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Orange Terror Bass 500

Dark Horse

Dark Horse

Jul 31, 2008
11,869
21,977
Austin, TX
#1
We have a great little rental place here in Austin called rock ‘n’ roll rentals. Every once in while I go in there just wanting to try something new and not have to fork out a bunch of money for it. Anyway, this time I saw one of the terror bass 500 heads. I’ve always been curious about these, but never really had a chance to put one through its paces. So anyway, I have decided to take it home for a month. Going to try it and see how it compares with my markbass stuff. I know that quite a few if you have owned or messed around with these, if you have any thoughts or things to avoid with it, please let me know!
 
#2
Nice. 12:00 is not flat. You may want to start with Bass and Treble at 9:00 and Mids at 3:00 and then make adjustments from there. Also while trying to figure out your sound I would also raise the volume to 12:00 and use your gain to adjust overall volume so you can determine how clean or driven you want your sound to be. It is a fun amp to experiment with. Enjoy.
 
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#4
Dark Horse said:
So I took it out in last nights gig.... a 90s country band. Played through a Trace 210 cab, it was meaty, still had great definition, and carried the low B well.... plenty of power. I was definitely impressed.

I haven’t A/B’d it yet with my Markbass, so that’ll be next.... but I’m really digging the Terror Bass so far !
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One of the many things I like about this amp is how authoritative the D and G strings are. They just plain do not get lost in the mix. 6 months owning it now and I just plain love this amp.
 
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#6
I just tried one of these yesterday, through an OBC112, at my local dealer.

Today I’m bringing it home for a couple hours to A/B the Orange rig against my Super Bassman and one of my Neo 115’s.

I was very, very impressed with the little Orange. If it compares favorably, there might be a Terror Bass and a pair of OBC112’s in my near future.
 
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#7
Ryan L. said:
I just tried one of these yesterday, through an OBC112, at my local dealer.

Today I’m bringing it home for a couple hours to A/B the Orange rig against my Super Bassman and one of my Neo 115’s.

I was very, very impressed with the little Orange. If it compares favorably, there might be a Terror Bass and a pair of OBC112’s in my near future.
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You should hear it through an OBC115, talk about whoa. Although I also am curious about the OBC112. They would be much easier to move around.
 
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#8
I used a Terror Bass and a SWR 410 Goliath cab as a backline at a gig recently.

LOVED the sound I was getting on stage. Similar settings to what was mentioned earlier. Treble and Bass around 9, Mids around 2-3.

Was loving the throaty, punchy response I was getting from my E string. Had a huge smile the whole gig!
 
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#9
Love mine.

orangegig.jpg
 
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#11
Ok, so this head is the most tube amp sounding class D head I’ve ever played through. A/Bing it with my Super Bassman, I was left wondering why I carry around a 65lb tube head when something like this exists.

The OBC112, compared to one of my Neo 115’s, actually has more clean low end on tap. I actually couldn’t believe the sound/volume I was getting out of that little box. 2 of them will be more than enough for my needs, definitely. I was also worried about it not having a tweeter, but whatever that 12” driver is in there, it really does a great job of making me not miss a tweeter at all.

Pretty positive I’m going to do the trade. The Orange sounded *that* good.
 
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#13
And ordered. They’re getting me brand new stuff direct from Orange, so they can leave the floor model in the store. Hopefully it’ll all be here by the end of next week.

Wicked G said:
I have said before that the new Orange Terror Bass 500 is very tube like to me. I'm glad more people are seeing what I am seeing. :cool:
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Yes, I definitely heard it. Side by side with my Super Bassman, I *guarantee* in a blind test, no one would be able to tell which was the tube amp and which one wasn’t. They sounded very, very similar.
 
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#14
Wicked G said:
I have said before that the new Orange Terror Bass 500 is very tube like to me. I'm glad more people are seeing what I am seeing. :cool:
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Hey @Wicked G - any thoughts on the Streamliner vs Terror Bass as far as tube like? I know you use both.
I'm a big Fender amp fan. The Orange stuff has always interested me, but I've kind of stayed away worried about too much break up.

Sorry for the thread derail @Dark Horse !!
BTW,, congrats on your new gig with BB. I was actually in a band with her for about 6 weeks - about 10 years ago. Maybe longer ago than that, hard to remember. We did one gig at the Carousel. I want to say she had just gotten to Austin and was wanting to get into the music thing. Cool that she's been at it and is making it happen!! Have fun on the road!!
 
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#15
hennessybass said:
Hey @Wicked G - any thoughts on the Streamliner vs Terror Bass as far as tube like? I know you use both.
I'm a big Fender amp fan. The Orange stuff has always interested me, but I've kind of stayed away worried about too much break up.

Sorry for the thread derail @Dark Horse !!
BTW,, congrats on your new gig with BB. I was actually in a band with her for about 6 weeks - about 10 years ago. Maybe more, hard to remember. We did one gig at the Carousel. I want to say she had just gotten to Austin and was wanting to get into the music thing. Cool that she's been at it and is making it happen!! Have fun on the road!!
Click to expand...

I can help here... I had both of these amps in my living room for extended testing a couple of years ago. Even did some tube rolling in each to maximize my listening pleasure. Both amps are great but I ultimately kept the Terror Bass because it just rocked more. Admittedly, they are less flexible than the Streamliner but I found that I could pretty much set it and forget it so I really didn’t need the flexibility.
 
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#16
jeff62 said:
I can help here... I had both of these amps in my living room for extended testing a couple of years ago. Even did some tube rolling in each to maximize my listening pleasure. Both amps are great but I ultimately kept the Terror Bass because it just rocked more. Admittedly, they are less flexible than the Streamliner but I found that I could pretty much set it and forget it so I really didn’t need the flexibility.
Click to expand...

I'm kind of a set it and forget it guy.
Just watched a vid, and the new TB500 has a "clean" switch on it. Looks like it knocks down the input gain for less break up.
Interesting...
 
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#17
hennessybass said:
I'm kind of a set it and forget it guy.
Just watched a vid, and the new TB500 has a "clean" switch on it. Looks like it knocks down the input gain for less break up.
Interesting...
Click to expand...
I am too, I don’t like fiddling with my amp once I have it set.

The clean switch works very well, I was able to get *very* loud with the single 12” without breaking up.
 
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#18
hennessybass said:
Hey @Wicked G - any thoughts on the Streamliner vs Terror Bass as far as tube like? I know you use both.
I'm a big Fender amp fan. The Orange stuff has always interested me, but I've kind of stayed away worried about too much break up.

Sorry for the thread derail @Dark Horse !!
BTW,, congrats on your new gig with BB. I was actually in a band with her for about 6 weeks - about 10 years ago. Maybe longer ago than that, hard to remember. We did one gig at the Carousel. I want to say she had just gotten to Austin and was wanting to get into the music thing. Cool that she's been at it and is making it happen!! Have fun on the road!!
Click to expand...
Sorry, busy Friday and I have a show I have to get ready for. I can get both amps in the same ballpark. Very similar both at home and on the gig.

The difference being that Streamliner can be a bit more bloomy and smokey while the Orange can hit a bit harder and can also get dirtier if you want. The clean switch works great and I usually have the gain around 10:00 depending on bass.

I prefer a clean tone with a small amount of drive and both amps do that perfectly. But I have also found that the drive on the Orange is way nicer than other amps I have used and I sometimes run the Gain at 11:00 because of that.

It also compresses beautifully like a tube amp. Not like a cheap limiter like a lot of amps. The Streamliner 3DPM is also nice at higher volume whereas that Orange compression can be adjusted with Gain at any volume. Streamliner also but I have to give the nod to the Orange on that.

Both amps are great and you can't go wrong with either. Hope that helps.

Edit to add picture.
IMG_20190705_182514.jpg
 
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