repaired.

 

yep...for sure....fortunately i didn't pay much for it and its still useful for home....it'll be nice to get it up to spec so hopefully i can use it with the band...i'm getting tired of lugging the svt...eventually i'll trip and fall with it and either i'll break it or it will break me

 

Old thread, I know, but I wanted to leave an update and congratulate Orange's customer service.

The issue is resolved. Orange customer service was great. Granted, they were difficult to get a hold of at first but I think they've expanded their US operations to handle more customer service volume. It took a while but once I got someone on the phone he was a nice guy and bent the rules a little for me. He took the head back as a warranty return even though it was out of warranty and I wasn't the original owner. So, they fixed it for free (I paid to ship there, they paid return) and now it works flawlessly. It took about 6 weeks from the day I sent it to them to the day it returned. It's a great little amp. I still lug the SVT to gigs, but this has become my practice rig and I wouldn't be feel at all bad gigging it if for some reason I didn't want to use the SVT.