ern500evo

Auditioned a guitarist last night, using my very old ABM500EVO RC, which I’ve recently dragged out of hibernation and been playing about with. Gigged it last weekend with my Sire V7 active jazz and Barefaced Big Twin 2, which was great, ditched some of my pedals and just took my Lomenzo Hyperdrive pedal. Same amp, cab and pedal last night, but got to try it with my Yamaha Attitude Ltd 2, which I’ve just had the new DiMarzio Relentless pickup installed in. Sounded really fat. I didn’t have much time to tweak and play around with it, as we were auditioning someone. I pretty much always have the drive pedal engaged, but a couple of times last night I switched it off and just had the valve drive up around 1 o clock. Nice thick, warm sound. I love my EBS amp, but it’s a very clean, hifi tone, and as I’m doing predominantly rock covers stuff at the moment, the thickness of the ABM sound just seems to work. 

25 minutes ago, BruceBass3901 said:

Now that would be telling... All I'll say is I'll still be a part of the ABM Owners Club, and not just because of my 900 EVO III 😉

Have you gone for the Evo V??

That is a fantastic looking bass! 

So last night I simplified everything. Swapped out the EBS TD650 for the old ABM, didn’t use the Darkglass or EBS pedals. Just took this rig, a Ashdown Lomenzo hyperdrive amd my Sire V7 active jazz. The result was just brilliant! I’m so pleased it sounded so good, but also slightly kicking myself that I’ve owned all 4 of these things for years, and it dawned on me last night that it was the first time I’d ever used them all together. I’m now buzzing about getting my Yamaha Attitude Ltd 2 back from the shop on Monday with its new DiMarzio Relentless pickup installed! 

That is an absolute beauty 

1 hour ago, spyder said:

I've got a reply from Dave at Ashdown.

The new Evo V is currently hand built to order.

 

That’s interesting. Did he say if it was going to remain that way, or are they just assessing demands before they commit to larger scale production? 

@Ashdown Engineeringplease re-launch the hyperdrive in a smaller enclosure! 🙏

Seems very odd that they’ve launched a premium product, yet there’s not any real advertising/marketing/demos for it. Also seems that the only place it’s listed is on the Ashdown website, so is it actually ready to buy? I would’ve thought that if it was available to buy, the big suppliers like PMT and Andertons would be listing them on their sites 

58 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

Still prefer mine to all the Darkglass X variants I've owned and sold. Being an inveterate tinkerer I've long been planning on doing my own version in a smaller enclosure, 1590BB portrait max, preferably 125B/Boss sized. Just getting the time is the problem!

That would be a great pedal! I’ve decided I’m taking mine to my gig on Saturday, fortunately it’s only marginally wider than my Darkglass XU, so I’ll just put it on the board in place of that. I think it would’ve sold in spades had it been the same size/form factor as something like a B3K. I know the VU meter is kind of Ashdowns trademark, but I am sure most players would gladly sacrifice it to make the pedal much smaller 

53 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

 

Form factor is too big for me, but that is a great sounding pedal.

It was really good to see how he sets it up too.

37 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

An amazing pedal, which would sell like hotcakes if it was reasonably sized and had "Darkglass" "any-name-other-than-Ashdown" plastered over it!

Completely agree, the size will certainly put a lot of folks off. I tinkered with mine for quite a while and then watched that video, that first tone he gets, which he describes as ‘just a little bit of crackle on top of the string sound’ just sounds so good. I’m actually messing around with some pedals now and thinking that for this weekends gig I may take the Darkglass X Ultra off my board and pop the Ashdown pedal back on. I’ve seen them sell for as little as £25, which is just crazy for how good they can sound 

That’s a bargain, as is the ABM900 posted above! I went and picked up all my gear from our rehearsal space yesterday, so will be spending today A/B’ing my original ABM500Evo RC and my EBS TD650. Going to try out various combinations of basses(Warwick SS1, Yamaha Attitude Ltd and Sire V7) and drive pedals (Darkglass X ultra, EBS Sheehan, Ashdown Lomenzo) all through my Barefaced Big Twin 2, and see what amp/pedal combo I like best. Think I better take a bottle of wine around to the neighbour and tell her to strap herself in, she’s in for a rough day! 😂

The Ashdown James Lomenzo Hyperdrive. When they appear in the classifieds, they’re normally cheap as chips. I think I only paid £49 for mine, brand new. 
 

13 hours ago, Clarky said:

If you would sacrifice 25W and a few features, my rackmount UK made ABM 500 in Gator bag will be up FS shortly (in London) at half that price. Nowt wrong with it, it was a a stopover until my all-valve Hand Box WB-100 was ready (will be in next 1-2 weeks)

Thanks for the offer Clarky. I already own an ABM500 though. I’ve had it for years, I kept it as a back up while I went through my Class D phase. I’m just curious to try a 600 as the general consensus seems to be that it’s a big improvement over the previous incarnations 

27 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

There’s one in Liverpool on Ebay at £450 or best offer @ern500evo

I did see that one, it’s a bit of a trek from the south west though. There is one on Reverb which is in London, that might be easier. I’m gonna bring my EBS home after rehearsal this week, take some pics and put up an ad. Will have a good look at what’s around later in the week 

Gonna drag my original ABM500RC out for a couple of rehearsals and gigs, then possibly put the EBS up for sale. Who knows, I might love the 500 and save me some cash! 

My thoughts exactly! 

He’s basing his valuation on the fact that they’re on the Ashdown website for £849 🤦🏻‍♂️

I offered him £400, his bottom line is £575, which I personally think is way too steep. I don’t think I’d even pay that for a pristine second hand one tbh. 

20 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I got my B-Stock but new from PMT for £375

That’s an absolute bargain 

What sort of price are used ABM600’s fetching at the moment. One has come up for sale, but the guy wants me to make him an offer for it. It’s reasonably clean, the tolex on the case has a few scratches and battle scars. I don’t really know what’s an acceptable offer 

I’ve had my Big Twin 2 for what feels like forever now. It was one of the very first BT2’s to leave the factory. It’s been a godsend. Durability wise, I’d say it’s done pretty well. The only marks it has are from over zealous moving of it. The textured paint has a scrape on the bottom rear edge, and one of the chrome caps on the handle end is dented. Not bad for the amount of gigs it’s done and the number of times it’s been dragged in and out the back of the gig van. I’ve never looked inside it and I probably never will, so I can’t comment on that aspect of it. Is it the best cab I’ve ever used? No, that mantle still belongs to the Mesa Powerhouse I once got to use, the one with a 15” in the centre and a 10” in each corner. However, the Mesa weighed as much as the earth itself and I know full well that if I’d bought one, it would be been long gone by now. Is the BT2 the best cab I’ve owned, yes, by a long way. Not being a fanboi and I know some folks have had definite issues with BF cabs, just my own personal experience 

Sheehan used the BC-1 preamp. As far as I know, he still has a few of them. The Pearce BC-1 sim in the helix was modelled on one of his actual units. The people at Line 6 had it to to use as a reference 

I used my very early ABM500 Evo RC for rehearsal on Tuesday, with my Warwick SS1, into a BF Big Twin 2. It sounded pretty good. I’ve been mulling it over since and I’m seriously tempted to sell my EBS TD650 and Darkglass X Ultra, and just get a ABM600 and Paradriver V2. I’m not really doing much that needs the balls out drive of the X Ultra, and I think I could easily get a tone from an ABM600 that would work for 90% of what I’m doing at the moment 

If you have Prime, they’re currently showing sets of 45-105 for £27 with free next day delivery 

I’m kind of glad my Dingwall hasn’t sold yet, I think I’d have bought this by now if it had, which would defeat the whole object of selling the NG2! Glwts!