Root-Note Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) Hi, I am thinking of getting an Orange Bass Terror 500 amp head, they're discontinuing them, so GAK are knocking them down a bit, but the salesman then told me about the new Orange OB1 300. I was looking at them both for their merits and I think the OB1 looks more useful. (I have a previous post on here about the possibilities of plugging straight into a DI with an EQ pedal to save carrying an amp around, so yes, I am that same determined idiot, but my idea has changed from EQ pedal to amp head—because cabs continue to be bulky, heavy, and costly.) The amp head would be for home recordings and future gigs. Here's my idea: for home recording, I can plug my amp head into the interface [Focusrite 2i2] for a much better sound. The OB1 would be fine as it has both a Line Out and Balanced Output plug, but if I use a Bass Terror that would blow the whole thing, sound card and all. For gigs, I can hook them up to a DI straight into the PA. I would rely on the monitors to hear myself. Now the questions: On the OB1 manual it says you [i]must[/i] have the amp head connected to a speaker if you want to use the Line Out/ Balanced Output. Why is this? I'm guessing it has something to do with the power supply. What would happen if you connected the Speaker Output from either amp heads into a mixing desk? Explosion? Thanks for reading, Mike Edited March 16, 2015 by Root-Note Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gelfin Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Speaker outputs into desk is a big no no. The signal is way too high You would need to have a speaker connected or the amp won't see any load and may go unstable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n1ck-a Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Why would you want to gig without a decent amp / cab set up? Beats me... I have the Orange Terror Bass Combo 500W - picked a 12 month old one up recently on eBay for £450 - Bargain! I've used Ampeg last 10 years (SVT CL, later downsized to SVT 7 Pro) and this Orange is a lovely toned amp. You won't get that sound from DI to Monitors on a stage, so in my mind it is a waste of money. Also with recent tech you don't need to use your amp for home recording. I use the Apogee Jam 96k plugged into my Mac, Garage Band and Logic Pro X have a huge selection of plug-ins to emulate any kind of decent amp set up. If you don't have a Mac then I'm sure there are plenty of similar options for your [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Focusrite 2i2 into PC. [/font][/color] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero9 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I echo what's been said before. The amp needs to be connected to a speaker to soak up the power. Alternatively, you could get a dedicated power soak (attenuator) intead of using a cab, but that's getting into silly money. If you're looking to get a similar recorded sound, why not get one of the orange plug-ins or similar? The OB1 looks a nice product though, and I'm sorely tempted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 You could use a re-amping DI box, which should have a dummy speaker load, to run direct into the PA. But as others say, why not at least use a small cab for onstage sound? Waste of an amp otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Power soaks and dummy loads normally top out at 100-200W maximum (they are mostly designed for use with guitar amps) so running a high power bass amp into one isn't really a good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0175westwood29 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 hate to say it but sounds like you have tried to come up with a solution to a problem that never existed. to me if you want to go straight into a pa then get a preamp with a di like an vt bass or mxr m80 or sansamp, and di from that. with two pedals you could get an orange ish tone, say a sansamp and something to model an orange crunch, like a eqd monarch. andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassmachine2112 Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Hiho ,you can record direct from OTB head without a cab hooked up. I use an OTB500 and a sp212 cab,sounds great and loud as if you want. I would get the OTB 500/1000 and chuck a pedal in front of it and adjust the dry/wet signal blend on the pedal ,kick it in,kick it out-Orange footswitch for the ob1 heads are £27 or you can get a behringer bdi21 for buttons s/h and if you like the preamp route you could upgrade to better quality units but for live work the bdi21 does the trick. The ob1 on the clips sounds good but the knock down price on the OTB heads is very tempting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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