11th Hour Decision: TC BH500 or Ashdown MAG 600H

[ZB2005]

I'm sure many of you that are experienced with all types of equipment get tired of these "which amp is better" threads, but if I can even find one kind soul to offer me an opinion, this will probably be well worth it.

I recently purchased a used 4 ohm Avatar TB153 for a STEAL, leaving me with several hundred leftover in my budget to purchase an upgraded amp from my Ashdown Superfly. (While I like all the tonal options with the Superfly, the fact that it can only max out one cab at 250 watts is frustrating).

So MF is running a 10% off all used gear sale that ends TODAY, and after doing a lot of research (mainly on here and a few clips on YouTube), I'm down to the BH500 or the MAG 600H. Both are the EXACT same price (< $400 with the sale) and both seem to have both positive and negative things said about them in the bass world.

I'm the proud owner of a Peavey T-40 and a Squier CV 50s P. I play for church occassionally, but my main gig is a rock cover band (60s through current...anything from Neil Young to My Morning Jacket) where we play a mix of bar gigs (50-200 people) and some outdoor festivals. I've got some PA help most of the time.

Thanks in advance for any insights you may have.

[ZB2005]

I also just stumbled across the Ibanez Promethean as well. It's right in the same price range, and also gets similar positive/negative reviews much like the Ashdown MAG 600H.

I'm torn, friends! I'm also not in a position to go try any of these out. The closest decent music store is an hour away, and they carry almost nothing but Acoustic and Mark Bass products.

[RickenBoogie]

Any one would work, it just comes down to personal preference, but since you can't test them, flip a coin.

[GRAHAM SG1]

I have recently bought a BH500 with two 2x12s and am very pleased with it .
I like the built in features, the on-board tuner is excellent and the spectracomp, tube tone, 2 x contours and tweetertone are good, but the feature I really like is the preset facility, we play a huge mix of covers so one song could be a nice clean blues and the next something like Black Sabbath or AC/DC where you need a bit of growl, just hit a preset and its there, next song a bit of punk and hit another preset etc, you have 3tones stored plus the usual WYSIWYG EQ, it is so user friendly, altering the presets could not be easier, just turn off the 3 presets, dial in a tone and push a prest for 3 seconds when all 3 lights flash to tell you its done, its so easy that I dont have to ask my young children to help me out with it
On top of all this, it is a great sounding and versatile amp with plenty of power .

[Boostedrex]

Graham does bring up a really great point about the BH500. The added features you get with it trump most anything else in that price range. And it's got some nice power on tap. I personally like the tone of that amp (I have the BG500 combo version) FWIW. An onboard tuner with mute, great compressor, 3 memory presets, tweetertone, and a tubetone circuit really boost the bang for the buck factor IMHO. I'll add that each of those features work VERY well. Not gimmicky things that you can't easily tell an audible difference. But the Ashdown and Ibanez are also both solid choices.

[GRAHAM SG1]

Its a difficult but absorbing choice to make, I have only played through an Ashdown MAG 300 EVO 2 210 combo which was nice but very heavy and obviously less powerful, they do seem to be good amps, my first thoughts were that the features on the BH500 would come at the expense of something, you dont get something for nothing, but it sounds great to me and my only real comparison is with my previous GK MB210/MBE115 rig which the BH500 trumps in everything except weight .
My only criticism of the BH500 is that the tubetone becomes a bit too distorted and farty sounding after 5 but some may like it that way, its probably great for metal keep it below 5 and its excellent .
I am sure that you will like whatever amp you buy, there is a lot of good gear available nowadays at reasonable price, far east production has ensured this, quality seems to be pretty good also .
Good luck with your purchase .