Orange Amps Forum

I noticed that when the volume is low (say 9 o'clock) and gain high (say 2 o'clock), the tone is really bassy and muffled on both channels of the Dual Terror - even with the tone knob turned all the way clockwise. By the way I play a Les Paul.
Increasing the volume brightens things up, but the amp gets too loud for home use. Turning the gain down solved the loudness issue but that makes the sweet compression / distortion disappear.
How are you guys keeping the distortion while having a bright tone at bedroom volume with the DD?

I have a TT, but I can't say that I ever thought it was too bassy or muffled even at low volumes, however I have felt that way with some other amps and always solved it with a boost of some sort with an eq section or tone control on it. Have you tried an eq pedal or just any boost or overdrive you have lying around to try and tighten it up a bit for low volume playing?

I play a Gibson SG with 57 classics, so it doesn't have a lot of snap and high end when I play through my oranges unless I get the volume up a bit and I would expect that Les Paul to be a bit woolier than my SG.

You could try some tube swaps too if you have some laying around, it might take the "blanket" off if you experiment a bit.

Seems odd to me. The same with all wattage/tube settings?

Yes, I have a Boss EQ pedal which of course helps. Also, the Les Paul has a coil tap so it sound brighter in single coil mode of course, but that's besides the point. It feels weird that the amp sounds wooly at lower volumes and medium-high gain when the tone is maxed...
I don't have any spare valves unfortunately. How can I check if it's a valve issue?

See my question from above. I always run my TT at max wattage as any lower sounds thin and sad. And what kind of cab were you playing through? I had Cannibis REX speakers in my cab a few months back and hated all my amps through it. I then put in a set of V30's and the "blanket" was removed.

Do you have any other amps? If you are going from say a mesa, or fender, then yea, the TT is going to sound crazy dark in comparison.

Boy_Narf wrote:See my question from above. I always run my TT at max wattage as any lower sounds thin and sad. And what kind of cab were you playing through? I had Cannibis REX speakers in my cab a few months back and hated all my amps through it. I then put in a set of V30's and the "blanket" was removed.

Do you have any other amps? If you are going from say a mesa, or fender, then yea, the TT is going to sound crazy dark in comparison.

The cab is an open back Orange 2x12 loaded with Vintage 30s.
Yes, the same with all wattage / tube settings.
Yes, I do have a Fender 68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb which is much brighter in comparison (even with the bright switch off). But I've also had Marshalls and Mesas and the DT is by far the bassiest of them all.

Only other thought is to head to a store and test another one out to see how it compares.

Part of this problem seems to me your playing too quiet at levels the valve amp doesn't sound good at. Useing a boost pedal will help at low volumes.....something like the xotic ep booster.

I also would try to reduce the gain and max the volume . Get the crunch with a boost or a low gain od. If this doesn't work I would change the power amp tubes. The JJs EL84 aren't very expensive.

maybe it is not healthy then, as it this doesn't sound normal. I think these amps can sound pretty bright and crunchy even at low volumes, as it can't be that much different than the Tiny Terror as it basically just has more watts. Bright being relative of course.

I would try a re-tube, like suggested. You don't have to bias the amp, so just plug and play. Try the preamp valves first one by one and see if it improves, though. If the tubes make no difference, then maybe take it to a tech as it may be some other component gone south. At least, you have a second set of tubes when needed.

Before you spend a bunch of cash on tubes, try and find one to test out. If the new one is the same as yours, perhaps it's just not the amp for you. If it's way different, then yea do a tube swap.

My TT is plenty bright all the time, unless I'm running at 0.5 volume (barely audible). My bedroom friendly volume is master just under the 2nd notch, and gain at 1:30.

When you say you have to turn it up to make it "bright" how loud are you turning it?

So, OP, is this a relatively new amp to you or have you had it awhile and the tone has seemed to change on you?

I've had the amp for 4 years now. It hasn't had much use really. I think I did 2 gigs with it and the rest of the time it's been idle, though I used it the studio during the recording of an album about 2 years ago.

But I basically I retired the amp in favour of a Fender 68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb which I gigged extensively last year. I started using the Fender as it had a beautiful clean sound and by that point I had accumulated a healthy number of pedals to cover all bases, so the DT became redundant.

I thought about selling the DT but every time I wanted to list it on a certain auction website, I'd plug in my Les Paul (with the intention to give it a proper last good bye) and it would give me instant gratification, making it so hard to part ways. But it was only on the bridge pick up and only on certain settings. And most importantly, it was a sounds which was nice when played on my own, but a sounds that would get lost in the mix. The bass player in our band has a razor toppy sounds (think Mark King - Level 42), so the DT just doesn't cut through the mix. I give it some extra top end with a Boss EQ, but back to my original question - is it normal that the DT voicing should be so untransparent?

To answer your question, I don't think the tone has changed - I guess I'm just finding it hard to transition from the Fender clean tone which is crystal clear and so transparent.
The reason why I thought the amp was not working properly was because it always sounds as if the guitar tone control is not fully open, if you know what I mean. Not sure if that is the characteristic of this amp. The low E string is really, really bassy, in a poky sort of way, but without the definition, drowning all other strings (and no, it's not a pick up height problem). It makes you wish there was a separate hi pot. The neck pickup is basically unsuable because it sounds too muffled, with very little definition. And that is with the tone control fully open. The bridge sounds tolerable, but even a clean sound feels too bassy. I plugged my Strat this evening, played it clean and again, the low E is really bassy and poky (but not in a good way).

Sorry I cannot be more descriptive, but it's difficult to illustrate a sound with words...

Doesn't sound normal to me. I don't own one but have tried and heard it several times, that amp is supposed to sound thick but not so much that it won't cut through.

I've owned two different Dual Terrors, definitely not bassy and muffled normally.