Fender Adam Clayton ACB 50 Valve combo

[spyder]

Just now, Waddo Soqable said:

Clearly that particular one is $hagged, I'd certainly tell them to collect it back and get a refund, end of, and take a view whether you try another one from somewhere else.. 

I have made contact with Andertons using their web returns page.... So far nothing from them. Will give them a poke tomorrow morning.

[Waddo Soqable]

1 minute ago, spyder said:

I have made contact with Andertons using their web returns page.... So far nothing from them. Will give them a poke tomorrow morning.

Give them a bell speak to a real person if poss ASAP, I would.. 

[Ralf1e]

1 hour ago, spyder said:

Has anyone else got the combo and have found a usable sound?

I'm genuinely interested as I really wanted this amp to work for me.

Maybe I've got a faulty amp.

 

23 minutes ago, spyder said:

I really don't know. At the moment it sounds so bad I just want a refund.

Please look at my posts about what can be done with less than 15 watts valve power

It is surprising

[BassmanPaul]

21 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

I'm still very much enjoying my Ampeg PF-50T, used live with my band, so I feel like a modern 50 watt valve bass amp isn't necessarily a bad concept. If there's something up with your speaker (or a cab that's meant to be sealed isn't), you may not be hearing it to its potential right now.

The best sound I ever achieved with a 50W amp was a Leak TL50+ I bought in the late Sixties for five quid. I built a single 12AX7 pre-amp to drive it and powered from it. Those KT88s handled everything and more.  

 

When I left the band the leader got me to exchange my set up for the new bass player's Bassman. I thought it would be worth more than my stuff. he got the best of the del!

[Ralf1e]

31 minutes ago, spyder said:

I really don't know. At the moment it sounds so bad I just want a refund.

 

3 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

The best sound I ever achieved with a 50W amp was a Leak TL50+ I bought in the late Sixties for five quid. I built a single 12AX7 pre-amp to drive it and powered from it. Those KT88s handled everything and more.  

 

When I left the band the leader got me to exchange my set up for the new bass player's Bassman. I thought it would be worth more than my stuff. he got the best of the del!

Shame on him

[Beedster]

34 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

People on Talkbass seem to be liking the sound from theirs, but then it can be hard to tell how much is that honeymoon effect when someone just got a new thing, especially an expensive one.

I'm still very much enjoying my Ampeg PF-50T, used live with my band, so I feel like a modern 50 watt valve bass amp isn't necessarily a bad concept. If there's something up with your speaker (or a cab that's meant to be sealed isn't), you may not be hearing it to its potential right now.

Ampeg PF-50 is a glorious amp but can still sound crap through a poor cab. Look at the shape of that ACB-50 box, are any other manufacturers putting bass drivers into boxes that shape at present? And Talkbass liking Fender is no great surprise, a bit of brand patriotism mixed with some cognitive dissonance goes a long way towards some biased reviews, they'll start pooping up for sale on TB with the usual excuses soon "Hey the wife has a strict one-in/one-out rule" etc  

[Beedster]

46 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

 

Please look at my posts about what can be done with less than 15 watts valve power

It is surprising

 

Of course, but quantity and quality are not equivalent 👍

[Beer of the Bass]

39 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Ampeg PF-50 is a glorious amp but can still sound crap through a poor cab. Look at the shape of that ACB-50 box, are any other manufacturers putting bass drivers into boxes that shape at present? And Talkbass liking Fender is no great surprise, a bit of brand patriotism mixed with some cognitive dissonance goes a long way towards some biased reviews, they'll start pooping up for sale on TB with the usual excuses soon "Hey the wife has a strict one-in/one-out rule" etc  

 

It does look like a small box for a 15", especially considering the cutout for the amp section. That can be designed around, but usually at the expense of efficiency, which would be a hard tradeoff to make with 50 watts. And I suppose it's possible that what they say in the video about the midrange emphasis actually translates as "you'll need to run a DI for the lows"!

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, Beer of the Bass said:

 

It does look like a small box for a 15", especially considering the cutout for the amp section. That can be designed around, but usually at the expense of efficiency, which would be a hard tradeoff to make with 50 watts. And I suppose it's possible that what they say in the video about the midrange emphasis actually translates as "you'll need to run a DI for the lows"!

 

Yep, that made me chuckle as well, midrange emphasis is a 50s-style box, no stinky poo  

[BassmanPaul]

51 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

 

Shame on him

Not really. I was moving out of the city and not going to be playing any time soon. It was a mutual agreement.

 

[Lw.]

20 hours ago, spyder said:

Has anyone else got the combo and have found a usable sound?

I'm genuinely interested as I really wanted this amp to work for me.

Maybe I've got a faulty amp.

Firstly - sorry the purchase hasn't worked out, that's definitely a faulty amp though - you should 100% be returning it for a full refund.

 

What's the reason for it needing to be a combo? Just the one hand carry aspect? 

 

I'm another Ampeg pf-50t user - for home/studio I use it with a single 1x12 & it sounds great, everything you'd want from a small 50w tube amp. So it should be possible for Fender to do too - my amp+cab will be a similar size to that Fender.

[tedmanzie]

@spyder That was probably the ACB50 I ordered from Andertons a couple of weeks ago, I cancelled the order when I received the 'it's ready to collect' email. I had got a bad case of GAS spurred on by the 'cheap' £1499 price and convinced myself it what was I needed for studio recording (I go straight into my UAD unit at the moment).  Sounds like it's best avoided, unless it's just a faulty unit. I've returned things to Andertons before so you should have no issues.

[spyder]

24 minutes ago, tedmanzie said:

@spyder That was probably the ACB50 I ordered from Andertons a couple of weeks ago, I cancelled the order when I received the 'it's ready to collect' email. I had got a bad case of GAS spurred on by the 'cheap' £1499 price and convinced myself it what was I needed for studio recording (I go straight into my UAD unit at the moment).  Sounds like it's best avoided, unless it's just a faulty unit. I've returned things to Andertons before so you should have no issues.

I believe it was your order. 🤠

It's a pity it didn't work out the way I wanted. I'm still on the look out for a gigable 50w bass combo. 

There is an Ampeg PF50 near me for sale but I doubt it will stand up to regular gigging without some kind of case / rack that will add more weight and size. The Fender ticks all the boxes except sound.

 

[Beedster]

48 minutes ago, spyder said:

I believe it was your order. 🤠

It's a pity it didn't work out the way I wanted. I'm still on the look out for a gigable 50w bass combo. 

There is an Ampeg PF50 near me for sale but I doubt it will stand up to regular gigging without some kind of case / rack that will add more weight and size. The Fender ticks all the boxes except sound.

 

PF50 is great for gigging, fits loads of cases, I used a £30 Stanley tool bag that also housed cables, backup mics, drumsticks and guitar strings (yep, someone has to). Never had a problem, yellow bag also hard lo lose at a gig 👍

[matbard]

My ACB50 performs great without issues.

 

Probably is a case of a bad unit (B-stock?)

[spyder]

14 minutes ago, matbard said:

My ACB50 performs great without issues.

 

Probably is a case of a bad unit (B-stock?)

Can you test this out for me.

Use channel 2,turn bass up full and treble on 3. How far can you turn up the volume before the cab rattles and the speaker farts. I got to number 3 with a Pbass.

Thank you.

[BassmanPaul]

Cranking the Bass full on is going to demand more of the speaker than it may be able to handle. 

[spyder]

3 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

Cranking the Bass full on is going to demand more of the speaker than it may be able to handle. 

Unfortunately that was the only way to get anything like a proper bass sound out of this amp.

[Beer of the Bass]

4 hours ago, spyder said:

I believe it was your order. 🤠

It's a pity it didn't work out the way I wanted. I'm still on the look out for a gigable 50w bass combo. 

There is an Ampeg PF50 near me for sale but I doubt it will stand up to regular gigging without some kind of case / rack that will add more weight and size. The Fender ticks all the boxes except sound.

 

 

My PF-50T goes in a Stagg soft case that's intended for a double kick pedal, which I added an extra liner of 1/2" upholstery foam to. I don't throw it around like a flightcase, though it doesn't feel too fragile.

Or I think they're meant to fit in some of the fliptop Ampeg cabs too, which would give you almost a combo.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Beer of the Bass
Added sentence

[matbard]

I found "useful bass tones" (someone tells me what it means, please) with those settings, that I set up to create two almost identical-sounding channels:

 

 

I used my brand new AVII 1966 JB, with bridge pickup at 80%, neck pickup at 20% and the tone knob rolled off a bit.

I don't like cranking the bass knob on the amp all the way up, as the bass frequencies get out of control in a studio environment. I think 10 is the max level to have a booming bass sound (which I don't personally like, preferring more controlled and focused bass frequencies). 

 

[matbard]

BTW I have to fully understand yet the usefulness of Channel 2, as I prefer Channel 1 by far...

[spyder]

9 hours ago, matbard said:

I found "useful bass tones" (someone tells me what it means, please) with those settings, that I set up to create two almost identical-sounding channels:

 

 

I used my brand new AVII 1966 JB, with bridge pickup at 80%, neck pickup at 20% and the tone knob rolled off a bit.

I don't like cranking the bass knob on the amp all the way up, as the bass frequencies get out of control in a studio environment. I think 10 is the max level to have a booming bass sound (which I don't personally like, preferring more controlled and focused bass frequencies). 

 

Looking at your settings, I'm convinced that my unit was faulty because at that volume setting the speaker was farting and a rasping noise was present.

[Waddo Soqable]

40 minutes ago, spyder said:

Looking at your settings, I'm convinced that my unit was faulty because at that volume setting the speaker was farting and a rasping noise was present.

I was convinced from the start that has to be a faulty amp, if you still fancy that particular model try another one before writing off the whole idea.... 

[tedmanzie]

7 hours ago, spyder said:

Looking at your settings, I'm convinced that my unit was faulty because at that volume setting the speaker was farting and a rasping noise was present.

it would be a surprise to say the least if Fender put out a seriously expensive signature combo that was awful, I reckon it must be faulty. Have you tried phoning Andertons? I got straight through when I cancelled my order.

[spyder]

46 minutes ago, tedmanzie said:

it would be a surprise to say the least if Fender put out a seriously expensive signature combo that was awful, I reckon it must be faulty. Have you tried phoning Andertons? I got straight through when I cancelled my order.

Andertons have been great. The amp went back this morning for a refund.