Wooly Ashdown

[jacko]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='74405' date='Oct 15 2007, 07:49 AM']i totally agree I have a 5 string Alembic signature series and playing through several ashdowns I struggled to make it sound anywhere near as good as it can (its an awesome instrument) I think they are totally overated
Jake[/quote]

Snap. The house rig in whistlebinkies in Edinburgh is Ashdown and I've never heard it sound decent.

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='74346' date='Oct 14 2007, 11:49 PM']Played through a brand new borrowed Ashdown stack at a gig the other night and it was woolier than a sheep in a jumper shop. And we're not talking the cheap range either - this was an Evo head and top of the range cabs. It was awful. What's all the fuss about?[/quote]
+1

That's been my experience of Ashdown as well. The first time I used an Ashdown set-up was the house rig at Walkabout's in Shepherd's Bush, London and it was dreadful. Looking at it cynically and given their pretty impressive 'market penetration' on TV or in venues etc, it seems to me like Ashdown have won the marketing war with this formula:

Retro logo and fascia design + tubes + VU meters = good old traditional British engineering = must be bloody good!!

Of course, we're all different and what gear we use is dependent on what music we like and what music we play in our various bands etc, but every now and again, there's definitely a brand that comes along which is a triumph of style over content and I've long thought that Ashdown are that brand of the last few years..

Just my view of course but I wouldn't spend my money on any Ashdown gear... Personally, I'd rather look at my late Dad's 1930's radio sets if I want to indulge in a bit of nostalgia for good old British engineering!

[tonyf]

[quote name='Machines' post='78026' date='Oct 23 2007, 08:42 AM']The ABMs have a tube circuit which can be blended in.[/quote]

Word up Matt!

I think you'll find that the Solihull/English term is "Valves"......

tut, you youngsters and your new fangled t'internet.

lol

T

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='jacko' post='78244' date='Oct 23 2007, 01:11 PM']Snap. The house rig in whistlebinkies in Edinburgh is Ashdown and I've never heard it sound decent.[/quote]

thats cos its wistlebinkies, the most amazing band in the world ever could play in there and we would all come out and wonder why nothing had sounded decent.
bannermans has one too, last time i was in there last week the idiot on PA had the whole PA too loud, hurt my ears for no good reason and couldn't hear and definition on anything but the kick and snare.
I've managed to avoid playing both so far. Cab Vol is pretty sweet, the PA subs are under the stage so you can literally feel your playing.
However when you play cab vol you bring you own amp, which i did, which wasn't an ashdown, so i digress

[jacko]

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='78620' date='Oct 24 2007, 12:55 AM']bannermans has one too, last time i was in there last week the idiot on PA had the whole PA too loud, hurt my ears for no good reason and couldn't hear and definition on anything but the kick and snare.[/quote]

Bannermans is a pretty crap room for live music too. Everything reflects in all directions and like binkies, the sound guy hasn't got a clue.

[LukeFRC]

wee red all the way, but them i'm biased

[dave_bass5]

+1 (or whatever its got to now) on the Woolly ABM sound.
Using either my MAG or ABM in to 2 different cabs i felt the ABM had a more woolly midrange.
Deeper sounding and i guess its a different voicing but i didnt like it much.

[lowhand_mike]

the mag on the other hand i find anything but wooly

[Machines]

Ok I picked up my ABM300 from kevcooke today (cheers Kev !)- sampled it initially through a Warwick 211 Pro cab using a custom shop Warwick Vampyre NT5. It sounded anything but 'woolly' to me. Plugged my Stingray into it too, superb and bright sound.

Now then - I got it home and tried it through my MAG210 - sounded nice and bright again, I seem to be missing the woolliness ! Admittedly, neither of these tests were at gig volumes so it isn't a complete test, but I can't see it being majorly different.

Certainly there are brighter cabs available, but they don't sound muffled or lacking to my ears.

[kevcooke]

Satisfied customer!

[steve-soar]

I've just tried plugging my bass into the GT6B and out to the effects return on the back of my ABM Combo, bypassing the controls and just using the power amp. It sounded cleaner, clearer, more powerful, deeper etc. I think I'm in love again.

[Mister_E]

I've experienced the "wooly" sound when using an ashdown rig at a local practice room. I think it was an evo 3 head and a 4 x 10 cab. plugged in my MM Sting-5 and after pushing all the buttons and twisting everything around could not get a decent enough tone - lacked defenition from the higher frequencies.
Just today I used the same cab but this time took along my own Hartke 3500 head - it was like night and day! instantly controllable sound - good cabinet IMHO - handled the low C very nicely indeed!

I suppose either I can't adjust amps properly or the ashdown head was suspect?

next!

[steve-soar]

Going to keep this set up, it sounds amazing using the GT6B to control the front end. Why I never tried it before?

[stingrayfan]

[quote name='tinyviking' post='80265' date='Oct 27 2007, 10:15 PM']after pushing all the buttons and twisting everything around could not get a decent enough tone[/quote]
That's so true. Every time I've used an Ashdown, I've twisted the pots and pushed the buttons like I was on a roll with a fruit machine - but it seems to make bugger all difference to the sound coming out.

[fusionbassist1]

I played through an all Ashdown rig today, a 12" on the floor and 4x10" with an EVO II head. really really boomy, couldn't get any mids from it for the punch I like, it was extreme clicky grindy trebel or rediculous 'I can't even make the notes out' bass. And a silly freq. select setup doesn't help with trying to dial in 'your' sound either. I'll never buy one after that experience. Only good thing was that it was loud enough for the rehersal and cut through with a nice amount of headroom.

[David Nimrod]

ABM500 1 x 15" combo + ABM 4 x 10" cab.

Awesome, it just does it for me ;-)

[Jack]

Eh, one man's 'smooth warm roundness' is another man's 'undefined muddy mush'.

I really liked mine (MAG 410 combo and 115 cab), just needed something that could do old and new.

[David Nimrod]

Knocking Ashdown seems to be a bit of a sport on here...

I run my ABM with the EQ all flat, valve drive at 12 o clock.

The rest comes from the bass, or from the SansAmp thing.

OK, so I've not played through some of the 'high end' stuff,

But for my sound (not too 'hi fi' would describe it), it's great!

[CPBass]

It does seem to be a Basschat sport. Ashdowns are no longer what they used to be.

Ive had my Evo for 9 years and have loved every second Ive played through it. Ive played in all sorts of settings and it has never let me down which is more than I can say for some american and european amps ive used over the years.

It works for me and I will continue to use mine until either it or I die.

The chinese ones are really poor in comparison to the earlier UK made models.

Each to his own I guess but Ive got a FAB one.

C

Edited June 24, 2009 by Voodoosnake

[iamapirate]

oooh, I'm worried by this thread now! Ah well, it's my first (proper) amp (4x10" combo 300w EVO III), and I just love ampeg (from the sounds I've heard @ gigs) - shame NO ONE near me supplies them!! argh!!

[Kongo]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='74346' date='Oct 14 2007, 11:49 PM']Played through a brand new borrowed Ashdown stack at a gig the other night and it was woolier than a sheep in a jumper shop. And we're not talking the cheap range either - this was an Evo head and top of the range cabs. It was awful. What's all the fuss about?[/quote]

Yep...as I say around here Ashdowns NEVER work for me...I too get that wooly wooly wool wool tone...and nothing else...

[Stylon Pilson]

Thread necromancy!

S.P.

[Pete Academy]

I use an Ashdown Superfly 500 head with a Classic 4x8 and a Classic 1x15. Love it. Plenty of power and punch, and no reliability issues after almost 5 years.

[thodrik]

I not a massive fan of ashdown, but they do seem to be everywhere! The standard set up in almost any rehearsal room around Glasgow seems to be the ABM Evo II 500 head/ampeg svt 450 on top of an ampeg 8x10.

I don't really have a preference between the Ashdown and the 'faux' SVT. My view is that the Ashdown is great for plugging in a passive P-bass going through a Sansamp and a bunch of fuzz pedals, but if you use a clean high powered active bass, the Ashdown doesn't really provide much top-end sparkle. Even trying to fiddle with the eq seemed to make little difference.

The sub octave thing isn't really for me and just seems to muddy the sound, unless you are playing around the 12th fret on the D and G strings, which provides a sound very much like playing around the 7th fret on the A and D strings. Thus, I don't see the point. Also, the valve drive seems to be so sublte that it makes minimal difference to your actual sound, so I have yet to fully appreciate 'grind'... Furthermore, the dial thing on the front is to me superfluous. I don't believe they are as accurate as they would seem. Several times the amp has cut out on me after being apparently being driven too hard, even though I've had the master volume below half and the gain turned up so far that the dial was almost getting halfway up when I was digging in. That may have just been bad luck with a faulty amp but I still think an LED or two works just as well, if not better due to ease of operation, as an indication of gain settings. Also, why have an active/passive pad if the dial is there to let you easily dial in a sufficient amount of gain. I'm a novice in electronics though, so somebody could correct me on that.

Its these aforementioned things that just make me think the amps are just a bit gimmiky, which lots of knobs and buttons that make little difference to the sound. They run a brilliant marketing campaign, but I personally consider the ABM Ashdown amps to be a step backwards from Trace Elliot (well, the Kamen stuff, not necessariliy the Gibson-era).

I will say that I have not tried the US series valve amp which admittedly does look kinda cool, as well as the Little Giant etc. The MAG stuff also seems to be decent value for money. Hell, compared to the stuff from the US and Europe, you could even argue that the ABM stuff is value for money. I just wouldn't buy it unless I knew I was going to spend the rest of my bass playing days running my P-bass into a Sansamp Bassdriver or VT Bass. It would be fun and it would sound pretty good, but its not really what I want to do.

[Starless]

I'm no expert (obviously, as I have MAG 300 + MAG 2x10 + MAG 1x15), but I'm of the opinion that there are so many influencing factors involved before the signal gets to the head, that I would happy to play through any head/cab combination, and adjust the characteristics to suit.

Pickup type, pick-up positioning, pick-up blending, fingering type (attack etc), fingering position, bass tone pot, (and in my case) graphic eq pedal etc etc. I can adjust all of these to get exactly what I want to hear in any given circumstance (rehearsal, busy pub, empty pub, hall etc). I can make my fretless P sound like a Ric, and my fretted J sound like Macca's Hofner. I've never felt the need to agonise over the amp controls or features (although the Ashdown's built in sub-harmonic feature is pretty good).

Just my non-expert opinion, but if the Ashdown is 'woolly' given what it is being fed, then feed it something else. I'm pretty sure I could make an Ampeg or Hiwatt or whatever else sound 'wooly' if I wanted to.

Just all seems a bit anal to be fretting over head/cab combinations as if we all play in acoustically perfect laboratory conditions (which I certainly don't).