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New Ashdown bass guitars

#41
Yes please!!
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I'm all about Thunderbirds and spins on the Thunderbird. Is love to add this to my Gibby Tbirds, Spector Rex, Peavey Tragic, Peavey Void, Dean Demonator, etc.........
It actually reminds me very much of the Dean Entwistle bass with that pickguard.
 
#42
HELLonWHEELS said:
To both these points; I don't mean to say that I think these instruments are going to be crap. I'm thinking about this relatively speaking, for example the Sire V7 starts at $600 is half the cost of the Ashdown Gail (899 pounds = ~$1200) or for the same cost you can get an American made Fender.

WHO are these basses for? At the $1000 price point what person chooses Ashdown over an equally priced MIA Fender/Lakland Skyline or at half the cost a Sire, Squire or G&L Tribute? How many Lakin fan boys are there that are looking to purchase a diluted version?
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If these really are the quality of the first D Lakin basses then these Ashdown basses are top notch. I owned two of the Jazz basses and they were really nice and I can honestly say that they were up there or maybe even a little better then Skyline series and yes I have one of those too...
 
#44
Kukulkan61 said:
If these really are the quality of the first D Lakin basses then these Ashdown basses are top notch. I owned two of the Jazz basses and they were really nice and I can honestly say that they were up there or maybe even a little better then Skyline series and yes I have one of those too...
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Having owned all three brands I can tell you that the Ashdown is equal in quality to the Lakin and IMO much better than the Skyline series. It's much closer to a USA Lakland than the Skyline. Killer basses. Not sure how easy it will be to find in the USA for a little while though,
 
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#50
"WHO are these basses for? At the $1000 price point what person chooses Ashdown over an equally priced MIA Fender/Lakland Skyline or at half the cost a Sire, Squire or G&L Tribute? How many Lakin fan boys are there that are looking to purchase a diluted version?"


Ashdown name holds some weight in Europe, especially United Kingdom; not so much in US.

Based on Dan's affiliation may open up some Americans to take a listen. This thread has shown many already are giving them a shot.

The 'Squire Boy's' may sneer [well they sneer at everything:)] Sire, Lakeland Skyline advocates have a point and Fender players are loyal, G&L has that headstock:)
 
#51
Nebadon2000 said:
"WHO are these basses for? At the $1000 price point what person chooses Ashdown over an equally priced MIA Fender/Lakland Skyline or at half the cost a Sire, Squire or G&L Tribute? How many Lakin fan boys are there that are looking to purchase a diluted version?"


Ashdown name holds some weight in Europe, especially United Kingdom; not so much in US.

Based on Dan's affiliation may open up some Americans to take a listen. This thread has shown many already are giving them a shot.

The 'Squire Boy's' may sneer [well they sneer at everything:)] Sire, Lakeland Skyline advocates have a point and Fender players are loyal, G&L has that headstock:)
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I owned a couple of Lakin jazz basses and they were outstanding and equal to the Skyline series, which are more expensive then these Ashdowns..
 
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#55
Generally its the lighter weight, alder body, oil finished neck, bone nut, vintage voiced pickup etc that give the edge to the Lakin/Ashdown for me. I should not have said quality because the Skylines are very nice in that category. They are on the heavy (and lean toward very heavy) side weight wise, I am not fond of most of the Lakland pickups or the ash body option.
 
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#56
Johnny Alien said:
Generally its the lighter weight, alder body, oil finished neck, bone nut, vintage voiced pickup etc that give the edge to the Lakin/Ashdown for me. I should not have said quality because the Skylines are very nice in that category. They are on the heavy (and lean toward very heavy) side weight wise, I am not fond of most of the Lakland pickups or the ash body option.
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My first DL Jazz had Lindy Fralins in it and it was light, the second Jazz was light also with the stock pickups they were actually nice sounding pups, my Lakland Skyline D Dunn has Geezer pups which I installed, I get it, the stock pups were to modern sounding for me I immediately installed the Geezers, it’s a killer bass but it is slightly heavier than the Lakins but still under 10 lbs. the necks are the same oil finish as the Ashdowns! I really can’t justify having another bass as I have 3 now 2 are Pbasses but that Ashdown Pbass in gold is killing me as is the black Jazz!!
 
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#57
Johnny Alien said:
Having owned all three brands I can tell you that the Ashdown is equal in quality to the Lakin and IMO much better than the Skyline series. It's much closer to a USA Lakland than the Skyline. Killer basses. Not sure how easy it will be to find in the USA for a little while though,
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What quality issues did you run into with the Lakland Skyline series? Could you give us some example? The reason I ask is the Lakland Skyline and Skyline Deluxe are made in Indonesia but all Electronics and Setup are done here in the same factory as the USA Laklands. They even use the same Pickups and preamp as the USA Lakland. I know the USA Lakland's have better choices of woods and finishes.
 
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#59
Drummerboy2 said:
What quality issues did you run into with the Lakland Skyline series? Could you give us some example? The reason I ask is the Lakland Skyline and Skyline Deluxe are made in Indonesia but all Electronics and Setup are done here in the same factory as the USA Laklands. They even use the same Pickups and preamp as the USA Lakland. I know the USA Lakland's have better choices of woods and finishes.
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I think I read that the only differences between the USA and Skylines is the US one has a quartesawn neck and higher quality hipshot tuners as opposed to the flatsawn neck and licensed by hipshot tuners on the Skylines...
 
#60
Drummerboy2 said:
What quality issues did you run into with the Lakland Skyline series? Could you give us some example? The reason I ask is the Lakland Skyline and Skyline Deluxe are made in Indonesia but all Electronics and Setup are done here in the same factory as the USA Laklands. They even use the same Pickups and preamp as the USA Lakland. I know the USA Lakland's have better choices of woods and finishes.
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I didn't have quality issues with any Skylines. I apologize for making statements that sounded like that. I will say I think the quality on the Lakin and Ashdowns are better though. They are much closer to the USA Laklands than the Skylines are. The Skylines are setup in the USA but are PLEK'd and do not have the hand finished frets like the USA line. PLEKs are nice but I will give it to the USA techs at Lakland every day of the week over a PLEK. As @Kukulkan61 pointed out the necks are flatsawn vs quartersawn and the USA have graphite in the necks and the Skylines don't (4 strings only the 5 string Skylines do have graphite). Beyond that Skylines are generally much heavier and don't have the same specs as the USA line as far as body wood. For the Jazz and P basses the imports use the modern Lakland pickups while the USA versions use the vintage voiced pickups.
 

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