Terror Bass 500 -F use Blows - New

[a.hun]

Late to the party, but I'm an Andy H too!

!!!

And there is a bass in your signature pic too. All the best people play bass you know!


NDH.

[Mogboo]

Hey!

Yeah I figured the other posts explained that, but I just wanted people to know it's still happening

I've been waiting 2 weeks for the amp to come back to me, with no word from Orange just yet. I'm not in the habbit of chasing things up because I like to think people do their jobs right, and that my amp will be returned safe and sound very soon! As soon as it's back, I will report on how things are going and what, if anything, Orange can tell me about it, supposing it was some other wild blowout problem!

Al

[frankonbass]

Hey fellow Bassists and Terror Head Fans.
I recently purchased a Terror Bass500 with 2-SP212 Cabs from Orange for the road. The rig worked great for the first two months all over the East Coast. It is an amazing rig however, I also had the Fuse Blowing Violently problem happen to me 2 weeks ago at a venue while WAITING to sound check.
I was not even playing.

This forum has been very helpful in understanding what could be wrong and Orange is very familiar with this issue. The suspect, a Bad FET. My head is currently being repaired. As soon as I get it back I will be happy to report the tech's notes and of course the head's performance.
Rest assured, Orange is on top of the situation.

I know that the first Terror Bass head I bought from an early batch had a DISTORTED DI output, Distorted Effects Loop and the GAIN broke up immediately (dial at about 2 or 3). This has all been worked out in newer heads. As for the fuses blowing as a result of bad FETs, that just may be a matter of time for any head that hasn't had the FET upgraded. ** Be sure to switch to 8 ohms when only using one cab and 4ohms with two cabs** This has been suggested to help keep any additional strain off the CCF (Cheesy Chinese FET)

No doubt about it, this is the closest to a B-15 sound in a small package in my opinion. I always used markBass but they were just a little too clean and Hi-Fi. The Terror Bass kicks A**

Play on!!
Frankonbass-

[karlfer]

Hi folks, late to the party, but............
I have a Bass Terror 500 and SP212.
Fantastic pub rig, best I have ever had.
Only had it couple of months, swapped it for SWR 350 XPRO, Goliath 111 4x10 and 1x15 Son of Bertha.
I believe my set up was bought new from PMT in Manchester late October last year.
Just a bit worried reading this.

What is a "FET", particularly the one that seems to have needed modification?

Any advice gratefully received,
cheers,
Karl.

[eyvindwa]

So, I'm on my second Terror Bass now. The first one blew its fuse violently after just a few hours of use. Orange were very friendly about it, and shipped me a new one (after a considerable delay, though I believe they had some supply issues). I've had the new one for several weeks now, and played it at several rehearsals. Then today, I leave it on "standby" for half an hour, and suddenly it goes "BANG", and the fuse is blown. Took the fuse for the room with it - the same way the last one went. There must be some serious issues with these amps... Such a shame, cause I love the sound of it! :/

[Captain Wedge]

These amps are reminding me of the early Xbox 360. Glad I don't have one of those.
Lot of new members who are bassist on this thread. Welcome all.

[Randy Bass]

I wouldn't draw too many conclusions about the TB500 based on anecdotal information. This is the place where people go when they do have a problem with their Orange, but the number is very small as a percentage of total units sold. We don't really know how many amps are actually defective in some way (or even how many amps they've made thus far) and most reports of problems are not followed-up with detailed information of the cause of the problem or how it was resolved. A lot of the time, Orange exchanges the damaged product for a new one and the customer never really knows what happened to the amp or what caused it. In any event, comparing an Orange Amp to a product made by those filthy bastards at Microsoft is totally uncalled for .

[eyvindwa]

At least, to Orange's defense, their support department has been very responsive and friendly. Hours after I contacted them this time around, they replied and said they'd be sending me a new one from a different batch today (thanks Rob!). Hopefully, it won't have any issues and I can get back to enjoying its sweet, sweet, overdriven sounds.

[carlos8f]

2 Dead Terrors from batch 0411

Same fuse problem here, and it bummed a good part of my week!

Got a new one Monday from eBay, and it sounded gorgeous for about 5 minutes. Then the amp died with a violently blown fuse. I was pretty confused at first, researched a little, and found this thread. Figured I just got a random lemon, but I didn't want to wait for a slow exchange process, so I overnighted one from Amazon.

Talked to the eBay seller on the phone, and he admitted that 7 out of 15 units he sold had the fuse issue (!!) Meanwhile, the one that arrived from Amazon (sold by Austin Bazaar), to my horror, died after 5 minutes in the same way. Tried replacing the fuses with the one they recommend in the manual (8A slow blow ceramic type), and neither unit would turn on. So then I called Orange (they didn't return an email after 4 days).

The guy at Orange, Len, was really helpful. Turns out both units were from the same batch, 0411, which was apparently sour. He prepaid 2-day roundtrip shipping, and will exchange one of the units for one they have set aside "for this exact problem". This has been a frustrating situation but it looks like next week I'll have a working Terror. Woo!

I think I'll rename it the Horror though. That's the type of story I'll be telling the band on Sunday :-/

[jason41224]

^the Tiny Horror. i kinda like that! Orange seriously should've looked into naming the Dark Terror that, since the DT abbreviation is so confusing

[Sooner]

Got a new one Monday from eBay, and it sounded gorgeous for about 5 minutes. Then the amp died with a violently blown fuse. I was pretty confused at first, researched a little, and found this thread. Figured I just got a random lemon, but I didn't want to wait for a slow exchange process, so I overnighted one from Amazon.

Talked to the eBay seller on the phone, and he admitted that 7 out of 15 units he sold had the fuse issue (!!) Meanwhile, the one that arrived from Amazon (sold by Austin Bazaar), to my horror, died after 5 minutes in the same way. Tried replacing the fuses with the one they recommend in the manual (8A slow blow ceramic type), and neither unit would turn on. So then I called Orange (they didn't return an email after 4 days).

The guy at Orange, Len, was really helpful. Turns out both units were from the same batch, 0411, which was apparently sour. He prepaid 2-day roundtrip shipping, and will exchange one of the units for one they have set aside "for this exact problem". This has been a frustrating situation but it looks like next week I'll have a working Terror. Woo!

Good to see Orange has changed their policy about not honoring the warranty for "ANYTHING bought on eBay":
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29131&p=338830&hili ... a4#p338830" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gladmarr]

Just my 2¢, but since Orange is traditionally a tube amp company, and now they've jumped up to a Class D solid state amp (500 Watts no less), they may be having some pains growing into this sort of design. Class D amps are basically a pulse width modulator or a sort of one bit Digital-to-Analog converter. This means the FET in the output stage (probably more than one FET) is being switched full on to full off constantly to reproduce sound. With this kind of operation, if there's any weakness in the output FETs, it's going to show up right away. That said, Orange should be doing a little burn-in on their assembly line to ensure this kind of infant mortality doesn't go out the door and give their new product a bad reputation.

[a.hun]

Just my 2¢, but since Orange is traditionally a tube amp company, and now they've jumped up to a Class D solid state amp (500 Watts no less), they may be having some pains growing into this sort of design. Class D amps are basically a pulse width modulator or a sort of one bit Digital-to-Analog converter. This means the FET in the output stage (probably more than one FET) is being switched full on to full off constantly to reproduce sound. With this kind of operation, if there's any weakness in the output FETs, it's going to show up right away. That said, Orange should be doing a little burn-in on their assembly line to ensure this kind of infant mortality doesn't go out the door and give their new product a bad reputation.

Inclined to agree with that. I suspect it is also why we haven't seen the long awaited 1000W version yet...

I know you weren't saying so but just to be clear, class D amps aren't digital amps.
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/pwm.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Andy.

[eyvindwa]

Turns out both units were from the same batch, 0411, which was apparently sour.

So, my third TB500 arrived yesterday, after having two previous ones blow up on me. The previous ones were both from batch 0111 (the batch number is the last set of digits in the serial number, right?). The new one is from batch 0411... Do you have any confirmed info that this batch is indeed a bad one? Does anyone know? Haven't had a chance to try my new head yet, but would really HATE to have this one blow up in the middle of a rehearsal...

[carlos8f]

Do you have any confirmed info that this batch is indeed a bad one? Does anyone know? Haven't had a chance to try my new head yet, but would really HATE to have this one blow up in the middle of a rehearsal...

I don't have it confirmed, but the Orange rep on the phone seemed to hint that they've encountered bad batches like this from the factory. I guess we can add 0111 to the list of batches to stay away from :-/

The FET problem (if that's the culprit) seems to show itself very early in the amp's life (first few minutes of use), so I'm perplexed that some units go weeks and then crap out (could be due to some other factor?). Len at Orange said he played through my replacement unit "all weekend" to make sure it's good. I'll post the batch number when I get it, should be here by Friday.