In praise of Ashdown Engineering support

[AlexMUK]

I just wanted to share a very positive experience I had with Ashdown, following purchase of a second-hand ABM-600 IV.

The unit I purchased was used from Gear4Music. Unfortunately, it had a few faults... broken VU meter lamp and some distortion that shouldn't be there. To make matters worse, the distortion appeared to be intermittent, so when I returned it to Gear4Music they couldn't replicate the fault I spoke to Dave Green at Ashdown Engineering service team to get some pointers and he suggested that I send it to them so that they could see what the issue was. Unfortunately the problem didn't manifest itself while it was with them, and it showed up again when I was using it, so I sent it back to them for another look.

Within two days, the amplifier was returned to me fully working, with a complete set of replacement pre-and power boards. Of course, is working fine as it is essentially brand new. This unit was just out of manufacturer's warranty, so this work was done FOC as a goodwill repair.

I think this is an exceptional level of service and care for end customer satisfaction that is very rare nowadays. I understand that Ashdown have repatriated their manufacturing to the UK from China, so they are in a position to continue to provide long term service and support for their products.

I did choose Ashdown, because of their design and construction, having been burnt by a Class D amp that was unrepairable out of warranty because the repair process for the ICEPower module was to replace it, no component level repair was supported and the boards were obsolete!. If you want to get long term value and service out of your gear, bear this in mind.

Anyway, wanted to share this with the Basschat community and thank Dave Green and Ashdown Engineering for their customer care and integrity as a company!.

Best regards,
Alex

[walshy]

Ashdown are second to none on customer service and have just damn fine gear! ABM600 is a class amp too

[AlexMUK]

Certainly works very well with the Big Twin 3 - a bit of amp tone to go with the Hi-Fi sound of the cab.

28 minutes ago, walshy said:

Ashdown are second to none on customer service and have just damn fine gear! ABM600 is a class amp too

 

[agedhorse]

Good for Ashdown’s willingness to support their products and do the right thing.

 

Since you made the same post with the same inaccurate information over at TalkBass, let me add my response to you here:

 

Just to set the record straight, ICEPower modules are not to be repaired at the component level (with a very few exceptions), because doing so voids the safety certification on the module. This is their official policy and most manufacturers using these modules follow it closely. Besides, it’s usually less expensive to replace than repair do to the high amount of highly skilled labor required to diagnose these faults in high technology.

Also, replacement modules are available for all ICEPower modules that have been used in the bass amp industry going back to the very beginning. There are no unavailable modules in their product line, so that information is incorrect.

Additionally, Ashdown has used ICEPower in some of their lightweight amps.

[AlexMUK]

OK, no intentional misrepresentation and your clarification is helpful!.

 

What you stated about component level repair was what I was told by ICEPower themselves. And in my case, at least, the manufacturer was unable to offer out of warranty repair, which is why I contacted them directly to see if they could help. I am accurately relaying what they said to me first hand. ICEPower were actually very helpful considering I'm a consumer and I understand their policy.

Edited Friday at 18:08 by AlexMUK

[Beedster]

Ashdown are a very special manufacturer and Dave is an outstanding guy 👍

[Lozz196]

Agreed

[jezzaboy]

Dave and the team are great. I had a wide boy 500 head that I stood on it`s end after a gig in the Hard Rock Cafe in Glasgow, I turned my back and heard a thump and down it went. Gubbed.

 

Spoke to Dave and I sent it down to them, they repaired it and sent it back via TNT and wouldn`t take any kind of payment so sent them some sweeties. I would still use an ABM of some description but having to lug about the band pa means I have a Rumble 800 but Ashdown`s service is second to none.

Edited Friday at 19:33 by jezzaboy

[agedhorse]

2 hours ago, AlexMUK said:

OK, no intentional misrepresentation and your clarification is helpful!.

 

What you stated about component level repair was what I was told by ICEPower themselves. And in my case, at least, the manufacturer was unable to offer out of warranty repair, which is why I contacted them directly to see if they could help. I am accurately relaying what they said to me first hand. ICEPower were actually very helpful considering I'm a consumer and I understand their policy.

Correct, what I said earlier is that there is no approved component level repairs for the ICEPower modules. Your problem is with the amp manufacturer not offering out of warranty repairs, but almost all manufacturers have approved service centers that handle out of warranty work. This is what I am puzzled about, did you not contact one of the manufacturer's service centers?

[itu]

My modest understanding comes from Sony broadcast cameras. When the power supply broke, there were no reusable parts available in the PSU. This was very evident when the PSU blew around its metal case. Not every time, but every now and then. 

 

If any part would break, it most likely will take a few along. Fixing such a unit to its original specs would be a chore. 

[3below]

In addition to first rate customer support is the value for money of used Ashdown kit.

[Kevin Dean]

Ashdown take a huge amount of pride in what they do & are always there to help ,I can't say that about any of the brands I have owned .If you have a problem with a product just give them a call .

[Reggaebass]

Ive been to Ashdown HQ many times, one time I had an intermittent fault with one of my valve amps and Dave green invited me in for the day to play it until the fault occurred so he could see what was going on, not many places would take the time out to do that 

[Minininjarob]

To present another view I have an Ashdown amp I’m trying to sort out for a friend who can’t afford a replacement and they don’t have the wiring diagrams and didn’t offer any help with the issue. I have maybe figured out what’s wrong but I’m not sure without the diagram and if it is what I’m thinking it is I can’t buy the replacement component anyway so the whole thing will go in the bin. 
Put me off getting one tbh. 

[Beedster]

2 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

To present another view I have an Ashdown amp I’m trying to sort out for a friend who can’t afford a replacement and they don’t have the wiring diagrams and didn’t offer any help with the issue. I have maybe figured out what’s wrong but I’m not sure without the diagram and if it is what I’m thinking it is I can’t buy the replacement component anyway so the whole thing will go in the bin. 
Put me off getting one tbh. 

Who did you speak to?

[Chienmortbb]

I have had circuit diagrams from Ashdown in the past but as others have said, of late I just call and their service is second to none. You may have got through to the wrong person or I did once ask a question of Dave Green and he sounded a tad scolding when he gave me the obvious(with a little thought) answer. 
 

However he had gone above and beyond several times. 

[Minininjarob]

15 hours ago, Beedster said:

Who did you speak to?

It was Dave Green who replied to me. Said the amp was a now obsolete model and he couldn’t really help. His only suggestion was to wire the fan it so it runs all the time. Which isn’t much good when it’s used for bedroom practise. I don’t want to start buying components and trying them out (I think it might be the fan relay but not sure yet) as it’s just a waste of money, and it’s a fiddly PCB as well. 
Going to do some more testing to see if I can narrow the problem down but if I can’t figure it out it’ll be going in the bin. Or selling spares and repairs. 
I’m not saying they are useless btw just that they aren’t always perfect, for whatever reason it might be in my case. 
 

Edited 21 hours ago by Minininjarob

[Chienmortbb]

6 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

It was Dave Green who replied to me. Said the amp was a now obsolete model and he couldn’t really help. His only suggestion was to wire the fan it so it runs all the time. Which isn’t much good when it’s used for bedroom practise. I don’t want to start buying components and trying them out (I think it might be the fan relay but not sure yet) as it’s just a waste of money, and it’s a fiddly PCB as well. 
Going to do some more testing to see if I can narrow the problem down but if I can’t figure it out it’ll be going in the bin. Or selling spares and repairs. 
I’m not saying they are useless btw just that they aren’t always perfect, for whatever reason it might be in my case. 
 

I know they have used Anaview and Phonic class D modules in the past. Both would be over a decade old, and so they would be a write-off. What model is it?

[Minininjarob]

43 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

I know they have used Anaview and Phonic class D modules in the past. Both would be over a decade old, and so they would be a write-off. What model is it?

Ashdown Little Giant. 
it works ok but the fan doesn’t kick in, it’s supposed to on start up for a second to test it then it comes on when it gets pushed and warms up. It’s doing neither. So it’s either the fan relay that’s gone (which I can’t find an exact match of at the moment to replace) or the signal to it, or the temp sensing part of the circuitry. 
It’s a shame as it works ok apart from that and the person I am trying to fix it for can’t afford a new (even 2nd hand) amp so he’s amp less at the moment. 

[Russ]

Dave and Mark are good people and, as an on-and-off (mostly on) user of Ashdown gear since 2003, they've never been anything less than excellent with their customer service. They even helped me out with a bit of tour support about 10 years back, which was above and beyond, considering I'm basically a nobody who was playing in an unsigned band at the time (UK tour supporting a well-known 1980s rock singer and his band).

 

I did have an issue recently with a RM-800 Evo III I bought from Reverb, and I didn't hear back from them in a timely manner because of the chaos of NAMM. I just ended up returning it to the seller, no harm done. I'll pick up one of the new UK-made ones when they become available. 

[agedhorse]

2 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

Ashdown Little Giant. 
it works ok but the fan doesn’t kick in, it’s supposed to on start up for a second to test it then it comes on when it gets pushed and warms up. It’s doing neither. So it’s either the fan relay that’s gone (which I can’t find an exact match of at the moment to replace) or the signal to it, or the temp sensing part of the circuitry. 
It’s a shame as it works ok apart from that and the person I am trying to fix it for can’t afford a new (even 2nd hand) amp so he’s amp less at the moment. 

I don't recall ever seeing a fan control relay used with Ashdown's Little Giant models, are you sure you are looking at the right thing?

[Minininjarob]

8 hours ago, agedhorse said:

I don't recall ever seeing a fan control relay used with Ashdown's Little Giant models, are you sure you are looking at the right thing?

Definitely. Pic of relay here, white connector to the right is the fan connector. Wish I was working on my own GK amp instead, not that it will ever break down anyway. 😂

Edited 4 hours ago by Minininjarob

[Ruarl]

11 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

Ashdown Little Giant. 
it works ok but the fan doesn’t kick in, it’s supposed to on start up for a second to test it then it comes on when it gets pushed and warms up. It’s doing neither. So it’s either the fan relay that’s gone (which I can’t find an exact match of at the moment to replace) or the signal to it, or the temp sensing part of the circuitry. 
It’s a shame as it works ok apart from that and the person I am trying to fix it for can’t afford a new (even 2nd hand) amp so he’s amp less at the moment. 

You mentioned up the thread that this was only for bedroom practice. Since the owner can’t afford anything else, why not just use the amp as-is at low volumes? And just keep an eye on the temperature. Or take regular breaks? Or are there other problems besides the fan not coming on? 

[Ed_S]

20 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

It was Dave Green who replied to me. Said the amp was a now obsolete model and he couldn’t really help.

 

On 30/10/2019 at 17:14, Ashdown Engineering said:

Good news. Everything we make is repairable forever so we should be able to get you sorted fairly quickly.

Cheers.

 

These days, even forever doesn't last as long as it used to 🙂 

[DGBass]

3 hours ago, Minininjarob said:

Definitely. Pic of relay here, white connector to the right is the fan connector. Wish I was working on my own GK amp instead, not that it will ever break down anyway. 😂

The relay is I'm sure part of the output soft start circuit and not the fan circuit. I have one of these and the fan has never come on ever, not even when I've used the amp very hard. I think the amp modules in these are stripped down budget versions of the Powersoft DigiMod class-d modules, though I can't be sure. I'd like someone to tell me otherwise! I've asked Powersoft and they aren't sure either. If the schematic for the Digimod units are anything to go by, the fan should activate when the unit reaches approx 50C. My amp is eighteen years old, so in class-d terms that's a long while ago and even the Digimod versions are now obsolete.  As has been mentioned, as long as they don't get heavy use, the chunky heat sink seems to cope well. They make nice home and studio amps as they are very clean but warm sounding.  I've never had mine cut out at all.  I think from Ashdown's perspective I can understand there isn't a lot they can do to repair these, and replacement modules don't seem generally available. Faulting surface mount tech like this is beyond my capabilities, and I expect very time consuming for folks who do have the capabilities. It's the old chestnut of being easier to swap an entire unit, than fix it. Throwaway technology.  If you can find a used and working Digimod 500/1000 module, I believe the original PSAMP350 modules will swap out easily with them.