The Little Bass Thing by Orange packs 500W of Class D power into a 3kg package that’s perfect for bass players who need serious clean headroom in a portable format. This is a fully solid-state head with an all-analogue front end, and what surprised me about it is how clean and neutral it actually is. Unlike many Orange amps, there’s no built-in gain or saturation here, just pure volume with excellent headroom. That makes it a fantastic platform for dirt and distortion pedals, letting them shine without adding unwanted coloration.
Reading the panel left to right: Vol, Comp, then the EQ stack of Hi (Treble), Mid Band, Mid Frequency and Bass, with the Pad toggle at the far right.
The EQ section is where most of the shaping happens. Hi and Bass are shelving controls; Mid Band sets the level of the parametric mid and Mid Frequency selects which frequency it targets. That combination covers a lot of ground: a scooped slap tone (Mid Band at 3, bass and treble boosted, as in the Scooped and Compressed preset) and a forward rock sound with the mids pushed (Mid Band at 6, Mid Frequency at 7, bass at 8.5, as in Thick Mids) are both just a few turns away from each other. The Pad switch drops input sensitivity by 6dB for active pickups, and in the demo above I’ve set up sweeps for Comp, Treble, Mid Band, Mid Frequency, Bass and the Pad toggle so you can hear each control in isolation.
The Comp knob controls a Class A VCA compressor that you can also engage and disengage via footswitch (sold separately). I enjoy how simple this thing is to dial in overall: five knobs, one switch, and you’re done.
The core voice is modern and clean, with no added coloration from the power section. It’s a blank canvas in the best sense. The Neutral preset (vol at 2, comp off, all EQ at noon) confirms just how flat and transparent this thing runs at unity. Push the Thick Mids preset and the parametric mid does real work, thickening up the fundamental and adding definition without going nasal. The Scooped and Compressed preset shows how the compressor and the scooped EQ combine: the comp at 7 tightens up the attack and keeps the low end controlled with the bass boosted to 6.
Because there’s no built-in saturation, the amp rewards a good outboard chain. Dirt pedals run into the Little Bass Thing sound exactly like themselves.
The Terror Bass is the obvious sibling to weigh up. Both heads are 500 watts and Class D, both are compact, and both carry the Orange name. The key difference is the preamp: the Terror Bass uses an ECC83 and 12AT7 valve preamp before the Class D power section, which gives it warmth and natural compression from the tubes. The Little Bass Thing is fully solid-state, so what you put in is largely what comes out, coloration-free. The Terror Bass also has a Gain control that adds saturation as you turn it up; the Little Bass Thing has no gain stage at all. If you want Orange tone with tube character and some built-in drive capability, the Terror Bass is the call. If you want a neutral, high-headroom platform for your pedalboard or a clean stage rig, the Little Bass Thing is the one.
Funk, fusion, and rock players who want a portable, powerful head without any agenda from the amp itself. It’s an excellent pedal platform: dirt, modulation and compression all behave exactly as intended. The headphone output is a genuine bonus for quiet practice. The honest caveat is that if you’re chasing organic tube warmth or want built-in saturation, this amp won’t give you that. It’s clean by design, and that’s the whole point.
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