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New US made Tube amp from Ashdown!

#101
does it come with chiropractor recommendations? that thing is gonna weigh a TON. And of course, if it doesn't, it wouldn't be worth it. You'll need some ridiculous transformers for that much power.

personally I'd rather see a lower wattage version for studio/home work. Heck they can always mic it for larger gigs.
 
#103
tbonesullivan said:
does it come with chiropractor recommendations? that thing is gonna weigh a TON. And of course, if it doesn't, it wouldn't be worth it. You'll need some ridiculous transformers for that much power.

personally I'd rather see a lower wattage version for studio/home work. Heck they can always mic it for larger gigs.
Click to expand...

If it's anything like my Marshall VBA400, yeah it's as heavy as sin but I play in a band so I always have help and it has a handle on each end - making moving it pretty simple for two guys. Do you make your drummer carry his or her stand box on their own? I sure don't.

As for the statement that a 400 watt tube amp is overkill, yeah it can be - oh so easily - but the thing's got a volume control and okay yeah I know they sound awesome when they're cranked but they sound pretty darn fine at lower levels too. I bet this new Ashdown tube amp will kick serious boules de la mule! :bassist:
 
#104
Bassflute said:
they're NOT designed to be operated in a room that hot....or get as cold as the OP suggested his were, and then up to operating temps. Kills them dead.

Check YOUR facts before you get snide, smart-***...you can make a point without being arrogant and rude.
:scowl:

Cheers,
Cameron
Click to expand...

I think if you're trying to operate your tube amp in a 250 degree Celsius room the welfare of your tubes is the least of your worries. ;)
 
#105
Femto said:
As for the statement that a 400 watt tube amp is overkill, yeah it can be - oh so easily - but the thing's got a volume control and okay yeah I know they sound awesome when they're cranked but they sound pretty darn fine at lower levels too. I bet this new Ashdown tube amp will kick serious boules de la mule! :bassist:
Click to expand...
Oh definitely, but I'd personally like to get that tube saturated sound without blowing my house or ears up. much easier to do that with 100 watts of 6L6 tubes than 400 watts of 6550 tubes. The big wattage tube amps are almost like dinosaurs these days, as in any gig that might require that kind of power, the house PA will do most of the work. 100 watt guitar amps and the vaunted 300 watt 100lb Ampeg SVT were designed at a time when there really weren't good house PA systems.

It's sad but these days a 400 watt bass amp cranked during a gig most likely will result in a pissed off sound guy and irate venue owners.
 
#106
LAG said:
I know from experience, replacing power tubes randomly like myself and most people used to do, resulted in short tube life.

Exactly what bass tube amps did you use for those first fifteen years?
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Fender Bassman 50 (blackface) with a 2x12 cab
Ampeg B15S Portaflex with an Altec-Lansing
Ampeg V4B
Ampeg SVT - original no-fan model

I didn't make this stuff up - this was common sense when I was growing up. If heat weren't an issue for tubes, there would be no warm-up or stand-by switches on tube amps, and they wouldn't tell you to put it on stand-by for a few minutes before turning it off or on. Treat your tubes carefully, they will last a long time; if you don't you're asking for trouble. If they are ice cold, do not turn the amp on at all, not even on stand-by, until they are room temp, or at least close. After a long hard run, use the stand-by procedure, then shut it down, and do not move the amp until they have returned to room temperature, or close to it. Common sense. Slam them from a red-hot 4+ hour gig immediately into the trunk of an ice-cold car in the winter - recipe for disaster. And going the other way as well. Common sense. Or you can spend a whole lot of money on replacements, and just put up with really bad sound and no clean power at all from your tube amp. And set yourself up for complete thermal meltdowns, esp. with vintage Ampeg SVT's.

Or you can listen to a self-proclaimed Psycho who probably just likes nothing but distortion from weak, blown, mis-treated, worn-out power tubes.

I love tube amps, but just got fed up with their idiosyncracies. And yes, the Ashdown looks amazing - if my ancient back could only take it. That and a Berg 6x10 or the new 4x12 would likely be just stupifyingly good. Mark Gooday and those guys are just superb; had some dealings with them back in the mid-90's during my Trace days.

And I almost bought a Hexa-valve once....love that thing.

Cheers,
Cameron
 
#107
Bassflute said:
Or you can listen to a self-proclaimed Psycho who probably just likes nothing but distortion from weak, blown, mis-treated, worn-out power tubes.

Cheers,
Cameron
Click to expand...

Weren't you the one who said earlier you can make a point without being rude or arrogant about it? Maybe you should take your own advice. :rolleyes:

Psycho has helped a lot of us on these boards for a lotta years now and his opinion and advice to me has always been bang on.
When it comes to tube amps the guy knows his stuff.
 
#111
Willem said:
Yeah 400 watts is overkill. I have a hexavalve putting out 360 watts, with my 810 in a metalband I plug straight in the FX return and have the master @ 1.5 (out of ten). If I put it on 2 it's too loud. I wish I had a quatravalve.
Click to expand...

So I am assuming that this thing works well for large venues?

Is this an SVT killer?
 
#112
The new all-tube Ashdown looks like a winner to me, it has plenty of power and is made in the U.S. of A.

Nothing beats the tone of a good tube amp for bass, IME. They are not that hard to take care of and last along time, contrary to what a few folks continually lament here on these threads.

Go Ashdown!
 
#114
dmusic148 said:
It'd be cool to be able to shutdown part of the amp unless needed. Maybe half of it?
Click to expand...

I think you can actually take out half the power tubes, or 2/3s of the power tubes (in the case of an SVT) to change the total output power. I've heard of guitarist doing this with Marshall 100 watt amps, and never heard of any negative effects. Unfortunately, its still just as heavy!!
 
#116
Does anyone have any info on pricing, or for that matter when these things will actually be available?
I've tried most channels I have, including Ashdown themselves (no response) regarding price, availabilty and origin, and while I inadvertently picked up a bunch of other Ashdown info, the only info about the BTA 400 (beyond the Ashdown website) I could get was from a distributor that I've spent money with over the years;

"I just received word back from Ashdown. They are saying that those amps aren't going to be released until January or February and they do not have a firm price on them yet, but they said that they're probably going to be pretty expensive.
I'll let you know when I find out firm availablity, and whether or not they are actually US made or just US assembled or just imported."

Does anyone have anything more specific, preferably from Ashdown directly? Most seem to assume it's US made, but the literature is a little vague. They specify that the cabinets are built in Kentucky, but they seem almost too careful to not associate the terms "USA" or "US" directly with the BTA 400.
I hope it's US made, I have a lot of respect for Ashdown's high end gear, and I like to keep my $ at home, particularly with current economic conditions...
 
#118
Willem said:
Yeah 400 watts is overkill. I have a hexavalve putting out 360 watts, with my 810 in a metalband I plug straight in the FX return and have the master @ 1.5 (out of ten). If I put it on 2 it's too loud. I wish I had a quatravalve.
Click to expand...

not only is that one of the best sounding amps of all time, and among the loudest, I personally think it is THE best looking amp ever. I had the Trace 2x10 combo with that preamp in it for about 13 years - the LONGEST I have ever owned a bass amp.

I missed getting a Hexavalve by about half an hour once...it was an absolute steal as well....
:bawl:

Beautiful machine you've got there; keep it for life. The new Ashdown will be good, but that thing you've got is a legend.

What to know more about tubes? - start digging around in here:

http://www.amptone.com/

Ostensibly for guitar players, there's a lifetime of info there for everybody if you dig.

Cheers,
Cameron
 

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