ern500evo

A friend has kindly offered to lend me his ABM600 in a couple of weeks. I’m tempted to just pick up a used HD350 and spend some time comparing the ABM, the HD and my Darkglass M900.

The Fafner does indeed look like a beast of an amp.

I’ve never actually looked at a H&K head to be honest!

That’s a very good point actually. I’ve never played through a Reidmar. But then, if if I’m still gonna be class D, would I be just as well keeping the Darkglass! Confusion!

@thodrik so the grey stripe Fafner is best avoided?

Any reason for that Russ, apart from the form factor? The HD is quite a light heads so is it sonically that you’d be looking at the Reidmar?

One other thing, can anyone tell me the differences between the early ‘grey stripe’ Fafner and the later ‘blue stripe’ version?

That’s some great feedback and information! The valve drive wouldn’t be a massive deal, I’ve got a couple of drive pedals, an EBS Sheehan signature and a Ashdown Hyperdrive for if I ever want balls out distortion, so just the ability to add some warmth would be sufficient, with my Darkglass head I’m playing clean most of the time or with the drive on fairly low. I agree that the Fafner does look really cool, and the weight wouldn’t really be that much of an issue, we all travel together in a van and it would live at our rehearsal space. They are more difficult to find and fetch a bit more though. That’s kind of what drags the ABM into it for me, PMT have a B stock ABM600 for £379 at the moment, which got me thinking, am I being crazy to pay the same kind of money for a much older solid state head like the HD350. With older and more desirable valve beasts like SVT’s I can understand it, but maybe not so much with SS stuff. The reputation of all three of the EBS heads does seem to be staggeringly good though, there seem to be very few players who’ve had bad or negative experiences with them. Good point too about the low/sub bass, If I ever take my early ABM out live, I always tend to roll the bottom end off.

Hi guys. I’ve been toying with the idea of going away from class d and back to something more traditional. Partly driven by the low price of older amps at the moment, partly just by curiosity. I’ve had several class D’s, RH450 & 750, GB Shuttle 9.2, TH500, GK MB Fusion 500, Darkglass M900, the last two of which I still own. I keep getting drawn to EBS heads, especially as no one ever seems to have a bad word to say about them. There’s a few HD350’s knocking around for around the £350 mark, and I’ve seen a couple of TD650’s for around the £450 mark. The Fafner looks great too, but harder to come by and pricier. For background, I’m doing mostly covers now, mainly rockier stuff but also some soul/blues/funk stuff too. Bass wise, my main players at present are my Warwick Streamer stage one, Yamaha Attitude Ltd 2, and my Dingwall NG2. Cab wise, I always use my Barefaced Big Twin 2. My question is, am I get gonna get much more benefit from the TD650 for the extra bit of outlay, is there a big difference in core tone, and how versatile are each of the heads, Fafner included. . Also, as a curve ball, I see the Ashdown ABM600 Evo 4 getting a great deal of love here, so for the same kind of price, that could be a viable option too, I do use my old ABM500 for rehearsals quite often, the very early model with separate hi/lo inputs and no compressor. Apologies for the long winded post, that GAS is a bugger I tell ya!

The NT has a much more organic tone, more rich, natural mids

The one on the left sounds quite a lot brighter

Very true. Although there has been a few of these type threads recently, with people going back to SS and valve heads. There was a Trace Elliot AH1200 in the classifieds, and a whole conversation about it took place on a Barefaced owners group, that amp spiked a lot of interest. There are buyers out there.

Hopefully not too much of a hit, but heavyweight stuff does seem to be taking a while to shift at the moment

That’s a good point, I didn’t really think of it from a selling point of view. I guess it depends on if people are rehearsing regularly, if not then they’d be buying a fairly sizeable rig to just sit in their house for the foreseeable future. If the money isn’t needed then maybe holding on would be a better option

For me personally, the fact heavier amps are so cheap right now, and the fact I’m not really gigging but am still rehearsing regularly, makes it a great opportunity to dabble with some amps. If I don’t find anything that makes me think ‘this is the one’ then I’ll still have my GK MB Fusion and my Darkglass M900 ready for when gigs kick off again.

Well that’s also part of my reasoning, we’re not really gigging at the moment so it’s a good chance to have a play about with some amps at rehearsals and see which ones I really like. When we do eventually return to gigging, it’s mostly pub/club gigs now, but we all travel in a van together and my amp will live at our rehearsal space, so transporting it isn’t a huge problem either.

This thread has had me scanning around for all sorts of heavier amps! Trace Elliot, SWR etc. I think I’m at the stage where I’ve tried various class D’s, TC RH450 &750, GB Shuttle 9.2,, TH500, GK MB Fusion, DG M900. The last two I still own, and the GK has served me really well, but I’ve got a hankering for something A/B. Was tempted to sell them both and go for a new ABM600, but I’m now leaning towards going for an older EBS head, HD350, TD650 or even a Fafner

That’s a very good point! 😁

They’re just stickers, in two minds whether to leave them on or take them off at the moment

I’m also back in the Warwick club, it’s been a few years since I sold my Streamer LX4. Then just as I was telling myself I didn’t need to buy any more gear as gigs are non existent, something I’ve always wanted suddenly appeared. I’ve wanted a Streamer Stage 1 in ocean blue for longer than I care to remember, and at last I have one. Hope 2elliot doesn’t mind me using his pics, I’ll edit/update when I take some more.

That’s a beauty, congratulations!

There was/is a SM900 for sale on here recently. I told myself that once I got my Darkglass M900 that I’d be all set and wouldn’t need anything else. Strange then that I’ve spent the last few weeks looking at SWR, Trace Elliot, Ashdown and have currently got an obsession with EBS HD350, TD650 and Fafner heads. 🤦‍♂️

Awesome! Glad it’s still getting used! Looks great too

Is that my old Mag 810?

Jesus, how annoying is that guy in the video!