Another nod to Ashdown

[LITTLEWING]

I acquired an older 300 watt combo and not knowing its history just wanted a quick MOT so I can rely on it. I removed the head from the cab, sent it by courier and Dave Green turned it around within a day changing the control pots and deemed it all okay to fight another day. Charged me £9.20 and £10 shipping plus vat, came out at an amazing £23.04.  
In this day and age of utter wangers out there, it is so refreshing to have an absolute smiley encounter with an amazing company.

Thanks again DG and Ashdown..
5 stars!!

[binky_bass]

Having just acquired an Ashdown CTM300, and living 15 miles from Ashdown HQ, stories like this are reassuring!

[SteveXFR]

I bought an Ashdown MAG 2x10 300w Combo for my daughter and thought it sounded better than my Orange Terror so just bought an ABM 600 head for myself as well. Ashdown make some top quality amplification equipment. 

[Machines]

Been using Ashdown most of the last 20 years, never needed their repairs dept so far.

 

N.b. I've recently become an Ashdown artist so any praise from me is most definitely be biased 😂

[MacDaddy]

After buying an Ashdown miBass head from here a while ago, I contacted them about the owners manual which isn't available on their website as they no longer make the miBass. 

Either they had a photocopy or someone photocopied, then emailed one to me. Regardless, it was a nice thing to do. They could have said 'sorry we no longer make that amp and no longer offer support ' which would have been fair enough, as it's a second hand purchase and no extra money is going to Ashdown.

[bass_dinger]

Reports like this - of excellent quality and exceptional support - make me want to buy an Ashdown. 

 

Actually, I have bought a weeny acoustic radiator). And I have used their repair facility twice, for the church's Electric Blue, and mine and the church's pair of Acoustic Radiators.

 

I mean "it makes me want to buy another Ashdown bass rig of my own".

 

 

 

 

 

[iconic]

Good old boys still great at customer service, they gifted me a new speaker for a 10 year old plus EB180, next day delivery. 

[pbasspecial]

4 years ago they repaired and serviced my lovely old ABM 500 for free.
Since then I’ve upgraded to an ABM 600, Studio 210 combo and just recently bought an Original preamp pedal too. 
Now have my eye on a LB30 valve amp.  Ashdown fan for life! 

[Skybone]

Had a couple of good dealings with them. 

 

Bought a couple of speakers for an old cab from them at a very good price. Spoke to them a few months ago because I couldn't find any combo handles in the spare parts section of the main Ashdown site for my amp, as the rubber was splitting. They couldn't find any, but took my number and said they'd have a look around, and call back if they found some. Lo and behold, about an hour or so later, they called back as they'd managed to find some and sent them out to me. 

[MacDaddy]

I'm guessing we all know the 'signature' Trace sound, or Ampeg sound, but what would y'all say the signature Ashdown sound is?

[Lozz196]

8 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

I'm guessing we all know the 'signature' Trace sound, or Ampeg sound, but what would y'all say the signature Ashdown sound is?

My thoughts are not that far from Ampeg but seems to have more of a lower mid bias than that of Ampeg which seems higher.

[Chris2112]

6 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

I'm guessing we all know the 'signature' Trace sound, or Ampeg sound, but what would y'all say the signature Ashdown sound is?

 

I haven't always loved the sound of Ashdown amps (I've often found them to be a bit 'wooly' and dark). However, I used to own an MK500 combo which I suspect was just meant to be a repackaged Trace Elliot. It was absolutely great; extremely full and bright with a really focused punch. I was a complete Sir Richard Head III to sell it but I wasn't playing at the time. 

 

Not the first time I've read stories of Ashdown offering excellent customer service though, top effort dudes! 

[acidbass]

An excellent company indeed. Mark and Dan are very active online and are always willing to help in case of issues. Any Ashdown amp I have had, I have loved. The older ABMs were just superb.

[AlexDelores]

Really good interview with Dan Gooday about Ashdown, its history and their new basses on the ‘In the Pocket’ podcast.

 

Can’t beat an Ashdown for me. I don’t use an amp anymore and just go direct into the PA, but the new Pro DI Preamp pedal is very tempting. 
 

Anyway, it’s worth a listen … 

 

[Rayman]

Ashdown are the best. Dave is a lovely and very helpful chap…. and everyone upstairs in the office are just as friendly. Great amps, great company.

[BigRedX]

And just for balance...

 

IME Ashdown are the worst. They treated me really badly when I had a problem with one of their amps due to it being badly designed. I would have put it down to experience but I then I discovered that someone else with exactly the same problem with their amp that had been bought second hand had their's fixed for free. When I called them out on it here on Basschat, their rep took the fosters. Nasty people with double standards. Personally I'll never buy or use any of their products ever again.

[binky_bass]

I suppose it depends on how you approach them... if it's with diplomacy and a friendly attitude I'd hope they'd be as helpful as the majority of reports suggest. I sent them an email a day ago just for general advice on something and to see if they had a replacement grill for a 410 cab that I have that's a little tatty - got an email back from Dave within 24 hours. 👍 

[BigRedX]

17 minutes ago, binky_bass said:

I suppose it depends on how you approach them... if it's with diplomacy and a friendly attitude I'd hope they'd be as helpful as the majority of reports suggest. I sent them an email a day ago just for general advice on something and to see if they had a replacement grill for a 410 cab that I have that's a little tatty - got an email back from Dave within 24 hours. 👍 

 

It's about 15 years ago now, so I don't remember exactly what I wrote in my original email to Ashdown, but I sure it was polite, especially considering that at the time it was a known problem (high pitched noise coming from the amp) and well documented on TalkBass and whatever version of Basschat was going at the time. I was told that the problem wasn't fixable but for what I considered an unreasonably high price Ashdown would take a look at it. Shortly after this the amp developed an additional fault where it wouldn't power-up reliably and I went and bought something else to replace it.

 

Considering that I'd owned the amp from new for just over 12 months and had only used it for home practice and a few rehearsals, had the shop I bought it from still been in business, I would have taken it back and demanded a refund under Trading Standards regulations. I ended up selling it for spares or repair on eBay for a fraction of the price I paid for it. I would have left it at that except that IIRC @TheGreek had bought the same model second hand with exactly the same problem and posted on here how Ashdown had fixed the amp for free for him.

 

When I mentioned this to the Ashdown rep who was posting on here they were rude and sarcastic. I have no more time for the company other than to remind people that they are not always as brilliant as is made out, and I think you'll find that I am not the only person who has been treated this way by Ashdown.

[binky_bass]

Sounds like you acted in a completely reasonable way, hopefully lessons have been learnt at their end since your experience and they've now seemingly significantly upped their customer service game. Shame you had that bad experience, things like that can certainly put you off a company for life, but companies can change for the better, so let's hope that your experience contributed to a realisation that a better customer service should have been provided and will now be provided going forward. 

Edited November 28, 2023 by binky_bass

[No lust in Jazz]

One of the finest bass sounds that I ever witnessed live, came from a bass player who was using a little Ashdown combo. I've never come across the Ashdown brand in a shop when looking for a new amp. 

 

My own tale of amplification woe is from Mesa Boogie