Orange Crushes It- The Orange Crush 50 Bass Combo
image credit- https://orangeamps.com/crush-bass-50
I ended up as an Orange fanboy by chance.
When I first started playing bass and I was ready to move from my tiny starter amp to a “real” amp I didn’t know where to turn. The internet is helpful, but only if you have an idea of what you are looking for. I often tell my students that searching Google isn’t like looking for a needle in a haystack. Google is looking for a needle in a stack of needles. You can find All The Answers, no matter the question you ask. I hadn’t discovered The Bass Channel yet, so I didn’t really have a trusted source on YouTube either. I mean, sure, everyone can make an amp sound good in a video, can’t they? Because I’m hearing the amp, but I’m also hearing whatever they are doing to the audio afterwards, assuming that some sites aren’t as honest as others and some are fronts for stores that want you to buy their stuff.
My preferred method of finding gear, or at least starting the search, is the direct human approach. I have a friend who I was friends with before I started playing bass who played bass. I trusted him, I knew him. So I texted him- What should I get? What’s good but affordable? I mean, I had no idea. My criteria was basically, “Assuming I ever join a small old guy local band, I need something that will survive over the drums and guitars and would be ok in a dive bar. And I want to be able to practice with it at home. Plus it has to have a tone that I’ll like. Help!”
He said I wouldn’t need to get anything over a 50 Watt amp, so I’ll be looking at combos. “Orange or Fender. Look there first, those are my suggestions.” There are probably some reading this who are thinking, “No, he didn’t mention this brand or that brand.” Yeah, there are a lot of choices. What to do?
I was already playing a Geddy Lee Fender Jazz and completely in love with it, so I figured I should go with the Fender amp. Fender bass should sound best through a Fender amp, right? Makes sense to me. I was quickly corrected and told to do some research into both of them and play them if I could. I found a Fender at Guitar Center and it was fine. I could not find the Orange, so to the Googles I went.
Wait…Steve Harris is an Orange artist? And Troy Sanders? Aaron Beam? Oh damn…
And then I saw it, and my choice was made for me.
Is it stupid to buy a $300 thing because an artist you love plays it? No! It’s not just any artist. It’s Our Lord and Savior, Geddy Lee. The greatest bassist in the world, one of the members of the greatest band in the world. Geddy plays Orange? I’m sold.
I refuse to defend this choice. I played every single bass on the wall at Guitar Center and the Geddy Lee Jazz just felt right. Was it in my head? Probably some of it. But the bass is amazing. If I can trust Geddy to put his name on the best bass in the store, I can trust the amp he plays it through.
So I bought the Orange Crush 50 without playing a note through one. Because Geddy told me to.
I love this amp. I fell in love with it immediately. Now, I must point out that my ear was used to my amateur playing through the World’s Crappiest Tiny Cheap Amp. Anything would have sounded better. But the tone I got without playing with a single knob blew me away. And the volume. And then I started playing with the Gain knob. Oh boy oh boy oh boy.
The Orange Crush 50 had everything I needed for practicing at home where my noise must be kept to a minimum because here there be sleeping children. The headphone jack saved my bacon there. It also has an Aux In jack which I admit I’ve never used, mostly because I don’t have a pure aux cable. I should get one though because it would certainly be easier than having one earbud in while I practice… Boy I feel dumb right now. *stops writing to buy aux cable*
It also had a Orange proprietary foot pedal for turning the Gain channel on and off that I got for free because it was a deal when I bought the amp. My first pedal. It only works for this amp and it has its own jack. This pedal lives outside the regular input signal chain or the FX Loop chain too, so I can turn the amp’s unique Orange grit on and off and then modify it with other pedals, which is a huge plus because in my opinion all you need is the Orange Gain, but it’s nice to be able to use that channel alongside other pedals.
I’ve mentioned this in my reviews of pedals before, but I am a simple bass player. I don’t like a bunch of knobs and switches. I will fiddle if you give me a knob to fiddle with, and then I’ll find a tone, and then I’ll lose that tone, and then I’ll be frustrated. The less knobs the better. My ideal bass knob set-up is what Tom Araya has- a volume knob. Turn everything else all the way up and leave me alone.
All Orange products scratch this itch for me. Volume, Treble, Middles, Frequency, Bass, Blend, Gain. Boom, done, all you need. I love the design, I think the control panel is pretty. All the knobs are nice and big and the markings are clear. I get a kick out of the little icons each knob has.
I eventually did join a band and play a lot with two other guitar players and a drummer in a hot garage and then a small hot practice space for about thirteen months, using the 50 for a lot of that time. I held its own, though I did have the volume cranked to nine o’clock or further. The tone was amazing, it was sturdy as hell, and as light as you can expect. I eventually bought an Orange Terror Bass 500 head, which I’ll write about some other time and which basically induced an orgasm the first time I play it through a big cab.
My time with my Orange Crush 50 convinced me that, until I’m proven otherwise in a staggeringly clear way, Orange is my ride or die. The straight up 12 o’clock tone it hits you with is, to my ear, nearly the perfect bass tone. And once it’s dialed in chef’s kiss. The Orange sound is not for everyone. It’s a little more old school than a lot of amps out there and it’s always in the tone no matter what pedals you put through it. There’s always the Orange personality there in the sound. Comparing it to, say, a Darkglass cab is impossible because they are two different beasts going for two different things.
If you’re in the market for a strong, dependable, kick-ass practice cab, the Orange Crush 50 should be the top of your Must Try list. Or just buy it because Geddy took a picture with an Orange head once like I did.
Doug Robertson is the editor of The Bass Blog, the blog component of The Bass Channel, your one stop YouTube channel for all things bass. His number one is a Mexican Geddy Lee Signature Jazz and his boomer is a BEAD tuned T-Bird. Find books by Doug here. If you’re interested in contributing to The Bass Blog please reach out to Doug at doug@thebasschannel.net. We would love to hear from you.
