It's proving to be a bit of a saga...
The repair is being carried out by an experienced tech, who, on starting work, found that several of the knobs had been superglued onto the pot. shafts, necessitating breaking them off, to enable the removal of the 'board behind...
So, I called Guy at Ashdown, wiht a shopping list of knobs, pots. etc... His comment was along the lines of 'how can people do these things to our lovely amps..?' How could we disagree..?
Anyway, I await the expanded order, and when it arrives, the long suffering tech. will once again attempt the repair...
Moral of the story:
1). Gear gets bodged, and when buying secondhand, anything may be found...
2). Good quality gear (like this ABM 500) is definitely fixable, primarily because it was properley Made in England in the first place.
3). Ashdown are the tops, and Guy deserves a special mention. So buy your bass gear from them, but the domestically produced stuff would be my choice...