Ashdown Engineering

[quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1403708498' post='2485510'] Hi Ashdown, Could I just ask you to clarify this point? You say you do not loan amps but a couple of years ago I remember a large UK store advertising a raft of discounted Ashdown stock as ex artist loan stock or words to that effect. [/quote] Yup no problem - quite often artists either upgrade or freshen up an old rig and we end up with the old gear back and knock them a bit off the new gear. The old gear then gets cleaned up and serviced and either sold to other artists or in that case to a store which we do every once in awhile if things build up

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1403707145' post='2485490'] Can you add Kevin Dean to that list I've just ordered a ABM NEO 400 R C [/quote] Absolutely

[quote name='badboy1984' timestamp='1403706360' post='2485481'] Ashdown, When I make that statement I was only stating on what I seen. I seen tons of Ashdown product floating around ebay, gumtree etc that sells for pretty cheap in my opinion. Not to mention some lower to mid range Ashdown product is well within affordable price as well. Artist and some other players may choose to use Ashdown because they like the tone and the quality they get but their are also some players looking for some decent quality piece of kit but only have limited budget, so therefore second hand amp is what they go for. I chosen to buy Ashdown myself because I like the tone and the product. No disrespect but I'm only stating the obvious. [/quote] Yup but the thread is talking about bands using gear at the bigger festivals... We know affordable gear is important to people hence why we work hard to make the best amps at affordable price points for the weekend warriors as well as bonkers handbuilt amps like the BTA 400 etc

[quote name='badboy1984' timestamp='1403595504' post='2484142'] I think is a personal preference thing really ........ sometimes festival gigs band shared backline equipments. I can only think of why people use ashdown because they can be found fairly decent price second hand and even brand new it sell cheaper then most markbass stuff in my opinion. [/quote] No disrespect badboy but you really think the following players use Ashdown because they found a good 2nd hand deal on Ebay? Guy Pratt Norman Watt Roy Jah Wobble Nate Mendel - Foo Fighters Nick O'Malley - Arctic Monkeys Pino Palladino Paul McCartney JJ Burnel James LoMenzo Bruce Foxten James Johnston - Biffy Clyro Adam Clayton - U2(Bought a CTM 300 to record their new album with) Jeremy Davis - Paramore Ross MacDonald - The 1975 Will Farquarson - Bastille Shavo - System of A Down Matt Barnes - You Me At Six Lenny Kravitz Arcade Fire Etc Etc All in need of cheap amps?

Lots of interesting views here... But just to clarify a couple of points. If you see a player using an Ashdown rig then there is a 95% probability that they own the rig, we dont give any gear away free and we don't supply loan stock to festivals. We offer endorsements which mean the band gets the gear at lower cost than retail but they all pay and choose to use the gear(Even Sir Paul pays for his Ashdowns), we do not have contracts or pay artists to use gear. We take pride in the fact that an artist chooses to play Ashdown and would never want anyone to use our equipment because it was free/they are being paid etc and rest assured this is a rare thing in our industry these days...

[quote name='paul j h' timestamp='1397032552' post='2419834'] Hi I got the amp home yesterday, I had a brief play, there is no issues with the fan (fans X 4) I believe. The amp sounds great, my worry about the volume is not an issue anymore as others have said I just use the volume controls. The only issue is when punching in the drive control and using the amp with the drive activated there is a noticeable hum, this is not present when using the amp with just a clean tone. Any ideas? I am not that technically minded so in plain English please. Cheers Paul. [/quote] When the drive is engaged that brings the 12AX7 in the pre amp into play so could be that thats on the way out and being noisy so that would be the first thing to look at, the amp will be a few years old so swapping out for a new one should help... If that doesn't help feel free to give us a shout on 01245 441155 and have a chat to Guy

Email [email="[email protected]"][email protected][/email] and we should be able to get you sorted.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1391176478' post='2354157'] I wouldn't trust Ashdown with these portable head, the LG and Superfly were both disasters. [/quote] Ha disasters is a bit harsh... You have to remember the Superfly was best part of 10 years ago and a little too ahead of it's time in whereas the pre amp did everything we wanted the power sections simply weren't available then and were left wanting, saying that there are still lots of people gigging their superflys today and have no problems. And again little giants we sold a huge amount and whilst a few didn't handle their jobs well the vast majority did and are still out there being used regularly. You often find people are more keen to point out when they have problems than reporting that all is well and something is doing its job as intended...

Thanks for the comments chaps. The Rootmaster has been A LOT of work over the past 12 months. The EQ is based on the old MAG but has had a bit of a tweak to remove a little boominess and works very well now. The Drive, Compressor and Sub Octave are all totally new circuits and the Drive and Octave are footswitcable. Its loud too! when we A/B'd against the old MAG 600 the 420 Rootmaster blew it away. We are really happy and excited about this range and can't wait for you guys to plug in. Thanks again for all the support.

The LB30 was never designed to be a gigging amp! Buy a CTM 100 or 300... Those are the giggable valve amps,,, ;-)

[quote name='Hank' timestamp='1386189609' post='2297046'] Ashdown Engineering, I need a new mains transformer for this amp. I'll call tomorrow. Thanks [/quote] No problem, give a Guy a shout on 01245 441155 and he will get you sorted.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1383831864' post='2269705'] Had considered one myself before buying my lb head from obbm and your lb cab Gareth. It basically boiled down to this: Amp looks the nutts, pricetag just looks nutts... [/quote] Lol the price tag is too low if anything! Each one is hand built to order in Essex, custom covering and lots of custom parts etc etc... Have you seen the price of the Ampeg heritage B-15.... Now that's nuts ;-)

Plus each ABM 1000 is lovingly hand made at the farm in sunny old Essex too ;-)

Plus each ABM 1000 is lovingly hand made at the farm in sunny old Essex too ;-)

We had great fun developing the ABM 1000, the power is actually quite frightening and many an 8x10 was turned inside out during initial testing BUT used sensibly it gives you headroom for days and is the same size but lighter than an ABM 500 head

Whereabouts do you live Hank? If you can get to Chelmsford we will happily get the amp sorted for you while you wait

Check the fuse under the power socket first but there are also internal fuses so if no joy call Guy on 01245 441155 and we will get it sorted for you I am sure.

Yes the CTM 30, 100 and 300 all have transformer derived DIs

Any questions on CTM's etc just shout, also you guys are aware we run a UK Custom Shop on site at the Farm in Essex? We often have people come down to tune and tweak their amps when they want something very particular, it's great fun and Dave Green really enjoys nailing exactly what someone is after. Also nice to know as a customer that your amp sounds like your amp and different to everyone elses, thats the beauty in making things in the UK as far as we're concerned. Also done quite a lot of crazy finishes over the years too

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1378723641' post='2203613'] Yeah, limited to a 1x15 at the moment. But I am prepared to run the amp pretty hard (main appeal was the valvey overdrive it could produce)...I just have a feeling it might cope with a rehearsal but not a full-on gig. Increasingly convinced I might be heading back to the shop later this week. (Pre-emptive sadface.) [/quote] It was never designed to gig with.... That's what the CTM 100 and CTM 300 are for... It's a recording, studio, practice amp really. Although saying that do you not have PA at your gigs? Stick a mic in front of your cab and sorted.

[quote name='Wooks79' timestamp='1376500458' post='2175040'] Kinda following from another ongoing topic, does anyone else here have any irrational dislike of particular gear? I'll be first to hold my hands up and say I have a completely irrational dislike of Ashdown gear! I can't put my finger on why, and I'm sure at some point I must have played through some (but I couldn't swear to it) but mainly I think it just looks like a toy. Ideally this thread won't turn into a big slanging match, maybe more of a confessional [/quote] Sorry to hear that Wooks, we do our best, but anyways at least it's irrational eh ;-) Back to topic - We hate bass amps with no bass in them. Lots of new stuff seem to have nothing below 80hz Which is just plain wrong...

[quote name='BluRay' timestamp='1375877469' post='2166772'] I use AMB cabs on their side too. By the looks of it, I think the new NEO cabs are a bit slimmer - so not sure a ABM head will sit neatly on top, unless you lay them flat. Shame, as I'd probably switch to these otherwise. [/quote] They are the same width when standing up as an ABM 500 head

Bill... Just to set things straight - we have tested every Neo Speaker from pretty much every manufacturer over the past couple of years(including Eminence and Celestion) and found them all were left wanting in one or more respect. A few sounded great at low volume but couldn't take any power or to the other extreme some had great power handling but no tone and lots of points in between and we simply weren't prepared to compromise on this new range. We were then left with no option to work in conjunction with Sica(whom we have a 15 year relationship with) to design and develop Neo drivers over the course of the past 18 months to our own design/specs and the result of this is what's in the ABM NEO cabinets and Combos. These speakers are ours and not available to anyone else, so the links you have posted to ther Sica Neos are not accurate as these are not the speakers we are using. The Cabinets were tuned in conjunction with the drivers to produce the optimum possible results. The published specs are 100% correct(yes the specs are huge)and we are happy for anyone to test and check. We don't overinflate specs like some other manufacturers out there might.. ;-) It's very easy to knock up a cabinet at home/in a small workshop, use a computer to tune the cabinet design and then stick an off the shelf Celestion/Eminence Neo driver in it and the result will be a decent cab. Decent wasn't good enough for ABM Neo and therefore we have gone the extra mile in every respect when designing and manufacturing these here in Essex. In one shape or form we have been designing and building bass amps and cabinets for 32 years and these cabinets are without doubt up there as the best we have ever made, happy to hear your opinion after you've actually tried one ;-) Cheers.

[quote name='Dr M' timestamp='1373623352' post='2139717'] Ok, the chassis and screen-printing scream 'cheap Chinese chassis'. Guess that's to be expected at this (suggested) price, though. I think the illuminated Ashdown logo on the prototype was a lot sexier than the weird blue panel they've gone with too. I notice the rear panel says 'MIN LOAD 8 OHMS'. So it's basically incompatible with their own Mi10 cab (4 ohms)? That's a bit of an odd decision. [/quote] The Mi 10 we have changed to 8 ohms now... The original was 4 ohm to get max power in a one cab set up for the MiBass 220...

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1368310610' post='2075660'] Just out of interest, why did Ashdown change the eq controls on the MiBass? Was it to make it a bit simpler? I have one and really like it but the semi parametric EQ did take some getting used to. Personally I think the old little giant layout was perfect, just like the ABM controls but in miniature. [/quote] Quite a few people moaned that they didn't understand the semi parametric EQ on the original MiBass which is a shame as those who get it love it and it is massively tweakable and versatile. So for the new MiBass we figured most people should understand Bass, Middle and Treble... ;-)