Orange Crush 35B Combo

This is really just an update to my review below. The amp stopped working altogether, and was replaced on warranty with a new model (the newer version of the 35B) by the music shop.

The new amp is in a different league to the old one, which clearly had something wrong with it. Decent tone, volume; really everything you could want. Not the loudest, but it is still only 35W, but easily loud enough to play on your own or do 'light' jamming stuff.

As above. The new amp has great sound quality.

Mmm. The old amp was rubbish, really but appears to have been a faulty model. The shop said they've sold loads and this is the first problem they've had. Good ones are probably pretty reliable; the new one has been fine (but so far it's not been out of my house).

The shop I bought it from (Zenith Music, Claremont WA) were excellent. No you-know-what just replaced the faulty unit with new right away. Don't know about Orange.

The new one is great; the old one was rubbish, but faulty.

2008 Orange Crush 35B. Made in China designed in the UK. Covered in orange Tolex, black grill cloth, black metal corner protectors. On/Off button is on the back of the amp. Volume, High, Mid, Low, and Gain knobs can be accessed on the top of this amp towards the back. Weight I'd venture to say is somewhere around 30 lbs. This amp is pretty much a typical 1x12 size so it's pretty easy to carry. It has both High and Low inputs, a headphone jack, extension speaker jack, and a lineout. 12 inch speaker (I have no idea what brand of speaker Orange uses for the 35B). 35 solid state watts are enough to practice with and use for lower volume jams with a guitar player. I don't think this amp could compete with acoustic drums, unless the drummer was using brushes or rods and playing somewhat lightly. I kind of wish the amp had some chorus built in, but I've got a stomp box for that.

I have always used Gallien Krueger bass amps and this amp sounds a lot different than GK stuff. GK has a very transparent blank canvas sort of tone and which is awesome, but this amp really gives a totally different sound. This amp is more warm and vintage sounding. It has a decent ammount of low end and a pretty pronounced mid range, but the highs aren't as sparkley clean as a Gallien Krueger. If I didn't already know it was solid state, I'd think it was a small tube bass amp. I really like the gain knob on the amp it can add a bit more dirt to the bass tone, and adds more color, thick ness, and character. The EQ isn't as sensitive as my Gallien Kruger's EQ. The Crush 35B has a very faint but audible hum with my active Stingray bass but is dead quiet with my passive USA Fender P bass. I've always noticed most active basses are noisier than passive. I play 4 string basses, so I really can't comment as to how it would do with a 5 string bass. There's not a huge variety of tones with this amp, but the sounds it can produce are quite useable and nice. I'll be using this amp for alternative rock, funk, indie, and possibly a bit of metal. It does get more distorted with the volume dimed out, but it doesn't fart out the way some cheaper bass practice amps do. Speaker handles low end frequencies produced by a 4 string bass just fine.

Can't really comment on reliability since I just got the amp today, but Orange offers a 1 year warranty on the Crush 35B, and in my experience most solid state amps are cheap to upkeep(no tubes to change) and pretty relaible. The amp actually runs pretty cool. I didn't feel much of any heat/warmth after and hour of playing through it with the volume on 8. I know some bass amps with higher wattage require a fan to keep the amp from overheating, shutting down or burning up. This amp doens't have a fan and doesn't need it.

Just registered my amp online via Orange's website. I haven't had to deal with Orange since the amp is so new, but there is an Orange dealer 5 min. away from me which is comforting should I ever need warranty service. Like I said the amp has a 1 year warranty, and hopefully iw on't need to use it.

I've been playing guitar and bass for about 15 years. My big bass rig is a Gallien krueger 700 RB with a 4x10 and 1x15 cab. I keep it in the basement for jamming with my drummer friends when they stop bye. I bought this Orange B35 for its ease of portability, good sound, affordable price, and unique look. It's quite a deal for $200, and it's a really fun practice or lower volume jam session amp. Some may gasp and say it's ugly, but sometimes ugly can be cool! I kind of wish it had some built in chorus like the Fender BXR 200 amp I used to own back in High School, but this amp does well with stomp boxes. I wish Orange would build these Crush amps somewhere other than China, but that's probably what keep the price nice. If coolness were a catagory, I'd give it a 10! I think the Orange Crush 35B has an edge over the Fender, Marshall, Peavey, and Acoustic bass amps in the $150-$200 range. Behringer gives you more wattage for less $$ but their tone is like mud compared to all of the brands I just mentioned. I highly recommend this as a practice/ small jam session/portable bass amp. The 35B competes well volume wise with my 5 watt Epiphone Valve Jr. mini stack tube guitar amp.

Not sure when the amp was made; probably 2006/2007. I've been using the amp most days for about 3 months.

If you are reading this check out the reviews for the Crush 20B Combo also as there are similar features. Clearly the 20B has even less power than this.

The amp has fairly simple controls and features; volume, bass, mid, treble, gain. It has 2 inputs high and low; useful for playing along to an iPod. Also headphone, speaker, line-out jacks. It's a cheap practice amp, so I didn't expect much else. No other features required, really.

I play anything really, Jazz, blues, rock. Whatever the people I'm playing with play, or whatever I feel like. I use this amp to practise. To be honest it doesn't really have enough power for me even for that; even at home it is nice to be able to crank it up a bit, and the amp just seems to start sounding crap when I do.

I've got a Marshall 40W valve amp combo for my guitar; it's probably a bit unfair to compare, but they are worlds apart in power, tone, features etc. The Marshall cost me about twice what the Orange did.

I've got a Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass I play with; it's got a mixture of P-bass and J-bass pickups. At low enough volumes it's OK as a practice amp and has an OK tone, but amps I've tried since then are much better. They cost more of course though.

It's not all that noisy. You couldn't really play with a drummer. There is quite a bit of distortion at high volumes; particularly with the gain increased.

No real problems. I wouldn't use it on a gig anyway. It seems solid, and has few enough features that there isn't much to go wrong.

No idea.

I've been playing since I was 16 and I'm 39, but I've had quite big gaps in there due to work, kids etc and other things getting in the way. I'm very much a part time/practice on my own/occasionally jam with mates sort of player.

I've tried a few bass amps, but I've never really paid very much and have generally had cheap second hand stuff; this was the first new bass amp I've bought. I wouldn't but this again if I had the money; I'd buy a better one second hand.

I've got an Epiphone Les Paul, which I play through the 40W Marshall Valve Amp above. Not really fair to compare; although as a nearly new second hand the Marshall only cost me twice what I paid for the Orange and is less than half as good. ($400 Australian for the Orange, $800 for the Marshall).

I wish I had a decent, more powerful Valve amp combo.