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Let's talk about the Ashdown Little Bastard
- Thread starter Joris 55
- Start date
I don't think it would be easy to add a gain knob. My Mk1 preamp goes into drive if I turn the tone controls up beyond a certain point. The Mk2 preamp seems to stay clean with the tone controls wide open. I think the difference is the Mk2 has a choke in the power supply that gives the preamp a bit more headroom. Gain staging the preamp will not have any impact on the amount of headroom in the power amp.
Rather than butchering a nice little amp, I suggest you sell it and buy a Little Stubby...it already has a gain control (labeled as "Drive").
Could be the tubes, but both of my LB30s are a bit louder than the Little Stubby.
Oh, you misunderstood me. Would never consider modifying a little bastard, was wondering on a comparison between the new Stubby with the gain vs the old LB without. I actually just stumbled on your posts on the low watt thread comparing the 3 versions.
I don't think it would be easy to add a gain knob. My Mk1 preamp goes into drive if I turn the tone controls up beyond a certain point. The Mk2 preamp seems to stay clean with the tone controls wide open. I think the difference is the Mk2 has a choke in the power supply that gives the preamp a bit more headroom. Gain staging the preamp will not have any impact on the amount of headroom in the power amp.
Rather than butchering a nice little amp, I suggest you sell it and buy a Little Stubby...it already has a gain control (labeled as "Drive").
Could be the tubes, but both of my LB30s are a bit louder than the Little Stubby.
And this is my reservations on a buying the Little Stubby… for $100 more the CTM100 is a steal in comparison (way beyond my needs). That, and I like the form factor of the Little Bastard/classic CTM line better.
I totally understand. IMHO each of model of the 30W amps has it's own personality as far as tone and distortion characteristics. Overall I like the controls of the Little Stubby the best, but whether it sounds the best depends on what you want. Like you, I prefer the form factor of the LB30 and CTM30. If I could only keep one, I think it would be the Little Stubby...function over form.
The CTM100 should be significantly louder and it should also have a different baked-in tone than all three models we have discussed. I own a CTM300 which is supposed to use the same preamp as the CTM100. Totally different voicing and I found the tone controls to be counter intuitive. It's a great sounding amp once you figure out how to dial it in, but IMHO it's super easy to get a range of tones that are not great. Also getting the rotaries to do what you expect can be surprisingly difficult.
The trick IMHO: Start with the tone controls at 9:00 and then limit adjustment to +/- two clock face settings...I.E. keep the tone controls between about 7:00 and 11:00. In this range the controls are relatively intuitive and there are a bunch of great tones. Once you get comfortable, by all means explore more extreme settings. But don't be surprised if you make an adjust and nothing happens, or perhaps the change will be opposite of what you expect.
If you intend to use the amp for gigging, I would definitely suggest going for the CTM100 or bigger. The 30W amps sound great, but the amount of clean headroom they can produce is pretty limited, even with large/efficient cabs. Some gig these little amps, but I would actually prefer 150W or more. I own multiple 85W to 120W tube amps, but they are all guitar amps. Also, decades ago I actually gigged an 85W amp (blackface Fender Twin Reverb).
@LiquidSword52 I forgot to mention...If you are interested in the Little Stubby be patient.
Here is the sunk cost for mine.
7/22 Purchased on Reverb $722.26
JJ EL84 $81.60
Handle $9.50
Handle Mounts $2.90
Total: $816.26
One of the output tubes was intermittent. The heater would sometimes go dead. I reseated the tube and tried it in a different tube socket. The problem followed the tube. I ordered a new set of JJs. The intermittent tube has functioned since, so I have not installed the new tubes yet.
Ashdown ran out of handles towards the end of the production run, so my amp did not have one. The handle and hardware I added looks pretty much like the OEM.
Here is the sunk cost for mine.
7/22 Purchased on Reverb $722.26
JJ EL84 $81.60
Handle $9.50
Handle Mounts $2.90
Total: $816.26
One of the output tubes was intermittent. The heater would sometimes go dead. I reseated the tube and tried it in a different tube socket. The problem followed the tube. I ordered a new set of JJs. The intermittent tube has functioned since, so I have not installed the new tubes yet.
Ashdown ran out of handles towards the end of the production run, so my amp did not have one. The handle and hardware I added looks pretty much like the OEM.
@Wasnex That’s a great price on it. They seem to hold their value pretty well. So does the LB/CTM 30 considering they’re about $600 USD (£500) new in the UK for their in house builds, but no direct purchase available for stateside folks. If I was any more impatient, I’d look up the cheapest round trip flight and bring it back as a carry-on 
Not necessarily in a hurry (it’s just a learning experience/hobby for me) Pushing the 410T with my old home theater receiver got the Fender Rumble 40 up for local sale on other sites/apps.
Not necessarily in a hurry (it’s just a learning experience/hobby for me) Pushing the 410T with my old home theater receiver got the Fender Rumble 40 up for local sale on other sites/apps.
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Well, the other part of this statement is that I’m also impatient… Got something on the way…
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I'm still on the hunt for a LB30-550-like to get that gain in the preamp!
I really want one of these badly as well. The LB front end is killer.
What make of 12ax7 tube will help the LB30 in the overdrive dept, with it was designed like the Stubby or the 550, te JJ's are not doing it for me, have a tube store premium 7025 in it, very quite but too dang clean............
what are you folks running, the cab used is BB3 or GK Neo 112.
what are you folks running, the cab used is BB3 or GK Neo 112.
@FronTowardEnemy @BassBeginer64
If you find one do not hesitate. I got insanely lucky to get mine.
If you find one do not hesitate. I got insanely lucky to get mine.
I forgot to post this in here, I re-homed the LB30 to my brothers house over the holidays so I have a sweet little rig to use when I'm there. Grabbed this MiBass 12 from GC and they sound excellent together. I would like to add a second but I rarely see these cabs pop up.
The LB550 is still living on top of my darkglass 212 and occasionally pumps my 610 stack.
I would get the CTM over the stubby all day off that was what I was deciding on.
Ultimately the tube you like best will depend on your goals and preferences...you might think the tubes I like suck. So the best advice: Roll your own buddy
.I don't have any trouble pushing my Mk1 LB30 into drive territory. In fact, if I crank up the tone controls too high the preamp starts to drive.
The Mk 2 LB30 preamp stays clean regardless of the tone control settings.
Something you may not be aware of. The LB30 and CTM 30 do not have gain controls. The volume is in the place of a Master (just before the phase inverter (PI)). So turning up the volume will not produce drive until you push the PI or output tubes over the edge.
The Little Stubby has a gain control (Drive) and mine can easily be adjusted for preamp drive.
I believe the preamp in the LB550 is the older Dual Tube preamp. Although it has a gain control, it's really intended more for clean than distortion. My SmallBlock 427 stays clean until the gain control is over about 2:00. The Gain control is fairly late in the signal path (after the tone stack). I believe there is a cascaded tube after the Gain control, and the Master is after the cascaded tube.
When I have rolled tubes in circuits that are intended to go into OD, I have really liked the standard Genalex ECC83 (Chinese made). I have some Valve Art (VA) 12AX7Bs that sound similar to the standard Genalex. I believe these were made by Shuguang.
If the LB550 gain control is where I think it is, try running a relatively high gain tube in V1 and then put a tube that breaks up easily in V2. The JJ ECC83S may be fine here...but I frequently don't like the way they sound in bass amps (YMMV). The VA 12AX7B I rolled seemed to have exceptional gain and OD characteristics. Tung Sol 12AX7 has a decent amount of gain as well, and seems to fight to stay hard and punchy...so if you are after drive, it may be great for V1, but not so great in V2.
For complete transparency I have not rolled tubes in the 427, LB 30s, or Little Stubby. I did roll 12DW7s in my CTM 300, and the circuits did not really seem to respond very much to different models of tubes. I left the original JJs in the amp.
Good luck!
