Merry Christmas to me, from me LOL.
I've ended up in a slightly more senior position at one of the music schools I teach for, which means I now get to teach in the larger, dedicated guitar classroom, previously occupied by another guy. He's moving to the US in January, so the room has become mine. However, it used to be populated with his amplifiers, which are now gone, so I've got to bring in my own. I'm mostly teaching guitar, so my old guitar amp is more than fine, if pretty cheap and basic (a Kustom Arrow 18, with a good sounding Celestion speaker). But I needed a wee bass amp in there, too. Didn't want to spend more than $200 if I could help it, and the used market wasn't really coming up with anything. Surprisingly, Long & McQuade ended up having just the ticket for me
Ashdown Studio Junior for just over $150 CAD, including tax and shipping! Honestly, I wasn't really expecting much in the way of tone, since it's a tiny 8" speaker, and this whole amp has gotta be smaller than one of those old Fender/Squier Frontman amps that came in starter kits. I just wanted something cheap that will make my bass sound sort of like a bass while I'm teaching. Anyways, plugged it in this morning, and was very pleasantly surprised; this thing is pretty loud, and has some actual booty to it! I don't know that it necessarily has any specific "Ashdown" character (I tend to think of thick, round, and warm when I think of Ashdown stuff), but at 15w in this small enclosure, it sure seems to punch above its weight class.
I doubt if this could handle drummer-level volume, but for teaching in a small lesson room, this is going to be great. Plus it has a Line In jack, so I can play songs off my tablet through it, which will also be a nice upgrade on the current system (ie: the tablet's rather lacklustre in-built speaker).
Plus it takes some pretty crazy pedals rather well, too. The sub octave actually sounded like its supposed to, and hitting it with a couple gain stages was surprisingly pleasant. And it makes my wee li'l Markbass 210 cab look like a full-on fridge in comparison! Lol
I've ended up in a slightly more senior position at one of the music schools I teach for, which means I now get to teach in the larger, dedicated guitar classroom, previously occupied by another guy. He's moving to the US in January, so the room has become mine. However, it used to be populated with his amplifiers, which are now gone, so I've got to bring in my own. I'm mostly teaching guitar, so my old guitar amp is more than fine, if pretty cheap and basic (a Kustom Arrow 18, with a good sounding Celestion speaker). But I needed a wee bass amp in there, too. Didn't want to spend more than $200 if I could help it, and the used market wasn't really coming up with anything. Surprisingly, Long & McQuade ended up having just the ticket for me
Ashdown Studio Junior for just over $150 CAD, including tax and shipping! Honestly, I wasn't really expecting much in the way of tone, since it's a tiny 8" speaker, and this whole amp has gotta be smaller than one of those old Fender/Squier Frontman amps that came in starter kits. I just wanted something cheap that will make my bass sound sort of like a bass while I'm teaching. Anyways, plugged it in this morning, and was very pleasantly surprised; this thing is pretty loud, and has some actual booty to it! I don't know that it necessarily has any specific "Ashdown" character (I tend to think of thick, round, and warm when I think of Ashdown stuff), but at 15w in this small enclosure, it sure seems to punch above its weight class.
I doubt if this could handle drummer-level volume, but for teaching in a small lesson room, this is going to be great. Plus it has a Line In jack, so I can play songs off my tablet through it, which will also be a nice upgrade on the current system (ie: the tablet's rather lacklustre in-built speaker).
Plus it takes some pretty crazy pedals rather well, too. The sub octave actually sounded like its supposed to, and hitting it with a couple gain stages was surprisingly pleasant. And it makes my wee li'l Markbass 210 cab look like a full-on fridge in comparison! Lol
