AD200B Gain?

[myboss57]

First a story:
So my buddy and I went to the local Guitar Center because I found that they had a used AD200B head for sale and we wanted to hear one/play one in person. First off, apparently even bass guitar shredders hang out at GC as the bass room was full of guys all noodling away on six strings bass guitars. So we just went over and got strings, and took a look around; waiting out the bassers - figuring they'd only be another minute.
We went back to the bass room only to find them all still there. So we grabbed a Jazz bass, plugged in and turned the amp on. My buddy announces to the room that, "we're just going to turn this up real loud for a minute". We did. Whoa, that thing's a beast and I'm sure the funkmasters popping and slapping just loved hearing some drony bass notes and chords.

Okay, so anyways - I turned the gain all the way up and starting rolling up the volume a bit, expecting a crunch similar to a guitar amp (of course less fuzzy/fizzy though) and there wasn't much there. I think if you started to really play it even louder and were hitting some heavy-handed notes we might have heard something. But is this how this amp is supposed to sound? I feel like I remember seeing/hearing clips on youtube where the thing sounds really raunchy (in a goooood way). Any ideas?

[evansexcellent]

My bassist loved my Orange amps so much we went to a guitar store for him to try the ad200b and he fell in love. He is anxiously waiting to have enough $$$ to take it off layaway.
The dirty is a lot different from a guitar amp. Gain all the way up sounds killer but you need to dig into it to really have it breakup. To gets some real dirt just throw a muff type fuzz infront of it.

[Randy Bass]

It's pretty gritty as far as bass amps go, but they don't have anywhere near the gain on tap of a modern Orange guitar amp. That would make it nearly unusable for most people. Also, a passive J-Bass is on the weak side as far as output, so you would get more out of the preamp section with most other basses/pickups. Try an EB-O through it the next time you're there if you want to hear some mudfuzz .

[bclaire]

One thing to consider with a used amp is, someone might have replaced one of the preamp tubes with a tube that would give you cleaner headroom. In other words, you could get more gain with a preamp tube change.

Mine does the dirt pretty well, and gets a nice dirty growl....

[ScottyDanger]

I used to play on my buddy's ad200b and it really cranked out the gain, but I also have hot quarter pounder pickups in my P-Bass, so that helped I'm sure.

[myboss57]

thanks! Yeah, I didn't think about the bass pups, but that makes perfect sense. I did think that maybe the tubes had been changed to make it less growly. There was definitely some "growl" there, not a clean amp, but I guess I thought there'd be a bit more. I didn't expect to hear a bass version of my RV100, but I thought there'd be a bit more fuzz in it! But probably for the best that it's not that way.

My buddy currently has a hybrid Ampeg SVT3 Pro, and it sounds pretty sweet with his Ric and 6x10. But I've been touting the Orange Love and he seemed pretty convinced that he would like an AD200B one day! Not sure if he'll get one anytime soon, as he has no need for it currently. He did recently get the Tronographic Rusty Box to fulfill his dirty sound bass needs (http://www.tronographic.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), so I'm not sure he has any GAS left for the month.

[bassdrop]

Tell your bass player to take that boost pedal into GC next time. The AD200 sounds ridiculously good when you boost up the front end. I use two, the Radial Big Shot and the Fulltone BassDrive 2.

[myboss57]

Tell your bass player to take that boost pedal into GC next time. The AD200 sounds ridiculously good when you boost up the front end. I use two, the Radial Big Shot and the Fulltone BassDrive 2.

Yeah, in hindsight I wish we would've have thought to bring his Rusty Box and his Rickenbacker. I think though, if he had, that amp just might be sitting at his house right now!

[jason41224]

the only thing more annoying than guitar shredders are bass shredders. my lord, play a freaking root note or i'm calling in a minifridge.



in all seriousness though, that's pretty rad. i've been trying to coax my bassist (who has his shreddy moments, but nevermind that) to get a Bass Terror. but his little Markbass sounds pretty good too, so it's not very high on my priority list.

[myboss57]

the only thing more annoying than guitar shredders are bass shredders. my lord, play a freaking root note or i'm calling in a minifridge.



in all seriousness though, that's pretty rad. i've been trying to coax my bassist (who has his shreddy moments, but nevermind that) to get a Bass Terror. but his little Markbass sounds pretty good too, so it's not very high on my priority list.

Yeah, but root notes are overrated.

I'd be stoked if my bassist got an Orange, but I'm with ya - his current rig is pretty nice!

[everdrone]

I want it

awesome amps need dirt boxes even.

[myboss57]

I want it, I would not want to lift it. awesome amps need dirt boxes even.

Yeah, I just slid it to see if it was plugged in - I could tell just from doing that that the amp is a heavy MOFO!

[bassdrop]

the only thing more annoying than guitar shredders are bass shredders. my lord, play a freaking root note or i'm calling in a minifridge.



in all seriousness though, that's pretty rad. i've been trying to coax my bassist (who has his shreddy moments, but nevermind that) to get a Bass Terror. but his little Markbass sounds pretty good too, so it's not very high on my priority list.

The trick is to play intriguingly, even "shreddy", but in a supportive way- a lesson many guitar players could stand to learn, I might add

As far as the weight, just repeat this mantra anytime you're lugging it around:
"40% lighter than an SVT, 40% lighter than an SVT, . . . "

[myboss57]

The trick is to play intriguingly, even "shreddy", but in a supportive way- a lesson many guitar players could stand to learn, I might add

As far as the weight, just repeat this mantra anytime you're lugging it around:
"40% lighter than an SVT, 40% lighter than an SVT, . . . "

Yeah, that's true about the SVT!

I agree, the bass should have it's moments. I've been a bass player my entire life until this current band and I can say that I've always loved the Stu Hamms, Jaco, Clarke, etc - I love the interesting stuff. But there's a lot of bassists who think that's how bass playing should be ALL THE TIME - and that's not the case. That's the same reason I don't generally guitar shredder guys - after awhile I'm just wondering where the groove is. I'll take a nice little groove with some interesting time sigs anyday over "noodly noodly noodly nood!" sound.

[jason41224]

yeah, i totally agree. my favorite bassists are the guys whose primary focus is providing the groove and root of the song, but still being able to do little fills when time calls for it (i wouldn't call that shredding, just being tasteful). Jaco/Wooten wannabes get on my nerves--though both of those guys are incredible all around bass players, and they also know how to adapt from playing solo bass to playing in a band setting and supporting the song (not shredding).

and guitarists this applies too! which is why i can't stand the Edge haterz. he supports the song instead of shredding.