Ashdown EB-180H Head

I don't know how old this amp is but i brought it new last year. it has a passive and active input (High, Low), 1 Channel, Vu meter to know when your peaking, Four Band EQ Low, Low Mid, Mid, High Mid, and Treble, a bass boost and a treble boost switches, Sub Harmonic knob which i hate the sound of, An D.I input that takes the preamp straight to the desk which is rad and you're gain and output they are the main feature i can think of at the momment.

Me and this Amp have a love hate relationship, i love the sound and tone i can get out of this amp with my fender jazz with active emg pickups. but the loudness can be an issue especially if you're going through a small P.A. or none at all. this is a problem for me because i'm always pushing it to the limits, sometimes beyond. If you're playing gigs where the P.A. is of decent size this amp is great. The D.I on board sends you actually amps sound to the desk which can be raised in volume.

The tone control is highly responsive and can be tweaked fairly easily. the boost switchs for high and low are a handy feature too but my high boost has got a buzz to it when switched to on which only has happened recently and can be compensated with more treble.

This amp would go down well in small acoustic style gigs. I played it at a Jazz gig once and it was sweet for that as well. But heavy pumpin rock can limit it unless you have a balls P.A. to back it up

I play everything from Jazz to rock. I play a fender Jazz Bass with EMG active pickups which i got installed. with help from the pick ups i can get to a Flea punchy bass sound to a high mid sound Jaco sound quite easily and the amp can respond to these changes with the way i set up the eq with the high and low mids taken out and more bass and treble and mids around the middle. the channel can distort if you pushing it to hard though (watch the VU meter)

This is the only amp i own. I play 2-3 gigs a week in loud setting and i feel i'm skating on thin ice cranking the amp so loud. I've got a cheap 450 watt amp on lay by which i pay of soon so i can give this amp a rest. It has'nt ever broken down though and the only thing that i find to be an issue is the high boost button which has a buzz now and a buzz from the D.I. which i think is caused by my engineers ****** leads

i don't inted to worry to much about the high boost till I get the other amp so i can get it looked

Overall like anything in this world this amp has good qualities and bad. I will keep this because on many gigs it works well like smaller stuff. but if you're playing in a metal or punk or lound band get something with a bit more wattage like its bigger brother the MAG-300H or MAG-600H

Made in 2004, 180W RMS head, light and compact, very well built. Has a rugged black carpet covering and bright blue front and back plates. Has High and low inputs, input gain control with LED meter to show the input level. 5 band rotary tone control (a good thing, i hate graphic EQ's) with bright and deep switches. Series effects loop sockets on front panel. Sub harmonizer, and an excellent built in DI.

Its a very versatile amp, tho i cant imagine trying to get a "polite" sound out of it if you know what i mean. Its certainly made for loud music styles.

I play rickenbacker basses and use this head with a pair of 1x15 ported cabs fitted with celestion BL15-150 150w speakers. this amp is LOUD and meaty, i go for loud, growly aggresive sound with plenty of bottom- think the who or the jam crossed with motown.

Although the cheapest Ashdown bass head, the sound and quality are top notch. The EQ controls have a very wide sweep to them which i really like, and all the controls affect the frequencies that alter a basses sound the most - no excessive sub bottom or ultra twangy top boost, its all where it actually counts. The DI output is excellent and very hot - it transfers the amps proper tone to the house PA perfectly and is also fixed in post EQ mode (no more sound guys pissing you off by putting a flat tone thru the PA)

To sum up the sound of these amps, they are basically a trace elliot on steriods. Similar layout of controls and features but a much meatier sound. considering it is fairly low wattage for a modern bass amp - this amp is INSANELY LOUD - i never go much about 1/4 ouput volume and i easily match a pair of 100w guitar combos and a loud drummer although the speaker cabs i use with mine do admittedly affect this.

In my opinion the only sore point is the "sub-harmonic generator" feature. I really wish that knob wasnt even there. The idea is it kinda double tracks your playing one octave down,,,,nice idea but USELESS. very few speaker set ups can go one octave below low E (let alone a low B as on a 5 string) so the result is inconsisten muddy sound. Thinking about it, as the DI is post EQ, the sub would work when put through a large PA with bass bins etc, but again the results would probably be mud.

Has not let me down and ive owned it a year. seems very sturdy and well assembled.

I emailed Ashdown with a few queries and they were very helpful, tho as my amp has not broken yet i have never really dealt with them;)

Fantastic value for money. LOUD! The MAG series amps look nicer, but as far as i can see this only difference between the MAG 300 and the EB180H is more power and the looks.

A bargain!