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RandomBass

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Posts posted by RandomBass

    Ashdown ABM series amps

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    I also remember finding something like a fansite which had long lists of the various Ashdown models, with pictures, dates etc.
    Cannot for the life of me remember its name though, sorry.
    A bit of Googling should do the trick lol

    NBD (Naughty Boy Day....)

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    Cheers for that. I'm curious about how it performs tonight. We are a 5 piece (sensible drummer, guitarist, keyboard, singer and me) covers band - not crazy loud at all so hopefully in a smaller setting such as tonight I shouldn't be struggling with just 30W watts into a Compact. That sounds hilarious really, I'm so used to having the excess of 500W at my disposal (not that I've ever used it all)! I shall find out in about 3 hours or so lol.

    Cheers

    Geoff

    NBD (Naughty Boy Day....)

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    The problem with working in Eastbourne is a shop called Bonners. I should either be chained to my desk at lunchtime, or tagged.

    I've been eyeing up an Ashdown LB30 they have had in there for a while. After much mulling I had a go with it yesterday, and another little tinkle today. Needless to say I ended up walking out with it after they worked out quite a good deal for me.
    I'd toyed with the idea of part exchanging either my ABM or my OTB towards it but the figures weren't really good enough - I know I can get more privately.

    Anyway, after an early escape from work this afternoon (you just gotta love flexitime), I've been playing it through my BF Compact. I'm pleased. Very pleased. What a delicious tone. Tonight it gets gigged at a local pub - and I'm sure it will certainly deliver. Well, it had better do lol. I shall report back tomorrow. Or very late tonight if I'm too excited to sleep lol.

    Cheers

    Geoff (poorer but happy)

    Let Me Entertain You

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    We do this one. I generally stick to the root on the verse, possibly with a quick 5th now and again (depends on my mood lol), and came up with a more complex root, octave then pentatonic progression back to the root for the chorus. I'm sure it's nothing like the original but it seems to work and gives a nice groove to the song.

    Cheers

    Geoff

    Orange Bass Terror

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    [quote name='incubass' timestamp='1340576556' post='1706619']


    I'm sending it back to MusicStore this week, and probably will get another one... It's really frustrating :(
    [/quote]
    fingers crossed for you!

    Quiet EVO ABM300

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    Use the VU meter just like you would an amp with a single peak LED. Once the needle gets into the red zone, that's when a traditional peak LED will be lighting up. Peaking now and again is fine. And the beauty of the ABM is that even when it does head into the red heavily, the overload is handled very nicely and doesn't go into horrible transistory distortion - especially if you are using the valve side of the input stage. Its a nice place to be.

    I've seen several comments on here and TB about insufficient volume from Ashdown amps (MAG and ABM). Invariably the answer is getting that input meter needle moving to give the strongest signal feeding the power amp stage. In my experience these amps are quite heavily over engineered and will take a lot of abuse, so never worry about driving them hard or properly.

    Cheers

    Geoff

    Quiet EVO ABM300

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted · Edited by RandomBass

    As for balancing the output across the strings using the VU meter, the percieved loudness across the frequency spectrum requires much less energy (and hence output voltage) as you move up the frequency range. Lower frequencies like our beloved bass ones require much more energy to be heard at the same level. This means more voltage, and the VU meter needle responds to the varying voltage. So the low frequencies will always cause more needle swing than higher ones. If you had the same amount of needle swing across all 4 strings, the D and G would actually sound much louder than the E and A, which would be very unbalanced.

    Alex 'Barefaced' Claber* covered this in one of his excellent BGM columns a while back, showing the amount of power required to reproduce various frequencies at a specific loudness - the variation is huge, and explains why we need lots of watts to compete with guitarists and their low output amps.

    Im convinced we are moving forward with your original 'quiet' issue.

    Cheers

    Geoff

    * Alex, if you are following this - apologies, but I just couldn't resist :)

    Quiet EVO ABM300

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    Just concentrating on the original 'quiet' issue, with the needle moving up near, or into, the red zone - are you getting a lot more volume output through your cab? If you are, then it sounds like we are on the right track here.

    In my experience, Ashdown build a lot of headroom into their preamp stages (except the MiBass which needs some redesign in my view), meaning it takes a lot to get into the red. You will find that boosting EQ will help with the input a lot, notably the Bass knob and the first 2 sliders. If you don't want to do this, and stay flat, then by all means use as much of the gain as you need. Yes, it does feel a little odd that having to use 95% of the input to get a strong output - but that's their design.

    And yes, the E and A strings will push the needle much more than the D and G. There's more energy there and its just physics, or something mystical like that.

    So, are you now getting a decent output with the needle moving much more?

    Geoff

    Quiet EVO ABM300

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    Thanks for this. One thing - it says 300w into 8 ohms and 600w into 4 ohms on the back? Does it possibly say 300W RMS, 600W Peak? I'm not doubting you, but based on my experience of owning several Ashdown amps this is what they normally have printed near the speaker outputs.

    If it is 300W RMS and 600W peak, then into an 8 Ohm cab you are probably getting just less than 200W max. These things don't actually halve their output into 8 Ohms, but that's a design thing. I consider it to be a flaw: if it's designed properly, it should double the output power as the load impedance halves, but limits on current supply and the associated PSU design affect this. Sorry, that's off topic and no help whatsoever.

    My ABM500 says 500W RMS, 1000W Peak on the back. Even though Ashdown state it has a 575W output stage - they've always been a bit random with their specs in my view. My MAG600 said 600W RMS, 1200W peak, even though it had the same 575W output stage.

    Have I confused things? Probably. Sorry. Just curious about the power ratings you mentioned.

    Cheers

    Geoff

    Orange Bass Terror

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    [quote name='incubass' timestamp='1340295623' post='1702499']
    People, I need some serious help :( I came home so I could finally play my OBT for more than 10 minutes straight, and after 30 seconds it just died. The light was gone and the amp shut himself down... When I try to put it on, I hear really tiny and periodic snaps, as if it's trying to come alive.

    Has this happened to you before? Grrr, I don't believe this happened in less than 24hours, the amp hasn't been touched since yesterday...
    [/quote]

    How is this panning out - still problems?

    Cheers

    Geoff

    Quiet EVO ABM300

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    Silly me, its an earlier EVO, and doesnt have a Active pad switch. Try both inputs - use whichever gives the most level. It should be the High input (Ashdown mean this as High gain, not high level output from bass, which always seems a bit arse about face to me)

    Cheers


    Geoff

    Quiet EVO ABM300

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    That needle needs to be heading up towards the red, even entering into the red briefly on loudest notes. Check you have the Passive/Active button set correctly: out for passive, pushed in for active. Boosting EQ (my faves are the 180 and 340Hz sliders, with a tad Bass knob boost too) will push the needle even more. Unless you are getting a healthy signal on the VU, you wont be pushing the power amp with a strong enough signal to get the most out of it.

    My ABM500 is extremely loud, with an incredible amout of grunt there. It handles any gig I do with a single 15" cab (a Compact). I had a MAG600 before (which I miss, mainly because of it's EQ frequencies) and that was equally as loud. They have the same 575W output stage, only the preamp and facilities are different.

    Let us know what knob & slider settings you are using....

    Cheers

    Geoff

    Orange Bass Terror

    in Amps and Cabs

    Posted

    [quote name='grunge666' timestamp='1340416740' post='1704329']
    They both laughed when I took it out the box - Orange Bass Toaster 500! LMFAO!
    [/quote]
    yeah i got similar comments from my drummer at the time lol

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