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New Ashdown pedals


Bigwan

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On 12/10/2018 at 07:08, Bigwan said:

That triple shot blended drive may be of interest... 3 compressors?! Better enclosure sizes then their old pedal range and lost the silly USP VU meter. 

The Triple Shot Drive has different drive controls for the 3 frequencies, bass, middle and treble.
It's a clever idea, but I feel I have seen that elsewhere first, perhaps some boutique Canadian company? I'm sure I've seen a pedal and amp with the same idea built in to the preamp, albeit in a little more complex manner.

I agree the form factor for these is WAY better than the old pedals. The Dr. Green ones weren't bad, but sadly nobody seemed that interested in those.

Eude

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The Triumvirate by VLE seems to have similar features. The Wounded Paw range of pedals and amps do the distorting of different frequency ranges. I believe they are Canadian. 

I'm always interested to see what Ashdown puts out in pedal form. Mostly because they make monumental screwups every time...

Form factor was awful on their first series, and reports were... Meh... Except for the Lomenzo Hyperdrive (still my favourite drive pedal of them all) and the Nate Mendel signature pedal. And the insistence of retaining the USELESS VU meter... It's not REALLY a USP if it doesn't work that well... 

The Dr Green ones had inputs and outputs reversed compared to seemingly every other pedal on the market - later corrected, but again "meh" reports of most of them, and uninspiring video demos... 

The Stuart Zender signature valve envelope filter... HOW MUCH? 

And now these. Still pretty big pedals by the look of them, but time will tell how they perform. Multiple different compressor types is an interesting approach. A bit 20th century compared to the likes of the latest Darkglass offering though.

Interested to see prices though. 

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1 minute ago, Bigwan said:

The Triumvirate by VLE seems to have similar features. The Wounded Paw range of pedals and amps do the distorting of different frequency ranges. I believe they are Canadian. 

I'm always interested to see what Ashdown puts out in pedal form. Mostly because they make monumental screwups every time...

Form factor was awful on their first series, and reports were... Meh... Except for the Lomenzo Hyperdrive (still my favourite drive pedal of them all) and the Nate Mendel signature pedal. And the insistence of retaining the USELESS VU meter... It's not REALLY a USP if it doesn't work that well... 

The Dr Green ones had inputs and outputs reversed compared to seemingly every other pedal on the market - later corrected, but again "meh" reports of most of them, and uninspiring video demos... 

The Stuart Zender signature valve envelope filter... HOW MUCH? 

And now these. Still pretty big pedals by the look of them, but time will tell how they perform. Multiple different compressor types is an interesting approach. A bit 20th century compared to the likes of the latest Darkglass offering though.

Interested to see prices though. 

I agree, they've consistently missed the mark on some stuff, I quite like my Dr Green Compressor though and at least they are trying.

The Zender signature pedal, yeah I know it's pricey, but it's hand wired, in the UK and it's got a valve in it. Still not great value for money, but it's a very niche product and I guess they need to make it worth their while as they're not going to sell millions. I expect they'll make them to order.

I know that they're not keeping up with Darkglass in the arena that Darkglass operate in, but I think their stuff is extremely niche, and without meaning to offend anyone, from my limited exposure to the pedals, almost everyone who raves about them and uses them a lot, they all sound the same, like Nolly Getgood. He's got an awesome tone, but it only really works in their style of music.
I expect if you think about it, these pedals will potentially appeal to a whole range of bass players, perhaps more old school players, but I'll bet there's more bass players out there using a compressor than a Darkglass pedal...

Cheers,
Eude

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9 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

I don’t quite get why they don’t do a classic Preamp DI with the mag 300 style Preamp in it, or emulated - just a simple EQ and gain etc. 

This >> https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/pedals-1/products/original-valve-pre-di-pedal without the valve and the ability to run it off a 9V battery, maybe with a headphone out and aux in, at a more reasonable price point would tick every single box for me...

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1 hour ago, eude said:

This >> https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/pedals-1/products/original-valve-pre-di-pedal without the valve and the ability to run it off a 9V battery, maybe with a headphone out and aux in, at a more reasonable price point would tick every single box for me...

Yep. Agreed. Doesn’t need the valve stuff - just a nice simple DI with core ashdown tone

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I was lucky enough to pick up one of those Zender valve filter pedals with a good discount at the LBGS earlier this year. Spotted it on my way out! I'm not sure if it reflects the other pedals they've made, but it's well built and certainly has a lot of excellent noises on tap. The overdrive is pretty useful on its own.

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  • 2 months later...

Not sure if the prices were mentioned anywhere previously for the new pedals but they’re live for pre-order, and gulp!

 

https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/pedals-1

Would be interested in trying the drive, but much as I love Ashdown amps, cabs and customer service think they’ll struggle with these given the price point and competition in that ball park.

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4 minutes ago, mr4stringz said:

Not sure if the prices were mentioned anywhere previously for the new pedals but they’re live for pre-order, and gulp!

 

https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/pedals-1

Would be interested in trying the drive, but much as I love Ashdown amps, cabs and customer service think they’ll struggle with these given the price point and competition in that ball park.

I think, to be honest, they've never done a roaring trade on pedals anyway, so why not try the high end, UK designed and built as the big USP.
I expect they'll make them in small numbers, maybe even to order, not tying too much up in stock.
The ones they do sell, they'll make a but of money on and hopefully keep it all going...

There's plenty of boutique pedals makers out there not doing anything particularly unique whatsoever, just very well made, great looking, limited runs of what are pretty much clones, or adaptations of other's designs, and they do a roaring trade. I reckon, if the designs are right, these might do well. I hope so anyway.

Eude

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25 minutes ago, mr4stringz said:

Not sure if the prices were mentioned anywhere previously for the new pedals but they’re live for pre-order, and gulp!

 

https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/pedals-1

Would be interested in trying the drive, but much as I love Ashdown amps, cabs and customer service think they’ll struggle with these given the price point and competition in that ball park.

Gulp indeed.

Looks like they're aping Darkglass's pricing strategy on some of the pedals.

 

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Unless they're amazing pedals, the bods at Ashdown are have smoked too much gear when they decided on price. Unlike Darkglass they don't have the hype nor consistent track record to justify those prices.

I'd take Wounded Paw over this any day. 150 quid will get you a 4 band parametric EQ with a distortion and parallel fuzz (both separately switchable) with the fuzzes ability to be turned into an octave up fuzz. 150 quid versus 260 for this. 

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I wish they'd made their dual tube preamp into a pedal. Would have thought that would have had a wider appeal than that preamp pedal. I'm sure that signature tone has it's fan-base but I sure wouldn't mind a full featured all-valve preamp in a stomp-box format.

SansAmp? Who would need tube emulation when you have the real thing?

Edited by Sharkfinger
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To be fair, ashdown's stuff is always hit and miss. I thought the Geezer head was crap when I played one. It was nothing you couldn't get with a mild fuzz pedal.

Even Tech21 who have an immensely solid line of pedals aren't charging this. Ashdown are stuck in the mid 2000s. They really haven't moved on and with the B Social negative feedback (did anyone really buy one?!!) this makes me wonder if their ideas are a bit depleted at the moment.

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3 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

... and with the B Social negative feedback (did anyone really buy one?!!)... 

I did, NOS off ebay for SIGNIFICANTLY less than half the rrp. While it's fine as a fancy bluetooth speaker (with an unimpressive range!), it farts at any volume with a bass. There have been a few suggestions on mods to try and fix that but not got around to it yet. Scared what I'll find when I do... 

It pains me to say it but I tend to agree on all points... 3 of the best bits of bass gear I've ever owned have come from the Ashdown fold (ABM 1x10 combo, LB30, J-Lo Hyperdrive)... but with a disproportionately high number of new releases there seems to be some proper whacky decision making going on, quite often with pricing as seen here...

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13 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

this makes me wonder if their ideas are a bit depleted at the moment

I think that's a little unfair dude.

Their RM range, the class D stuff replacing the old MAG stuff has been really well received, plenty of happy users out there and their valve stuff seems to get a lot of love too.

They do bring out a lot of new gear, but frankly, I much prefer that, as even if a product doesn't stick, aspects of product development, manufacturing etcs, will always appear in other bits of gear here and there.
Were they not they the first to commercially release a class D head in the Superfly many many moons ago? The head itself didn't stick, but class D certainly has, for better or worse.

I appreciate these pedals are unlikely to sell that all well, but like I mentioned before, they've got very little to lose making them in small batches in here in the UK. They'll be high quality and I'm sure they'll tick the box for some out there.

Eude

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