Active basses and the Orange AD200

[cocco]

I got my AD200 a few years ago, before it I had an Ampeg SVT-4 pro and although I owned a fair few basses my favourite was my Stingray.

Upon receiving the AD it became quickly apparent that the ray didn't sound that good through it, my Jazz and T-40 however sounded amazing. The same was true of other active basses I had at the time, Trace T-bass, Bongo, a deluxe P I was borrowing. So much so that I flogged all the actives.

Just wondering if anyone else has found this or indeed the opposite. I'm currently GASing after a certain active bass and am worried that it will be a waste of time.

[Prime_BASS]

I used to swear by active stingray types, but could never find a usable tone with the kind of sound I wanted fir the band. Tried a decent passsive J, and I'm yet to be disappointed.
I don't see myself playing anything like I was before for a while atleast, although I'll always want my original Stingray back.

[The Dark Lord]

I've always found active basses have too clean and clinical a tone for the stuff that I like to do. I prefer a more raw vintage sound.

[Prime_BASS]

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1379102212' post='2208803']
I've always found active basses have too clean and clinical a tone for the stuff that I like to do. I prefer a more raw vintage sound.
[/quote]

Grainy, like vinyl

[Chris Horton]

When I owned my AD200 amo I also had the 410 &115 orange cabs.
I played a stingray 5 and '70's fender precisions through that rig and I loved the sound. The setup worked best when I ran the amp and 410 cab only.

I would personally say that the rig works great with that vintage tone.
I played modern sounding basses like mtd , sadowsky etc through it and I felt that the modern basses did not quite work with the ad200.

Just my tonal taste though

[The Dark Lord]

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1379103953' post='2208829']
Grainy, like vinyl
[/quote]

Yep. Well said.

[dannybuoy]

I can attest to the T40 sounding incredible through this amp!

[Happy Jack]

I thought the AD200 had separate inputs for Active & Passive basses?

[cocco]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1379236259' post='2210024']
I thought the AD200 had separate inputs for Active & Passive basses?
[/quote]

It does, my point is that active sound distinctly average through it to my ears. Could it be that I was over complicating my signal by having an active preamp in the bass running into another preamp (sansamp) running then into to AD?

[Happy Jack]

Yup - to my very simplistic way of thinking, that's two gain stages followed by a pad before you actually reach the pre-amp on the AD200.

Dead easy to test though ... try it all but without the Sansamp. If your on-board pre-amp has a by-pass then obvious;y try that as well.

If you active bass sounds fine when played as a passive, using the passive input, then in theory it should also sound fine played as an active, using the active input.

[Lfalex v1.1]

Not an Orange owner, but...
I'm convinced from my experiences with my Ampeg SVP-Pro that some amps are voiced to suit certain basses or types of bass.
If not that, then at some point during development, the amp is used with "bass X" to fine-tune it, and ends up favouring that kind of instrument.

The Ampeg was great with P,J and the Stingray. OK with the Vigier, but hated the Status and Warwicks.