How do I dial out the spongy tone

[solspirit]

Of my Orange crush 50w?

 

[Ewizard]

Have you tried using a Tube Screamer or something similar in front of the amp? Generally, the sponginess of an amp is created in one of two ways, either a lot of bass in the signal path or the power amp section working a bit hard causing sag or other nonlinear operation. A couple of ways to reduce sag and spongy sound is to reduce bass either before the amp altogether, or via the tone knob, or reduce the total amount of distortion that the amp itself is creating ( which increases the amp's overall headroom). This is why having a mild overdrive before the amp works so well. It provides a little bit of dirt, pushes the amp's input stage a little harder ( reducing reliance on the power amp ), and because many pedals reduce lower frequencies ( like the Tube Screamer ), there is less bass, reducing flubiness and tightening things up.

 

[Securb]

Great suggestion. Another way to go is, I know you were looking at compressors. Add an EQ to your shopping list. The combination will allow you to tighten up your tone and dial it in nicely.

 

[idsnowdog]

You can find a lot of cheap boosters these days for $25 like the Rowin Booster or Joyo Wild Boost. At higher levels they clip a little bit but they put out a strong signal.

 

[Mincer]

Traditionally, that was part of the 'Orange sound'. I think that's why Tony Iommi hated them.

 

[Demanic]

Traditionally, that was part of the 'Orange sound'. I think that's why Tony Iommi hated them.

You should see if you can find a GK head, or combo. No sag there.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[solspirit]

Thanks guys!

 

[Condemnedsoul]

I've got a CR60 with an Eminence version of the V30 and use the clean channel mostly.
The gain channel has Bass, Mids, and Treble controls and I don't have any problems with this channel. This amp also has a clean channel, which has given me some spongy bass, has bass and treble controls only. And if I try to remove the very lows with the bass control, it takes too much out, so I tried my pedals.

There are a couple of things I did to lower the spongyness facor:

EQ - I've got an old Danelectro Fish and Chips eq, Boss EQ, and an older MXR 10 band eq. Settings vary depending upon the guitar I'm using and my mood. They all will cut the bottom out, and sometimes that's enough.

Sometimes more is needed, and I tried a couple of my drive pedals:

Full Drive 2 - yeah, I know this is an old out of date pedal and few use it anymore, and it does a nice TS'er imitation - it does firm up the sound and JOYO makes a version of this pedal.

DLS - I leave the bass on the amp alone and cut the bass with the pedal

And right before covid lockdown stuck, I bought a MXR Timmy, and it works really well for me on the clean channel.

This is an interesting pedal. It will let me reduce the bass and smooth out the highs and can add a bit of compression. While I don't consider it high or medium gain, OD it blends nicely with the amp.

I suspect that a bunch of OD's would work with this amp and maybe a used Boss BD or any of their OD pedals would be a starting point.

 

[Aceman]

On my Mesa, there is switch labeled Bold and Spongy.

CAn't help with the Orange.

 

[jeremy]

boss sd1 is another great option for tightening the bottom, similar to a ts. eq is good too and maybe more versatile. timmy is my favorite overdrive

 

[Bogner]

Lower the bass and gain and push some volume. EQ to taste with your ears, not your eyes. Adding an eq or boost pedal can work wonders if you have a good fit in the pedal with your amp. If not, sometimes it can simply get in the way. Typically that is a gain off, level up situation. These things should help a great deal if not solve the issue. Another thing to consider is cabinet and speakers but let's cross one bridge at a time as it very likely may not even be necessary to go that far.

Report back and let us know what you did and what the results were (good or bad) so we can further help if necessary.