Fender Bassman 100 vs Orange 200 Comparisons?

[cd_david]

I have a Fender 1976 100 watt bassman head which i really like and use in the house with a matching 1976 bassman 4x12. I love the sound of them but have always fancied an Orange head.

Has anybody got any first hand comparisons of the 2 amps? Both I would imagine sound quite similar with basic eq and similar all valve design????

Cheers


Dave

[Mr. Foxen]

The Orange with the three band eq is pretty much a Fender style tone stack, but the gain is different so they end up dirtier. Don't think the power stage is that similar, not sure but some Fender stuff ran in Ultralinear. A lot of colour/limitation is going to come from that cab though, is it one of the pyramid baffle ones?

If you have money to chuck about, probably can do better than Orange, basically, Matamp.

If all you need is more volume and like the tone of the amp, a better cab is the way, Barefaced Super15 will be lighter, louder and lower than the cab you have, but might not offer the same cab colouration.

[VTypeV4]

I always liked the idea of a big Fender rig as I think they look great. A Bassman 135 with the big double 15 or the funky 4 x 12" would be mint. Not sure their sounds would suit as I like the tighter sound of more modern speakers (even if they're driven by valve amps) and also the inclusion of HF units is a nice bonus too.. Incidentally, what do the odd 4 x 12" cabs sound like?

I did borrow a silver face Bassman 50 and the matching 2x15" and it sounded great but when presented with a drummer, it just crunched up a little too much and the drivers were also telling me that they'd had enough.. Great a little quieter and probably mint flat out with a Ricky for Lemmy/Alan Davy type sounds.

I'd love a go of the big modern 300T with an 8 x 10", monster!

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1324773436' post='1477820']
Incidentally, what do the odd 4 x 12" cabs sound like?
[/quote]

I reckon pretty much like a guitar cab. They split seams a lot and get all sorts of wrong sounds from that though.

[jensenmann]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1324775104' post='1477834']
I reckon pretty much like a guitar cab.
[/quote]
Absolutely not. It´s a basscab not guitarcab. It´s much bigger than a guitar 4x12"and speakers are mounted in a very funny way. Each speaker blows into another direction. This helps to hear your basssound all over the place.

[umcoo]

I've had an AD200B and a Bassman 135. Both are absolute cracking amps. I think I preferred the 135 when it was cranked as opposed to the Orange. The 135 really roared at volume, but was still nice and fat. The Orange is equally great, but they do sound different, to me anyways. I think the Oranges pre-amp gain could be a little sizzly and a little too trebly, whereas the 135 was nice at any setting. If I had the choice, I'd get a Matamp...or the 135 again.

Biggest issue I had was that I wasn't gigging at the time I had both, so running them at 1 on the master volume really didn't allow them to shine. Crank them with a drummer and 2 Marshall's and you're ready to rock.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='jensenmann' timestamp='1324808153' post='1477888']
Absolutely not. It´s a basscab not guitarcab. It´s much bigger than a guitar 4x12"and speakers are mounted in a very funny way. Each speaker blows into another direction. This helps to hear your basssound all over the place.
[/quote]

Bigger on the outside, but because of the shape, the volume of the inside isn't proportionally as big.

[VTypeV4]

I think a 135 and cab are on my GAS list..