Ashdown ABM C210T-300 EVO II Combo

Made in the early noughties this is the EVO II version of their ABM 2x10" combo. A good range of features and very easy to use. I was raised on Trace gear so (bearing in mind their common ancestry) I found this very easy to use "straight out of the box"! Ashdown added a valve drive circuit to the preamp in the II version, quite effective but it doesn't sound like a proper big valve amp cooking and how could it? I'm still not convinced as to how much of a gimmick the sub harmonic feature is. Good balanced DI out but a shame (along with the tuner and sub outputs)that it's not on the back panel just to keep things neat! A control for the horn would be nice too (as on the ABM cabs.) The VU meter is a nice touch but not as easy to use as Trace Elliot's traffic lights!

At the moment, I'm playing a Fender Jazz with EMGs on. Quite a hifi sound which the ABM is more than capable of reproducing. Good depth of sound without a painful top end. When I bought the amp a few months ago (second hand) I had a few problems with it (more later) but once these problems had been resolved I now have a very quiet and fine sounding beast. The eq is versatile but I rarely use it maybe only to compensate for the room, I tend to use the preshape and add a touch of valve drive. Maybe a touch of sub but it's a bit subtle, perhaps a 15" extension might help!
In rehearsals the other week it more than held it's own. I normally use the studio's own SVT rig with a Trace 2x15" cab which is bloody loud. My ABM whilst admittedly turned up to about 8 kept up with the rest of the band without sounding like it was running out of breath.

I had a couple of problems with this amp when I got it.Firstly I couldn't use the sub and valve drive effects at the same time. With a little help from the manufacturers I traced this to a little bit of sloppy soldering shorting two pins on a board. One that slipped through quality control, whoops!
I was also getting a few pops and bangs from the amp. A new valve and a little spring clean of the valve socket sorted out that one.
The amp also made a fearsome rattle on hitting a low G. I traced this to the compression driver (which screws into the horn) having come slightly loose. A quick tighten up and no more rattles.
I think the previous owner hadn't really paid too much attention to this amp it did feel a little neglected.

When I was trying to work out the sub/drive problem I sent an email to Ashdown's service dept. In seven minutes flat, I'd had a reply with a schematic for the relevant boards attached. That's pretty impressive. I feel confident that any future problems will be dealt with in a similar way!

I've been on the bass since the early 80's and this is probably the best amp I've owned with the exception of my Trace smx 4x10" combo which blew up last year. I think if it was nicked I'd get another one without too much thought.
Nice styling, excellent build quality (appart from the problems outlined above!) and a good basic sound that can be modified very easily using the onboard features.