Orange AD200B Head

Orange AD200B Head 

Have you been looking for a simple, great sounding bass amp that isn’t going to let you down in the volume department? Look no further! The Orange AD200B kicks out 200 watts of British valve power and offers bassists a huge amount of versatility. On top of that, this amp couldn’t be any simpler to use. Glancing across the front of the amp we have 5 controls: MASTER - TREBLE - MIDDLE - BASS - GAIN.

Volume and Gain
When I first plugged into an Orange AD200B a couple of years ago my first thought was “Surely this isn’t offering me enough control over my sound?”. After a few minutes of playing I couldn’t believe the amount of tones that I was getting from using just the Volume and Gain controls alone. The gain goes from a fat clean sound right through to a gritty overdrive. There’s a sweet spot around 1 o’clock on the gain control, at this point the amp is delivering a fat, warm, clean sound but it’s also got some real bite to it when you dig into your strings.

Passive EQ
The EQ controls on the AD200B are passive, which means that they are subtractive. When the treble, middle and bass are turned up they are effectively set ‘flat’. Naturally, a good place to start with the AD200B is with the EQ controls turned all the way up and work back from there.

Simplicity matched with huge tone
Orange boast about the purity of tone that the AD200B delivers. When Orange designed the AD200B they wanted to give bassists an amp that offered deep, valve warmth without sacrificing the natural tonal qualities that you bass guitar already gives you. How did they do this? Simple! They kept the signal path inside the AD200B as short as possible. This means that the notes you’re playing aren’t being dragged through circuit boards and loads of wiring.

The back of the amp
On the back of the Orange AD200B you have speaker lead outputs (2 x 4 ohm, 1 x 8 ohm), a slave output and 4 slots for fuses. The AD200B houses Orange’s Tube Failure Protection system. Often, these amps are designed to work hard. Valves are undoubtably the sonically superior bass amp sound, but valves also wear out. It is very hard to tell how long a valve will last, in the same way you don’t know when your kitchen light is going to blow. The Tube Failure Protection system will blow a fuse before anything bad can happen to the amp when a valve fails.

Plectrum or finger style
So how does the AD200B sound with your playing style of choice? Due to the incredibly dynamic tone this amp has to offer plectrum players from all fields of music will love the sounds they hear. You want a fat clean sound? Keep the gain down low. You want a grinding overdriven sound? Keep the gain up high. As you can imagine, there’s also everything in-between. This amp will suit indie bassists and it will also cater for the needs of players after something that sounds really dirty!
For finger style players you’re going to love the warmth you hear from the AD200B. Due to the incredibly dynamic tone this amp has to offer you can achieve all kinds of great results from the way you’re playing. If you dig into the strings you’ll get more bite, if you play softly it will sound softer- dynamics just how you want them.

Speakers
The minimum load that the Orange AD200B can take is 4ohm, so you can use any regular speaker cabinets with the AD200B as long as the minimum load isn’t less than 4ohm. For example, you could use a single 8 ohm speaker cabinet or a pair of 8 ohm cabinets (which would equal 4 ohm), or even just one 4 ohm cab such as an 8x10 or 2x15.

Orange recommend the matching OBC115 and OBC410 speakers (sold separately) for the AD200B amp. The combination of four 10-inch speakers and one 15-inch speaker cater for all the frequencies that come out of the AD200B perfectly. The OBC115 and OBC410 were made to give the AD200B exactly what it needs to kick out pure, fat tone.