Ashdown Five Fifteen 115 Combo

Very basic features, gain and volume, 3 band EQ, headphones out, extention cab out, line in (for Ipod etc), 15 inch speaker. Very basic amp.

I used my Ibanez GSR200. Nothing really that great about it. The EQ barely made any difference to the tone. You had to turn it up to 5 to get a good amount of volume out of it, and it starts breaking up at about 5 1/2. It is cool if you want to annoy people I guess, the 15 inch speaker really makes it rumble, but it will sound horrible if you turn it up that loud.

Out of the 7 months or so I owned this amplifier, I had it in my house for about 1 1/2. The fuse blew within a few weeks, and it takes them ages to fix it. It was all covered by warranty, but it takes about 2 months to get it back to my music shop. This happened not once, but 3 times. It really deserves -2 for reliability.

Continuing from above, the repairs guy at my local music store talked to the head supplier of Ashdown in my area and told him that he was sick of that amp and wanted to give me a full refund (store credit). He didn't want to, and they said that they would get it fixed by better people than the ones who fixed it before. I never heard it, but the guy at my music store said he played throught it when he got it back and it sounded worse than when he sent it off. The customer support is even worse than the reliability of the amp, I should give it about -4

The people at my local music shop said it was the worst amp they have had to deal with in terms of repairs and customer support. I didn't own it enough to get a good sound out of it. It is huge, heavy and very quiet for a 115 combo. Any bass amp is better than this, whether it is a no-name, Behringer or a shoe box. Unless you want a really big heavy object to take up space in your room, this amp serves no purpose in amplifying an instrument.

My old church bought one and I used it today cos I couldnt be bothered lugging my gear out of my car... 1x15, basic EQ, basic amp...

Ok this is why i'm submitting this review...

I brought 2 basses with me for a practice (fender marcus V and a stingray 4). I figured that i'd just use the amp that was there, we were playing some heavy rock and a bit of light stuff - and initially i plugged my marcus V in and she sounded ok, but this was at 20% volume ... soon as I turned up one of the pups, the amp started distorting and sounded absolutely ridiculously crap - so bad that I had to stop the practice, and change basses. Tried my Stingray, and it was even worse; distortion, clipping, couldnt take it - I had to halt everything for 5 minutes and run to the car to get my combo (markbass 2x10). I've gone through a lot (a LOT) of bass amps in my time and this ashdown one... Worse. Combo. Ever.

Meh dunno used it for less than a minute

N/A

Well whoever paid for this should have tried it with a decent active bass first; I reckon it might have been ok with a crap cheap passive bass with zero volume, but use any decent-ish bass and this thing cant take it at all ... sound was terrible, terrible terrible...

Basic - but thats sometimes good! gain, 3 band eq, output level. The preamp appears to be "linear" i.e. the volume increases as the eq controls are turned. My old Sound City 120 had the same system. I bought this to use as a practice/accoustic gig amp. The Laney R3 was much louder but had a horrible "barking" tone in my opinion. The "Perfect ten" had a slightly better, tighter, tone but this handles the low notes better due to the 15" driver. It doesnt appear to be significantle louder though. Bizarre - the "deep" switch on mine seems to make the sound less deep when it is pushed in!

My main basses are a Wal Custom, a Fender Jazz jap '60s reissue with Duncan active board & an ancient Westone fretless. This little combo has a nice tight vintagey sound. The Wal sounds suberb (obviously hehe!), the J sounds like a J! the fretless sounds really good - it sings and howls like a fretless should and this amp gives, if anything a better fretless tone than my huge Trace Elliot/Ampeg gigging rig. Ive gigged this the other night - the 2 acoustic guitars & the vocals were going thru the PA - i used the combo on its own and whilst its not deafening, it had more than enough volume for the job. People actually commented favourably on the tone of the bass!

Well I've only just bought this so we'll see! I have read a few horror stories on here but have been told that there were issues with a specific batch of amps - hopefully mine isnt one of them! It seems quite a sturdy construction and nothing has started rattling or falling off yet so we'll keep fingers crossed

Only just got it

Its a nice combo with a sound that more than matches units costing a lot more. Its not loud enough to use in a rock band if you're trying to compete with the guitarists' Boogies/Marshalls. For the money it is truly remarkable. It must have been built down to a price but I cant see any obvious cost-cutting other than the limited features. I would certainly buy another one. I guess that side handles would make it easier to carry but that would add to the price I'm sure. The strap handle is ok for reasonably short distances.

Basic Bass Amp set up. Nothing fancy.

Nice Vintage sound while it worked.

Played it for a couple of months, hadn't even transported it to a show before it blew out. I can see by many of the other reviews that this is a problem that seems to recurr. I'm scrapping mine for an Ampeg or Fender amp.

I'm not even going to bother. I don't have time for unreliable
crap.

Nice price, sounds good... breaks down. Forget it.

This is a basic budget-price 1x15 bass combo ideal for rehearsals and smaller gigs.

Sound quality not bad, although I've found it distorts quite noticeably when the volume is up above about 7. Not as much bottom end as I'd have liked.
Limited range of sounds - not much in the way of EQ. No DI out. It does hoever have a headphone socket which is useful for home practise.

Worked fine for a year, gigged it quite a bit, then one day it just packed up (blown output stage). Worth repairing, so I did, but maybe only once. After all this is kit made down to a budget price, so I wouldn't expect it to be without its weak points.

Havent dealt with manufacturer - took it to tech for repair.

I've been playing nearly 30 years. Mostly play Rickenbacker basses. I bought this because I needed something small and rugged to take out on the road/to rehearsals, instead of carrying my more usual valve gear around all the time.

This is the latest version of this model, the Mark 2.
Bought this new after faffing around with little practice (30W and under!) combos. Laneys, Peavys, Kustoms etc.

*Bass and guitar players, if you only ever take one piece of advice, take this- buy your 3rd amp first. Unless you are severely restricted in your noise output, hell, even IF you are, dont bother with the little weeny amps that look so cute and compact when youre selecting your first lot of gear. Sure, you can walk to your bandmate's house with one and noone will mug you for it :-) but you will outgrow them too quickly and possibly lose a lot of $ in the process of trading up. If you can stretch to it, go for the gruntier units first time if you suspect you have any playing ability whatsoever; youll sound better and this is very motivating.

Anyhoo, back to the review. Ive always been disappointed by the volume and grunt of smaller combos but with a small wooden house and no car, I was wary about buying a large stack or something stupidly huge. I just dont have the space and I sort of value the things that would be sent jittering onto the floor from shelves when I played. Im sure Im not alone in these boring but practical considerations.
I was tossing up between the cute (yes Im a girl) 60W Ashdown stack and this 100W ugly little carpety box. Although the stack was unsurprisingly a little more articulate, the carpety box won because it was $100 cheaper, quite a bit louder and the low end better suits my excessive devotion to all things phat.

There are zero to no frills. Volume, sep. equalizer knobs, 'deep' button to pump your bottom end, in, out, headphone jack, and thats it. No compressor, no dials, no num nums. If you want bells and whistles go for the stack. 15 inch speaker ahhhhhhhhhh yeah. Youll never go back.
ONE thing that does annoy is the on off switch being located way down the back of the amp- doh! If you have to sit it under a table or unit etc, thats a chafing little bitch of a design flaw. Why not on top you twits?
I dont really wish for a compressor. My Laney 30 had one and it sort of annoyed me- when youre learning (as I am) it makes you sound better than you are in a way that stunts your development. Theyre only worth having if theyre top notch so go for a dedicated pedal.
How do you put a rating number on something thats not trying to be fancy and thus does not really fall short despite it's lack of extras? Call it 8.

I have 2 basses. A Fender Urge 1 mediumscale boltneck with active pickups, very responsive, light and sparkly to play for one end of the scale, and a vintage Ibanez P+J pickup copy from the 70's that is the other end, large, heavy and sounding huge, dark and thunderous on it's P setting which I mostly use.

I play mostly alt & rock so if youre a jazzy slapper you might want to keep this in mind. The amp sits on a wooden floor in a smallish crowded room with high ceilings.

This amp is quiet, clean and obedient, even with my unsheilded vintage instruments. Even with everything twisted right round it is impressively silent and this is great.
Makes a very passable guitar amp as well.
The sound is everything you expect of this brand- meaty, scopey, rich with plenty of headroom. Amps should give you a pleasant surprise when you first play them, and always play your own instruments when choosing. I did and this unit flatters both of my very different basses.
It is difficult to distort without the help of a pedal - I use a Proco TurboRat for that and the distortion is smooth and full, as opposed to the spiky, more crunchy results from my smaller amps. With some twiddling you can get snappier crunch. With more twiddling you can get a very steady and respectable fuzz- cool! Sounds good with a Boss vintage Flanger and Chorus, and is very accommodating of my Boss minirack unit reverb- sounds full, expressive and smooth.

I like the 'deep' setting; you dont lose too much range. Though I dont actually need it with my Ibanez, who can resist adding that hellbound boom to your bottom? It fleshes out my Fender and makes it sound quite menacing, which is an unexpected bonus.

Love the 15" speaker. Why did I wait this long to get one? It really eats a lot of the rattling thrown off by smaller units so take this into consideration if youre short on space or cluttered.

Not as loud as I expected 100Ws to be, but this is my insatiable lust for volume talking. Plenty loud enough for a small gig and fine for loud jams. Truth be told, if a drummer wants to pound you into oblivion, theyre pretty much going to be able to do that no matter what unit you plonk down in the corner.

This is a great all round domestic combo that will gig without the help of a forklift. From a female perspective you might want to test the weight to see if you can lift it; I can but many will struggle. It sucks not being able to move your own gear.
Fits unobtrusively into a cluttered setting.

Ashdown have a reputation for reliability. With the lack of fancy doodahs on this unit I cant see much going wrong. It has a metal grille and is erm... thickly carpeted... for protection if nothing else. Controls are deeply recessed meaning theres nothing to stick out and bust off.

I dont know but apparently theyre good to deal with.

Been playing 2 years from scratch.
Ive had this a couple of months now and Im still impressed with the way it doesnt wimp out when you want to play aggressively, from being used to small units shitting themselves with my whacky volume demands :-) I find this combo a pleasure to use and Im not still hurting financially from the $600 retail I paid for it.
It sounds great, is portable, VERY pedal-friendly (much more so than other bass amps Ive looked at) and my only real complaint is the hidden power switch.
Domestically no one needs any more volume than this. It will gig small-medium scale. It fits into a small house. I dont need a roadie and a truck to go somewhere with it. Someone once told me that there is no combo on earth that can really handle a big bass sound but now I have to disagree.
If it were stolen Id buy another without hesitation- thats what insurance is for :-)
Acquire with confidence- where else will you get 100Ws for this price???

Solid state 15" 100w combo made in China.
Don't expect too much for features, it has a very simple layout: input gain, bass,treble,middle, output level, a boost switch and intputs for line, headphones and output for an 8ohm spkr.It does the job right. Flawless finish, beautiful and elegant looks really nice.

The sounds s really good and punchy, it has a beautiful sustain for every note. I'm playing through a 5 string Ibanez passive pup's. I'm not sure about the strenght of this heavy guy (58lbs) I mean 100w but I haven't tested yet on small gigs I hope it does the job but at least for practice pourposes it works great.

No problems in this department!

N/A

I've been playing guitar many years. With bass let's say I have experience of around 2 years but I'm very advanced since my previous talent or lack of it in the guitar :-) The thing is that I would recommend this amp, specially because it is very affordable, looks great and sounds great what else do you want.

What I don't like about it is the weight.

I got this Dec 2004. It is very simple to use and boasts five contraol knobs, top mounted. There is and input, AUX input, headphones and external outputs. I use this amp for home practice, but I cant really crank it up too much. I get a chance around once a month to gig it and then it really comes into play. The 100WATTS does the trick.

I play gentle styles on the bass, nothing fancy or over the top, but do from time to time speed things up (rock). This amp does the blues/Jazz sound justice

This amp was a replacement I got for an Ashdown Perfect Ten. That Amp blew after 2 days and I exchanged it for the Five Fifteen. a good move I'd say. I have not had any trouble wit the Five Fifteen.

Not directly, but the music shop was good in taken the faulty 30Watter off me.....

I have a fender bass going into this amp. I don't use any other effects on this amp. I cannot remember the price, but I do remember that it compared very competative against other amps in the same range. I like this amp and would probably not buy one again if stolen or lost. I would look for a higher spec Bass amp, but for the moment this amp suits me fine.

Has the usual five knobs a bass amp would have, 15" speaker and the contols on top which is really easy to reach instead of bending down real far 2 the front of the amp.

I use a fender mark hoppus bass, with seymour duncan p-bass pickups onj it and its sounds amazing! I used 2 use it with my peavey milestone 3, and it made my #150 peavey sound like a decent fender jazz bass. But with my mark hoppus its unbelieveable!!! Its very loud, a lot of people have 65watt ones with a blackcontrol plate but i have a 100watt vercsion(must be a older one) with a silver control plate (which looks better)

I have used it 4 2 gigs and will use it for many more and i have had no problems with it its very loud and fills a hall @ half volume. Nothing has ever gone wrong its sounds amazing and @ both of the gig i have taken it 4 or 5 bands have used it and changed their settings to what they want and they have given me some good comments on it.

Never had 2 deal with them

Its just an amazing amp, i got it cheap in a deal in fret music in southampton, because my brother got a guitar @ the same time and i am so chuffed with it. It will last me 4 years of gigging and its very portable because its a complete cube in every way so its not an awkward shape and i am 14 and i can get it in and out of cars fine etc. so its not 2 heavy.

i have no idea on the age of the amp as i bought it used.
its a 65W solid state (im pretty sure it is) amp with a single 15" paper cone speaker and a carpet kind of covering. it is incredibly simple to use, it only has gain, bass, middle, high and output volume conrols, as well as a deep button that boosts the mids. the only problem is the power is on the back, so shoved against a wall its hard to turn off and on. it has 1 input, a headphone jack and a external connection to a 8 ohm cab. i use this amp for practice at home and in a band and its loud enough to be just heard over a very loud and fast drummer.

it gives a very defined sound, not too deep but still bassy. however you have to turn the bass knob to about 20% to get any volume at all out of it, but i think thats normal. it suits everything from thrash metal to classic rock to jazz, and shows little signs of blowing. it isnt noisy at all unless you crank the highs, but thats normal. it will only distort if you turn the bass too high and have the volume loud, and sometimes it takes a little while to settle (i had it distorting on low volumes after a jam)

i would depend on it with my life. i mean, it seems sturdy enough, and is too heavy to be easily knocked over (its around 26kg). for the amount of time ive had it it hasnt broken down, and theres no signs of repair from previous owners. the only niggle is the handle screws like to go loose at times, but thats easily fixed

i havent dealed with Ashdown

in spite of a few tiny niggles it is a brilliant amp, very loud and pushes some air (personal experience with it lol). the only thing i hate is the weight of it, but thats normal since it is pretty big. if it was stolen i'd find it and kick the guys ass. if it had a couple more controls and 2 inputs rather than one it would be alot better, but thats where the Ashdown EB's come in

1x15 practice combo, top mounted controls with usual eq, pre and post gain, deep switch. No additional features like effects, limiters, etc. Bought new in Summer 2003. Substantial-feeling and physically solid - pretty big for a practice amp. Not very loud for 65 watts and only just up to practising/gigging with a largely acoustic trad jazz band in small venues.

Using a Fender USA Jazz bass with normal passive pickups and an Aria Precision copy with a Seymour Duncan passive p/u. Quiet enough but then it isn't very loud! Didn't seem to distort at high gain settings. Perfectly acceptable, nice, polite tone at parlour volumes.

Played out with it twice. First time, output transistors blew. Fixed under warranty. Second time, mains input fuse blew. Bear in mind this is playing polite jazz stuff, not attempting to blast the audience out. That was enough - the shop sent it back to Ashdown and the refunded money went on a Laney.

I won't offer an opinion as I didn't actually contact the company but left it to the shop (AroundaboutSound in Cheltenham, Glos)who were excellent, very embarrassed that they had sold me a poor item, and arranged a refund with no quiblle; can't ask for better than that. But Ashdown really need to get their after-sales service sorted, and their pre-sale quality control too.

Best thing I can say about this amp is that it made quite a good coffee-table. Sounded good in the shop. Sounded good but surprisingly lacking in oomph at home and practising. Hopelessly unreliable. Now returned and replaced with a Laney R2 which sounds hugely more punchy (but then it is double the power and costs quite a bit more). If I were constrained to something near #200 I'd probably go for the Laney R1, or possibly the Roland Bass Cube 30. I've lost faith in Ashdown - this is the second product of theirs I've bought that has been unreliable and they aren't getting a third chance!