OFFICIAL ASHDOWN CLUB

[Novarocker]

No. Several well regarded manufacturers also make products in China. Phil Jones Bass, Ampeg, and Trace Elliot come to mind.

Agreed, I don't think it's that at all. I think it lines up more with the same reason why Orange or Laney is not as big in the US and Mesa and even Fender aren't as big overseas as they are in the US. Strictly amp speaking. Some of it is marketing, some of it is cost vs comparable competitors, some of it is availability, and a lot in my opinion is just that the average kid/person going to shows and in music stores doesn't have a chance to try one.

Heck, in this thread a lone, how many people give one a try in a store and snag it up immediately? That goes to say their used value is excellent and the product itself is too. I think that it's a tad higher new, or towards the high end vs comparable products new. A lot of that is probably tied to how they likely have their product go to their shop in England to do final QC before sending out to distributors, thus just like Marshall, et al from UK, they are much more expensive overseas than at home.

Whew didn't want to get long winded, but I shoulda known I would.

I imagine some of the lower popularity could also be from some "issues" way back. One was a grounding issue that happened with ABM's I think a long time ago shortly after they moved production to China, no longer an issue. Also some "odd" models that were not popular and semi commercial failures, at least stateside. Then also a frequent comment on forums I saw way back was that they (MAG and ABM) were that they had baked in voicing and could only do vintage sounds. I never understood, as I always thought the ABM preamp were one of the most versatile I've ever experienced. Oh and that their early ventures into class D were fraught with similar issues as some of the Ampeg PF series were.

Oh and for cabs, probably that a lot of people's experience with em, were that they were big old school sounding cabs the size of Eden and SWR. Good sounding, but too big and heavy. Not anything like the newer RM economically sized designs, though.

Enough rambling, just wanted to give my thoughts on Ashdown stateside since I became aware of em almost 20 years ago.

 

[El Diablo Rojo]

As I was searching for a lightweight rig with the features I needed it came down to two Aguilar Tonehammer and Ashdown Rootmaster. I come from a long love affair with Ampegs SVT heads and cabs so that tone is kinda stuck in me. I looked at Markbass but it didn't really resonate with me. I tend to like to buy used and let someone else take the hit financially and Ashdown, while about the same price new, was significantly less on the used market. I don't know why that is, at least hear in Germany, it's harder to find used Ashdown than Aguilar.

 

[SteveLo42]

Hi all, first time poster, relatively new to bass but not new to the music game. Recently converted to bass from drums due to an ongoing injury.

I'm currently playing in a thrash band, as a bassist, and looking at heads. It's a minefield and the way my brain works means I have to consider literally everything. Ashdown struck me as a cool brand, particularly as a Brit. Was pleasantly surprised that their 500w RM EVO heads have 2x speaker outputs, which most at that wattage don't.
I get easily put off by a lot of the gimmicky additions to heads, but Ashdown does seen pretty decent, even if they lack a gain knob, which seems to have been replaced by drive.

Long story short, I need a decent head that can handle heavy music and a good amount of mid-lows. I don't have a cab and likely won't be getting into that any time soon as most venues have house cabs or bands higher up the bill supply backline. I'm leaning towards the Rootmaster EVO ii either 500 or 800 depending on what I can find on the used market. Any thoughts on whether this will handle my needs? I have a pedalboard with DG distortion and MXR compressor already. There is an 800 on Reverb used for 450GBP though it does have some huge dent in the front left corner.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Novarocker]

Hi all, first time poster, relatively new to bass but not new to the music game. Recently converted to bass from drums due to an ongoing injury.

I'm currently playing in a thrash band, as a bassist, and looking at heads. It's a minefield and the way my brain works means I have to consider literally everything. Ashdown struck me as a cool brand, particularly as a Brit. Was pleasantly surprised that their 500w RM EVO heads have 2x speaker outputs, which most at that wattage don't.
I get easily put off by a lot of the gimmicky additions to heads, but Ashdown does seen pretty decent, even if they lack a gain knob, which seems to have been replaced by drive.

Long story short, I need a decent head that can handle heavy music and a good amount of mid-lows. I don't have a cab and likely won't be getting into that any time soon as most venues have house cabs or bands higher up the bill supply backline. I'm leaning towards the Rootmaster EVO ii either 500 or 800 depending on what I can find on the used market. Any thoughts on whether this will handle my needs? I have a pedalboard with DG distortion and MXR compressor already. There is an 800 on Reverb used for 450GBP though it does have some huge dent in the front left corner.

Thanks
Steve

You mean the VU meter and all the extra bells for the gimmicky part?

I can only speak for the ABM series, but have heard solid things on here about the rootmaster heads. The preamps are really versatile in my experience across the Ashdown line up that's not intended to solely be a classic amp style (CTM).

The bit about lacking a gain, that's not true, just may be deceiving with nomenclature and how they design the amps.

The input control is the input gain adjustment. Gain in this sense, technically the correct usage, doesn't mean distortion so much as "power" or signal strength. The drive control introduces distortion/harmonics to the preamp. I don't know if it's a blend or just an amount of the distortion (ie a gain control on a distortion pedal). I'm assuming that's what you're taking about for a gain knob.

I would recommend going for the 800 over the 500, personally.

 

[javi_bassist]

Hi all, first time poster, relatively new to bass but not new to the music game. Recently converted to bass from drums due to an ongoing injury.

I'm currently playing in a thrash band, as a bassist, and looking at heads. It's a minefield and the way my brain works means I have to consider literally everything. Ashdown struck me as a cool brand, particularly as a Brit. Was pleasantly surprised that their 500w RM EVO heads have 2x speaker outputs, which most at that wattage don't.
I get easily put off by a lot of the gimmicky additions to heads, but Ashdown does seen pretty decent, even if they lack a gain knob, which seems to have been replaced by drive.

Long story short, I need a decent head that can handle heavy music and a good amount of mid-lows. I don't have a cab and likely won't be getting into that any time soon as most venues have house cabs or bands higher up the bill supply backline. I'm leaning towards the Rootmaster EVO ii either 500 or 800 depending on what I can find on the used market. Any thoughts on whether this will handle my needs? I have a pedalboard with DG distortion and MXR compressor already. There is an 800 on Reverb used for 450GBP though it does have some huge dent in the front left corner.

Thanks
Steve

You mean the VU meter and all the extra bells for the gimmicky part?

I can only speak for the ABM series, but have heard solid things on here about the rootmaster heads. The preamps are really versatile in my experience across the Ashdown line up that's not intended to solely be a classic amp style (CTM).

The bit about lacking a gain, that's not true, just may be deceiving with nomenclature and how they design the amps.

The input control is the input gain adjustment. Gain in this sense, technically the correct usage, doesn't mean distortion so much as "power" or signal strength. The drive control introduces distortion/harmonics to the preamp. I don't know if it's a blend or just an amount of the distortion (ie a gain control on a distortion pedal). I'm assuming that's what you're taking about for a gain knob.

I would recommend going for the 800 over the 500, personally.

Yes! The input knob is the gain knob. There was an older model (the mibass 2.0) that they mixed both knobs trying to emulate the gain knob of a valve amp. I didn't like that. I currently have the RM500 and it is one of the best amps I have ever used. Roadworthy and sounds really good. It made buy the Ashdown OriginAL preamp to use it in those cases I don't have an amp.

 

[SteveLo42]

Thanks for the replies, and good to know about the input knob! Upon thinking about it I'm not entirely sure what I meant by gimmicks, I guess I think of Darkglass as gimmicky, I really just want something simple with the things I need and none of the stuff I don't. I'm very particular, probably weirdly so. A lot of D class heads seem to have drive and compression built in so I will just accept it

The new RM EVO III heads actually look really decent and I might go for one of them. Have emailed asking for the release date as can't see it anywhere, will see if they reply.

I was considering Darkglass and the new Ampeg Venture heads but been very put off by various issues I've read on here. Nothing bothers me more than a product that doesn't work reliably or as expected. I've seen great things regarding Ashdown's customer service/repairs.

 

[Nuage420]

Thanks for the replies, and good to know about the input knob! Upon thinking about it I'm not entirely sure what I meant by gimmicks, I guess I think of Darkglass as gimmicky, I really just want something simple with the things I need and none of the stuff I don't. I'm very particular, probably weirdly so. A lot of D class heads seem to have drive and compression built in so I will just accept it

The new RM EVO III heads actually look really decent and I might go for one of them. Have emailed asking for the release date as can't see it anywhere, will see if they reply.

I was considering Darkglass and the new Ampeg Venture heads but been very put off by various issues I've read on here. Nothing bothers me more than a product that doesn't work reliably or as expected. I've seen great things regarding Ashdown's customer service/repairs.

I have had multiple DG and Ashdown over the past few years. Ashdown is where I stay. I had the RM 300 and various ABMs. If I had to pick I'm picking the ABM but will say the RM is a very heavy hitter and the RM300 hit harder than the DG 500s I had. If you want cab sims solutions then DG is the answer but outside of that I like the tube pre for always on grit.

I am considering the new RM 500 if I find a good deal but I have my sights on the ABM300

 

[SteveLo42]

This is good to hear, thank you.
The new Ashdown range coming out soon have cab sims as well, so even more a contender. Though not something I'm likely to use.

 

[pisces_bass]

Yeah I wonder about the cabsims on the new RM amps. Is that primarily for silent practice? Recording? Or would people want them for sending a DI from the amp to a mixer on gigs?

 

[Nuage420]

This is good to hear, thank you.
The new Ashdown range coming out soon have cab sims as well, so even more a contender. Though not something I'm likely to use.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that

 

[Novarocker]

Thanks for the replies, and good to know about the input knob! Upon thinking about it I'm not entirely sure what I meant by gimmicks, I guess I think of Darkglass as gimmicky, I really just want something simple with the things I need and none of the stuff I don't. I'm very particular, probably weirdly so. A lot of D class heads seem to have drive and compression built in so I will just accept it

The new RM EVO III heads actually look really decent and I might go for one of them. Have emailed asking for the release date as can't see it anywhere, will see if they reply.

I was considering Darkglass and the new Ampeg Venture heads but been very put off by various issues I've read on here. Nothing bothers me more than a product that doesn't work reliably or as expected. I've seen great things regarding Ashdown's customer service/repairs.

Yeah, in my experience they've been solid. Don't know anything about turnaround time on repairs, but every time I've reached out to them they've tagged back, sometimes with multiple people adding responses onto the first.

I know what ya mean about loads of features. The ashdowns do have em thats for sure. Thankfully the head can be super simple if you think about it that way. Basically if you leave the sliders/graphic EQ points at noon (especially on the ABM's with the 4-6 band sliders) and just mess with the input (gain), output, low, mid, and high knobs the amp emds up being real simple. I give people that walkthrough when they use mine and it seems to work. I tell em to not even worry about the rest of it.

The rest just allow you to really further sculpt the tone, add drive (I always do), compression (I almost never do), sub (sometimes), and route your signal in different ways. I look at it as having everything I could need for any gig, in otherwords, last amp I'd ever need.

Yeah I wonder about the cabsims on the new RM amps. Is that primarily for silent practice? Recording? Or would people want them for sending a DI from the amp to a mixer on gigs?

All of the above in my book. Practice with a pedalboard to headphones without a cab sim can be very disorienting, recording creates more convenience of course, then for gigs I personally prefer a mic'd cab sound so having the sim is a huge plus in keeping the sound guy happy and getting a better tone to the PA.

 

[Auer]

Thanks for the replies, and good to know about the input knob! Upon thinking about it I'm not entirely sure what I meant by gimmicks, I guess I think of Darkglass as gimmicky, I really just want something simple with the things I need and none of the stuff I don't. I'm very particular, probably weirdly so. A lot of D class heads seem to have drive and compression built in so I will just accept it

The new RM EVO III heads actually look really decent and I might go for one of them. Have emailed asking for the release date as can't see it anywhere, will see if they reply.

I was considering Darkglass and the new Ampeg Venture heads but been very put off by various issues I've read on here. Nothing bothers me more than a product that doesn't work reliably or as expected. I've seen great things regarding Ashdown's customer service/repairs.

FWIW, of the amps you mentioned Darkglass is the only one not made in China (yet)

 

[ItsmeSantiago]

I'm looking to venture into the world of tube amps and the CTM-15 is calling my name. I don't have a cabinet at the moment, so I'd be getting one as well. I'd imagine it pairs well with the CTM-112, which looks awesome and is priced well, but what cabs are people of this club using with the head?

I have experience with Mesa, Aguilar and GK, but I'd like to know what others are using and what they like about that cab pairing. Thanks!

 

[ViperTim]

Ashdown makes me a happy camper.
I’m still a newbie at bass but it sounds good, it looks fantastic and it was only $10
Zero complaints. I was in touch with Ashdown support and received excellent support from Dave. I posted a question on a Facebook fan-page and received answer from no one less than Mark Gooday himself.
Down to earth brand is the least thing you can say about them.

Either way, here’s my wonderful Ashdown amp powering an EBS 4x10 4ohm.

 

[SteveLo42]

In case anyone is interested, Ashdown emailed me back saying they are in the process of arranging a shipment from China and are expecting it to arrive mid-March, though unable to give an exact date. Bear in mind I only asked about the RM EVO III 500 and 800 heads, so may not be relevant for other products.

 

[mauerkraut_]

Selling an Ashdown ABM 600 EVO IV Dual VU Rack Bass Head for anyone interested!

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/as...600-watt-bass-amp-head.1641080/#post-28220848

 

[5StringPocket]

Selling an Ashdown ABM 600 EVO IV Dual VU Rack Bass Head for anyone interested!

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/as...600-watt-bass-amp-head.1641080/#post-28220848

I’m surprised it hasn’t sold yet. That’s a lot of amp for the money.

 

[MadJack]

I took my Studio 8 to my fellow worship team member's pro Recording/Multi-Media studio today.

It has been modified with an Eminence ALPH-8A, lined the cab and cut the power cable storage tube to a 2" X 5-3/8" port tube. We had a couple other practice/small amps that sounded good clean. We tried the Studio 8 and he liked the warm middy tone. He asked what it sounded like cranked. I turned it to nearly full and he hit the first note and the look that came across his face was one of amazement. He ended up playing that amp more than all the other amps combined.

I would have been hesitant to crank the stock speaker that hard, as it did distort anywhere near that level and wouldn't have had that amount of low end.

I do believe I converted another Ashdown lover with my lil' modified practice amp.

 

[foal30]

Nice work Mad Jack

 

[SteveLo42]

So in my quest for a new amp I ended up taking a DG Microtubes 500 v2 on ebay for £450. I figured I may regret not going for it, but now I've bought it I think I may also regret doing so
Gonna keep an eye on the new Rootmaster heads coming out and will still bear them in mind. Will be good to hear/see feedback on them once they're officially released.