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Orange Terror Bass VS Genz Streamliner

D

Duke21

Nov 14, 2010
4,468
60
Narvik, Norway
soundcloud.com
#1
I see that the new hot amp from Genz is in focus, among others due to its more "tubey" and dirty sound then the Genz Shuttle, Markbass and TC RH450.
I'll think that it is maybe the Orange Terror Bass or maybe the MB 500 Fusion which are more like the Genz streamliner? All of these class D amps have more than one tube at the pre-amp. The rest have 1 tube or non.
Any thoughts?
 
#3
Although all three use multiple tubes in the preamp, SMPS, and a class-D output section, they each have their own unique design goals. To summarize:

Streamliner: warm, round, fairly clear; will overdrive if you want it to, but has a lot of clean headroom.

MB Fusion: clear, powerful, harmonically rich; will overdrive if you want it to, but has a lot of clean headroom.

Terror Bass: hairy, grindy/growly at most settings; you can get a clean tone up to decent volume if you work it a bit, but it really excels at the raucous overdriven tube tone. Capable of getting stupid loud (sure doesn't feel like only 500 watts).

This is a gross over-simplification, but hopefully it conveys a bit about what each head is after.

Tom.
 
#4
tombowlus said:
Although all three use multiple tubes in the preamp, SMPS, and a class-D output section, they each have their own unique design goals. To summarize:

Streamliner: warm, round, fairly clear; will overdrive if you want it to, but has a lot of clean headroom.

MB Fusion: clear, powerful, harmonically rich; will overdrive if you want it to, but has a lot of clean headroom.

Terror Bass: hairy, grindy/growly at most settings; you can get a clean tone up to decent volume if you work it a bit, but it really excels at the raucous overdriven tube tone. Capable of getting stupid loud (sure doesn't feel like only 500 watts).

This is a gross over-simplification, but hopefully it conveys a bit about what each head is after.

Tom.
Click to expand...

Thanks, great answer!!!!

Sent from my iPod touch using TalkBass
 
#5
I haven't tried any of the GK Fusion amps so I can't speak to that but Tom's synopsis on the Orange and Genz Benz mirrors my own experience.

I was actually surprised (at least with my basses) of how much gain was needed to get the Streamliner to get really overdriven. I see it mostly as a clean machine that gets a fat tubey tone and can get dirty at high gain settings.

On the other hand, the Bass Terror is all about getting nasty.

It's not an amp I'd get for clean tones or really for versatility for that matter. But it does what it does very well. It's the one I'd get if I was always wanting some dirt in my tone.
 
#6
I've got the bass terror and a GK (not the fusion though) and I've heard clips of the Streamliner which sounds very nice indeed.

The Bass terror can be fairly mellow also if you keep the gain down, I'm using a passive Jazz with mine, If you're using a bass with hot pickups than it would be hard to keep it clean I imagine, if that was what you wanted.

If you cut the hi mids down a tad on a GK, use the 5 string button and turn the pressence all the way up and the contour up 1/3 of the way you can get quite close to the orange bass terror tone in my experience, it doesn't have the same kind of dirt/hairyness that the orange has though when it's got the gain turned up.
 
#7
tombowlus said:
Although all three use multiple tubes in the preamp, SMPS, and a class-D output section, they each have their own unique design goals. To summarize:

Streamliner: warm, round, fairly clear; will overdrive if you want it to, but has a lot of clean headroom.

MB Fusion: clear, powerful, harmonically rich; will overdrive if you want it to, but has a lot of clean headroom.

Terror Bass: hairy, grindy/growly at most settings; you can get a clean tone up to decent volume if you work it a bit, but it really excels at the raucous overdriven tube tone. Capable of getting stupid loud (sure doesn't feel like only 500 watts).

This is a gross over-simplification, but hopefully it conveys a bit about what each head is after.

Tom.
Click to expand...

That's very helpful Tom. I know it's fully solid state, but have you tried the Aguilar TH500? Where does this fit in relative to the other three?
 
#11
smeet said:
That's very helpful Tom. I know it's fully solid state, but have you tried the Aguilar TH500? Where does this fit in relative to the other three?
Click to expand...

I did hear it at NAMM, and I had previously heard the Tonehammer at earlier NAMM Shows. The TH500 really does do a great job of just sounding like the Tonehammer, only amplified. The overdrive circuit is not anywhere near as gritty/grindy/growly as that on the Aggro (or 2-channel AG500), but it can add a bit of hair to the tone. This is another fairly clean head that can get some wool to the tone if you want it (but which mostly seems to like to stay fairly clean). I'd love to really put the TH500 through its paces sometime. :cool:
 

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