Orange Bass Amp

If you’ve been to a rock show of any size, chances are you’ll have seen an Orange bass amp. The Orange brand, since being founded in London, UK, in 1968, has been an important part of rock history - easily recognisable for its unique appearance, and loved by musicians for its simplicity and quality.

A true British institution, Orange was founded by Clifford Cooper originally as a recording studio on London’s New Compton Street. While the studio eventually went on to have great success (hosting sessions by Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones and Robin Gibb), in 1968 Cooper couldn’t pay the rent and had to put some of the studio’s gear up for sale in the window. It was the sale of this gear which provided the funds for the first batch of 100 watt tube amplifiers to be made, to Cooper’s specification, by a manufacturer in Huddersfield.

The Orange Bass Amp is orange for a reason

Cooper was inspired by guitar design legend Les Paul’s belief that “people hear with their eyes”, and this is what led to the distinctive orange casing and retro sci-fi controls that make Orange products instantly recognisable. If you look back at the very first model, it’s remarkable how little has changed even today. One of the first bands to use Orange amplifiers was Cooper’s friends Fleetwood Mac, and from then on it didn’t take long for Orange to become a ubiquitous presence on the rock scene. After a lull in the synth-pop 80s, the rise of Britpop in the 1990s re-established the dominance of the classic British brand.

Buying an Orange bass amp is therefore buying into an important part of rock history, but also buying a brand which stands for quality and simplicity. Nowadays, bassists from the likes of Weezer, Alkaline Trio, Sparta and Converge rely on the Orange bass amp, especially the classic AD200B-MK3 valve head.

The AD200B-MK3 has Orange’s typical vintage design and creates warm tones, with a dynamic low-end and a focused midrange crunch. Its main strength is its ability to create pure tones throughout the spectrum, and it doesn’t mess around with unnecessary controls - it’s simply got a 3-band passive EQ, a master volume and a gain control. The AD200B head is typically paired with an Orange 4 x 10, 1 x 15 or 8 x 10 speaker cab for optimum results.

As well as this classic valve amp, Orange manufactures the hybrid TB500H Terror Bass head. The Terror Bass has a solid state power section as well as a twin-valve preamp, allowing 500 watts of high-powered performance without being too heavy and bulky. Its combination of warm Orange tone and extreme portability means that bass players can easily take it on the road and combine it with the venue’s bass cab, guaranteeing themselves a great sound. And if for some reason 500 watts isn’t enough for you, there’s the new TB1000 with double the power - just be warned that while it’s still incredibly small, that extra power unavoidably means carrying extra weight.

Another bass innovation from Orange is the SP212 2x12 600 watt bass cabinet. The cab benefits from what Orange call ‘smart power’ - the smart part being that the second speaker is positioned behind the first, making the unit extremely compact without sacrificing any power. This wouldn’t be possible with a guitar cab, but as the SP212 deals with bass frequencies any ‘muffling’ from the positioning isn’t going to be enough to notice. You can pair the SP212 with the equally small-but-mighty Terror Bass head for a powerful setup that won’t put your back out lugging it up and down venue stairs.

So that’s rock history, classic design, sturdy construction, rockstar endorsement and unbeatable tone. Remind me why you’ve not bought an Orange bass amp already?