N(ish) A.D. Ashdown CTM 30

[JottoSW1]

Got this last month for home use (absurdly cheap via evilbay with an Ashdown rm410 cab for under £300)

When I did a little research here there was a thread regarding the use of the passive tone controls on CTM (30?) which I haven't re-located. Any recommendations if anyone's located their personal sweet spots.??

At present am using it at home with a Trace 1818t with the bass at 9 o'clock, mids / treble1o'clock and bright switch engaged. Sounds good to me at sociable volumes.

As I recall @Chimike sold one of these heads recently? Any tips Mike ?

Been primarily playing a vm70s Squier Jazz and a Sire M2 in passive mode.

However have found the KSD 605 with Mike's Audere preamp (which is my real favourite) is problematic through this head in terms of having almost too many options/tweaks. Anyone played a pretty hottish active bass through one of these amps? Any tips would be welcome.

Did wind up the volume a bit experimentally (really surprising) but I'm primarily looking for a meaty but edging toward modernish sound at sociable volumes. 

EDIT. For this modernish sounding usage will likely use a Laney Nexus N410 or Epifani UL212 - likely at modest volumes at home so efficiency not an issue really if the CTM drives them ?

Sorry for being long winded. Cheers All, keep safe in the current UK weather drama folks 

Edited February 7, 2021 by JottoSW1
tweaks not tweks & cab usage clarification

[jimmy23cricket]

On 01/06/2020 at 12:34, jimmy23cricket said:

I have a CTM 30 tweed (same beast really) and I tend to start here, then tweak down a touch as required (usually not required 😂)

 

I had one a while back and all my basses run active with EMG’s. I found the best place to start was here..everthing up full and then small tweaks down. As mentioned, not necessary most times! 

[JottoSW1]

11 hours ago, jimmy23cricket said:

I had one a while back and all my basses run active with EMG’s. I found the best place to start was here..everthing up full and then small tweaks down. As mentioned, not necessary most times! 

Many thanks, have consciously avoided an eq like that since my 1980s days of playing music on boogie boxes with graphic eq's😂😂.

Suppose I just have to forget ingrained notions from hi fi usage, i.e. running tone knobs flat or bypassed.

Have been trying the little thing through

1) A Laney N410 sounds very good tweeter at 1/2 setting. As usual I find this cab a delight and the little Amp sounds pretty hi-fi and goes too loud for home.

2) Laney N115 no tweeter 

3) the Ashdown 410 that came with it, just old school.

4} Epifani UL212 which I correctly expected to be too hungry @ 4ohms for the Ashdown.

Still finding it's best through the old tungsten weight Trace 1818t so I will give your recomendation a go later and give my KSD 605 (audere pre and tapewounds) a run out. Will set pots flat and tweak the q switch till I get a starting point. We shall see how it goes. I need to do some displacement activity today, practice a better option than Nicotine & Coffee.

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by JottoSW1