BASS- ORANGE O Bass ...Studio & stage Workhorse _Pro_inexpensive_not a 'wannabe'

ORANGE O BASS 

Sooner or later companies in the amp business get into making guitars Fender started with amps, and right up to the current King of gourmet amps is Friedman. I say King because even those that did not see themselves as a player that would go there Friedman has amps that are only a couple of hundred more than mid priced Marshall and Fender. I digress ...as usual.

Orange has done  things with this bass that could really pay off over time. They have started with going with the low end of the market instead of the high end.

They have gone nearly into the medium range market with the price so that by keeping the instrument simple the money can be spent on a making the bass not just an entry level but an entry level pro instrument. This exactly what Leo Fender did with the Tele. It was intentionally a plank of wood with the unheard of idea of simply bolting on the neck. All the money was spent on making robust, reliable and sounding good.

The final thing was NOT making it a Fender wannabe. It must have been a tough choice because players tend to want a copy of their favourite players bass. It does not hit them that the guy that is in a place where they want to be got there by doing things his way. There are the big guys and there are the sheep. The leaders and the followers. So though this bass is very workman like it is indeed a serviceable entry level pro bass.

$450.00 USD

The first thing with any bass to decide is the scale length and body. If it is Pro it would need a full 34" scale ...and it has. They wisely decided to not reinvent the wheel so like many guitars made in the 50's one starts with a basic of basic guitar shapes then does a simple cutaway to access all the frets. Orange did just that. The basic template is copped from the biggest selling bass in Europe and the UK for about 20 years ...the Hofner Club Bass. 

A nice final touch is the massive Badass style bridge made famous by Geddy Lee and the robust classic Fender style tuners.

Hofner Club Bass

The heart of any bass is the PU. The choice of a P bass split coil humbucking PU is as perfect as it gets. It works in any style and any genre and has a track record going back decades to prove it. The odds of even a guy not changing the PU sooner or later even if they have a high end guitar or are in the bedroom or on a festival stage are minimal. So with this bass you have hundreds of choices. My bass player has an O bass and had a Duncan '62 dropped in it. Fender went back to using the '62 over a decade ago and still have it in every P. Bass since.

Even as it comes with a PU voiced very much like a '57 which was the first one made in this two pieces style. It is more than serviceable it is already on a lot of Indie recordings.

CONCLUSION

My bass player has 3 American made basses. A Precision, a Jazz and a Musicman Stingray. All classic instruments and everyone designed by Leo Fender himself!

It gets used every gig with equal time spent between all 4 basses.

It seems to fit best of the 4 when a really, really heavy sound is needed.

Even if you have a bass you love this is a killer backup. Or if you want to dabble in P. Bass Land but with a pro sound and playability. My bass player is always being asked by other players with the sentence "Wow that is really cool. What is it?" This does not happen with any Fender copy. In fact you can now pay as much for a Squier.