Ashdown ABM500 - first gig

[hamfist]

Well, I gigged with the new ABM500 Evo 3 last night. A really rather loud, heaving, sweaty pub, with a very excited drummer.
...... and I have to say that my tone was rather awesome. Every single band member made a point of telling me how great the bass sounded even. Pleased? Yes I am !
Playing mostly a J bass through the ABM into two vertically stacked TC Electronic BC210's. EBS Multidrive on a low drive at all times. Plenty of authority and so much punch and definition. I had an experienced bass player standing in front of me and my stack the whole gig and he was very appreciative.

I know I am relatively new back to the bass world but I have decades of experience of trying to find the ideal guitar tone, even learned to build tube amps and built many in my time. To be honest, I pretty much ignored the bassist's tone during those years (maybe because most players have appalling tone !) and it's strange that it's only in the last few weeks that I'm actually learning what I want out of my own bass tone. Hence my initial (wrong) purchase of the LM3, not realising that some OD, clank, and background fuzzy niceness were going to be essential for me.

Before buying the ABM, I read so much out there about how Ashdown have lost the plot and their current amps are rubbish etc. Well, from yesterday's experience, Ashdown know how to make a rock bass amp sound right, with the ABM series at least.
I certainly do want to experiment much more with the tube pre-amp part of the ABM, as I was playing only with the SS side of the pre-amp, as I didn't think my first gig with the new band was the right time to be trying new tonal things. Next rehearsal (sadly over 2 weeks away) will see me experimenting a lot more with that.

My setting were basically a nice mid hump, peaking around the 660Hz. Rolled off the treble a tad, and boosted the 60 Hz just a smidgeon for fullness. Master at about 10 o'clock, which was LOUD. The EBS multidrive also compresses (and mid-boosts) quite a bit, allowing me to have the input levels up decently high without getting frightening peaks on the low notes. Hence getting the very most out of the ABM's volume.

I remember starting "Town Called Malice" on my own and the whole place erupted. My bass just sounded exactly like Bruce Foxton's. Seriously cool.

I have a GK 700RB II coming at the end of the week and it'll be fun comparing the two, although I'm not convinced it will have the mids-control I want, and get with the Ashdown. I'm really wanting to give the GK "boost" (which is the control fro the GK growl) a try though.
Neither of these amps is hugely light. But neither are they hugely heavy. A comfortable single handed lift is fine with me. I have to lug in two 2x10's anyway, so the extra kg's of an ABM versus one of the micro amps is nothing to me really. Thankfully space is my vehicle is also not an issue.

Anyway, thanks for listening. I just was just so pumped about last night's gig, I wanted to share.

[nottswarwick]

Excellent. Do experiment with the drive sounds from the head - they might render the valvedrive redundant.

Makes me even more convinced to get another. I think alot of the negative ashdown talk is none sense.

[fretmeister]

I like Ashdown sounds too.

Would be nervous though - I have 3 amp repair mates and they are always moaning about them (although to be fair, these days they do moan more about Ampeg!)

I had an original red front MAG400H many years ago and it was brilliant.

[hamfist]

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1330258017' post='1554640']
I like Ashdown sounds too.

Would be nervous though - I have 3 amp repair mates and they are always moaning about them [/quote]

Yeah. It does make me a little nervous. Especially coming from the school of building and handwiring my own guitar tube amps (which always gave me confidence that the main thing likely to let me down was the tubes, not the amp itself).

Anyway, I'll just do what I always do, and look after my amps with kid gloves, and expose them to as few knocks and as little vibration as possible. If it's the sound I want, that is all important.

[Bigwan]

I've always loved my ABMs and never had any trouble with mine, although I firmly believe that the early series are much more reliable than the newer ones.

I still have 2 first series ABMs, but currently use the orange terror bass more. It has the same tone set flat as I try to get from my ABMs, but with a little more punch and a LOT more gain, which suits the stuff I normally play.

[gjones]

Well I'll be playing through my new ABM for the first time tonight through my TC electronic BC2x12 cab . Hopefully I'll be as chuffed after the gig as you were.

[hamfist]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1330265108' post='1554801']
I've always loved my ABMs and never had any trouble with mine, although I firmly believe that the early series are much more reliable than the newer ones.

I still have 2 first series ABMs, but currently use the orange terror bass more. It has the same tone set flat as I try to get from my ABMs, but with a little more punch and a LOT more gain, which suits the stuff I normally play.
[/quote]

A Bass Terror is an amp I [u]MUST[/u] try out at some point, although I suspect, from all accounts, it may not have the flexibility I need for a covers band.

[hamfist]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1330265543' post='1554812']
Well I'll be playing through my new ABM for the first time tonight through my TC electronic BC2x12 cab . Hopefully I'll be as chuffed after the gig as you were.
[/quote]

Report back on how it goes !

[Bigwan]

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1330286395' post='1555283']


A Bass Terror is an amp I [u]MUST[/u] try out at some point, although I suspect, from all accounts, it may not have the flexibility I need for a covers band.
[/quote]

You might think so, but I've used mine on a wedding band gig. Jazz bass into Orange into neo 4x12. Serious grunt! Changing right hand position and attack and pickup pan was enough variation for me. I'm in the process of adding a few choice effects and will be toning down the Orange preamp with lower gain valves for a bit of added flexibility though!

[Bigwan]

And it's f'ing loud...

[gjones]

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1330286415' post='1555284']
Report back on how it goes !
[/quote]

Nice sound but my Jazz has a pre amp which was putting the needle into the red when things got louder. Maybe I need to use the EQ on the amp instead of the pre amp on my bass. I had the gain and the master up full to get the required output in a bar bursting at the seams with Frenchies up for the rugby. I could add another cab but I like the idea of travelling light. I'm pretty sure the 2x12 is capable of handling more volume just need to figure out how to do it without overdriving the pre amp on the ABM.

Anyway the sound was much better than my old TC Electronic head through the same cab so I'm sure I made the right decision.

[Bigwan]

Ignore the needle and trust your ears... the VU meter is a gimick that looked cool when the ABM was first released, but is next to useless in any practical sense. Unfortunately the ABM is not a particlarly loud 500 watts...

Edited February 27, 2012 by Bigwan

[RandomBass]

Totally agree of course with the comment about using your ears - that's the best way for anything from strings to speakers.

However I've always found the VU meter to be useful in setting up the input gain, especially as one boosts the lower end of the frequency spectrum. More useful to me than just a simple peak light. As ever these are personal preferences.

Also, I've not found the ABM to be lacking in the volume department, either into a single BF Compact or a pair of them.

Cheers

Geoff

[hamfist]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1330309582' post='1555576']
just need to figure out how to do it without overdriving the pre amp on the ABM.
[/quote]

A bit of compression will work wonders. Would advise against using the onboard compressor though, which is almost useless IMO. I tried a MB Compressore for half an hour or so in front of the ABM, and it did a great job of simply taking the peaks off the low notes, yet losing no perceptable punch.

As I use a bit of OD from a pedal in front of the amp at all times, that adds a perefect amount of compression. I lose no punch at all, but my input signal is at the ideal point on the VU meter (peaking at around 0 to +1 most of the time, for most strongly played notes, yet never venturing into clipping territory if I did right in on the bottom string. If I didn't use drive I would defo use a compressor.

Certainly have not found this ABM to be a "quiet" 500 Watts. Has at least as much as, if not a bit more than, my Little Mark III.

[Doctor J]

More ABM love here, I've had my ABM300 for almost ten years now, never had a sniff of trouble either live or recording. Never found it lacking in the volume department either.

[Thurbs]

More ABM love here. I regretably sold mine to a BC member and continue to rue that day and have very nearly bought a new one... went for a LB instead, which is also a keeper. I have learnt from my mistakes!

[Bigwan]

[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1330415722' post='1556923']
More ABM love here. I regretably sold mine to a BC member and continue to rue that day and have very nearly bought a new one... went for a LB instead, which is also a keeper. I have learnt from my mistakes!
[/quote]

Funny I'm looking an LB30 and cab at the minute too! I have a spare ABM (first series chrome face) that'll be going up for sale shortly (when the LB30 arrives) VERY cheap if you'd be interested?

[TG Flatline]

I use the ABM500 and love it. I'm not so much a fan of the ABM cabs though, they just seem to vanish in a band mix (4x10s and 1x15s) though I did find the mini 48 and mini 15 were great for monitoring onstage. They needed PA support in all but the smallest rooms though really.

Back to the head though, I now use my ABM head into a BFM Jack 15 cab now and it sounds immense. I don't really find the valve pre adds anything more than a bit of warmth, there certainly doesn't seem to be any kind of serious dirt on tap, but it is a nice warmth!
I find the compressor largely useless and despite trying it every few months or so when my pedalboard changes, it has always remained off and will stay that way.
The octave hasn't been used on mine for ages as I had an MXR BOD and now use a Pearl OC-07 clone, but it did a decent enough job without blowing any dedicated octave pedal out of the water.

[Charla]

I've had an ABM500 since 1999 and still using it ................. speaks for itself really!

Use my Eden wt405 for the more `polite' gigs...


Cheers

Charla

[Thurbs]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1330416942' post='1556941']
Funny I'm looking an LB30 and cab at the minute too! I have a spare ABM (first series chrome face) that'll be going up for sale shortly (when the LB30 arrives) VERY cheap if you'd be interested?
[/quote]Sure, send me a PM with the advert when it goes up and I will take a look.

[Valhalalf]

Yep, another ABM lover here.

Been gigging my EVO III RC for nearly a year now through an Ashdown ABM 2x10 & 1x15 and love the sound I get from it. Had a brief relationship with the MiBass but it just wasn't the same so sent it back. I love the clean tone I get from it and love using the tube pre at about 2 o'clock for the rockier tracks. In my band we've started doing Rhianna's S&M and the sub harmonics on full sound wicked in that track.