DGBass

I had occasion to contact Fender UK a few years back about availability of a Fender Japan stack knob Jazz that was advertised incorrectly on the UK website ( said it was a lefty but wasn't!). However while I was speaking to them they said they often have Japan models in their UK warehouse that they import a few of each year. These aren't advertised and can sometimes end up as NOS models ( especially lefties ) gathering dust on a warehouse shelf. They offered me a 60s polar white torte pickguard, rosewood neck vintage tint lefty Japan Jazz that was the previous Japan model year if I was interested. I would have to place the order through a UK retailer and give them the Fender code as the retailer would otherwise be oblivious to any Fender Japan stock. Point is, it might be worth dropping an email to Fender UK and asking if they have any Fender Japan instruments on their inventory at present. You never know, there may be something interesting that you could then order via a UK retailer of Fender basses. They were quite approachable at the time I contacted them.

Yes thats about what you need to plug in safely to a UK supply outlet. As was mentioned, a retailer should supply you with one. I know retailers like Thomann for example automatically pick and send a UK cable for orders bound for GB. If you prefer getting one yourself they can be purchased just about anywhere these days online. I just recently renewed a few of my leads, this might give you an idea what to search for. Cable length is a persoanl choice, 3 metres works for me! The fuse tab on your amp in your photo will contain an equipment fuse, usually a small 250V 20mm glass type like below. Yours is rated T(means slo blo) 0.315A. You don't need to worry about it if its a new amp. These only usually blow if the amp develops an internal fault which is in my experience rare within a warranty period. 315mA is also unlikely to generate a raging firestorm if things go bad, so I also wouldn't worry about the internal fusing as its a normal safety feature of your new amp.

For me it would be the full ABM tube pre-amp thing in a lightweight smaller package with similar power. I don't think they've done anything yet with ABM level power and tube pre-amp tone in a small lightweight box?

2/4/8 ohm switching is available on quite a few modern class-d and hybrid amps these days eg. Mesa Subway comes to mind. From what I can see from manufacture blurb there isn't any power advantage running at 2.67 or even 2 ohms so it does seem purely a cab configuration feature. I'm probably not the first person who has expressed an interest to Ashdown for a class-d ABM or ADM if you like (Ashdown Digital Magnifier!) based around something like an 800 watt lighweight head with the all important ABM pre-amp in a neat modern rectangular lighweight box that will cope with 2/4/8 ohm loads. Impedance switching options also tend to appear where manufacturers offer cabs with 4 ohm options although I suspect the intention is to use just one 4 ohm cab rather than two or one 4 and one 8. Again the likes of Mesa offer this on selected subway cabs as do Aguilar on selected DB and SL cabs. Having two amps, a TH and an ABM is no bad situation to be in but which one will end up being the main and which the backup? I had a similar dilema between my ABM and an LMIII. Both good amps in their own right and although the LMIII was bought as a back up and was never needed, there were a few times its light weight got it the gig. My ABM won the day though and the class-d amp was sold on as it just couldn't deliver the same thump you get from an ABM. Ashdown might make 2 ohm capable top of the range amps( ABM's) at some point in the future but I fear I will likely be the owner of a bus pass before that happens😆

Ashdown's current ABM600 design is based on a 4 ohm minimum load recommendation and the whole output stage including the output board and components, cooling, thermal cut out switch, fuse values and transformer are geared for that. With most amps, exceeding design limits usually only ends one way, and thats an expensive repair bill. At a guess the first symptom that the amp wasn't happy at 2.67 ohms would be the thermal limit switch cutting in early dues to excess heat, something that i've never experienced on these amps run at 4 ohms. The transformer might also be prone to over current damage and thats if you didn't blow fuses first. They are quite strong amps and in real world use an ABM would probably run at 2.67 ohms at a reasonable volume for a short while at least before something would fail prematurely. There probably is a way to do it but I daresay it would cost a bit to re-design and build an ABM output stage that would be happy to run all day at 2 ohms or thereabouts. Definitely a question for the Ashdown engineers.🙂

I'll be watching this thread with interest. My last 2x12 was an old TC Electronic BC cab with a pair of Eminence Beta 12A2 drivers. It was a very capable cab and reasonably easy to move around. And a fair bit of an upgrade from the original 250w handling. Coincidentally I was also interested in a wider sized 2x12 as bass amp overhang on narrow 2x12's was an issue for me. I've been working on a test project after acquiring a display Marshall 1960B cab for £50. These are the ones used by bands to make fake wall of sound stage vistas and apparently a legit sale item made by marhsall uk and normally retail for £200-£300. They come with a blank uncut baffle and no speakers so in effect it was a blank canvas. In all other departments they are proper legit Marshall cabs made from high quality blonde voidless 15mm poplar ply. I couldn't have bought the timber for the cab cost so it seemed a good way to experiment with a wide 2x12. The cabs are just over 5 cu ft empty so a bit less when the drivers are loaded. I've used the pair of Eminence Beta 12A2's that used to be in the TC cab and did a little bit of science to work out porting rather than have a sealed cab as most Marhsall's usually are. If my math stands up the cab should be tuned somewhere between 45-50hz which will hopefully suit the Beta 12A2's. I'm currently at the audio testing stage and so far it is all good. The cab is hugely loud at even low amp volume settings and the low end appears to be massive, much more than the TC cab ever was able to deliver. It's clear and defined with no hint of chuffing or farting out and no unusual cab vibrations to speak of. Its also substantially lighter than the average 4x12 and with a set of better lightweight drivers could be even lighter. The cab is also braced front to back to stiffen it up which seems to help. The project has moved on a little from the photo below as damping is now installed. It just needs a bit more testing and despite its physical size, its easy enougfh for me to lift. I like it a lot and hope to use it next gig in a few weeks time. semi finished 2x12 4x12. Speakers are rear mounted in typical Marshall cab fashion. it also runs at multiple impedances eg 4 or 16 ohm 500W, and 2x250W stereo @ 8 ohms a channel. No tweeters as thats not my thing. It was intended to be a loud rock cab from the outset and I will probably experiment a bit more with port tube lengths to see how the cab performs with different sizes using the Beta 12A2's.

Did I say that? Not sure I did. I use the same flats on both my Jazz and P Bass and the P Bass is wide open always. I find you get the most from a P bass this way eg harmonic content with the volume and tone up full. I then EQ the P Bass from the amp. My Jazz has more tonal variation and I will adjust the controls on my Jazz regularly but won't on a P. I play finger style only on both basses. Of course you can make different tones with a P Bass but for me it always sounds best with tone and volume up full and EQ set on the amp. Been playing the same P Bass for twenty five years now and that way works best for me. A player also imparts his own unique style on a bass so Steve Harris, J.J Burnel ,James Jamerson and DGBass's fingers (or pick) will all be doing different things to tone as will the different amplification and type of strings they use. A P Bass's biggest plus is simplicity, its a true plug in and play instrument, volume up , tone up and away you go. A Jazz has a bit more of the same imho🙂

I've done this a couple of times with varying degrees of success. First one that worked well was a customised Series 6 GP12 combo head with an uprated 500VA transformer and it was seriously mad loud. The box was made from 15mm MDF, screwed and glued. MDF has good points and bad points but is relatively easy to sand and round of the corners without the need for a router etc. Screw holes need properly drilled as its easy to split 15 mm mdf. This was the end result. I also built a box for an SMC head out of recyled 18mm structural grade plywood that once was the main recording room console desk of local studio. 18mm ply is probably a bit over kill for an amp box and if its not high quality ply, you can end up sanding down edges with voids appearing everywhere. That causes no end of splinters and its very difficult to get a good finish. If your happy with everything square edged and don't intend to fit nice curved corners then 18mm square box construction will serve you well in the heavy duty indestructable department. Heres a photo of the rough box I made with pre-drilled contersunk holes for mounting a TE big chassis head. Its a very basic box, glued and screwed but tough as nails.

There isn't much you can't cover with either a P-Bass or a Jazz Bass. It's always made sense to me to have one of each to cover all bases, no pun intended. The main difference for me is that I always play a P Bass with the volume and tone up full whereas my Jazz is much more capable of a variety of tones. Mostly my Jazz has the neck pickup on full and the bridge pickup is used to vary tone. Even subtle changes to the bridge volume control can bring big tonal changes in this manner. Occasionally I'll use the bridge on full with the neck off for a mid heavy honk. I've always thought of my P Bass as a one trick pony and it does that very well. I dare say there are variations depending on where the tone and volume controls are but a fully open P Bass makes a glorious sound and thats the way I like it uh huh🤩

Marshall Superbass 100 MkII '77 vintage - Was my main gigging amp for about 15 years and just had a sound like nothing else when used with a Stingray I once owned. Mostly used with a Musicman RH115 cab and for a few of those years a 70s chequerboard Marshall 4x12 with original vintage 30s. Carslboro Stingray 150 head with the green flash and preset buttons on the front and a sound city silver face 4x12. That was the first solid state amp that made me think about giving up valve amplification. Peavey MK8 bass head with a 4x10 and 1x15 Peavey cabs. Probably the biggest and heaviest rig I've ever owned. Run at 2 ohms and was just colossal in every way imaginable. Musicman HD150. My first hybrid amp and always loved the way I could run it on low power 75watt setting and drive the 6L6GC output tubes into a gorgeous creamy overdrive sound. Never heard anything before it or like it since. Trace Elliot AH250. Its a beast and i've owned two of them over the years and still using the current one for the occasional gig. Firing it up always reminds me of the data centres I used to work in years ago when we'd give warning to the power guys of a potential surge when we were bringing a new rack online. Ashdown ABM. Probably owned 20+ of them over the years of all sizes and shapes. My favourite was a big box ABM 500 EVOII. It sounded huge and was by far the most powerful ABM of the lot, even louder than my current ABM600 by a margin. I think Ashdown had some secret sauce in that particular model. Gallien Krueger 700RB - I'm a fairly recent convert to GK amps and I would go as far as to say I haven't heard a finer sounding amp that just works for rock and blues in a long long time. Simplicity to use and get a tone from, and has big smooth power delivery. Very refined amp. I'll be keeping this one. Markbass LM111 - Probably the only class D bass amp i've ever liked. If weight and portability were my primary concern, I would have kept it along with its companion Traveller 102P. Easy to get a good rock/blues tone from using the VLE and VPF knobs and light as a feather. Harley Benton GPA-400 - this little 1U rack box wonder has re-written my thoughts and experience with class-d amps. Compact, air cooled, super simple to use, 2x200w stereo and 400w bridged mono. Just 3Kg. Used with a GP12 SMX stereo pre-amp. Both together sound fantastic. Talk about bang for your buck. None of these amps has ever blown up on me (fingers crossed for my current ones) either otherwise they wouldn't have warranted a menshie 🙂

The peak light flashes when I hear distortion on the video clip. Could it just be you are blasting the input level and its then being picked up as a distorted high level signal? The charachter button is also on which gives amongst other things a +6db boost at 75hz. Thats going to boost the input level significantly. Even with the master down, there could be a small amount of distorted signal from too high an input getting through. If you back off the input gain until the clip led stops flashing does it still distort? There's also a mention on the TDS blurb about checking a toggle swtich on the rear panel for phantom power. Should be set to off if you are not using an active bass that will work with phantom power. Might be worth a quick look🙂

Most combos of that era have the amp section secured from the top by four bolts under plastic plugs which can be eased off with a small screwdriver. There are a few versions which are secured from both sides of the box. Photos would be helpful🙂

None specific really. I think buying as local as possible where its feasible to go along and try something out rather than doing a meet up deal in an ASDA or motorway services car park miles from home is prefferable. If you aren't sure what you are intending to buy but it looks good, take along a musical buddy who can offer some advice or a second opinion before you part with any money. Keep to your budget and haggle! 🙂

As a lifetime lefty, I feel your pain regarding being able to try out different instruments to find one you really like. There are way more choices these days than there ever has been in the past, but mostly its an online lottery if thats how you intend to buy. Local classifieds where you can go in person to check a used bass are ideal places to find lefties. If I was starting out again knowing what I have learned over the years, I'd spend the majority of my budget on as good a bass as possible that I could find. Many basses will work well with metal, you don't need to narrow your choice searching for a bass with humbuckers to do that and I'd personally stay well clear of five string basses if i was going back to the start. There aren't many musical genres a half decent prescision style bass or a Jazz for that mattter can't cope with. My first real bass was a well used Antoria lefty jazz and that style of bass has stuck with me. I've owned at least eight over the years playing pop, indie, rock, doom and even trip hop with a Jazz. Bass amps are ten a penny these days, expecially in the online classifieds and various market places. A small second hand 10-50w combo for forty or fifty quid would get you going and when budget constraints improve, you can get a larger setup for gigging or go IEM's if you become very flush in the future and don't like the idea of carting around a big rig🙂

You did well finding the blown fuse. ABM's do click after switching on but its usually within a second or two at most. Thats the speaker output relay switching on that normally makes a click. If you hear a click after ten seconds, that doesn't sound right. It could be the output fuse blowing again. If it has gone again, then the fuse blowing is only a syptom of another problem but still good evidence that its likely to be in the output stage. At this point, I'd be getting out the test meter to run through a checklist and start faulting. Or, i'd quickly swap out the entire output board with a good working spare I have on hand if all the supply voltages were good. Otherwise, its probably time to get help from a tech who can fault it for you. As many folks have said, Ashdown service is excellent and giving them a call and posting your unit to them for a service might be the best course of action especially if there is no one local you know of who could look at it. The speaker output relay is the little transparent box next to the red and black speaker wires. IMG_2049.mov

I would describe myself as pretty much old school and have been playing and gigging for decades. I've seen the power in modern amp modellers and profilers, Kempers in particular and yes they do have good points and I can appreciate why touring bands would benefit from an identical setup each and every gig because its all digitally stored and backed up on a solid state device. Also saves them from dragging lots of gear around on tour. IEM's are of great interest to me but will never happen in my current band basically because everyone else is old school and skint. Our guitarist is never ever going to be persuaded to give up his Rivera Fender Super Champ for a modeller and our pub/club gigs don't warrant the investment in an IEM system or a good enough PA to put everyone through without blowing it up. Probably the main reason I will always use amps is because they have a certain something even a Kemper or any modeller can't emulate. An amp thats designed to do only one thing well will always trump a box of integrated circuits thats designed to be a jack of all trades. It's a tactile thing as well. For example, My Trace Elliot AH250 is admittedly a beast to load in, but stack it on top of a cab, fire up the blacklight and hear that big 5 inch fan whirring in to life and the smell from it after nearly forty years of gigging in smokey bars is impressively nostalgic. And when the power comes and slams you in the kidneys in the way only an old Trace Elliot mosfet powerd amp can do, its all part of the gigging experience. And its still going strong after nearly forty years. Will the average current IEM setup or modeller still be going strong in forty years time? Well thats up for debate but I know my AH250 will outlast me! Players need to have fun as well, for me its not just all about what you hear in your ears. My AH250 also only cost me £60 used, the used bass cab was free and most of my budget was invested in a good driver for it. And it all works great and sound the same to me every gig. I wish I had thousands to spend and most of my band would like to be in that position as well. Amp simulators are well simulators. Not the real thing. I'd get fairly bored with a single kemper or modeller on my amp shelf. I like my Trace Elliots, my Ashdowns, and my GK's. They all do bass in a slightly different way but are all enjoyable to use individually and have their own quirks. Yes it would be easier scrolling three clicks one way or the other on a modeller but wheres the fun in that? Amps on stage and bands who don't use IEM's will be around for a long while yet I would predict. At the end of the day its all personal choice really and choice is good. It's all good. I'd love to try a good IEM setup and have a good PA only setup to back up our band but I know I'd miss that cool vibe of having my own rig thumping away behind me and flapping my flares all gig long while still being able to communicate easily with the other band members during and between songs 😁

I've had a blown output fuse using my own amp with a rehearshal room or venue cab and/or cables on several occasions. I always use my own speaker cables if I have to use someone elses cab. Same goes for power cables 🙂

These amps are some of the easiest to repair that are currently in production. if you draw a blank with fuses and there are no obviously loose wire connectors, Ashdown or any reputable tech would be able to get your ABM working again 🙂

EVO III and EVO IV heads have a speaker fuse on a small auxilliary circuit board beneath the back board for the send/return / footswitch sockets. I've seen this a few times on EVO III in particular where the output fuse works loose or the fuse clip looses tension causing no output. Or it might have blown but you'd need to be going some for that to happen. Earlier models had a T12A fuse ( 575 watt versions ) later models seem to have a smaller T10A fuse, 20mm type. From the pic the amp looks about six years old so I wouldn't expect fuses to be working loose at that age. If you hear absolutely nothing from the speakers with a bass plugged in and power on, and I mean absolutely nothing then good chance its something on the output. As the red pen says, the heatsinks are live so don't get fingers anywhere near them even when switched off! You can also check the pre-amp by making sure the meter registers if you cranck the input and if you have another combo or amp, run a cable from the line/tuner out to the other amp and make sure signal is going through the pre-amp section. Pic below shows roughly where the speaker fuse is located on most models, on EVO IV its usually on the back board assembly which tricky getting access to as it usually means loosning the transformer and the rear back board nuts and screws. Worth making sure there are no loose wires either.

That sort of rules out the tube input and a potentially worn tube as that part sits in front of the green channel. Series 6 GP12 pre-amps are pretty solid and most things i've come across with them are usually age/wear issues with stuff like input jack contacts/ dry solder joints on the front board or occasionally some components failures after a long time. These amps are getting on for thirty years old so a few issues are to be expected. The graphic/pre-shape circuit is solid state switching, a couple of transistors and IC chips. Later SMX heads went back to physical relays instead of ICs. Each have good points and bad points for reliability. It could be just worn buttons or a dodgy transistor in the switching circuit but to be honest without getting the amp up on a bench to test, its just guess work. A VA400 is definitely an amp worth repairing so unless its been in and out of a tech shop costing you tons of money to keep it going, I'd keep it and see if you can find a local tech to check it over for you. Some folks on this forum have mentioned Ashdown might look at a Trace Elliot repair and if your in Essex, Heybridge might not be too far to travel and get your VA400 checked out by them. Worth a phone call I would say. 🙂 For the record, I haven't come across buzzing from the pre-shape/graphic on a Series 6 GP12 other than the actual press in switches being worn out. That usually just causes issues actually switching on/off not random hum noises.

Is the short hum present when using both the valve pre-amp input ( RED ) and the standard pre-amp input ( GREEN ) or does the symptom change when using either input with the shape/graphic buttons? Also are you using the front buttons or a footswitch to activate the shape/graphic?

not wanting to stoke anyones GAS, I did something similar, although the Polar White lefty Player P-Bass doesn't come as standard with a maple neck so was a retrofit with a genuine Fender replacement. Stock pickguard changed from white to black as well. The one thing I found was unlike fenders of old which seemed to have neck pockets cut in varying degrees of accuracy, the modern player bodies and necks seem to be a very snug fit. It needed a gentle amount of persuasion to install and once the screws were gently tightened up, its one of the best Fender neck/body fits i've ever experienced. The neck was perfectly true and even with the stock bridge, the string and neck alignment is excellent. The satin finish on the back of the maple neck is super smooth as well and a joy to play. It's also much slimmer than my USA standard bass.

Ashdown do say that its not a class-D design.The big cooling fan on the rear panel is a giveaway as it looks overkill for an ICE module. Would be nice if the fan is thermostaically controlled in keeping with its Studio badge. The blurb also goes on at some length to state that the studio mini is repairable down to component level so fingers crossed no SMD's and no SMPS. A bit of quality and forethought in a design always pays off at the end of the day. Nice one Ashdown. Quite pricey though but i'm sure street prices will kick in eventually.

100 guage Fender stainless flats on my Fender Americal Standard. I find them very smooth to play and apart from a spell using Ernie Ball Cobalt flats ( same guage ), the only rounds that have been on my Jazz since new were the factory set it came with back in 2012. Always been flats since. A major pro for me is flats seem much easier on the frets and are also easier on the fingers. They last a long time and seem to get better sounding the older they get. The Fender flats also don't tarnish like the Slinky Cobalts do.

'Very quiet Trace Elliot' is not something i've come across before in my experience with this brand of amplifier. It's usually a good sign that something is not quite right! It's been mentioned that plugging direct into the return jack (on the rear panel should bypass the pre-amp) and let you test the power amp. If its still quiet and your bass and lead are good then something is wrong in the power amp section. I've never come across a quiet power amp in a Trace, usually they either work or don't. If its loud testing from the return jack then its likely to be a pre-amp issue. The SMX front end is usually pretty robust. The pre-amp will still work fine with the valve blend fully anticlockwise even if the valve was dead. SM and SMX pre-amps do have a few common issues though, again in my experience. The standy button can develop intermittent issues and most of the knobs on the front panels will wear and go crackly or cause drop outs after many years of service. It's a full stereo pre-amp and most of the pots are dual gang types and can cause bizarre intermittent issues when they are worn. The master volume control is particularly prone to this as its dual gang type. GP12 SMX pre-amps are about as complex as old TE front ends come so if you aren't confident popping one open for a look its probably a good time to seek tech help. Regarding the speaker, if the amp was working ok before the new one was fitted, its worth checking the wiring is ok and polarity is correct. Even better, using a test meter to measure the speaker resistance ( while unplugged ) will tell you if its good.