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Ashdown ABM owners club


Guest BassAdder27

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I'm getting really tempted to buy an ABM Head for the added power in terms of output watts and also the sheer heft of the things. I'm currently running an RM500 through two ABM Pro Neo 15"s rated at 300w each. It sounds great, the RM is so flexible it's just a small tweak to get it sounding perfect for any bass (I have and gig: fretless 5 string Kramer, MM Stingray, Sire V9 and an Epiphone Jack Casady). But, having used ABM heads before I found them outstanding for a passive P bass but not so good for an active J. Did I not spend enough time tweaking or is the general way of things? My main bass is a Stingray so it needs to sound great for an active bass, which the RM does easily.... Next question is then around output and what my cabs can handle. Ashdown seem to make a wide range of outputs from the heads but then the cabs don't quite match, e.g. if I get an ABM 900 do I need a third 300w ABM cab?? Thank you 

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13 hours ago, BassAdder27 said:

Full Ashdown rig 

ready for rehearsals 🤟316C0E3D-EAA7-46AE-A6B8-4BDB7811EE71.thumb.jpeg.2baeedbf231cbd96c3c1faea5205ac45.jpeg

This rig sounded very good and it’s my main gig rig from now on.

Cabs made the difference with a deep full and punchy sound that fits well with a loud drummer and Marshall stack. 
ABM600 was barely ticking over so plenty of disposable power for bigger gigs. 
Cabs are a sensible weight and I think it looks kind of classy now. 
 

 

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7 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

This rig sounded very good and it’s my main gig rig from now on.

Cabs made the difference with a deep full and punchy sound that fits well with a loud drummer and Marshall stack. 
ABM600 was barely ticking over so plenty of disposable power for bigger gigs. 
Cabs are a sensible weight and I think it looks kind of classy now. 
 

 

 

Pert!  But how loud is you band if your rig is barely ticking over? OK it's twice the wattage (on a log scale) but I had a MAG300 feeding two 210s and both gain and volume were screwed to the max and I could barely make myself heard.  But then you probably don't play in a band of crazed geriatrics who turn their volumes up until the deaf old bar stewards can 'comfortably hear themselves'...

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1 hour ago, lownote said:

 

Pert!  But how loud is you band if your rig is barely ticking over? OK it's twice the wattage (on a log scale) but I had a MAG300 feeding two 210s and both gain and volume were screwed to the max and I could barely make myself heard.  But then you probably don't play in a band of crazed geriatrics who turn their volumes up until the deaf old bar stewards can 'comfortably hear themselves'...

We are loud but not excessive, drummer is hard hitting and Marshall Cabs and guitar valve heads are what they are .. loud !!

As we are a four piece my role is to fill out the band sound at times ( guitar solos etc ) and I’ve found having a full sound keeps the band from sounding empty during solos etc. 

I like the added height too ( higher than my SVT212AV cab ) so I hear it better. 
A good result me thinks until I find something I don’t like !!! 
You can see my input gain and master volume as a guide to levels. 855A5CC9-A1B5-4810-B5BE-A10F7AAE4ED7.thumb.jpeg.1c9ed9a0974107a1624c9edc46f96694.jpeg

 

Edited by BassAdder27
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4 hours ago, lownote said:

 

Pert!  But how loud is you band if your rig is barely ticking over? OK it's twice the wattage (on a log scale) but I had a MAG300 feeding two 210s and both gain and volume were screwed to the max and I could barely make myself heard.  But then you probably don't play in a band of crazed geriatrics who turn their volumes up until the deaf old bar stewards can 'comfortably hear themselves'...

Years ago I had a mag 300 210 combo (and occasionally a 115 mag extension cab), and it was a real struggle to hear myself in a not particularly loud rock band. I have no problems with the Abm 600. My volume is normally around the 9/10 pm mark. I expect the volume problem could be as much to do with the mag speakers as it is the fewer watts the mag head offers

Edited by alexa3020
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I love the idea of an Ashdown and in particular the ABM tone, but at the same time I look at the stuff ABMs are not so strong on (no headphone out, fan noise, size, weight) and I wonder if I would be better served with an Ashdown pre into a small Class D or headphones.

 

I can see on PMT the Origin Pre DI on sale for £276. I can also see the Origin-AL Pre on sale at Ashdown for a comparatively astronomical £625. Other than name they look identical to me but if anyone knows the difference I'd be very interested to know.

 

The main question I have is has anyone experience of using these and could they get ABM tone using it and say a PA speaker? I'm mostly interested in headphone practice but with the option to take that sound and send it somewhere loud if I need to! I tried the Ashdown Tone Pocket and was not impressed by the level of  unwanted noise it generated through the headphones while at the same time, it didn't offer me any benefit as a bump between the bass and my amp.

 

 

Edited by chyc
Update price and clarify one statement.
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2 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

I think some of the Ashdown signature tone also comes from the cabs 

That might well be true - I used a Barefaced Super Twin (2x12) for several years with various ABM heads, and it never seemed to sound as good as my ABM combos. Easier to move around, though.

 

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2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I saw the £625 on Ashdowns site the other day for the OriginAL Pedal, think this has to be a typo @Ashdown Engineering?

Not sure that account is managed anymore. The guy who used to post for them left the company just over a year ago now. I may be wrong though!

 

£625 for that pedal is surely a mistake though, it’s not worth it I’m afraid. I do like it a lot and you can make a reasonable impression of an ABM but I think the drive section needs a rethink as you have to keep the drive gain and input levels very low or it becomes a swarm of angry wasps. For a while it was the main tool for tone shaping in my rock band but I’ve actually moved away from it to use the drive circuit within my Glockenklang nowadays. Dare I say it but if something else appears in the FS section it may find itself up for grabs 😲

Edited by Merton
Grammar innit
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It must be a typo. I saw it yesterday and that's what I thought.

 

@chycthe Ashdown preamp is a really good preamp. I have it and use it (not so often now, since I have another preamp). I think it's very good clean. In my case, I also swapped the valve and I put a JJ 12AT7, the input gain at 9-10 and the drive at 8 and it has a really nice warm tone. The EQ is also very powerfull, I love it. 

I have to admit that the headphone out is pretty useless since it is very noisy. In my unit at least. But I've never needed that feature.

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22 minutes ago, javi_bassist said:

I have to admit that the headphone out is pretty useless since it is very noisy. In my unit at least. But I've never needed that feature.

Thank you @javi_bassist for your review. It looks very tempting but the sentence above is a dealbreaker for me. I've read in another thread that Ashdown have confessed the headphone out is poor in the RM amps. This seems to be replicated in their other products, which is such a shame.

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2 minutes ago, chyc said:

Thank you @javi_bassist for your review. It looks very tempting but the sentence above is a dealbreaker for me. I've read in another thread that Ashdown have confessed the headphone out is poor in the RM amps. This seems to be replicated in their other products, which is such a shame.

Yep my first OriginAL unit had a terrible headphone output; Ashdown tried to fix it but couldn’t so they sent me a completely different, ex-demo unit. Which was ace because the one I bought was second hand. Yet again they went above and beyond in terms of customer service.

 

Edit to add - here’s a video of it showing what I think it does very well indeed:

 

Edited by Merton
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39 minutes ago, chyc said:

Thank you @javi_bassist for your review. It looks very tempting but the sentence above is a dealbreaker for me. I've read in another thread that Ashdown have confessed the headphone out is poor in the RM amps. This seems to be replicated in their other products, which is such a shame.

 

I don't know about the RM heads because I have the RM500 EVO, which doesn't have headphone out. 

 

If you really need the headphone out, I cannot recommend you the preamp, sadly. 

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26 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

I cannot think of any reason to use such a feature.

If Ashdown has a distinctive sound that people like, surely you can see a desire for someone to have it through a pair of headphones when practising at home?

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