Gear Review: Orange Amplification O Bass

Orange O Orange Bass

The O Bass by Orange Amplification is their first offering in the bass guitar market, aimed at appealing to the retro vibe market. It’s not hard to see the paring of an O Bass and a tube powered bass amp sonically. It’s definitely a rock bassist’s guitar, although you can get a pretty fat full warm tone for R&B styled music. Fat and full, but not muddy.

The most notable feature being it’s passive pickup design, a split humbucking P bass style pickup, with simple volume and tone control wiring. It really sounds great distorted and the high end and mids are not lacking either. It delivers on this level albeit a wee bit noisy at higher volumes, and it seemed to be a grounding issue, as is often the case with passive electronics. Fine for stage work but in the studio it would require further efforts to deal with it. If I turned the horn off on the amp I was using it settled down considerably. No retro lovin’ bassist would use a horn anyway right? Add a loud guitar player and problem solved! Old School.

The lightweight Gibson/Danelectro fused body styling was balanced and comfortable although it balanced better strapped than on the lap when sitting, but acceptable. No headstock diving while standing, even with the large open gear tuners. All the fit and finish was tight and clean and the factory set up was decent, but the E string slot in the nut was filed too deep and buzzed on the first fret. All of the 20 frets on the bound Rosewood fingerboard were cleanly dressed and buzz free. The scale length of 34 inches and maple neck will feel comfortable to most that dig vintage style basses.

Bottom line: This is a good entry level bass at $500 or less for those seeking a full sounding passive bass, with throwback styling.

Orange O Bass Specs:

Body:Okoumé, Basswood Veneer
Binding:A.B.S on Tear Drop Sunburst and Off-Black Versions
Neck:Maple
Fretboard:Rosewood
Neck Binding:A.B.S.
Pickup:Custom Wound Split-Coil Humbucker
Electronics:Passive
Bridge:Nickel Top-Loading 4 Saddle Bridge
Tuners:Open-Gear
Other:Padded Orange Gigbag With Printed Orange Crest, Alternative 3 Ply Scratch Plate (Tear Drop Sunburst/Off-Black Finishes – Tortoise Shell; Orange Finish – Black)

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Leave a Reply to Mark S Beretta Cancel reply

  1. rob

    I kinda like it :-)

  2. Jays da Bass

    Its kind’a funky Looking and reminds me of a Gibson les Paul from the back and a Dannelectro from the front … Err cool

  3. Mark S Beretta

    If I had the extra $500 I’d buy the sunburst today.
    I like it ,,,

  4. Jon

    “E string slot in the nut was filed too deep and buzzed on the first fret.”
    “All of the 20 frets were buzz free.”

    I have questions.