Bass head died. Looking at Ashdown

damienblair17 · Post by **damienblair17** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:34 pm

I need a new amp head for bass. Been looking at ashdown for affordability and features. I've been looking at the MAG 300 EVOII and I'm pretty sure I saw an youtube demo made by Kim. Anyone else have experience with the brand?

5-band eq, built in compressor and sub octave effect, sweet VU meter on the face.

I might be able to get one for around $200. If anyone has another suggestion I'd like to hear it.

thanks guys.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:15 pm

I haven't used Ashdown, but I've seen a lot of rather good reviews of their amps in general.

UlricvonCatalyst · Post by **UlricvonCatalyst** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:29 pm

I have an Ashdown bass combo. I really only chose it because I was looking for something cheap and I mailed a guy about a cheap Fender he was selling and he offered me the Ashdown for even less.

I think they're pretty fully-featured but not very exciting - kind of like Behringer stuff. It'll get the job done but no-one will ever come up to you at a gig and start enthusing about it.

Having a VU meter on your amp is actually quite cool, though, so more fool them.

UlricvonCatalyst · Post by **UlricvonCatalyst** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:33 pm

The sub-harmonic thing is crap....though it's possible it's not working right on mine, as it's generally a bit 'used'. The rest of the features seem perfectly sound.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:44 am

My mate uses a Mag 600 head, sounds really nice. Really clear but thick tone, the sub-harmonic feature is cool when used in moderation, and the grind control can make the sound pretty fat.

I also think the UV meter is cool

Dannymec · Post by **Dannymec** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:55 am

I had the previous iteration, before it became an EVO model. It was nice. Nothing overwhelmingly interesting about it. It gave me a lot of sound, but I wasn't crazy about it.
It's a good amp. Not much more though.

Post by **Doog** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:59 am

Love 'em, a very fine amp with lotsa good sounds.

toez10 · Post by **toez10** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:28 pm

If you can find a good deal on used a markbass little mark ii, you can get some pretty awesome tone on the cheap with a lot of power and features. The heads only weigh like 6lbs, so it's real easy to lug around.

damienblair17 · Post by **damienblair17** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:13 pm

toez10 wrote:If you can find a good deal on used a markbass little mark ii, you can get some pretty awesome tone on the cheap with a lot of power and features. The heads only weigh like 6lbs, so it's real easy to lug around.

I've played through a Little Mark II before and I liked it a lot, but they're a bit out of my price range. Even the cheaper ones.

kim · Post by **kim** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:41 pm

yeah i used to have a mag 300, they're affordable good little bass tops. i would get a top and match it with a cab though because i found the speakers in the combos to be utter shit.

but rackmount top is cheap and does the job.
it's 'only' 300 watt, but for bass demand a mic and di for gigs, it works for rehearsals as is (i used it in a band with two 100w valve guitar amps and worked).
it has a nice middy sound, plenty growl, turn the treble wide open, engage the sub octave knob on a subtle setting and you got extra OOOMPH.

protip though; as the top is affordable, try scoring a sansamp bass driver di, i had a programmable one and worked like a charm but regular ones work the same just one setting then, can find them secondhand. they're great little tools.
you have your own di and not some random venue di (the drive on it sounds good through pa)
it simulates a valve amp and adds extra balls to the solid state mag300...can get even more treble/clang with it and delicous overdrive growl.

my two cents.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:18 pm

I agree with Kim on the suggestion of a Sansamp. I can't stress enough how awesome they are. I only have the basic 1 channel model and it's amazing. You get a really good reliable DI box that also has an awesome tube amp emulating EQ so you can dial in your own sound which you don't get to do with a regular venue's DI box.

Also, I don't know if this is a feature on the Ashdown you're looking at, but try and find a decent powerful enough solid state amp that has a Power Amp In jack on the back. You can plug a sansamp in through that, and completely bypass the built in Preamp on the amp and then you're just using the sansamp as the preamp with the power amp in your Head pushing it. I've had a bunch of friends do this with the cheap solid state Ampeg heads and they sound just about as good as my all tube 300 watt SVT! I've actually even thought about selling my SVT and just going that route. It would be lighter weight, and more reliable as well.

damienblair17 · Post by **damienblair17** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:23 am

Cheers guys. I'll definitely keep this in mind.

Mattsican · Post by **Mattsican** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:30 pm

kim wrote:yeah i used to have a mag 300, they're affordable good little bass tops. i would get a top and match it with a cab though because i found the speakers in the combos to be utter shit.

but rackmount top is cheap and does the job.
it's 'only' 300 watt, but for bass demand a mic and di for gigs, it works for rehearsals as is (i used it in a band with two 100w valve guitar amps and worked).
it has a nice middy sound, plenty growl, turn the treble wide open, engage the sub octave knob on a subtle setting and you got extra OOOMPH.

protip though; as the top is affordable, try scoring a sansamp bass driver di, i had a programmable one and worked like a charm but regular ones work the same just one setting then, can find them secondhand. they're great little tools.
you have your own di and not some random venue di (the drive on it sounds good through pa)
it simulates a valve amp and adds extra balls to the solid state mag300...can get even more treble/clang with it and delicous overdrive growl.

my two cents.

+1 on the programmable SansAmp. My DI out on my Ampeg head makes a fucked up crackling noise. So i got it so i can have 3 settings for different basses i use live and not freak the sound guy out too much when the bass sounds different in the mix. You could put that thing in front of any amp and im sure it will sound awesome.