Anyone tried/own an Orange OB1-300 yet?

[adamlevine]

Hello Everyone,

A local shop in my area just posted the OB1-300 on their website. I'm seriously considering ordering one. Has anyone had an extended test session or own one of these yet? If I don't like it for some reason there is something crazy like a 20% restocking fee. It would be good to hear a few opinions before I pull the trigger. I'll be running it through a 300 watt rms Traynor cab @ 4 ohms. My questions are as follows, if anyone can shed some light I would really appreciate it!

1. How is the headroom? Are these amps (on the clean side) clean all the way up? I have watched all the demo videos online, but they are all set fairly low. Sounds like boosting the mids dials in a bit of grind, but I only heard this on one of the demos. The others stayed fairly clean regardless of EQ setting.

2. Do higher gain blends get lost in the mix? I doubt anyone has played one of these in a band setting, but I might as well ask.

[Boy_Narf]

Oooooooo I can help

1. Not much headroom. I even emailed Orange thinking mine was broken. They explained it was modeled after a vintage tube amp so expect grit on the clean side. Turning up the mids adds a touch of hair yes. My A4 has a passive single coil and digging in causes the amp to break up. Still not a huge fan of Orange non tube breakup, but once you dial in some dirt the amp becomes magical

2. Higher blends lost in the mix? Yes. I find running the blend and dist at 9 o'clock works great with my fretless A4. Nice and punchy with some growl if I dig in. The old bass player in my band used this a few times and it was always easiest to hear with the gain at 0. Adding blend with no dirt ads some nice harmonics though. Once you start dialing in the dist, it quickly gets lost. We had to compensate but upping the master and cranking the mids, but boy did it sound nice if you have a mid forward bass like my A4, then it will cut much better. He was playing an old Music Man Sub which is super scooped and not ideal.

If you plan to use this with the foot switch don't bother. There is a large volume boost when the gain kicks in. I'm perfectly happy using it as a single channel. Honestly an amazing sounding amp. Puts my old Traynor micro head to shame. It's just not designed to do big round clean cleans. If you like grit you will love this.

What kind of sound are you after? And what Traynor cab are you running?

Oh and if you like using a tweeter with your bass this isn't the amp for you. Even rolled in on the minimum setting it's crackle city.

Let me know if you have any other questions.