Seeking advice! Watts of amps

[Mr pickelz]

Hey guys, I'm considering buying an ashdown 65W bass amp from someone I kno (not sure which series yet) and I'm assured that the sound will not distort even at max volume! He is selling it for 75 quid and was wondering if anybody owned one and could tell me if you get some decent volume from it in band rehearsals, small pub gigs and what does it sound like through pa? Is it a good deal?

Thanks

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by Mr pickelz

I'm assured that the sound will not distort even at max volume!

He's lying to you.

[Sneakypete]

Hmmmm.... if it's the 65W 15" practice amp (called the Five Fifteen iirc and the current model is rated at 100W) I had one of those as a bedroom amp for a few years and it was fine. One evening I was asked at very short notice to join some friends at a party and as they were only taking their practice amps and I keep my 'proper' rig at the dayjob I took the Ashdown. It died within the first few minutes - the next day I investigated and found all four output transistors were short circuit. Might have just been bad luck I suppose but personally I wouldn't trust one at anything like 'max volume'. If you're in the UK go to Basschat - there's loads of stuff there but £75 is a very small budget. In a nutshell I'd say for solo practice it's fine but really not powerful enough for a band unless the others are just acoustic guitars and a tambourine instead of drums..

[RickenBoogie]

+1 to both above. That amp is a bedroom practice amp, not suitable at all for playing with a rock band, and NO AMP can take having it's controls maxed out, especially a small combo amp.

[Mr pickelz]

Thanks guys, well it's helped a lot! But what would you say it sounded like when not maxed out and through pa? I was also considering a trace Elliot commando combo amp 200W any more views on this?

[tdub0199]

Get a GK MB115...