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Why no love for Ashdown?

#45
I've got the LB30 "Little Bastard".

Love it. Great small all tube bass amp. I have not had a chance to play any of their other amps so I cannot comment on them, but if they are any thing like the LB then I am sure I would enjoy them.

I am the third owner of my LB30 and I have not had any issues with it in the 11 months that I have owned it. I play it regularly at home and had it out on a few rehearsals. Sounds fabulous.
 
#46
I'm currently using an Ashdown RM420 head. I don't think much of Ashdown's cabs but their heads are great. The preamp like to be run very hot or it can sound quite dark. But give the input gain a boost and it opens up the top end nicely. Ashdown amps are designed by the legendary Mark Gooday who designed all the Trace Elliot gear back in the 80's and 90's. Likewise, I never though much of Trace Elliot cabs either. But their heads were legendary. I used a 400w TE Sm head for more years than I care to mention! Great amps, loud, powerful, featured, great connectivity and very robust. These amps are built to last.
 
#49
I had a MAG300 that I liked, but something shinier caught my eye, & I traded it away. I had an early Superfly 250 that I used where we practiced, after that band broke up, it didn't get used & I recently traded it away. I still have an ABM 500 EVO ll. About 5 years ago, I fried the power end (I had a faulty speakon cable that was most of the cause, maybe 10% was caused by me being a dumbass)--my regular amp tech disassembled it & then gave it back to in pieces saying he was going into a new line of work. I took it to another shop where it sat for over a year while they tried to get a new board from England. They finally got it in & back to me. It works great now...and sounds great too. I've always liked Trace Elliot stuff (pre-Gibson), & think if you like Trace Elliot amps you will tend to like Ashdown. My biggest issue with Ashdown is that some of the electronic parts seem to be proprietory & thus hard to get & it's hard to find someone to service them.
 
#50
Also, just thinking of a couple of the big names in rock that played them a decade ago - Adam Clayton from U2, Rick Savage from Def Leppard (I know, not necessarily the most contemporary bands...), seems like they switched to Aguilar not too many years later. I got the sense that their marketing dried up pretty quickly, at least here in the states.
 
#52
I own an Ashdown CTM-30 (formerly the little bastard). I have a matching 1x12 cab with it both Chinese made. It is my practice amp and I don't gig with it. It has a passive tone stack in it and at first I never liked the tone - it had too much bottom. Then it dawned on me one day. Bass and treble off, mids all the way up and this thing comes to life. Really dig it set this way. Have had no issues and it's very light. For the money to me it's well worth it but it would not do big rooms without PA help. It's 30w tube, it does what it does
 
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#53
I run an ashdown spyder 550 with a 410h handbuilt uk. I absolutely love it! but I agree with some of the other comments, they're not huge in north america so its hard to get a try out with one.

I've never had an issue with its reliability but the cab is also heavy as rock.
the tone on the 550 is kind of its own thing but paired together its perfect for me!
 
#55
jnewmark said:
I had an Ashdown combo once, a 15 with a tweeter. Can't remember what model it was, if I remember right, it had the blue speaker in it. I used it mainly for rehearsals, and it worked fine for about a year, then it started to cut out intermittently, along with farting out at loud volumes. It had a nice tone, if you kept it lower. I sold it a short time later to a guy who was gonna work on it. The newer heads look interesting, but, other than me, I don't know anyone locally who used, or presently uses Ashdown.
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I bet you're talking about the MAG115 combo. I had this too, and thought the sound was alright, but it was underpowered for a 115 combo (only ~180 watts without an extension cab and in a tiny little cab that looked more like it was meant for a 12" speaker) and so I never fully got to judge it in a band mix. It was also super heavy for what it was and a pain to lug around. I sold it off pretty quickly and haven't tried another Ashdown since.
 
#56
I A/B'd them a while back against other similar cabs in a music store. They came up sounding lacking luster and the right "coloration" that make a bass cab sound like a bass cab. Just wasn't impressed. Also had to crank the head louder to get the same volume.
 
#58
alaskaleftybass said:
I A/B'd them a while back against other similar cabs in a music store. They came up sounding lacking luster and the right "coloration" that make a bass cab sound like a bass cab. Just wasn't impressed. Also had to crank the head louder to get the same volume.
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Was it in a music store in Alaska, Canada or the Pacific Northwest? I've never seen one in the Washington DC area and I thought we had a pretty great selection of music stores including Jive Sound for higher end bass gear.
 
#60
I had a Superfly for a short time. I bought it second-hand, and it started cutting out nearly immediately. Specifically, you turn it on and it worked great and had nice tones... or else it simply would not turn on. I changed power cables, change electrical outlets, etc., but there was no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it worked (and you had better not turn it off until the gig is over) or else it simply would not turn on. This happened so frequently that there was a huge thread here explaining how to open it up and make the modification to get it up and running. Rather than do that, I gave it away (yes, GAVE it away - free) to a friend. He still has it but he also complains that sometimes it will not turn on.

So... that is my one and only experience with Ashdown. Not a good experience. I will never purchase another Ashdown.
 

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