Look behind some of the biggest-name bassists on the planet, and you’ll see a fair share of Orange amps. Geddy Lee, Tom Petersson, and John McVie employ their distinctively rich, gritty tones, among others. But we’re here to talk about something from Orange that’s not from their fine selection of amps and cabinets. Enter the O Bass. This retro-kissed 4-string is the brainchild of Orange lead-designer Adrian Emsley, an incurable vintage junkie with a long history of tinkering with gear. In designing the O, Emsley wanted to give the instrument a deep vibe, a huge vintage tone, and a familiar feel.
This bass has been a bit of an enigma for a couple years now, appearing only briefly behind curtains at trade shows before eventually hitting the prototype phase. The good news is that the O Bass is now in production and that we recently spent some quality time with one.
The Big O
The 34"-scale O Bass’ body is constructed from Okoumé, a lightweight wood native to Africa, and topped with a basswood veneer. Our test model came finished in teardrop sunburst, but black and, yes, orange finishes are also available. The O Bass has ABS binding on the burst and black versions that makes for a great retro touch. And the wonderfully bold headstock atop the maple neck is finished in white, which helps highlight the Orange logo and oversized open-gear tuners.
For all the things the bass features, the one thing it doesn’t have is extremely appealing: weight. The O Bass tips the scales at just a hair over 8 pounds and shares the same dimensions as a Hofner or Kay, which makes for a very pleasant three-set night. But the O is slightly neck-heavy because of it. Playing seated without a strap was a little bit more of a fight than standing, but at the end of the day, neither ended up being too much of a burden.
Ratings
Pros:
Growly bass goodness with a big tone.
Cons:
Might be a shade too midrange-y for some.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$449
Orange O Bass
orangeamps.com
O My
Unplugged, the O Bass sounded big with lots of sustain—a great indicator of things to come before I ran the bass through a small arsenal of different rigs. Because of variations in amps, settings, air movement, etc., I like hearing a bass in as many scenarios as possible, and for this review, I was lucky enough to have a unique final test.
I first plugged into a FireStudio interface from PreSonus and monitored with a set of Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones, a studio quality pair of cans that don’t lie. With the bass running direct, my ears were hit with thick lows, pointed highs, and a tone reminding me of a P bass with a little mid-growl to it. The harder I played, the harder the O growled at me, almost begging me to dig in anywhere on the neck. The upper registers sang with a hybrid P/Hofner tone and had the same snarl when more pressure was applied. I could hear this bass being right at home with rock purists and blues cats.
The next rig was an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 and matching SL 112 cabinet—a powerful and clear combination. The O Bass was again in beast mode, with robust-yet-slightly-barking tones. This bass likes moving some air, and I got a really nice old-school thump out of it by palm muting. When rolling off the tone, however, the O Bass got choked and a bit of a wet-blanket feeling came over the tone. I found that this bass wants to be played wide-open, very much like its Orange amp cousins.
Speaking of wide open, I also played the bass on a ballad and an up-tempo song at a festival show with 18,000 ears listening. My onstage rig was an Eden WTP900 with matching 4x10 and 2x12 cabinets, and the O Bass did its job well. My tone was tight and responsive to a lighter touch, and I got a nice, slightly growled sound on upper-register runs. When I hit a big, low F in the ballad, the note was felt in my chest and heart, which made them both happy. The aforementioned neck dive wasn’t really a burden, so all I could think was, “This is a $400 bass?” It would make an excellent backup, and I only say backup because I haven’t had a chance to test its road reliability over time.
The Verdict
In a world of P and J copies and the seemingly endless supply of reissues, Orange stepped beyond ordinary rehashing and did a tremendous job in bringing the essence and vibe of their amps to a bass guitar, which is no small feat. The O Bass has everything that designer Emsley wanted and then some. The vintage feel is there, the growl is there, and the affordability is there, too. The O Bass won’t appeal to everyone, but then again, Orange amps aren’t for everyone either, and that’s part of their appeal. Be it for a backup, primary, or solid addition to your studio arsenal, it’s hard to beat the O at this price.
Watch the Review Demo:
This month’s mod Dan’s uses a 500k linear pot, a 1.5H inductor (L) with a 0.039 µF (39nF) cap (C), and a 220k resistor (R) in parallel.
Don’t let the name fool you, this is a purely passive device—nothing is going to be boosted. In general, you can’t increase anything with passive electronics that isn’t already there. Period. But you can reshape the tone by deemphasizing certain frequencies and making others more prominent (so … “boost” in guitar marketing language). Removing highs makes lows more apparent, and vice versa. In addition, the use of inductors (which create the magnetic field in a guitar circuit) and capacitors will create resonant peaks and valleys (bandpasses and notches), further coloring the overall tone. This type of bandpass filter only allows certain frequencies to pass through, while others are blocked, and it all works at unity gain.
“You can’t increase anything with passive electronics that isn’t already there … but you can reshape the tone by deemphasizing certain frequencies and making others more prominent.”
All the systems I mentioned above are doing more or less the same thing, using different approaches and slightly different component values. They are all meant to be updated tone controls. Our common tone circuit is usually a variable low-pass filter (aka treble-cut filter), which only allows the low frequencies to pass through, while the high frequencies get sent to ground via the tone cap. Most of these systems are LCR networks, which means that there is not only a capacitor (C), like on our standard tone controls, but also an inductor (L) and a resistor (R).
In general, all these systems are meant to control the midrange in order to scoop the mids, creating a mid-cut. This can be a cool sounding option, e.g. on a Strat for that mid-scooped neck and middle tone.
Dan Torres offered his “midrange kit” via an internet shop that is no longer online, same with his business website. The Torres design is a typical LCR network and looks like the illustration at the top of this column.
Dan’s design uses a 500k linear pot, a 1.5H inductor (L) with a 0.039 µF (39nF) cap (C), and a 220k resistor (R) in parallel. Let’s break down the parts piece by piece:
Any 500k linear pot will do the trick, in one of the rare scenarios where a linear pot works better in a passive guitar system than an audio pot.
(C) 0.039µF cap: This is kind of an odd value. Keeping production tolerances of up to 20 percent in mind, any value that is close will do, so you can use any small cap you want for this. I would prefer a small metallized film cap, and any voltage rating will do. If you want to stay as close as possible to the original design, use any 0.039 µF low-tolerance film cap.
(L) 1.5H inductor: The original design uses a Xicon 42TL021 inductor, which is easy to find and fairly priced. This one is also used in the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter design, the Gibson standard Varitone, and many other systems like this. It’s very small, so it will fit in virtually every electronic compartment of a guitar. It has a frequency range of 300 Hz up to 3.4 kHz, with a primary impedance of 4k ohms (that’s the one we want to use) and a secondary impedance of 600 ohms. Snip off the three secondary leads and the center tap of the primary side and use the two remaining outer primary leads; the primary side is marked with a “P.” On the pic, you can see the two leads you need marked in red, all other leads can be snipped off. You can connect the two remaining leads to the pot either way; it doesn’t matter which of them is going to ground when using it this way.
Drawing courtesy of singlecoil.com
(R) 220k: use a small axial metal film resistor (0.25 W), which is easy to find and is the quasi-standard.
Other designs use slightly different part values—the Bill Lawrence Q-filter has a 1.8H L, 0.02 µF C and 8k R, while the old RA Gresco Tone Qube from the ’80s has a 1.5H L, 0.0033 µF C, and a 180k R, so this is a wide field for experimentation to tweak it for your personal tone.
This mid-cut system can be put into any electric guitar not only as a master tone, but also together with a regular tone control or something like the Fender Greasebucket, or it can be assigned only to a certain pickup. It can be a great way to enhance your sonic palette, so give it a try.
That’s it! Next month, we’ll take a deeper look into how to fight feedback on a Telecaster. It’s a common issue, so stay tuned!
Until then ... keep on modding!