Sir Spence

Pleasure to do business with Jon - he bought by Berg cab and it couldn’t have been smoother

All of my knowledge (such that it is) in this area comes from the guitar world, where Alnicos are still King for open backed cabs and (generalising a bit) Ceramics work best in closed back situations The first generation Neo magnet speakers were harsh / brittle - the Celestion Century Vintage had the same cone / driver as the V30 but sounded nothing like it That said, Celestion in particular is getting pretty darn close with the latest generation Neo Creambacks, which sound somewhere in between the G12H & M magnet ceramic equivalents There's still some way to go to replicate the Alnicos - I guess it's further away in terms of 'magnetic density' (..flux?) The magnet is probably less important in bass driver application, as the higher driver excursion demands are meaning that the cone / driver capabilities become more dominant?

Nope - ceramic - weighs about 25kgs

Just wanted to report my findings The Ashdown cab has definitely got a lot more bottom end and lower mids than the SL112 I actually think they both sound great and if I was a gigging player and weight was a constraint, I'd per perfectly happy with the SL112 For my specific needs, I think the Ashdown wins by a nose

Thanks @Lozz196 - I ‘think’ I’m after strong midrange, so it should be on the money

I’m trying to decide if to swap out my Aguilar SL112 for an Ashdown 115 ..eh? I’m still feeling my way into bass gear - I started out with a TH300 and the SL112 and always found it a bit bright biased and as a long in the tooth guitarist, I missed the lack of valve dynamics Ive just got an Ashdown CTM100, which I’m really liking and I’ve found that I much prefer the tone of the SL112 with the tweeter totally off I’m sadly not able to gig nowadays (bad back) so lightweight isn’t an issue to me - once the rig is setup, it’s staying put and I’m playing at around 100dB (loud home volumes) So all that considered, I’m thinking a nice 115 with a bigger swept volume and no / disabled tweeter might make sense and I’ll move on the TH300 SL112 set to someone who’s gigging regularly? ..but what do know ..whaddya think?

Indeed - I’m thinking of the CTM! ..unlikely to be a preamp valve blowing the fuse

@RnRDave - do you have a spare set of power valves? ..one of those puppies going south is a likely cause for that fuse going and if that’s the case, you may blow fuse no 2 when you power it back up @Ashdown Engineering will be much better places than I to recommend which one and whether you can run the amp without valves (and add them back in until you find the culprit or not?) I’m collecting my new CTM 100 tomorrow as it goes - better follow my own advice and get some more JJ KT88s in !!

It might be worth a few simple checks before you pack off the Ashdown? Are you sure it’s not as simple a fix as the HT fuse? ..that blowing would instantly cut the power, whereas a semiconductor would more likely give a gradual or intermittent issue and a transformer would just be spectacular (smoke, burning etc) The fuse could get taken out by a power valve going bad, so maybe replace any blown fuse and if it goes immediately again, then start a process of elimination on the valves Best I let Ashdown guide you through it - they are the experts on their amp after all, but worth doing some simple checks first PS - Martin Garton in Bury is great, but not sure if PCBs are his thing?