tippbass

I would definately recommend keeping the old Trace heads ..... I too have made this journey , I was using Trace for around 20 yrs , AH200 series 6 (one of the best heads ever !!) AH 400 SMX ( probably the best head Trace made) & a newer AH500-12 , Sadly all of which I sold when I decided it was time for a change and bought a Markbass little mark 2 & 104Hf cab . I didn't really like the tone from the little mark I found it very 'sterile ' ??? If that's a word you can use to describe an amp , luckily enough I still had the AH400smx so went back to that until I took a notion to buy a small combo ! ....... All of which I wasn't happy with until now that is , I now use an Ashdown Labs MK500 head which I think is the best head I've ever owned , really simple ,easy to use , uncluttered front panel and with the right cab .... Loud ! I currently use the MK500 with the markbass 104hf cab which is ok but probably not the best cab for the head , I have a hankering to try the Barefaced cabs myself , they seem to tick all the boxes ! But do hang on to one of your Trace heads if you can until your happy :-) For what it's worth I would give the MK500 the nod over the Trace heads ;-) Cheers Al

I went on the Saturday , it was my first time attending the show , I had planned to make the trip last year but due to gigs I couldn't make it . So couple weeks ago I booked a flight with Ryanair & put date in the diary . I left my house in Ireland at 4am to catch a flight to Stanstead , between car, plane , train & tube I arrived at the show at 10-30 . First thing I did was check master class times , had a quick wander around a few stands then took up a third row seat for Wojek Plichosky master class , this guy is an absolute animal of a bass player ! Some serious hard slapping going on and a bit of funny banter via his interpreter . After this I needed coffee so sat down in the rest area and enjoyed really good cup a coffee , while on this subject I would like to say that all the refreshments on offer were excellent & not a rip off either , none of your crapy horse burger and dodgy fries ! But we're not here to talk about food & drink . I had a really good chat with Rob Green on the status stand regarding a bass I have on order and good look at the stunning basses he had on display . As mentioned by others the noise level did build and build until someone sounded a klaxon which was meant to calm the noise down .... It did a little & for a while ! I have to agree with a couple of other posters that Yolanda Charles display on the Elixr stand was kind of spoilt by the volume from a live drum kit , so her bass and vocals just got lost ( the drummer was top class tho !! ) but an electric kit would have been a better job . Off to my next master lass , Andy Irvine , I didn't know anything about him really and initially just went in so I could sit don as I'd been up since 4 am and the last caffeine shot was wearing off ! Andy's master class was brilliant , really informative , good little technical tips on a couple of simple things and most importantly he emphasised that we are all different as individuals and its important to be yourself when playing bass , " your style , your tone be yourself " .... A really good master class ! Another walk of the floor after this to make sure I hadn't missed anything before heading in to the master class I was really looking forward to Guy Pratt .... Guys master class was as I expected it to be full of tasteful bits of playing , great and funny stories about tours and sessions he's done , and he's done a few , after his master class I met him on the Bass Centre stand and bought a copy of his book which he signed and I stole a picture :-) ... Funny thing is I've been a fan of his playing for sometime now and always said if I met him I'd ask him this & that .... Then I met him and forgot the lot :-D After this I headed away from what had been a very enjoyable day and something I WILL do again , yes it's noisy and almost everyone trying an amp seems to be slapping but kinda just went over my head after a while , but its what I was expecting . After the Trains Tubes Planes and the car I arrived back at home at 1am ...... 21 hours after I'd left !! But a great day was had & if you didn't go this year , take a trip next year , we must support shows like this because if we don't they'll be gone and when there gone they'll be hard to get back ! Great Day , Great Show will definitely be back ...... Could have just said that and saved all the typing :-D Cheers

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1361375785' post='1984962'] Aren't they the hideously ungig friendly covered cabs that would stain dead easy and rip if you breathed on them? Looked ace brand new but they are defo for the flightcase users amongst us. [/quote] Looking at it like that your probably dead right ! ...... A suede / nubuck kinda finish on a cab going into a pubs with floors covered in stale beer and the like .... Then into the back of a van !!! Definitely a job for a flight case ! I'd say seeing as they were around in 2005 and a ltd edition , good tidy one's would be fairly scarce ....... So in summary impractical !! ..... They still look cool tho :-)

Any idea how long or how many units were made of these ? Hard to find any info on them and most of the images of them ou find are of the single 15 ...... Cool looking cabs , did they sound much different to regular ABM's ?

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1361312938' post='1984549'] So true. I'll ask them to bring it back, and so could others do. Who knows - they might oblige. best, bert [/quote] mmm...... I'm going to head over to the bass show next week myself , I think I may just have to ask the same question at the Ashdown stand !!! Cheers for the replys chaps ;-)

Hi ..... Anyone know what model these Ashdown cabs are ? .... are they just the Labs cabinets with a different covering or a specially made job for Mr King ? Cheers http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.doctorbass.net/imagftp/imagAux1_MKING.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.doctorbass.net/es/producto.asp%3Fid%3D1000171167%26idfam%3D1000166908&usg=__KlhA0jHGTovkTFU4J2TNaKqIy1g=&h=500&w=370&sz=23&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&tbnid=ypuZ7EcTsi2nSM:&tbnh=180&tbnw=133&ei=BeIjUe6yOIjJhAfLyIGQAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dashdown%2Blabs%2Bcabs%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26tbo%3Dd%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D612%26tbs%3Dsimg:CAQSYgnKm5nsRxOyLRpOCxCwjKcIGjwKOggBEhTWBdwFuQPrBeoF2wXpBbYDvAO4Axog5H9HNmpTSnW4Cxxx7NqGY2ZVkxqyCSJq6DnOn27l6soMCxCOrv4IGgAMIUmpD5Ta8yZt%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:58&iact=rc&dur=721&sig=116091058723463380053&page=1&tx=63&ty=35

I've just purchased a Ashdown MK500 head from dan and I can't recommend him highly enough ! A super smooth easy transaction and the amp was packaged excellently for it's trip over to Ireland and it was exactly as described (it was mint !) I contacted Dan on the Monday via the forum , had a good chat about the amp on the phone on Tuesday , I paid via PayPal on the Wednesday and the Amp arrived on Friday ...... All ready for Saturdays gig which unfortunately was canceled , but can't wait to gig it next week . All in all I'm very pleased with my purchase , thanks very much Dan and maybe we'll do business again . Best regards Alan (tippbass)