ossyrocks

If that is indeed a '59 neck, shouldn't they be showing the evidence of that, and shouldn't it be priced for A LOT more money than that? I'm looking for a late 60's/early 70's rosewood board Jazz neck, and the ones I've seen are a lot more money than this '59 P neck. Hmmm. Edit: 40mm nut width?? Rob

Ahh @shug No! It was ready to ship, then we went away so I had to delay the shipping. I'm hoping for this week. Awaiting an update. Rob

I had the valves/impedance conversation recently with Martin Garton (Gartone Amps). I have a valve head which ideally requires an 8 ohm load, but I want to run it into a 4 ohm cab. I haven’t tried it yet, as the cab isn’t here yet, but he said I probably wouldn’t notice any difference in volume, but the power valves would run a little hotter. He biased the amp on the cool side when it was with him last, so he said it would be fine. Rob

If the cabs are identical, design, speakers, sensitivity etc, except for the impedance, then the 4 ohm cab may sound louder to you. If you’re talking about wholly different cabs, make, manufacturer, speakers etc, then all bets are off. Rob

Jack Emmings isn’t the best at online communication. He’s generally on the road a lot. I bought an amp off him last year. Once we had established a dialogue though he was great to deal with. Rob

Perhaps. I've been A/B'ing the two for a few evenings now. The Puma seems to have a narrower frequency range (it's hard to describe!), but it has a real immediacy to the notes you're playing along with enormous weight to each of those notes. The RM800 is a little lighter in feel, for me. I really like the RM800, and I think it may become my main amp, I'm certainly going to give it a good run. Talking about tone is like dancing about food. Rob Edit: I've been playing them both again tonight. Bear in mind I've only had the RM800 for about 2 days, and I've had the novelty of Compression during that time, which I have used only sparingly, but it's been on all the time. However, tonight I turned it off, and back came the spank. The compressor has been taking the punch out of the amp. So now, no, I don't think the Tecamp is punchier than the RM800, it's even, they are both great amps, and I like the RM800 even more than I did this morning.

A Mark Bass LM3 was my first “proper” amp, and although I didn’t know it at the time, it was very important in my bass playing development. They do sit well in a live band mix, really well. I’ve never seen a band, where the bassist was using MB gear, where I thought the bass could have sounded better. Gary at Promenade Music, who’s probably one of the greatest bass players in the north west, swears by them, and my god he sounds good live (could be the Marleaux too). I like them, and my LM3 is only a mile away, and I reckon if he wants to sell it, I might buy it back. The only reservation I have is related to service/repair, so I was prepared to throw it away if it went wrong. Rob

I really like these amps. What I like most about these is that they're not too bright, and you can get a really vintage tone out of it with the Taste control. It's interesting where you've set your EQ, I can imagine exactly what you're going for with that. By contrast, see my EQ setting below, with a P bass (with flats) and a BF Super Compact. Of all the Class D amps I've tried so far, these have the greatest heft. Seriously punchy. Rob

@Mickyk I have adopted this approach, but I just bought my 8th bass amp this week. Having said that, if you buy secondhand, you can usually move them on for similar money to what you paid. In fact, the only new amp I've bought is the one I got this week, the Ashdown RM800, and that was because it was heavily discounted on the Ashdown website. Rob

Good to hear. How does it compare with the TE 1200? I have a little TE Elf as a backup, and despite it's diminutive stature, I think it sounds really good. I do like the colour matched coiled cable. Rob

No, mine doesn't. I can see the needle going into the red when I've cranked the input gain, but I cannot, under any circumstances, get a red LED to light up. I've read the manual, and it only talks about "the red zone", not about an LED lighting up. Rob

These are seriously bargainous.

You got paperwork?! I'm going to complain! 🤣

So, I've been playing my new RM800. Comparing amps is always interesting, and sometimes difficult. Bass - '73 Fender Precision, cab - BF Super Compact (still waiting for the 3x10) The benchmark amp for me at the moment is my Tecamp Puma 900, and this is the amp I have been A/B'ing it with. I must say I am quite impressed with the RM800. The Tecamp has a lot of the "H" word in it, but it's also quite 2 dimensional, or polite, almost clinical in it's delivery. It's got a very tight punchy tone to it. It's like a well built Volvo (I drive a Volvo by the way), but is not that exciting. It gets the job done very very well. The Ashdown exhibits more character, has a wider, more open breadth of tone, maybe amplifies wider frequencies, or just sounds more interesting to the ear (?). But doesn't quite punch in the gut like the Tecamp, but it's actually ok that it does that. I really like it so far. I have actually been using a tiny bit of the Compressor in the amp, which is not like me. I usually go straight in with no effects, but the Compressor on this amp adds just that little je ne sais quoi when used sparingly. I'm keeping it, and I'm going to use it on my upcoming gigs, it feels good. Here's the settings on the amps at home in the lounge, both amps set to get a roughly similar tone from the same bass. But in the end, the amps do sound markedly different to each other. Rob

FIngers crossed that yours is as nice. It may be pot luck. But, you still have the right to return for online purchases.

Ok, my RM800 arrived yesterday. These were indeed advertised as "B" stock. "Used for demo and photography purposes, some minor wear and tear, no original packaging." It arrived in what looks like the proper Ashdown branded box, with the proper corner protectors in it, so I DO have original packaging. It came with a new mains leads too. The amp itself still has the plastic on the VU meter, and I honestly can't find a single mark on it, nothing. If they had said it was brand new, I would have believed it. So, I have what I think is a brand new RM800 direct from Ashdown for the princely sum of £475. Yay! Rob

I've just been told my 3x10 should be ready to ship by mid/late next week ! I ordered it on 7th May, so the 6-8 weeks lead time they quote is pretty accurate. In my case, more like 6 weeks. Rob

It won't be an issue with my BF cabs.