Recommended 300 watt heads

[tiberius]

Hello there,

Can anyone recommend a good head to accompany an Ashdown ABM 115 compact cab?
I don't one with a fan in it though...
The cab is 8 ohms and 300 watts.

cheers

[Wil]

Most 300 watt heads will have a fan, why is it an issue?

If I were to choose a 300 watt head, I probably would go for a Tech 21 Landmark 300. Used to own one and it sounded fantastic. You could use a more powerful head of course, which will give you more options in the long term (such as the 500 watt Markbass heads) - it wont do any harm, just turn it down if you hear distortion.

[Bottle]

Lots of micro heads will do something like 300/350 watts into 8 Ohms, and 500-ish watts into 4 Ohms, giving you a lot of flexibilty when it comes to changing your set up

Markbass LMIII, Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 and Gallien-Krueger MB500 would all be in the same ballpark, as would the TC RH450 etc.

Never noticed the fan kicking in on my GK, and I run it into a 4 Ohm load all the time. Plus you're unlikely to hear it in a gig situation, what with the ambient sound level.

Just my £0.02


HTH,
Ian

[Mr. Foxen]

Bear in mind the cab watt rating has no bearing on anything much to do with the amp watt rating.

[Pentode]

What sort of budget do you have friend?

[4 Strings]

Good ole Hartke 3500, go for a song secondhand, but has a fan. I would recommend them without reserve (apart from the fan).

I must admit I never notice the fan, apart from if practicing at home and I switch it off!

[tiberius]

[quote name='Pentode' post='1115846' date='Feb 4 2011, 08:16 PM']What sort of budget do you have friend? [/quote]
not a great deal, i'm looking at an ebay amp.
Also, a rackable amp would be ideal as I've got some rack stuff.

I've had an odd idea. If I used a Marshall JMP1 rack thing as the bass preamp
could I just use a PA power amp to power the cab?
Would that sound good or bad?

[4-string-thing]

[quote name='tiberius' post='1116805' date='Feb 5 2011, 06:24 PM']not a great deal, i'm looking at an ebay amp.
Also, a rackable amp would be ideal as I've got some rack stuff.

I've had an odd idea. If I used a Marshall JMP1 rack thing as the bass preamp
could I just use a PA power amp to power the cab?
Would that sound good or bad?[/quote]

Unashamed plug.....

I've got an "as new" Ashdown MAG 300 EVO 11 head that I won't be using, as I bought the MAG600 a few weeks ago. It's been used for 2 gigs, less than 2 hours use in total. Its obviously ideal for your cab.

It could be rack-mountable, just remove it from its case get a couple of rack ears from somewhere and Bob's your aunties live in lover!

Its not in the for sale section yet, but will be pretty soon, as I've just left the really loud band I was in, so only need the one amp now!

PM me if you're interested!

[Conan]

[quote name='tiberius' post='1115055' date='Feb 4 2011, 11:00 AM']I don't one with a fan in it though...[/quote]

Amps without fans tend to have BIG heat sinks/fins instead - which can make them bulky...

What's the problem with fans? Does Simon Cowell keep hitting them?

Edited February 5, 2011 by Conan

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='tiberius' post='1116805' date='Feb 5 2011, 06:24 PM']not a great deal, i'm looking at an ebay amp.
Also, a rackable amp would be ideal as I've got some rack stuff.

I've had an odd idea. If I used a Marshall JMP1 rack thing as the bass preamp
could I just use a PA power amp to power the cab?
Would that sound good or bad?[/quote]


There are probably better preamps to use for bass, but it would work.