Let's talk about the Ashdown Little Bastard

[Wasnex]

I have not tried a Genalex tubes yet, may buy 2 to play with on the LB30, would this be the gold pin type?

In my experience the standard Chinese version is really good in OD circuits. It's also significantly less expensive.

I am more likely to choose the Russian B759 gold pin version for circuits that are run clean.

YMMV.

 

[DaveDeVille]

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.

i use Tung-Sol 12AX7's in my Little Bastard .
the EL84's are J/J's ...

 

[Nuage420]

Y'all motivated me to bring her down for a joy ride

 

[BassBeginer64]

View attachment 4943831

Y'all motivated me to bring her down for a joy ride

 

[LiquidSword52]

I would get the CTM over the stubby all day off that was what I was deciding on.

At similar costs, absolutely. Ended up finding a Little Stubby at a better price and decided to splurge on it. Can confirm 100 Watts would have been overkill in my 10x12 practice room

 

[Nuage420]

At similar costs, absolutely. Ended up finding a Little Stubby at a better price and decided to splurge on it. Can confirm 100 Watts would have been overkill in my 10x12 practice room
View attachment 4944118

Love the pedals, I tried the leBass but didn't get along with it like I had hoped. I may give it another shot though it was a really neat piece of kit.

 

[LiquidSword52]

Love the pedals, I tried the leBass but didn't get along with it like I had hoped. I may give it another shot though it was a really neat piece of kit.

The LeBass served me well. Between that and the VMT, my aftershock has barely been on. Actually just traded the LeBass on here for a Darkglass X7 (still on the way). Now that I have a tube amp, I figured didn’t need a tube preamp and wanted an option for that “Darkglass” sound. Still debating what to do with the VMT…

That being said, the LeBass clean channel into the little stubby definitely added more of that tube dynamic. Hard for me to describe.

 

[Nuage420]

The LeBass served me well. Between that and the VMT, my aftershock has barely been on. Actually just traded the LeBass on here for a Darkglass X7 (still on the way). Now that I have a tube amp, I figured didn’t need a tube preamp and wanted an option for that “Darkglass” sound. Still debating what to do with the VMT…

That being said, the LeBass clean channel into the little stubby definitely added more of that tube dynamic. Hard for me to describe.

I think I know what you mean, it was the distortion tones that I couldn't quite dial in.

 

[LiquidSword52]

I think I know what you mean, it was the distortion tones that I couldn't quite dial in.

Yeah, they were unfiltered, so a cab sim was a must, and I wasn’t a fan of the default “Ampeg” 8x10. Correctly dialed in in Cold Fusion mode into different cab sims was my favorite.

 

[Nuage420]

I'm just glad I pulled the trigger on the ABM600(HEAD 22/Shavo whatever you wanna call it). I don't need any tube pedals now or distortion for grit.

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

Yeah, they were unfiltered, so a cab sim was a must, and I wasn’t a fan of the default “Ampeg” 8x10. Correctly dialed in in Cold Fusion mode into different cab sims was my favorite.

I downloaded the Berg pack from Celestion and couldn’t be happier. I recommend you give them a shot. There are so many flavors in there that it would be hard not to find one to your liking. I am running it through a TC impulse.

 

[Joris 55]

Damnnnnn! Tell us all about it

Having a lot of fun with this one.

View attachment 4943701

 

[Joris 55]

Gorgeous! Is that what the wood looks like or did you make a new box for it?

i use Tung-Sol 12AX7's in my Little Bastard .
the EL84's are J/J's ...

View attachment 4943761
View attachment 4943762 View attachment 4943763

 

[Wasnex]

It's not intuitively named and not about feedback in the way it's often used. More of a 'character' control IMO. I'm guessing it involves some sort of gain staging of feeding the preamp signal back on itself, hence the name. Not really sure. Regardless, it is quite powerful and useful.

Ashdown's PR describes it as:
"However the heart of this amp is the unique Feedback control which allows the complete character of the amp to be changed and fine tuned from old school vintage valve amp tones at one end through to tighter more mid heavy modern tones at the other."

Despite that being sales-speak, it does seem pretty accurate (to me anyway).

After getting my own little stubby, I concluded it is probably a variation of their mid-shift switch: NAD: Ashdown CTM 30 Little Stubby

So you were actually on the right track.

 

[LiquidSword52]

Just for fun, what’s everyone’s amp setting? This is mine in a small practice bedroom. Gets slightly gritty if I dig in, and even clean, has a nice tube saturation.

 

[klattman]

Depends on how hot the bass is. I like to dial it so it’s clean playing softly but overdriven when digging in.

 

[LiquidSword52]

For those that record at home, what DAI are you using? I have a PreSonus AudioBox that clips even with its input gain at minimum with my amp.
I’ve tried all kinds of variations on gain with the Little Stubby, and unless I play at ridiculously low volume (how fun is that?…), the signal clips. Never had this issue with my Rumble 40.
A quick search results on this being an issue with the AudioBox in general with different amps depending on signal.

The only thing I haven’t tried is to run the amp into my Two Notes CAB M and using the DI from that…

 

[klattman]

The only thing I haven’t tried is to run the amp into my Two Notes CAB M and using the DI from that…

I’ve run the stubby or the lb into a two-notes load box. That works well to get a controllable signal so sounds like the cabm is worth a try.

the lb-30 2.N is okay running from the 2N out as it has a level setting. From the direct out it’s significantly hotter and I have to put an attenuator (15-25db) in the path. Both these are post transformer.

 

[Joris 55]

For those that record at home, what DAI are you using? I have a PreSonus AudioBox that clips even with its input gain at minimum with my amp.
I’ve tried all kinds of variations on gain with the Little Stubby, and unless I play at ridiculously low volume (how fun is that?…), the signal clips. Never had this issue with my Rumble 40.
A quick search results on this being an issue with the AudioBox in general with different amps depending on signal.

The only thing I haven’t tried is to run the amp into my Two Notes CAB M and using the DI from that…

I've gotten good results plugging my Little Bastard into my Audient ID44, it's one of my favourite DI's.

 

[LiquidSword52]

I’ve run the stubby or the lb into a two-notes load box. That works well to get a controllable signal so sounds like the cabm is worth a try.

the lb-30 2.N is okay running from the 2N out as it has a level setting. From the direct out it’s significantly hotter and I have to put an attenuator (15-25db) in the path. Both these are post transformer.

Just ordered another Speaker cable to see if this works for recording and playing through cab at the same time (not sure if speaker out and XLR out signals can be set to different volumes). If not, then at least it will work for somewhat quiet recording without having to play lightly. Definitely an issue with hot signals for the PreSonus as I saw a thread on this from a few years back.
Since I’m just messing around at home, I’m not gonna bother with a different brand for now if it doesn’t work.