Ashdown MAG-300H Head

Well covered before. Wish it was the normal 19" rackspace size though. The EQ is nice and basic. Push buttons are handy too for some quick tone-shaping.

Vintage basses, Jazz's and P's. Rock to alt-country. I guess the way to describe this is that it's better than it should sound for the money. Where was a head of this sound quality for this kind of bread 20 years ago?

Solid, round, and warm. It's not an Eden, and it's not an SVT, and you shouldn't expect it to be. I got mine for the price of a pedal and it serves as a stellar backup and practice rig. I loan it out to friends and it chugs along famously.

This one has taken a beatin' and still runs like a champ. I was getting a popping noise and turns out it was a bad cord not the amp's fault.

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I'm an Eden guy with a couple of SVT's. Saw this on CL for $145 and snapped it up. The guy even brought it over. It's been a reliable, decent-sounding workhorse that keeps the mileage off the better gear. Wonderful price, nice piece of gear.

Not sure what year, but it is the most recent model. I play hardcore, but have also used this amp for hip hop, rock, pop, lots of others, and with a bit of fiddling with the settings, it is pretty versitile. It comes with the sub harmoniser thing, which really doesn't do much, if you're buying the amp purely because of that, keep looking, or buy a pedal, because it really doesn't make that much difference.
As for power, it's 307 watts i believe. I have a peavey milestone 3 bass (which is pretty ordinary) going into an mxr bass d.i. and a boss tuning pedal into the amp matched with the mag 410 cab. It's easily loud enough for mediums size gigs, and can easily hold it's own at gigs without p.a's BUT this is with the mxr pedal, it tends to struggle a bit with out it.
The Controls are very simple to understand, and it has the knob eq, not the other type (which i hate). The knobs are easy to turn, and because the casing bit comes out the front past the knobs, you have little chance of snapping a knob off (like i did on my old amp)
It also has the measure to show the input level, which i sometimes find goes into the red which i worry about, but it still works well.

Like i said before, i'm using it with a terrible peavey milstone 3 bass, only because it's light and easy to throw around, and surprisingly, this amp can make this bass sound pretty damn good. Primarily i play screamo/hardcore, and it goes well for this sort of music, getting a really good treble sound out of the amp. However, as i mentioned before, a lot of the good sound from this amp, comes when i have my mxr pedal running into it. Without it i have found that the amp sometimes struggles and the sound sounds like it needs a bit more balls behind it. with the pedal, it sounds so good though.

I've had the amp about a month now, and i've already played about 12 shows with it. It has been very reliable, not a stuff up yet. Especially as it's been in the back of a trailer with a nut of a driver, so i'm assuming it's been bouncing about a bit. It's easy as to set up, and runs smoothly without cutting out and faultering.

Haven't had to deal with them, hopefully won't have to. Comes with a 1 Year warranty. would've prefered a longer warranty, so i'll give them a 7.

I've been playing bass almost all the way through high school, so about 5 years. Before this, i was using a randall 410 combo amp, which was the heaviest, worst sounding, ugliest thing i've ever used. Once i snapped the volume knob off that, i decided instead of fixing it, i should look into a new amp. As i am still in school, i haven't got much money, so ashdown was looking like the best option, as i don't like behringer or hartke amps. I would've got something rackmountable, but i already have my d.i. pedal which is like a preamp, and a floor tuner, so i really don't need a rackmountable amp.
If it were stolen, i'd either get the same model again, or one of ashdown's higher amps, i like them, they sound good, look cool, and they're SIMPLE! None of this thousand knobs for things you don't need, they have what you need, and what you get, is simple to use.
I compared it to the behringers mainly, because they're the cheapest, and i just don't like behringers, ashdown has a more sophisticated sound, and look (i judge a lot on the look of your amp, cos you gotta look cool while you play it hahaha) and i didn't like the hartkes cos they don't have the casing around them, and they have the 7/10 band eq's which i can't stand, because you spend about an hour getting your settings right each gig.
I'd recommend this to anyone who's looking to buy their first head to match with a cab. It's loud enough for medium gigs with/without p.a. I'll probably add another cab onto it later on, but i don't even think this needs another massive cab, i'll probably only add on a 210.
All in all, it's the first time in the 5 years i've been playing, that i've been happy with how my playing sounds. and that's saying something!

It's the 2007 model. Crafted in China.

I play punk-rock, HxC, oi!, ska, reggae, soul... And it always sounds very well.

180W/8ohms (mag 410 cabinet), but 307W/4ohms with an additional cabinet! I've never tried because the 180W are really enough to play with a drummer and two guitarists (and their half stacks).

I use a Fender P-Bass. The best thing with this amp is that you can produce a tube sound for only 579 euros (head + cabinet)!

It's not a real tube sound of course, because there's no tube inside. But it seems.

In my opinion it sounds better than an Hartke 3500 or a Berhinger 4500.

I've been playing on it during 6 monthes. No problem.

If I was richer, I would like to buy an ABM amp. Maybe Ashdown delivers the sound I like.

good amp 307 watts @ 4 ohms
but also very loud with a 8 ohm cab

best amp i ever played (below 1000$)

sounds clear and nice with e bass and upright

great giging thing

i bought it 2 days ago and it sounds so awsome

the di out is also a good thing.

i get a 4 ohm cab because i play upright and do not have a good pre amp.

if you play ebass you wont need more than the ashdown 2x10 8 ohm cab. even for small bars/pubs.....

thanks to the di you do have the di i out for big venues with pa !

that thing ROCKS ! get it ! theres nothing combareable in this pricerange

Sorry for my english, but i'm Italian!
For the money I've lost.... it works!!!
Seriously, it has a good response, the first thing I noticed was the "sub-harmonics" button and switcher. And I use it!!!
I always thought that minimum eq is the best to take out the real bass sound (so, no GRAPHIC EQ!!!)

I play in a punk-rock band so the sound hasnt'got to be very precise.
I've got a YAMAHA RBX 775 and with it sounds so punchier and immediate!
It sounds a bit "growling" if it's put in a very small place! Once I had to play in a Club and the evening became a "bass noise full immersion"!

til this moment no problem

never had any contact with ashdown
Warranty: 2 Years

As I said it's a really enjoying amp!
It's a good mate if you're a rocker but you don't necessary need a POWERFUL-PRECISE-ULTRAMODERN amp & cab.
Played with a FENDER PRECISION BASS and a YAMAHA RBX 375(cheaper version of RBX 775) too: No failures, it works hard and ROCKS!

A verstile bass amp that has good design concept. Apparently delivers 307W into 4ohms and certainly appears to deliver the goods. Two i/p's, one for passive with a sensible input impedance above 3Mohms and a lower impedance and lower gain input for passive/higher level signals. The input volume control sensibly adjusts the gain down to zero and appears to be applied before any amplification. The Five tone controls interact quite nicely giving good abilty for shaping the sound. Ultrabass feature is *OK* ish, the lower octaves sounding like pulses added to the sound, the octave down sound produced sounds more like pulses in general rather than a real pure tone. Bass and treble boost buttons, the bright button also appears to add some bottom end too, a bonus...

It's very good but I sometimes think it lacks absolute *balls* but I'm not complaining. Maybe the power supply needs beefing up? No funny noises and a quiet pre-amp, not too bad even with EVERYTHING up full. Has good clarity, the tone controls allows considerable EQ for most things along with the deep and bright buttons for extreme settings. This amp does seem to have some character of it's own in a rounded kind of way.
I tried the amp through some high qualtiy speakers and CD material and it gave very nice results (in mono) and really quite hi-fi.. Must tell us something?

It's still working, can't comment. It's a big box with very little inside.

They have always been helpful.

It does what it's supposed to do and it's a sensible price.
I would replace it if it were stolen or lost. Ashdown seem to have done their homework with their gear in general and produce a satisfying product for the money.

Nearly all the features that you need are there. The subharmonics filter is worth mentioning. What I sorely miss is a graphic EQ..

Sounds great! very clear and crisp sound, truly responsive. It runs into an Ashdown ABM 410 cabinet (what else?), and the two are a great couple.
I play a 12-string bass as well as 4-string, and the 12-string never sounded so good!

Bought it in december 2005, still working flawlessly. Several gigs and practice sessions since then, so no problems there.

did not need them yet, nor do I want to :)

Been playing for nearly 30 years now, started out in punk. Have used Peavey and Hughes & Kettner amps, until I discovered Smirnoff, ah, Ashdown :)
If some bastard with good taste relieves me of it by stealing it, I would run to the store and replace it; however, if I have some more cash I might get an Ashdown ABM head instead.
Love: all of it. Hate: nothing.

Keep it simple stupid suits me fine.
Sounds great into 2- 8 ohm Mag 4x10 cabs = 4 ohm total.
Well made. Not many features. Very nice voiceing!
Has held up great gets played out and full time in my studio.
Cool logo and blue speakers make it a looker, actually get comments.

G&L basses work well. Nice voiceing.
Quite punchy and clear.
Suits rock to whatever.
Fan noise not a issue at all,
I might be worried if I didn't hear it.

So Far AOK.
Is well made.

Great head for the money!
So are the mag cabs.!
Plug and play, no frills,
powerfull, easily handles large gigs +
I would buy again..

5 band EQ, high / low inputs, VU meter for gain setting, low and high boosts, sub harmoniser etc.. Single channel on 300H. none of the features are footswitchable on this model. No too many features on this amp, which is fair enough considering the money (#250 sterling) and to be honest, if you can't get at least a half-way decent bass sound out of this then change your bass.

I play a variety of basses 5/4 string fretted and fretless and in a live situation this amp has just about all the tones you could need. Played one gig with mine (wedding do) so material was anywhere from jazz to pop/rock to funk and I was impressed with the responsiveness of the amp. Fan is a little noisy though, OK for live work but in the studio I'd recommend the D.I. out (clean as a whistle) as opposed to mic'ing your cabinet (unless it was far enough away from the microphone).

I had this amp for 11 days (which equates to two studio recordings and one gig) and the buttons started falling apart, which was a shame as up to this point the amp had done everything I wanted it to. The EQ button snapped on the model I had - leaving one half inside the amp to rattle nicely. I realise that this is only a budget head, but I really expected more from a company like ashdown. Returned it to the shop shortly afterwards. Don't get me wrong, the amp is reliable and was still fully functional, but I began to ask some serious questions concerning the build quality, hence the 5

Not dealt with customer support.

I've been playing for nearly 15 years and am a busy bunny when it comes to gigs / sessions etc... so have played through literally tons of different rigs, this one wasn't bad; actually it was quite pleasing for the money (straight-forward layout and not overly complicated) and the overall sound of the amp was slightly wooly (an OK wooly, not the Ampeg kind) but with enough cut for slapping/harmonics etc... but I had issues about it being held together with Christmas cake. Wouldn't buy another (didn't even keep it) purely on this point alone.

I've had this amp for a few months now, bought it new. I usually just run it flat and adjust tone on my bass (Conklin GT7-BD). Many features listed above, so I won't repeat.

It's noisy. Too noisy. It's an amp, so it's fine for my purposes - I run it into a Aguilar GS112, and play jazz / flamenco music in a trio setting. I had assumed that even the lower end Asdown line would still be decent quality, but the noise is really a bother. As an example, I've got a Boss ME-50b multi effects. If I have it plugged into the amp and the amp plugged into the wall, then even when listening to headphones plugged into the Boss unit, I get noise - even when the amp is *TURNED OFF*. If I unplug the amp, there's no noise. And there's both a high-freq buzzing coming through the tweeter and a lower-freq noise.

Bottom line - the tone is fine, but the signal to noise is not good, because the noise is too high.

No problems.

I've been playing for 26 years. I wouldn't buy it again, and I'd even hesitate to buy their high-end equipment at this point. I bought this in part because the ratings on this site were favorable, I trusted the name Ashdown, and the price was right. I figured I owed to to others considering this item to bring up the noise problem.