Calling all Ashdown ABM owners: your help needed please!
 

Hi everyone, first time poster.

Question: when you turn your Ashdown ABM (or other) amp on, apart from any noise from the fan(s) in the back, do you hear ANY noise from the speaker without a lead/instrument plugged in?

And if you do, does that noise get louder when you increase the "output" volume knob?

Thanks for reading/responding.

Cheers,

Kap

Not on my Ashdown EVO II ABM combo.

Thanks praisebass - so you don't get a hum, just silence? Silence as if you've pressed the "mute" button on the amp?

it is not unusual for some hiss to be heard at high gain.. particularly on older designs. some slight hum may be present, but this could also be the house wiring inducing the hum into the amp, rather than being generated by the amp itself.

No noise from my o.g. ABM 500.

Thanks for the replies.

I've wanted an Ashdown for a long time. I bought the amp (ABM EVO 300w C115) second hand, mint condition, flight-cased from new etc. I tested it at the chaps house, sounded ace.

Got it home and I didn't have chance to try it until the weekend. I plugged it in and it has an audible hum. Bit like when you approach with a single coil pick-up bass. But the hum is without anything plugged into the amp. Tried it in 4 other rooms, with and without extension leads. Tried different power leads as well. It hums from the off with "output" at zero and the only thing that affects it is when you turn the "output" knob up - it gets louder, but not really any louder once you get past 12 o clock.

Now I swear there was no hum from it when I tested it. So this bugged the crap out of me and I took it to an amp repair guy, albeit one that specialises in old valve amps. He said that the sound was normal for a pre-stage valve amp of that wattage (!)

My old Laney DP150 solid state is 20+ years old but is silent. So I popped into a local music shop who sell Ashdown's and they said there should be no noise!!! FFS

So....our drummer is in the trade and put me onto an Ashdown dealership he goes to which is 2 hours drive away. So yesterday I took it along. They fetched an identical EVO II 300w head and plugged my speaker in. Same hum. Then they plugged my amp head into an Ampeg cab. Same hum. Then they got a 900w ABM head and plugged that into my speaker, same hum. So the conclusion was that all ABMs must produce an electrical hum (even with "output" at zero)!

So when you guys say "no noise", do you mean silent like the "mute" is on? or is there a.........hmmmmmmmmm!

Thanks for your replies.

So do your amps make a "hum"? or am I going mad(der)!

I get no hum out of my ABM 500 EVO II, but I do get a nice 'thump' when I turn it off, even if the volume and gain are zeroed. You might PM Jacquo III-X, he's kind of the resident Ashdown expert. He's helped me in the past, good guy.

ABM 500 evo 3 head and abm 610 cab no hum

What was the outcome? I hope it was positive.