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Let's talk about the Ashdown Little Bastard
- Thread starter Joris 55
- Start date
The little stubby has a TRS DI so you can get a cable that either runs TRS to your interface or a cable that is just wired TRS to XLR.
Only caveat is that the amp must have a speaker load so either a cab or a simple load box will work (the burgera 100W soak was under $100 last I checked.).
might want to check if the cab m can provide a load and handle a speaker cable. I don’t think it does. You could also possibly use the stubby di to the cab m. Again you would need a speaker load for the amp.
If you went with say the burgera load box, it has outputs that could go to the cab m. Same with the twonotes captor load box.
My solution with the stubby was the stubby speaker cable into a two notes captorX which has all the speakers sim I need. Then they went and made the lb 30 2.N with a built in load and captor x so now I’m down to one box.
Yeah, the Cab M can take a speaker from Amp, and it has a -25db switch with a Speaker out (mono, unprocessed) to the cab. What I don’t know yet is if the “unprocessed” cab out truly means unprocessed and sends the full signa to the cab without the volume affected. Manual says the Instrument/Amp input is a TRS (Surpisingly), so the DI from the Little Stubby could work as well I think. I just didn’t have the cables to test. I’ll know Sunday about the speaker cable, if not, I’ll order an adaptor for my XLR.
Update! Stopped by Sam Ash and picked up a 1/4” TRS to TRS cable (won’t get into how run down the place feels…). Little Stubby DI out into Two Notes Cab M+ (set at 0db input gain) and then XLR out to interface and it worked. PreSonus AudioBox set to -10 DB (that’s the minimum), and CAB M output dialed back to -6db. Pretty sure any combination of -15 to -17 db will keep it from clipping.
Turned it up past what I normally play at and no issues. Will report back on how it works between Amp and Cab with speaker cables. But just glad I got a solution.
Turned it up past what I normally play at and no issues. Will report back on how it works between Amp and Cab with speaker cables. But just glad I got a solution.
Purchased a LB 550 from a T/B member, now I want to keep my LB30 and this LB550, getting the stink eye from the wife about the toys - amps ...so here is where I am now thinking, seems the Little Stubby 30 is a cross of both these heads all tube, with a gain knob, thinking this my be the way to go to down size , thoughts
This won't help at all. I have a stupid number of amps. On the Ashdowns, a Little Stubby and a CTM-100 (as well as ABM 300 and 500). If I had to choose and only keep one it would definitely be the CTM-100 as it is loud enough to cover any gig I would ever need it to and it still sounds GREAT (albeit different) at very low volume.
That said, I love the Little Stubby and it is more tonally flexible so I'm glad my circumstance (and wife) are not forcing such a choice!
I was at a small outdoor rock show recently, nice PA and mixed well (sound guy didn't feel a need to demonstrate how massive his subs were, you could actually distinguish the kick drum from the bass, clear with no mud). The bass player had a great sound, thick and solid with some good crunch in it, what's that on stage? An Ampeg SVT-410HLF with... an Ashdown Little Bastard 30 2.N on top! I talked to the bassist afterwards, it was DI out the back of the amp to the board. Who says you can't rock out with 30 tube watts?
I know, pics or it didn't happen... but when I go out to hear music, I don't carry my phone, I don't need the ******* thing beeping at me at some random moment. Maybe I need to rethink that....
I know, pics or it didn't happen... but when I go out to hear music, I don't carry my phone, I don't need the ******* thing beeping at me at some random moment. Maybe I need to rethink that....
Sold the LB550, keeping the LB30, sits right near my PF-50 and Orange Bass Terror 500! They all sound amazing through a Barefaced BB3 cabs.
Sounds like you still have all the bases covered. Guess you liked the Terror Bass better.
Its a fun head, I also bought a Tone Hammer 500, and I am liking it too, it can get over-drived about as good as some of my tube heads. None pass the V4B now that it has some high gain tubes in it (Again Thank You @Wasnex) for tube info!
I use the lb30-2.n as a preamp into power amp and/or DI and it brings the sound. One of the few amps I can just plug straight into and not need anything else in between- well maybe a tuner.
Anyone know the difference in the preamps/tubes between the 30W models? I think the Original LB30 has 2, saw a post on here with one having 3, and the Little Stubby has 4 tubes (ecc81, ecc82, and 2 ecc83 tubes). If I wanted to swap tube brands in preamp, which one is for the drive?
My Mk1 and Mk2 LB30s have the same number of preamp tubes (two 12AX7s in the preamp and a 12AU7 for the phase inverter. Turning up the tone controls in my Mk1 causes the preamp to go into OD. The tube after the tone controls is V2. The tubes are named in reverse order for this amp so V3 is the first tube in the signal path and V1 is the phase inverter.
I don't think I can push the preamp of the Mk2 into OD without using something like a clean boost.
The volume control on these amps feeds the phase inverter.
AFAIK the CTM 30s are basically the same amps as the LB 30s. Although there may be little variances in the circuits.
The CTM 30 Little Stubby is different. From the OM:
Valve complement:
1 x ECC81 (V1) first tube in the signal path AFAIK
1 X ECC82 (V4) I assume this is the phase inverter
2 x ECC83 (V2, V3)
4 X EL84
The gut shot I have shows the preamp tubes labelled on the circuit board. See this page: Invalid Link Removed Translate to English.
I don't have a schematic so I don't know where the OD is produce. Since Little Stubby has a gain control though, I would try V2.
hope this helps, Wasnex turned me on to the china made genalex tubes - cleaner than the JJ but good O.D.
Thanks! I went through the thread yesterday and saw those Genalex as well as some TAD “Black plate” power tubes suggested. For those that have the experience or knowledge, which tubes affect the tone the most (Power vs Preamp). Not exactly in a hurry to swap anything out, just figured I’d ask for future reference.
OK, so I recently built my own P Bass from parts. It has an EMG Geezer in it, so it’s a bit hotter than either of the Jazzes I’ve been using hitherto. And I noticed the amp was easily overdriving, even when set fairly flat (i.e. mids up but bass & treble down). If the bass’s volume was cranked, and/or I dug in, it was the creamiest, crunchiest OD I’d ever heard. Such heavenly mids from the Geezer, TI Flats and this amp! I was on cloud 9, I’m telling you. And it was even better when combined with my Big Muff in dry mode, with its tone turned down low. The combination of soft fuzz into OD was the absolute best distortion I’ve ever heard in my life. (Sounds great on guitar too, as I discovered when my friend begged me to let him try it.) 
So, the amp would get clean tone again if I simply backed off the volume on the bass itself. And that’s something I don’t mind in principle, since the ObsidianWire harness I’m using has a treble bleed, so theoretically there’s no tone sacrifice. But then my envelope filter would no longer respond.
Honestly, I probably prefer finger wah into OD (squawk!), but in principle I’d like to be able to play with it clean too. Anyway, I figured that before fiddling with anything on that one pedal (which I’m reluctant to do, since it already sounds like the wah of my dreams — think “Black Satin” from Miles Davis’ In Concert), I could just try the high input.
So I did. And I couldn’t get it to OD at all anymore, plus had to turn the master volume up so high it started hissing. So I said screw this, and switched right back to the low input, and . . . now it doesn’t OD anymore, either! Even when I crank absolutely everything on the amp.
What changed? Literally all I did was switch which jack I was plugged into, then switch back, without changing any settings. The tubes all still light up; is it possible there’s some internal gadget that got recalibrated, just from my plugging in? (This was only amp side, and I muted it first. But maybe I should have turned the amp off, then right back on? I’ve tried that since, to no avail.)
I’m heartbroken.
It was admittedly overdriving too easily before, but I didn’t really mind, I could have lived with that, I was just curious is all. Now I wish I’d never tried switching inputs. . . . Any idea what happened, or what I can do about it?
So, the amp would get clean tone again if I simply backed off the volume on the bass itself. And that’s something I don’t mind in principle, since the ObsidianWire harness I’m using has a treble bleed, so theoretically there’s no tone sacrifice. But then my envelope filter would no longer respond.
Honestly, I probably prefer finger wah into OD (squawk!), but in principle I’d like to be able to play with it clean too. Anyway, I figured that before fiddling with anything on that one pedal (which I’m reluctant to do, since it already sounds like the wah of my dreams — think “Black Satin” from Miles Davis’ In Concert), I could just try the high input.So I did. And I couldn’t get it to OD at all anymore, plus had to turn the master volume up so high it started hissing. So I said screw this, and switched right back to the low input, and . . . now it doesn’t OD anymore, either! Even when I crank absolutely everything on the amp.
What changed? Literally all I did was switch which jack I was plugged into, then switch back, without changing any settings. The tubes all still light up; is it possible there’s some internal gadget that got recalibrated, just from my plugging in? (This was only amp side, and I muted it first. But maybe I should have turned the amp off, then right back on? I’ve tried that since, to no avail.)
I’m heartbroken.
It was admittedly overdriving too easily before, but I didn’t really mind, I could have lived with that, I was just curious is all. Now I wish I’d never tried switching inputs. . . . Any idea what happened, or what I can do about it?
