Ashdown Semi Acoustic Bass on the way?

[BassBunny]

Mark Gooday posted this teaser on Facebook this morning. This is a prototype, apparently.

[Lozz196]

Nice retro look about that 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

I love Ashdown, but... I'll refrain from commenting on this 🤐

[Ralf1e]

I saw that somewhere else today but not in that same photo? Online somewhere.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

If that is the shape they're planning to use I expect Gibson will be in touch in due course.

[Ralf1e]

11 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

If that is the shape they're planning to use I expect Gibson will be in touch in due course.

Realy? Hofner,Gretch,Guild probably a host of others?

Lets make it a quiz

Where were the first stringed instruments made not just guitars but all stringed instruments.

I'll start the ball rolling David who defeated Goliath was a musician who also made stringed instruments.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Ralf1e
Added question

[cocco]

You'd think they'd know better than to use the most flawed bridge design in history. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

49 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

Realy? Hofner,Gretch,Guild probably a host of others?

Lets make it a quiz

Where were the first stringed instruments made not just guitars but all stringed instruments.

I'll start the ball rolling David who defeated Goliath was a musician who also made stringed instruments.

Gibson secured a trademark registration on the ES-335 body shape in 1996 (US Trademark Reg No 2007277)

[PaulThePlug]

Why are the cutaways on this and similar models not equal... makes my teeth itch. At least make the lower one the bigger!

Edited December 24, 2022 by PaulThePlug

[Muppet]

If I recall, @Chownybass had to make a slight design modification to their basses of this style following some pressure...

 

[binky_bass]

Not one for me. Where's the originality? 

[neepheid]

20 hours ago, cocco said:

You'd think they'd know better than to use the most flawed bridge design in history. 

 

Awa'. The two point bridge was worse. The bar bridge before that was even worse. Some Hagstroms had a piece of rosewood sitting on a metal plate.

 

So trendy to rag on the three point bridge these days... rolls eyes

 

Merry Christmas! X

[Grahambythesea]

I like it but Gibson won’t, even though they haven’t produced one like it since forever. Whatever happened to the Mid-what’s it?

[Bigwan]

Since Dan Lakin has been co-designing their recent offerings surely they could come up with something a bit better than this? 

[neepheid]

5 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

I like it but Gibson won’t, even though they haven’t produced one like it since forever. Whatever happened to the Mid-what’s it?

 

Summarily executed, like all Gibson basses which arent a Thunderbird or SG.

[lemmywinks]

1 hour ago, Bigwan said:

Since Dan Lakin has been co-designing their recent offerings surely they could come up with something a bit better than this? 

 

The closest thing he's had to an original bass design is the 44-02 which was basically a modified Fender with some MusicMan bits. The D Lakin basses are just straight up Fender clones, albeit sometimes with slightly different pickup options. Shouldn't be a surprise that the Ashdown basses have ripped off Fender, Reverend (which in turn are very Fender imspired) and Gibson, in fact they did Gibson last time around with that T-Bird copy..

 

Would be nice to see an original Ashdown bass but there's two issues with that - they'd have to get someone to design it for them and it would probably bomb in terms of sales regardless of how good it looked.

[Ralf1e]

6 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

The closest thing he's had to an original bass design is the 44-02 which was basically a modified Fender with some MusicMan bits. The D Lakin basses are just straight up Fender clones, albeit sometimes with slightly different pickup options. Shouldn't be a surprise that the Ashdown basses have ripped off Fender, Reverend (which in turn are very Fender imspired) and Gibson, in fact they did Gibson last time around with that T-Bird copy..

 

Would be nice to see an original Ashdown bass but there's two issues with that - they'd have to get someone to design it for them and it would probably bomb in terms of sales regardless of how good it looked.

We are a very conservative bunch in general and prefer to stick to what we know and I don't mean designs I mean makers. i.e. best fake Fender (home grown) Squier I know there are a lot of far better fake Fenders but it takes years to win us over to something new.

Not just us all musicians

Edited December 26, 2022 by Ralf1e

[neepheid]

7 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

We are a very conservative bunch in general and prefer to stick to what we know and I don't mean designs I mean makers. i.e. best fake Fender (home grown) Squier I know there are a lot of far better fake Fenders but it takes years to win us over to something new.

Not just us all musicians

 

If the playing field was level and innovation was the driving force in bass (and guitar), Fender would have been finished years ago.  But the playing field isn't level, life's not fair, and I often have to explain to people what G&L even is, which I find laughable and tragic considering it was the revered Leo Fender's own friggin company.

Edited December 26, 2022 by neepheid

[Ralf1e]

5 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

If the playing field was level and innovation was the driving force in bass (and guitar), Fender would have been finished years ago.  But the playing field isn't level, life's not fair, and I often have to explain to people what G&L even is.

OOOHHH That's not fair on poor old fender he says having 3 G&L's. Well they are like buses I bought all 3 within this last year. oops 🤣

Edited December 26, 2022 by Ralf1e

[lemmywinks]

5 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

We are a very conservative bunch in general and prefer to stick to what we know and I don't mean designs I mean makers. i.e. best fake Fender (home grown) Squier I know there are a lot of far better fake Fenders but it takes years to win us over to something new.

Not just us all musicians

 

In the main yes but there's plenty of original and successful bass designs out there, just most people seem glued to the same old shapes which is a bit frustrating. RE the Ashdown basses I just don't see the point in bringing out a range of basses so similar to what the market is already flooded with. Even with the Gibson 335 copy there's already several similar basses (Epi JC, Warwick Star, Chowny etc) to satisfy that limited market and none of those have the wonky look that the Ashdown one does.

[3below]

11 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

If the playing field was level and innovation was the driving force in bass (and guitar), Fender would have been finished years ago.  But the playing field isn't level, life's not fair, and I often have to explain to people what G&L even is, which I find laughable and tragic considering it was the revered Leo Fender's own friggin company.

I have the same experience - "have you thought about getting a Fender instead of a Fender copy?" even though it has by Leo Fender on the headstock, and as quoted by the man himself on the G&L website, ‘G&L guitars and basses are the best instruments I have ever made.’  There is a plus, used G&Ls represent great value for money.

[Ralf1e]

9 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

In the main yes but there's plenty of original and successful bass designs out there, just most people seem glued to the same old shapes which is a bit frustrating. RE the Ashdown basses I just don't see the point in bringing out a range of basses so similar to what the market is already flooded with. Even with the Gibson 335 copy there's already several similar basses (Epi JC, Warwick Star, Chowny etc) to satisfy that limited market and none of those have the wonky look that the Ashdown one does.

HB 35 in Lemondrop built in Vietnam.  Allegedly most of the other colours were built in China and are not as good a quality. The quality, sound, tone etc are good. It is the most uncomfortable guitar I own and that makes the heroes that like this style of guitar just that.

[Sparky Mark]

On 24/12/2022 at 18:29, cocco said:

You'd think they'd know better than to use the most flawed bridge design in history. 

The first time I changed the strings on my Gibson SG bass I learnt that I should've removed and replaced the strings one at a time. Never had a problem thereafter as long as the strings don't have silk at the ball end.

The original Rickenbacker bass bridge gets my vote for the most flawed design but once again changing strings one at a time helps a lot. 

I tolerate the idiosyncrasies of both of these original bridges because I much prefer their aesthetics over those of the modern replacements.

Edited December 28, 2022 by Sparky Mark

[tauzero]

On 24/12/2022 at 18:02, Ralf1e said:

Realy? Hofner,Gretch,Guild probably a host of others?

Lets make it a quiz

Where were the first stringed instruments made not just guitars but all stringed instruments.

I'll start the ball rolling David who defeated Goliath was a musician who also made stringed instruments.

 

Lyre.