ern500evo Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Looking forward to hearing some demos of this. Was hoping they’d make a smaller version of the original, but I’m still keen to hear this new version 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 10 hours ago, ern500evo said: Was hoping they’d make a smaller version of the original Weren't we all! Ashdown flatly refuse to drop the gimmicky VU to save real-estate. What meer mortals really want is this: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ern500evo Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 8 minutes ago, Bigwan said: Weren't we all! Ashdown flatly refuse to drop the gimmicky VU to save real-estate. What meer mortals really want is this: That would be perfect! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 10 hours ago, ern500evo said: I'd also point out that at 229 quid, I ain't buying that... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbowskill Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 9 hours ago, Bigwan said: Weren't we all! Ashdown flatly refuse to drop the gimmicky VU to save real-estate. What meer mortals really want is this: 100% 👌 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killerfridge Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 9 hours ago, Bigwan said: I'd also point out that at 229 quid, I ain't buying that... Given the absurd cost of pedals recently (see: Tech21 XB Driver @£599), that somehow doesn't feel too horrible 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 On 15/02/2024 at 09:00, Bigwan said: Weren't we all! Ashdown flatly refuse to drop the gimmicky VU to save real-estate. What meer mortals really want is this: Is that a readily available clone? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 I started a thread about this pedal last year and we still haven't seen any demos! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ern500evo Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 16 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said: I started a thread about this pedal last year and we still haven't seen any demos! Funnily enough after starting this thread, I stumbled across your thread. I had no idea this pedal had been announced back last year! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 Are @Ashdown Engineering still on here? Any demos soon? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinB Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 5 hours ago, fretmeister said: Is that a readily available clone? I don't think so - it's one of @disssa's masterpieces 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 To be fair, Ashdown's output is always a bit hit and miss. For every amazingly brilliant thing they've done, there's at least 5 things as crap and pointless as the B-Social. Plus, none of the amps hold their value at all. Rightly or wrongly. I got a Hyperdrive from Ashdown during lockdown when they cleared out their warehouse. Its great. For the price of the Mega Drive, it's not worth it I don't think. For maybe £170 I'd take it if they'd make it smaller. I appreciate that the VU thing is their thing/calling card, but it's kind of become counter productive when it makes a pedal chassis almost twice as big as it needed to be. I remember trying the Geezer Butler head. I couldn't understand how aside from the name they'd sell any as soundwise, my Wounded Paw Battering Ram EQ pedal gives an infinitely better "doom" type sound and only cost £150. Even the triple roast overdrive pedal. Soundwise, sounds good. They priced them at 300 quid. Good luck with that. I don't think they could give them away for £150 now. Most of Ashdown endorsees are maybe not as current as they might like or once were. None of them are under 40. Or even 50 actually. In many ways that doesn't bode well. Whilst I doubt they'll ever end up as utterly crap and creatively bankrupt as Hartke, they've maybe lost their way a bit and had a march stolen on them by other companies like Darkglass in the case of pedals or take your pick for amps. Ashdown seem to be immune to the lightweight trend, and fair play, I've played quite a few ABM's and MAG's and they're great. Given the choice is anyone going to get an amp that weighs 15kg when they could get something lighter that won't lose half its value the split second you've bought it? No. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassAdder60 Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 (edited) Dave Green is still the designer but he is perhaps stuck in the past I feel. Great guy but he is definitely old school in mind and design I think Time to move into the modern era or get left behind Edited February 17 by BassAdder60 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 I like the amps, but other than the Hyperdrive the pedals have left me completely cold. They did well to capture the big stage market when Ampeg had terrible QC issues and nobody trusted them for a while, but 99% of us are not playing stages like that. I would love to have the ABM Evo 5 750, now that they have a quiet cooking system and the fan noise wouldn’t make me want to climb a clock tower with a high powered rifle to pick off accountants who insist on putting cheap and noisy fans in expensive amps, but there’s no escaping the head weighs more than my amp and cab combined. And I’d still have to get it modified to swap the god awful stepped / notched gain and master controls. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 That's even before you get to the basses. I recorded a band whose bass player had a Saint bass. So, I had a go on it. It wasn't great. I said he might like to use my Fender 50s classic precision instead. So we used that. An infinitely better bass. Which ironically is almost 300 quid less. I mean, to me that's a pointless niche to try and get into. There's so many manufacturers at that £1100ish price mark that they're never going to get many people buying them unless they're diehard Ashdown bods. To me, the bass played okay, but the pickups were nowhere near good enough considering the competition. I kind of feel the company as a whole is slightly backwards looking. Geezer has retired, Mark King left, John Entwistle died, James Lomenzo and John Myung are nearly 60. Even the Biffy Clyro lads are closer to 50 than 40. The point is, they could have went after a whole generation of upcoming players and didn't. I'm not saying get every Instagram influencer they can manage of course. However, nothing really appears to be as cutting edge as one might like. Is an ABM with 9 sliders going to do it for you if it still weighs 15kg? Probably not if you can get a lighter amp for the same money that you can pick up with one finger. In a way, it's quite sad. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ern500evo Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 I find it really odd that these are showing as available on sites like PMT, yet there’s not a single demo of it anywhere online. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Demo finally up, although this sounds so utterly dreadful I suspect it's a broken unit. My Hyperdrive sounds nothing like this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 2 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said: Demo finally up, although this sounds so utterly dreadful I suspect it's a broken unit. My Hyperdrive sounds nothing like this. Sounds like a Game Boy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 (edited) On 15/02/2024 at 10:00, Bigwan said: Weren't we all! Ashdown flatly refuse to drop the gimmicky VU to save real-estate. What meer mortals really want is this: Nonsense, quite on the contrary there are too few VU meters! I would want 5 VU meters, 1 pre input gain, 1 post input gain and 1 post output gain, and then 2 additional ones, 1 for respectively the drive and the clean mix each! Now that would be a pedal to behold! Edited March 17 by Baloney Balderdash 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Well, that was impressive in it's absolute awfulness. I mean, with so few high level endorsees left of any note, they give Lomenzo a product like that? Discount the oversize form factor, discount the gimmick VU. Discount the fact it costs £230. It sounds dreadful. Whomever signed off on the audio in that demo should be not only ashamed, but actually embarrassed for themselves at their lack of taste. Or possibly concerned that they're getting sacked tomorrow. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Reasonable interview but the bass sounds like 💩 I can’t imagine that ashdown would be pleased at such a poor demo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 (edited) 13 hours ago, ped said: Sounds like a Game Boy 12 hours ago, Wolverinebass said: Well, that was impressive in it's absolute awfulness. I mean, with so few high level endorsees left of any note, they give Lomenzo a product like that? Discount the oversize form factor, discount the gimmick VU. Discount the fact it costs £230. It sounds dreadful. Whomever signed off on the audio in that demo should be not only ashamed, but actually embarrassed for themselves at their lack of taste. Or possibly concerned that they're getting sacked tomorrow. 40 minutes ago, dudewheresmybass said: Reasonable interview but the bass sounds like 💩 I can’t imagine that ashdown would be pleased at such a poor demo I am almost certain that it is that guy and his amp settings that makes the pedal sound like shit. He is a guitarist, not a bass player, and every single bass demo I have ever watched him do sound like shit (and somehow magically the same exact lifeless dull shit tone), no matter what he plays and what he plays through. Edited March 18 by Baloney Balderdash 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Agree, I like Dagans guitar reviews but this doesn`t make the pedal sound great, I`m sure there are much better tones that can be coaxed from it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbunney Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 I wonder how many times he has used the "do you mind if I hold my weiner on my lap" line! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Clearly someone at Ashdown has "had a word" and the video has been taken down. I mean, how did anyone let that out?! Guess who's never getting to demo an Ashdown pedal ever again? What a tool. Now, I have nothing for or against Youtubers, but someone has made a decision to give the pedal to that guy to not only review, but interview James Lomenzo. If he's not really a bass player, why would you do that? Wouldn't you go to someone else that is? I mean, Ashdown have Cici on the roster and she's very good. If it's a straight review surely they could have went after Patrick Hunter or any number of decent reviewers that wouldn't have made arguably a flagship product sound like a broken Behringer Boss pedal clone? The mind boggles. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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