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Okay, so who else is having serious problems with their Ashdown ABM?

#161
slowhand mike said:
daveone question (sorry if this seems really obvious and you have already checked it) but are your basses active? if so that distortion could just be a low battery, or have you checked your bass on another amp?
again appologies if you've done that just popped into my head.
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Good question but no. my main bass was a passive Fender HW1 Jazz, i have since used a lakland 55-01 that is active but with the same results.
like i said i used the amp for over 100 gigs and all of a sudden it sounded very different. even my guitarist noticed it (the first he has ever noticed me i think;-)
Ive tried different leads etc. im convinced its the output stage as i have used the speaker part of the combo from my ABM and MB heads and it sounded fine. i have also used the line out in to a poweramp and that seemed fine so i dont think the preamp stage is overloading.
It will do for some of my really small gigs as its got a certain vintage sound now but i really cant use it at even half on the master without it distorting.
 
#162
One thing that is worth considering (at some point) if you own an ABM is the preamp tube. The type and amount of use on the tube can affect the sound quite a bit. Having worked in the past for a major vacuum tube company, I can say that tubes are not all good. They mostly come from China and Eastern Europe and can vary quite a bit in quality. It used to be true that 12ax7 type tubes would last a long time, but that's not necessarily true anymore.. Also,if they get knocked around,they can become microphonic. The strength of the signal from the bass(active,passive,etc.) affects the way the tube reacts,too. And if the tube is getting worn out ,you'll probably get a softer(more distorted)sound. That said, the fans on ABM's seem to keep things pretty cool inside, so that adds to tube(and component) life.
 
#163
Zakk007 said:
Thats a good point actually, if Ashdown was that bad would the bass players from U2, Foo Fighters, System Of A Down, Megadeth, Pearl Jam, David Gilmour, Razorlight, All American Rejects, Lenny Kravitz, Mark King, Gnarls Barclay, Robbie Williams, Buckcherry etc etc continue to use them. At these guys level having the amp cut out would be a major problem and they wouldnt stand for it, after all they can use any amp they wish, and I know for a fact Ashdown do not give gear away to artists as I'm sure Jauquo will back me up on.
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Those guys will get better gear and service than you or I EVER will. ;)
 
#164
dhadleyray said:
Those guys will get better gear and service than you or I EVER will. ;)
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And they have backup amps in their rigs and techs on the road to maintain their gear and other people to carry and move it around.

And what about the millions who don't use Ashdown. Are we similarly to list their names and infer they all think it's junk, and where would that get us in light of all these failures and repair horror stories? Yet again logic takes a beating in a TB thread.

It does a great job of deflecting the issue though. ;)

IMO, anyone who thinks Adam Clayton., Mark King, or the late great John Entwistle shows up to photo shoots and allows their name and image to be used to sell gear without compensation is well ... I'd hate to call someone an "idiot" because people who do that come across looking even worse than hyperbiased apologist fanboys do, so I'll just say it's naive unless they somehow have proof of the great benevolence ascribed to these big-name endorsers.
 
#166
JAUQO III-X said:
I'm not being sarcastic SMASH but do you know first hand the relationship between Adam Clayton and Ashdown ?
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No. Are you changing the topic? ;)

Are you disagreeing that it's naive to belive, without proof, that these guys all show up to photoshoots in their spare time and allow their names and images to be used absolutely without any compensation whatsoever?

Bottom line, it makes zero difference what Adam Clayton does and it has nothing to do with the thread.
 
#167
I agree this thread is moving away from the OP's problem.
I wonder if Adam C. would even know if his amps were having problems. im sure he doest even set them up at gigs. his tech does it all i would think and if they arent working they will get another for him. it will all be working by the time he turns up at sound check IMHO
I have seen a few threads about problems with Ashdown and they do seem to be very similar (mainly the PSU). this i would say is either a bad design or poor build.
Either way its not looking good for Ashdown at the moment. wether they sound good or not is not under dispute. they are great sounding amps IMHO but i know of three people who have given up on Ashdown because of problems wth thier gear, me included.
Brad (posted above) is a good example. his amp breaks down, Ashdown offer to fix it and pick it up. great. but he probably has no MAG for his next gig. more hassle for him having to hire or borrow one.
Of course this could happen with any make but lets not get away from the point of this thread. Ashdown and reliability. just because other makes do it shouldnt distract from the fact that Ashdown has a few big names endorsing their product but users are having reliability problems. somethings not right and it seems to be getting worse.
All IMHO of course
 
#168
SMASH said:
No. Are you changing the topic? ;)
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No I'm not changing the topic at all,it seems to me more like you changed the topic,I just asked a question.

SMASH said:
Are you disagreeing that it's naive to belive, without proof, that these guys all show up to photoshoots in their spare time and allow their names and images to be used absolutely without any compensation whatsoever?
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Can you prove that these Ashdown artist do or do not do just what you say they do ?

SMASH said:
Bottom line, it makes zero difference what Adam Clayton does and it has nothing to do with the thread.
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Again you seem to know first hand by bringing it up and that in itself clearly could be enough of a subject in and of itself to become diverted from the original subject of this thread.


I notice that you use Ashdown products,have you had any problems with the Ashdown gear you own ?
 
#169
I believe someone is paying some of you good money just to throw mud at Ashdown! IMHO :\
I ve seen the same ammount of threats for broken SWRs, Ampegs, etc. etc. So some Ashdown amps for reason A or reason B broke down... SO WHAT? SVTs and other high tech crap broke down in my hands too, but I ve never wrote a 10-page threat on Talkbass and tell everybody not to buy an SVT for example.
And dont tell me "BUT..."

Btw I ve just ordered my new Ashdown rig a week ago and I feel VERY good about it! And when I asked the delair if we had some problems in our area/country with any Ashdown bass amp the status was 100% clear! So you figure it out.
If they put a cheap fuge or something else thats cheap on it, maybe thats why is the best sounding and among the cheapest amps out there anw.
So stop crying and go buy something else... leave us the fools to buy this brand.
 
#171
Take it easy there my friend. There have been legitimate problems with the amps, that's a fact. As far as I have seen the problems have been with amps in the US. Ashdown makes a great product but they really need to pay attention to the issues that have come about. I'm still considering going back to using Ashdown because they sound so good...I'm still concerned about the issues though. I know the guy who repairs these things in the area and I know that the parts used in these are not all top shelf. However, they still sound fantastic. I have no problems with them using lower quality parts as long as they work properly and consistently.
 
#172
dave_bass5 said:
Well, that must be true then if a dealer said it was:hmm:
If people are dealing with it byother means how would he know?
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Believe me, this island is so small that if a chicken fart from the other side of the island you can hear it all the way through the other side in seconds lol
Seriously now, if someone gave a serious ammount of money to buy new stuff and after a while its broke, believe me the dealer is the one thats gonna hear all the screaming! And happens to be a personal friend of mine, and a very trustfull dude.
Anw I know most of the bassists who play Ashdown over here and nobody sold there stuff and everyone are happy too. Hmm...
 
#173
Low D. said:
Believe me, this island is so small that if a chicken fart from the other side of the island you can hear it all the way through the other side in seconds lol
Seriously now, if someone gave a serious ammount of money to buy new stuff and after a while its broke, believe me the dealer is the one thats gonna hear all the screaming! And happens to be a personal friend of mine, and a very trustfull dude.
Anw I know most of the bassists who play Ashdown over here and nobody sold there stuff and everyone are happy too. Hmm...
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Fair enough but in that case your island has a very, very small % of Ashodwn gear. good chance there isnt any bad ones.
 
#174
KJung said it best. We've got a bunch of anecdotal experiences here, but they don't necessarily give us a solid indication of Ashdown's overall reliability.

Having spent $350 today to fix my ABM500, I've got as much motivation to jump on the "Ashdown Sucks" bandwagon as anyone else. But I agree that all amps can have problems, and just because it happened to me doesn't mean that Ashdown's reliability is any worse than anyone else's.

That being said, I spoke with the Ashdown authorized repair center about whether or not they see more problems with these amps than others. They are authorized by several major amp providers to perform repairs. Here's what he said:

  • Ashdown really sounds great. They've really got something there. He said that twice.
  • If you take them on the road, handle them with great care.
  • Don't plug in speakers or instruments when the power is on.
  • If you plug in speakers while the amp is on, they can go "boom." This might have been what happened to me, now that I think about it.
  • If you take care of them well and heed the warning, they're as reliable as any other amp.

Yet another tiny data point that doesn't give us the whole picture. Probably something more to go on than one off TB testimonials. Regardless, I'm definitely going to follow this advice! What's interesting is I've heard (andecdotally again) that the combos don't have nearly as many problems as the heads. Hmmm.

I'd love to hear any engineering insights on the warning given by the tech.

Here's the thread detailing my situation:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=280403&highlight=ashdown


Cheers!
 
#176
JAUQO III-X said:
No I'm not changing the topic at all,it seems to me more like you changed the topic,I just asked a question.

Can you prove that these Ashdown artist do or do not do just what you say they do ?
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I didn't say I could. I said it is naive to believe they do it for free or for lack of anything better to do with their time and good name. I guess we agree on that, in the absence of proof.

FYI - I didn't bring up who does or doesn't use them, and it doesn't relate at all to the thread so let's leave it at that?


I notice that you use Ashdown products,have you had any problems with the Ashdown gear you own ?
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Owned. Past tense.

I've had problems - minor, to do with the VU (just a gimmick so it didn't stop me from using the amp of course) and had inconsistent and IMO inadequate service in that regard. I was alternately told I'd be sent one, wasn't, then later told I could buy one 'cause VUs are fragile and so they break and that's life. As witnessed in these threads, many VUs break and some people get 'em free and others had to pay for replacements so my experience is not unique.

When I decided to sell, long before any of these problems came to light for what that's worth, I couldn't trade them back into the chain I bought them from because the amount of problems they'd had with them along with trouble getting service caused them to drop the line.

My main combo had moderate use in non-smoking rooms, so the VU shouldn't have failed and when it did they should have been happy to win goodwill via a free replacement - especially given it's such a common fault. The other combos (two were ABM) had little use, ergo no real chance to fail. Overall I liked the amps and the physical feel of the build very much. I've often used the feel of their knobs as an example of quality some much more "boutique" brands should aspire to equal.

At the time I moved away from the brand because I wanted lighter gear that could be racked. I've sinced moved to back heavier amps, but at the moment I can't imagine going back to this brand.
 
#177
Low D. said:
You cant blame Ashdown bout that! Half amps out there cannot run without speakers connected, everybody knows that! Its like putting 2 Ohm speakers to a minimum 4 Ohm load.
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Hmmm, I don't think that's true. Pretty much any "plug and play amp" is just fine with no load at all as far as I know. I think there were some tube amps in the past that needed a resistive load or they fried, but I think that's a thing of the past.

In my case, I had one 8 ohm speaker connected, and I plugged in another 8 ohm speaker. I have no idea if that's what caused my problem, but I certainly won't do it again.

By the way, your analogy is way, way off.
 
#178
Low D. said:
You cant blame Ashdown bout that! Half amps out there cannot run without speakers connected, everybody knows that! Its like putting 2 Ohm speakers to a minimum 4 Ohm load.
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Not true.
Im sure its only tube amps that have this problem. SS amps are fine with no speaker connected.
In fact i use my SA450 direct in to a desk when we record and when i rehearse at home.
and you can run a 2ohms spreaker in to a 4ohm min load, you just need to be very, very careful but it shouldnt just blow the amp as far as i have read. not untill you turn it up anyway (although i could be wrong about that)

I think what Captain wally meant was dont plug the spaker in while the amp is on which it totaly different
 
#179
Sorry if I m too "hard" but as I was sick for about 4-5 days now, I join the bass community to read and talk some bass stuff and feel Kinda better. Having already ordered my Ashdown stuff I got bored reading all these stuff about Ashdown and got pissed off in a way. I mean come on! feel sorry for the guys, every other day somebody its gonna post something wrong about this brand. Its not like is the worst brand ever. Why do we have to make 100000 threats about it? I m not going to change my mind anyway, but I saw many people say: "Jeee I was thinkin gettin one of these but now after I read all these I m going to get some other more reliable brand, thanx guys!". Now happy?

Btw everybody dont buy any Ampeg SVT3, after 3 days of use it burned. Why? because AMpeg is not reliable anymore. There. :/ There are like 3-4 friends of mine who had serious problems with SWRs, I m gonna gather em around and make a big anti-SWR theat too. Maybe we are gonna do that about Ampeg too, since we all hate the delair over here and he charges twice the normal price of each model.
 
#180
Low D. said:
Sorry if I m too "hard" but as I was sick for about 4-5 days now, I join the bass community to read and talk some bass stuff and feel Kinda better. Having already ordered my Ashdown stuff I got bored reading all these stuff about Ashdown and got pissed off in a way. I mean come on! feel sorry for the guys, every other day somebody its gonna post something wrong about this brand. Its not like is the worst brand ever. Why do we have to make 100000 threats about it? I m not going to change my mind anyway, but I saw many people say: "Jeee I was thinkin gettin one of these but now after I read all these I m going to get some other more reliable brand, thanx guys!". Now happy?

Btw everybody dont buy any Ampeg SVT3, after 3 days of use it burned. Why? because AMpeg is not reliable anymore. There. :/ There are like 3-4 friends of mine who had serious problems with SWRs, I m gonna gather em around and make a big anti-SWR theat too. Maybe we are gonna do that about Ampeg too, since we all hate the delair over here and he charges twice the normal price of each model.
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Ashdown is great.

They never have problems.

My ABM didn't break down at a gig.

I didn't just spend $350 to fix it.

Plug in speakers and instruments when the power is on. It won't hurt the amp.

Feel better? :eyebrow:
 

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