MichaelDean Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 And Ashdown have put up a video now. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4qKRAuLa26/?igsh=OGRhZGY5OWgzZDQ= 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killerfridge Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 (edited) 21 minutes ago, MichaelDean said: And Ashdown have put up a video now. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4qKRAuLa26/?igsh=OGRhZGY5OWgzZDQ= Hmm, now I don't feel so confident saying that the PMT video was entirely the fault of Dagan. It sounds better here, but still has the "I'm playing through my friends broken Carlsbro amp" sound. **edit** I take that back, I've just had a watch again of the Ashdown video and I don't think it sounds bad, just not my go-to drive/overdrive sound **edit** Maybe it's simply not my sort of drive. Edited March 18 by Killerfridge retracted opinion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 37 minutes ago, MichaelDean said: And Ashdown have put up a video now. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4qKRAuLa26/?igsh=OGRhZGY5OWgzZDQ= Sorry Dagan, seems like it was the pedal after all. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 (edited) Make it stop!! Make it stop!! I guess now we can see why there weren't any demos prior to launch. The pedal is very likely garbage and doesn't sound anything like the original. Considering that the original Lomenzo pedal is brilliant, what is this meant to be? In theory, the functionality of the new unit was meant to solve some the things people didn't dig on the original and provide some more control. Instead, we get something that sounds like it was fished out of a skip. Ashdown have totally and utterly went into "pooch screw territory" with this. Anybody who thinks "That's not how it sounds" is going to be mistaken I fear. I forget who the gentleman demoing it in that Instagram video is, but he often does videos for Ashdown, so that pedal will have been played with long before anyone here had heard anything. If you don't think that's the best that can be done with it, you'd think someone who's had access to it would be able to do so wouldn't you? The obvious answer is, that's about as good as it'll get which is pitiful. Edited March 18 by Wolverinebass 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ern500evo Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 What surprises me,is that James Lomenzo is in that video, with the pedal, why not get him to demo it and show how his settings actually sound. I always thought his demo of the Hyperdrive was really good, showing how he gets just a hint of drive to full on distortion. Ashdown, please just send one to Amos Heller so we can get a proper demo of it, put us out of our misery! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 3 hours ago, MichaelDean said: And Ashdown have put up a video now. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4qKRAuLa26/?igsh=OGRhZGY5OWgzZDQ= Well, admittedly it doesn't exactly sound great in that demo either, but it does at least sound better, and not absolutely horrible. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 there must be someone within the ashdown organisation that can put up a decent video showcasing this pedal in a variety of sounds rather than the insta one which tbh looks and sounds rushed to cover for the terrible PMT one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 41 minutes ago, dudewheresmybass said: there must be someone within the ashdown organisation that can put up a decent video showcasing this pedal in a variety of sounds rather than the insta one which tbh looks and sounds rushed to cover for the terrible PMT one? I doubt it. Their PR department is probably busy photoshopping pictures of the Royal Family. It does make me wonder though. Whilst Lomenzo in all likelihood doesn't need the money per se, does anyone think that he's "doing a Wooten" and only playing (or saying he's playing) this for money? After all, that's the only reason Wooten uses Hartke amps. He's paid to. With a pedal that firstly sounds nothing like the original and secondly, more than a bit pants it's not too much of a leap? Or even, did he have any say or hand in the development of it at all if it really is as total garbage as the demos make out? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 (edited) 9 hours ago, Wolverinebass said: does anyone think that he's "doing a Wooten" and only playing (or saying he's playing) this for money? After all, that's the only reason Wooten uses Hartke amps. And how do you know this is actually the case? You do realize that gear endorsements are extremely common all over the music industry, right? Nearly every single professional musician will have more than just one gear endorsement deal with various music gear companies. Seems strange to me why you want to single out Victor Wooten in specific, a musician that I only ever got the impression of, wherever I have seen him, to be an extremely down to earth and lovely human being. Jealousy? Edited March 19 by Baloney Balderdash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 @Baloney Balderdash, I'm not jealous at all. Wooten is the only high profile bass player I could think of on the spur of the moment that does that and that's why I mentioned him. There will be others of course, it was just the first name that came to mind. It's a fairly well known thing that Hartke pay him and have done for years. I had heard that in quite a few threads, but actually it was Mark Gooday at Ashdown who told me that at the Bass Guitar Show a few years ago. Apparently, they wanted him on the roster, but he wanted about 30 grand a year to do so. So they declined. However, I wasn't making a judgement on Wooten or saying he was an awful person for doing that. He seems like a nice guy and is incredibly talented. My point however was that since the Megadrive is now sounding really bad, do we think Lomenzo will even use it without a skip full of cash? I suppose a better question is, would you feel okay about having your name on something which sounded really awful? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 I’ve heard of similar instances @Wolverinebass, with artists calling up companies saying hey, a great business opportunity is coming your way, pay me to take away loads of your amps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Lozz196 said: I’ve heard of similar instances @Wolverinebass, with artists calling up companies saying hey, a great business opportunity is coming your way, pay me to take away loads of your amps. I am pretty sure that usually with high profile professional musicians it is the other way around. That is companies contacting the artist to offer them an endorsement deal. Edited March 19 by Baloney Balderdash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 45 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said: I am pretty sure that usually with high profile professional musicians it is the other way around. That is companies contacting the artist to offer them an endorsement deal. I think you`re right, that I`m sure does apply to many (probably the majority) of the instrument/amp making companies, aside from the company I was speaking with. Not sure about how true it is now but a mate used to work for Marshall and apparently they never gave stuff away, figuring that the more they gave away to rich professional musicians the more they`d have to charge not so rich non-professional musicians in order to remain a viable profit making company. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 I had a Marshall deal back in the day. This is totally true. The best deal available was the old cost price plus VAT Rotosound have a similar strategy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Well, the PMT video is back up, though in a different cut. Kind of like Blade Runner, except without being any good. In case anyone is wondering, the demo still sounds absolutely crap. I think this is quite astounding that Ashdown have in effect ruined probably the best pedal they've ever made. Don't expect any more demos as since they won't get favourable reviews, there won't be any. The only reason this is out is because LoMenzo is interviewed for most of the video. I think had it not been the case, it would have stayed taken down. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkMohawk Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 16 hours ago, Wolverinebass said: Well, the PMT video is back up, though in a different cut. Kind of like Blade Runner, except without being any good. In case anyone is wondering, the demo still sounds absolutely crap. I think this is quite astounding that Ashdown have in effect ruined probably the best pedal they've ever made. Don't expect any more demos as since they won't get favourable reviews, there won't be any. The only reason this is out is because LoMenzo is interviewed for most of the video. I think had it not been the case, it would have stayed taken down. It really does sound crap. Not sure what anyone involved with this was thinking. The only thing this pedal should have been was Ashdown putting a Hyperdrive circuit in the fancy new box. It just sounds like speakers farting out to me, which somehow they're not aware isn't what we're looking for out of a distortion. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 What I'm now actually finding hilarious is the Facebook reels by Ashdown and PMT today. Which are some synth music zooming into the pedal on top of a combo and about a minute of James LoMenzo chatting respectively. None of them have audio from the pedal. It's kind of "if we don't mention that it sounds awful, nobody will know and that's okay isn't it?" I wonder if they have the "crisis management team" on call for whenever someone thinks about plugging a bass into this pedal and uploading a demo to the Internet they get smashed with a "cease and desist" legal letter. I'm almost tempted to buy one just to really know if it actually is so unfathomably pish. Obviously, it'd be going back under distance selling regs, but it does pose some interesting questions. Will my rib cage survive either the dry heaving from being so violently sick after playing it, or from laughing so hard that I could forget to breathe for several minutes? In many ways I'd actually like to do a review of it by putting some insanely high end basses through it and seeing if any or all of them (possibly) come out sounding like an out of tune Sue Ryder bass from 1986. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkMohawk Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Could be worth a punt for nostalgias sake, it'll remind me of the garbage combo I got as part of my Encore bass starter package from Argos all those years ago. This pedal does a great job of replicating the sound I got when I whacked the volume up to full. Really get that 'speaker about to tear itself out of its basket' sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 (edited) I wonder why they felt the need to update the drive circuit in the first place, and what went through their heads when they tweaked it and after testing it thought: "Spot on, that's THE tone, definitely a clear improvement, this is bound to be a hit!". Edited April 3 by Baloney Balderdash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverinebass Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said: I wonder why they felt the need to update the drive circuit in the first place, and what went through their heads when they tweaked it and after testing it thought: "Spot on, that's THE tone, definitely a clear improvement, this is bound to be a hit!". Exactly. Whomever made that decision has literally no taste at all. I think that clearly it's just being shoved out now for whatever reason. Considering the price point, there are so many things that are infinitely better around there. I can't see many folk using this giving the voicing of the pedal has been changed so much from the original. Whilst I appreciate that the type of distortion one uses is a very personal thing ranging from mild overdrive, through tube distortion to full on djent chainsaw type, I can't hear how that pedals sound is going work for anyone that well. If someone was recording bass in my studio and sounded like that, I'd probably have to have a difficult conversation about their gear and overall tone. Or I'd just re-amp it all through something decent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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