OrangeTerror 500... Almost it, but not quite, what next?

Turn the gain way down, turn the master way up, turn the bass up a scoche. It does hip hop/reggae fine.

I'd try a different cab too. I've used mine for a huge variety of tone with my F215; sure another full bodied cab could do the same.

 

They changed the gain at some point, earlier ones have no clean until you swap valves, later ones have some sort of control in the gain knob. Flat eq is max mids, min treble and bass. Wish Matamp would hurry up with their mini class D head, would solve all of this.

 

Maybe Mesa Walkabout.

 

Sounds like you may need to give the Genz Benz Streamliner a look/listen. You can get a real clean tube like tone and add as much grit/hair/fur to it by using the gain and volume knobs. You can run it right on the edge and use your attack to get what you want. Great head in my opinion.

 

Has a clean tone to die for. So smooth and sleek, but if you drive the tube section (two 12AX7s), that grit shines up and is very gritty. I really feel like this is the amp for you.

 

How far did you turn the master up? Don't be shy about it. Honestly, it goes all the way up just fine.

That said, some technical solutions:
1) Change the input tubes out to something lower gain. Look around, people have had quite a bit of success with tube swaps.

2) Get a louder cab. If you can get the sound you want at lower volumes louder cab will add a lot of volume.

 

Orange Terrors have nearly the same resale as the Walkabouts.

They frequently under $600 shipped. If possible, opt for one with the Active/Passive switch on ,front and the FX bypass on the back (newer model).

Example:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f127/fs-ft-%96-mesa-walkabout-amp-992299/

It really has been a wonderful amp for me. I often wish it were slightly more powerful ([email protected]), but it's always gotten me by. I have a second 310 coming and we'll see how it does at 2.66ohms (it is 2 ohm stable).

 

Hartke LH500 and a Sansamp for grit.

 

Wow, I didn't realise the pricing was like that over there. The Bass Terror 500 is around £450 over here, (a bargain IMO) and the Walkabout amp is probably double that.

 

Ashdown ABM 500 head does warm, warm and gritty and loads of other tones with a much more flexible 9 section EQ. You can also turn the valve drive on/off via footswitch. I've found the Ashdown kit i've used so far does tend towards the warm side but i get a great warm, loud and clean tone out of it with my P bass, which can get narly when i engage the valve drive. Try one out, if you like the TB500 i think you'd like it.

 

I,ve found with mine that the sound close up to the amp and cab where you normally would be playing is pretty loud but go out front and it sounds different and is clearly audible and sounds different when full band is playing.
So set your sound to that not the solo on it,s own sound.
This is for all amps in a band situation.
i,ve got one of the newer ones with the gain and DI out fixed.
DI works a treat and the gain is there but you just turn the dial up.
Good advice with the gain down and up the volume as it is clean and articulate .
Try a preamp in front of the amp-bdi21,hartke bass attack or a pod.
It responds very well to these as I,ve tried them and use them live.
I,ve got the sp212 cab of which there has been a great amount of debate but it works for me,plenty volume and great sound.
I use basses with different sounds-musicman,p-bass,thunderbird and a Ricky and it handles them all easily.

 

I was on your shoes a few months ago. I went with the Markbass CMD 121P and I'm super happy. The Markbass can cop the Orange sound, and also get a modern HiFi sound. I know it isn't a tube head, but give one a shot brotha

 

Markbass little rocker 500. Clean when you want grit when you want. Even though its just a tube pre.

 

I'd take the convoluted, messy solution. I'd just get a nice, clean pedal pre like WTDI, and rig up an ABY box, and switch between running the Orange straight up, or bypassing the orange pre with aforementioned pedal.

 

+1 on the Genz. The variety of tone is astounding.