Ashdown ABM Evo III 500

[pointblank72]

Hi everyone,
I'm posting here to possibly get some feedback/experiences/solutions to an issue I'm having with the ashdown ABM Evo III 500. I bought this amplifier a couple of weeks back and took it into a jam with the rest of the band on the weekend (one guitarist, one drummer). What I discovered was that it had a total lack in output. I had this thing cranked at about 95% output and the drummer who was about 5 metres from me could barely hear me in the heavier parts of our songs, if at all (worth noting that I could hardly hear myself standing in front of the amp, and the guitarist was also struggling to the left of me). I basically went over the entire amplifier, changing all the settings to all kinds of mixes and variations (compression, input, output, bass, middle, treble, valve gain, passive/active, flat/shape). I played with and without effects pedals, plugged in both via the effects loop at the back and just in series with the amp, I changed the battery in my bass for the preamp and fiddled with the settings on here also. I'm playing it through a brand new 1000W RMS rated Avatar Cabinet with eminence Deltalite speakers in it so the cab is not the issue. Now here's the part that has made me so curious about the amp rather than writing it off as sh*t: My old amplifier is a 200W Randall RB200X and when playing in the exact same location, with the same set up (position wise in terms of drummer + guitarist), them with the same gear and myself with all the same gear minus the amp, I only had to have this amp at about 4.5/10 on the output and was at a sufficient volume for everyone to hear and jam properly. It stumps me as to why when upgrading to an amplifier that is 2.5 times the rated wattage that it can't even be loud enough to be heard in a normal jamming environment.

Any thoughts, theories, personal experiences and possible suggestions/solutions would be greatly appreciated,
Cheers everyone, pointblank72

[phatbass787]

[quote name='pointblank72' post='684502' date='Dec 14 2009, 09:07 PM']Hi everyone,
I'm posting here to possibly get some feedback/experiences/solutions to an issue I'm having with the ashdown ABM Evo III 500. I bought this amplifier a couple of weeks back and took it into a jam with the rest of the band on the weekend (one guitarist, one drummer). What I discovered was that it had a total lack in output. I had this thing cranked at about 95% output and the drummer who was about 5 metres from me could barely hear me in the heavier parts of our songs, if at all (worth noting that I could hardly hear myself standing in front of the amp, and the guitarist was also struggling to the left of me). I basically went over the entire amplifier, changing all the settings to all kinds of mixes and variations (compression, input, output, bass, middle, treble, valve gain, passive/active, flat/shape). I played with and without effects pedals, plugged in both via the effects loop at the back and just in series with the amp, I changed the battery in my bass for the preamp and fiddled with the settings on here also. I'm playing it through a brand new 1000W RMS rated Avatar Cabinet with eminence Deltalite speakers in it so the cab is not the issue. Now here's the part that has made me so curious about the amp rather than writing it off as sh*t: My old amplifier is a 200W Randall RB200X and when playing in the exact same location, with the same set up (position wise in terms of drummer + guitarist), them with the same gear and myself with all the same gear minus the amp, I only had to have this amp at about 4.5/10 on the output and was at a sufficient volume for everyone to hear and jam properly. It stumps me as to why when upgrading to an amplifier that is 2.5 times the rated wattage that it can't even be loud enough to be heard in a normal jamming environment.

Any thoughts, theories, personal experiences and possible suggestions/solutions would be greatly appreciated,
Cheers everyone, pointblank72[/quote]

Id speak to the shop where you got it from and get thm to contact Ashdowns service dept, they're a very helpful bunch and it sounds like your head definitely isnt right.

[rodl2005]

So U used thesame speaker lead also- thats often MY No.1 thing to suss out. But if thats not a prob. sounds like sumthin wrong a tech needs to look at. The cabs are rated correctly for the amp???? I mean U aint running a 2ohm load to the amp that can only go as low as 4 ohms?????

[ashevans09]

+1 to the contacting Ashdown thing, they're a really helpful bunch. Genuinely nice guys.

[pointblank72]

[quote name='rodl2005' post='684650' date='Dec 15 2009, 08:55 AM']So U used thesame speaker lead also- thats often MY No.1 thing to suss out. But if thats not a prob. sounds like sumthin wrong a tech needs to look at. The cabs are rated correctly for the amp???? I mean U aint running a 2ohm load to the amp that can only go as low as 4 ohms?????[/quote]

Yeah, the ratings are all good, 4 ohm cabinet with the amp which is what its rated at and no extra cabinets that would drop the load down to 2 ohms. And leads were all good, a couple of high quality brand new ones actually, which still worked fine with my old amp as I checked them out tonight. But cheers, I think everyone is right here, sounds like a tech issue that I'll have to take up with retailer, who can get in touch with ashdown.

[beastie]

HI i had the same proplem with my ashdown evo 11 900 it was taken back to ashdown who found a fault with the send and retern circuit board £25 and it was fixed

[pointblank72]

[quote name='beastie' post='685794' date='Dec 16 2009, 08:01 AM']HI i had the same proplem with my ashdown evo 11 900 it was taken back to ashdown who found a fault with the send and retern circuit board £25 and it was fixed[/quote]


Cheers, I thought it was unusual and that maybe someone might have come across it before.

[bassmansky]

with the eq off, input on 10 o'clock,output on 10 o'clock and with that cab ,it should rattle windows!