Ashdown MAG-C115-200 115 Bass Combo

I have post 2003 model with two 10inch speakers. A 300 watt head, fan cooled great amp lost of power. Plenty of low end, great for earth moving bass tones

I play in a post rock band, so the low response is perfect for my sound. I also play in a number a jazz combos, in these i play a fretless bass the smooth tones of the ashdown perfect for the jazz sound.

I've had it for about 3 weeks ive played 4 gigs and on the 4th i was 6 songs into my set and it just stopped working. I wasnt pushing the amp to its limits. I was playing at a volume well within its capabilty. There is still signal going into the amp but nothing coming out which leads me to believe the speakers blew. To me as a semi-pro musician isnt good enough, the speakers in the bainet should be capable of taking twice as much as the amp will offer!!!

I contacted Ashdown today and im waiting for a reply!

Great amp, great sounds lots of power!! just the reliability of the speakers.

My Ashdown MAG-C115 was built in 2001. It's a combo of the MAG 200 Head built with the 15 inch cabinet underneath it. Mine has a black head. RMS is 200 W, peak output is 400 W. I write this review beacause I couldn't disagree more with the first reviewer I read. He claims it's not loud!! I think he should plug his guitar into the right input. The Ashdown VU-meter is a very useful feature. It allows you to always play the same sound, wether you're playing at high or low volume, because you can keep your preamp in the same region.
I play a lot of different styles going from funky rock (RHCP) to Metallica, stoner rock (QOTSA, Kyuss, MonsterMagnet), jazz (Marcus Miller), Dance... With our band we play a combination of stonerrock and metal.
Besides the VU-meter, it has an input for passive and active guitars, low boost, high boost, switchable 5-band rotary equalizer, sub-harmonics (delivers awesome punch), a direct inject output, a post eq. level line out (comes in handy if you want to plug the amp into your computer to record stuff) and an effect loop. All of these feature come in handy and the most important thing: try finding an amp with these features and this sound for this price!! Of course there are always things you would like to see differently, like the line out that should be pre equalizer in stead of post, because now you can't fiddle with your eq. when the PA has set everything up. If you do, you'll fuck up the gig's sound. There's also no headphone jack, but you can unplug the cabinet and put the headphone in there. downside is that you get mono-sound with a lot of hissing. I would have also liked to have a horn.
I use this amp for playing at home, for rehearsal and as a stage-monitor for gigs. Another thing, as far as amps go,it's unbelievebly light and easy to carry around due to the two handles in the sides and its small volume. The grating in front protects the speaker and the cabinet is sealed air-thight. It's good value for money.

I find this amp provides a lot of different tones and sounds. I play a Musicman Stingray 4 and also have an Ibanez RoadstarII. The amp has an unbelievable bottom end and grunt, that will litterally blow away anything. For a full solid state it even has quite a good overdrive sound with my Ibanez turbo tubescreamer. Its 'natural' overdrive sound, obtained by pushing the pre-amp into the red zone is awefull and sounds like a computer. A good thing is that every knob of the equalizer actually does what it's supposed to do and after a while you can really dial what you want. Don't you just hate 10-band equalizers? It does require some fiddling to get a good slapsound, meaning you have to turn both treble-equalizer knobs all the way up, making bottom end a bit sharp too. I guess this is because there's no horn. I've thought about buying an extra cabinet with 2x10 inches and a horn to solve this problem. But whatever you do (besides running it into the pre-amps red zone), the amp has a warm sound and I love the depth.

I've never experienced any problems with it, though mine has no fan (later models from 2003 do). If you look inside the head there is plenty of room, so I guess ventilation is quite good as it is. I play for 2 hours at 3 quarters of the max volume regularly and have never had it fail on me.

Never had any problems, but I think support should be quite good, because I got an email from Mark Gooday himself when I sent in my registration.

I've only been playing for 2 years, and this is the first decent amp I've owned. But I am very critical and have compared it to a lot of other amps.I compared it to a Hugh's and Kettner stack (with a tube head, 1 15" and 4 10") which cost more than double and decided the Ashdown was better value. Same with a Trace Elliot. I played an Ampeg (the one with the 100 W woofer and the 50 W tweeter with a 10-band equalizer, I can't remember the specific type) when I had the Ashdown for a few weeks and the ampeg wasn't half as loud and kept flashing the limiter. I also compared it to the lower range 'Electric Blue' and found the difference in sound to be staggering. (don't buy the electric blue series, they should never have been produced).I never tried the ABM's but I think they must be incredible. They are used by bands like U2 and Audioslave. For the price I paid for it, I'm sure I couldn't buy a better amp. Portability and flexibility was very important to me, and I just love its looks. Downsides are the lack of a horn, headphone jack and post eq. line out. Though I'm very pleased with it, I would probably buy an ABM if it were stolen, for it's distortion sound.
I've seen prices of Ashdown MAG's and ABM's have gone up a lot since I bought mine (mine was one of the first, before they made a name for themselves). now a MAG costs just over 1000 EUR in belgium. The most important thing is that you compare amps yourself and use these reviews as a quideline. de gustibus non est disputandum.

Hi. Amp was made in 2001, bought the same year. I play ska, reggae, punkrock, blues and some hardcore stuff. Amp is great fo all of those styles, but if only you play guiet ;). There is an effect loop and di. out. It sounds good if its a practice or a studio amp, but if you want it for a gig or if you want to practice with your drummer (and his drums ;) ) it sound like shit.

Hell. I play 5 string Ibanez Atk and Fender Jazz Usa Standart. Sound is great, vey versitable, the effect - harmonizer or something like taht is built in the amp, it gives you very warm bass when you play in high positions, f.e on the 14 fret.

I wouldn't use it on a gig ;), for saken I have sold this combo. I think you can rely on it, but ... it's just a practise aamp.

I've been playing for two years. I used cheap half stacks (head and 4 x 10'') ans I wanted some "great" sound, so I bought this amp. As I wrote I use 5 string Ibanez Atk and 4 string Fender USA. IT sounds very good with this amp AT HOME, while PRACTISING. I've taken it to paly with teh drums. I had to adjust volume and preamp gain to 10 and it wasn't enough loud to play with the drums. The amp is 200W.
My drummer had Peavey 60 W on 15'' so I switched plugged into taht amp. It was LOUDER tahn Ashdown, and I didn't have to distort the sound (which was the ashdown on 10). In general: It' something with those Ashdown's. A friend of mine plays 14 years, on basem he is the general importer of Ashdown on Poland. He says the amps are shitty - they are quiet for their wattage. Cabs are ok, but the amps ... Never mind, do not buy Ashdown shit, better buy old Trace Elliot, as I did after selling my Ashdowm.

I purchased this combo in 2002, I think it was made a few years before. I like it's mobility and it has just enough power for small gigs. I haven't played very loud with this combo yet, but if you look at the inside of the amp, it will amaze me if it can. The poweramp itself is very small and has no fan for cooling. I think it will overheat easily. I'm thinking of putting in a fan myself to be sure.

I'm playing a Warwick 4-string Thumb bass and an upright 4-string Van Zalinge (acoustic but with a 'minimal' body, Sting plays one too). It sounds great electric with nice toneshaping features, easy to get a lot of different usefull sounds. The Van Zalinge sounds very good too. When I purchased it I compared it with SWR, Eden and other combo's. The top of the line Eden's and SWR were better but costs 3 times more, the more affordable combo's just sounded less. The Ashdown sounds great for both electric and acoustic bass.

No problems yet.

No problems yet.

I play for about 10 years. I owned a Trace Elliot 250 head an a Mesa Boogie 15-400 cabinet before. That's an awesome combi but it's very heavy to move around, especially when you're without a car and have to take all your other gear with you too. The Ashdown is very easy to move around with and has great sound if you're not playing very loud. If it were stolen I would probably buy another Ashdown but with bigger Watts.