Okay. So why do I seem to be stuck on Orange? Because of reviews. They're excellent. And everyone seems to have a sheepishly guilty love of Orange (and Terrors). Even if they are slamming something about Orange, they always end with a qualifier that it is still somehow one of their favorite amps... or that they still love it for some other reason. The emotions are obvious. Also because of its sound (all that gain in the DT), its looks (totally cool), and strangely... its history: it was the original lunchbox! When I started this big search a week ago and got hooked on the idea of a small & portable amp, I naturally gravitated towards that line. History is not enough reason to stick with it, of course, and people said the Terror bass might have been discontinued because of poor sales (see above) and, as we have discussed above, some early technical problems (that were fixed), but I guess I'm stuck on Orange at this moment in time mostly because of more or less unanimous reviews (those people who hate Orange will certainly come out of the woodwork now in response to these comments).
Also, my two new Dark Terrors and PPC212s just arrived today and I and my students are loving them! What a blast.
And to show you that I am not ALL Orange, I backed out of buying the OB1-500 I had on hold yesterday and am leaning towards an Ampeg or soon-to-be-on-sale Mesa head. After all, I only really heard a strong distinction in that Mesa 800 when I was trying everything under the sun yesterday. (My school doesn't want me to buy used, so a secondhand Terror Bass is out of the question). But until I pull that final trigger, and choose an amp to propose to my school, I will continue to have fun asking really stupid questions about doing things like dedicating a Dark Terror or Dual Terror (maybe better) to a bass (with a new OT?), which I now know other people have wanted to do and tried. Cool.
I even tested that idea myself today. I plugged my new Dark Terror into a bass combo amp just to see what would happen, and though there was a hiss in the background, which I guess means I shouldn't be plugging into a powered combo bass amp, it was really quite loud! I stopped immediately of course. The hiss was worrisome. I will try again when I get a bass cabinet. I won't plug it into a bass combo again. Obviously stupid. Promise.
So there. My explanation for why I'm going to continue to ask about Terrors as a bass amp.
The salesperson at one of the stores I visited (the Orange distributor here in Hong Kong) is going to experiment with this tomorrow and let me know what he finds. He is an excellent bass player, quite knowledgeable and strongly opinionated. I'm very curious about what he will find. He said he'll try various cabs, going through an EQ pedal, etc., to see if there is anything to this idea -- if he can get any good sounds out of it. If he thinks it's a total bomb, well, I'll be done with it and, at the least, buy an Ampeg (though I have started to see negative reviews about that today too) or bargain Mesa.
