Use Terror Bass as preamp?

[Flatwound]

I recently bought an Orange Terror Bass head new. The owner’s manual is pretty brief, but says that you have to have a speaker of proper impedance connected at all times. I have a combo amp I leave at church, and I’d like to try running the Orange preamp line out into the combo line in. Obviously if I had to drag a cabinet along, it would defeat the purpose. I’m talking about the 1/4” line out, not the balanced one.

Can I do it or not?

 

[BogeyBass]

line out or effect send should be just the pre

far as having no load on a tube amp would be bad news.

solid state usually no big deal.
not sure why orange said a load must be present at all times.

id call tech support and ask why or If.

 

[anderbass]

I recently bought an Orange Terror Bass head new. The owner’s manual is pretty brief, but says that you have to have a speaker of proper impedance connected at all times.

I've wondered about this too.

The original Terror Bass head info stated to have the same full output power level with 4-ohm or 8-ohm cab loads... This is an unusual feature for a solid state poweramp section, so I'd assumed some technical aspect of this feature was the very reason for Orange stating a cab must always be connected.

I noticed the new/reissue Terror Bass head are different, their Info claims a much lower max output level at 8-ohm than 4-ohm; like most all other brands of solid state poweramp sections that are commonly assumed to be safe to operate without a cab connected...

So the mystery continues, be sure to let us know what Orange tech support has to say about this matter.

 

[Flatwound]

I did get a reply, as follows:

Hey Mark,

In theory, that approach would work. I have my doubts if it will
provide you with excellent results though as that effects loop send on
the Terror Bass is usually a pretty hot signal, which the Acoustic
might not like at all. It's worth a shot though.

Best of luck,
Derron

As it turns out, the signal wasn’t particularly hot. It worked out well, and sounded great.

 

[Joergen]

So running the terror bass without a cab connected is not a problem? I’m curious to try this myself with my terror and my Hiwatt dr103
Note: I believe my terror bass is the first version of it, bought new in 2010.