Hi everyone,
I'm posting here to possibly get some feedback/experiences/solutions to an issue I'm having with the ashdown ABM Evo III 500. I bought this amplifier a couple of weeks back and took it into a jam with the rest of the band on the weekend (one guitarist, one drummer). What I discovered was that it had a total lack in output. I had this thing cranked at about 95% output and the drummer who was about 5 metres from me could barely hear me in the heavier parts of our songs, if at all (worth noting that I could hardly hear myself standing in front of the amp, and the guitarist was also struggling to the left of me). I basically went over the entire amplifier, changing all the settings to all kinds of mixes and variations (compression, input, output, bass, middle, treble, valve gain, passive/active, flat/shape). I played with and without effects pedals, plugged in both via the effects loop at the back and just in series with the amp, I changed the battery in my bass for the preamp and fiddled with the settings on here also. I'm playing it through a brand new 1000W RMS rated Avatar Cabinet with eminence Deltalite speakers in it so the cab is not the issue. Now here's the part that has made me so curious about the amp rather than writing it off as sh*t: My old amplifier is a 200W Randall RB200X and when playing in the exact same location, with the same set up (position wise in terms of drummer + guitarist), them with the same gear and myself with all the same gear minus the amp, I only had to have this amp at about 4.5/10 on the output and was at a sufficient volume for everyone to hear and jam properly. It stumps me as to why when upgrading to an amplifier that is 2.5 times the rated wattage that it can't even be loud enough to be heard in a normal jamming environment.
Any thoughts, theories, personal experiences and possible suggestions/solutions would be greatly appreciated,
Cheers everyone, pointblank72