Ashdown SuperFly Head

I never really started to use the features - they looked promising enough though

Sound quality was appaling. A constant high pitched whistle through one of the channels. I later found out that there is a major problem on the chinese power boards on a batch of these amps. I took it back to the store and tried NINE other Superfly heads - all with exactly the same fault.

As above - It didn't work from day 1, and Ashdown didn't have any working power boards because they're all in china!

Very friendly guys at ashdown - pity they couldn't lift a finger to help.

Just a warning to all. If you buy one of these - listen to it first, especially with all the bass rolled off to listen for that high pitched whistle. If you always play with the treble rolled off and don't have tweeters in your cabs you might not notice the sound, bu I don't know how long the power board will stay in one piece.

The Superfly has 2 x 250 watt digital amps each offering their max output at 4 ohms. This has been criticised and is a bit unusual. That said it is an excuse to run four 8 ohm cabs from it when you need! For what I paid and the fact that it is a 'portable' unit I really don't care. Besides most of the time I use just one of the onboard 250 watt amps powering 2 Ashdown 8 ohm cabs.

It has up to 99 stored settings for tone etc., with USB link enabling you to program the amp from a PC. The PC control side is easy despite the sparse instructions supplied. The same 'programability' can be achieved using the controls on the front of the amp.

Power is 'okay'. It's certainly powerful enough to play with a loud band, but I find I'm using more gain than I would with my 'conventional' Ashdown ABM head for the same thing.

It's compact and fairly light. More so if you strip off the sides and use the rack kit supplied.

Typical of an Ashdown it has a direct line output.

Also comes with carry bag and strap. Overall very stylishly presented.

Sound is very clean and full using a range of basses. I use Status basses, Fender Jazzes a Precision, plus a MM Stingray. You will not fail to cut through with the Superfly. It seems to be very close in matching the characteristics of the original instrument rather than adding its own colour to the sound.

Noise levels are low if at all evident. Noise is more likely to be caused by other factors at work depending where and how you have it set up. This is nothing unknown to sound engineers.

Being so programable it offers lots of tonal capability. I tend to have a favourite tone and have several very similar programs built around that.

The Superfly has had its critics. Mine has been fine though and I've gigged with it without backup for about 18 months. It doesn't even get as outrageously hot as some critics have suggested either. On the strength of this personal experience I'm happy with the reliability.

Ashdown are great for technical support. I've emailed them several times on general use and configuration questions and they've always been quick to respond and help out. Ashdown seem to love what they do.

I've had another product serviced by them and they were quick and very good.

I know others who have gone around to the Ashdown HQ and have had work done while they wait.

Been playing off and one for over 20 years and have had a lot of kit.

If I lost this I would try to get another (if I could!). I bought it as a portable backup to my main Ashdown ABM amp and have since used it pretty exclusively instead!

It looks cool, sounds very clear and articulate. I'm disappointed to have heard that some people have had problems because mine has been excellent so far and was bought for a very reasonable price.

Excellent kit!

For a small peice of gear, there is a lot going on here:
Dual channel 250 * 2
Incredible EQ (Fully 7 band parametric using the software.
99 memory locations for tone, input and output settings (30 are factory defaults).
USB and MIDI
4 ohm output so you can use those those delicious 70's British and American speakers.

Clean, quiet and powerful. I don't understand how they can get this much power out of something so small. I replaced my Ampeg Rocket b200r with this thing after hearing complaints from my friends about the Chinese Ampeg speaker. Now I use a combination of a British 15" HH cab from the late 70's and an assortment of 2X10s with or without horns. What a great combination!

This amp can fill a regular bar/club with enough sound, but I use the D.I. to go to the main board as well. Use one cab as a monitor, one faces the crowd.

The EQ is incredible...bring a pink noise generator and a laptop and you'll have seriously pro sound design at your fingertips for any hall or club you encounter. Fully parametric EQ I love it.

No comment 3 months of owning it seems to be fine so far. You might want to make a fancy flight case for it when travelling. But I just carry it on board.

So far, so good.

Haven't had to use yet.

Love it. I'm new school techie who wants old school tone. Without waiting for tubes to warm up and the wieght associated with it. With the tonal shaping possibilites you can get some strange sounds out of this thing. Set the eq to full attenuation for the bands, but place the width to .1 of an octave and you can attenuate individual notes! It's freaky.

I would of given this a ten had them made the frequency of the bands sweepable by foot switch for a free envelopeish/wah effect for free.

you guys pretty much what this amp is about, you read the details.
a bit less than 10kg, very small.
You have a 7 band equalizer, that is easy to use.
There are 10 sound presets, that you can modify, and then save as your own on the memory. You can save loads of different settings, more than 80, so you'll be fine.
You can download a program on Ashdown's website to modify the settings directly on your PC (I haven't); this program also allows you to access the compression in more details than on the head directly.
It comes with a carrier bag, and a strap.
The amp has 2 speakon line outs (2x 250W), and on jack line out, but I am not sure you can use that on to hook it up to a cab.

I used this amp on a Marshall cab, and I must say it sounded awesome!!!
I was very impressed and happy about my purchase. I used only one of the speakon line out (therefore only 250W of the power), but it sounded loud enough for our rehearsal.
However, I am in the process of buying the superfly 2x8 cabinet to use with this head, so I'll probably come back to update this review.
This amp doesn't distort, even when it is pushed to the maximum level. Some people mentioned some buzzing noise, which I haven't noticed at all.
The equalizer allows you to shape your sound in detail, and I managed to get really good sounds starting from the factory presets (And I am not too good at finding the sound I like).

The amp does not have any effect included except for the compression.

I don't have the money nor the space to use a backup, but I trust this amp. It is well heavy, and is solid, however, I would not drop it; but anyway, who drops their gig for fun?
The amp is pretty reliable, and I would not be scared using it for a gig.
It does warm up a bit, but after 90min of use; I just switched it off during the break, and then it was fine, but anyway, it was nothing worrying. My old amp used to heat up too.

I haven't dealt with ashdown.
The amp comes with a 1 year waranty...

I used to have an Ashdown MAG300 4x10, and was very happy with its performance; however, it was just too big and heavy, and was just a nightmare to keep.
As I was happy with Ashdown, I looked for another of their product, and I found this amp on sale. I played around with it, and just bought it straight away.
I am also super happy with this amp, and I can't wait to get my superfly cab 2x8 with it. This cab will allow me to use the full 500W of this head, and it is very portable too.
I have not used this amp in a concert environment yet, but I would not hesitate to do so. If it were stolen, I would definitely buy another one (I believe they are discontinued though). I know some other reviewer killed that amp, but for my usage, it is perfect. I am just a hobbyist, and wanted something small for my flat, and this is just perfect; probably the smallest bass head for the power!
I have been playing bass for 4 years, and have been gigging for 2; I play on an Aria IGB50 (passive), and an Ibanez EDA900 (with active piezzo in the bridge), and both these bass sound great on that amp. I slap and finger play, and this amp does a fab job at sounding badass!
Recommended

2x250 watts, two separate poweramps. Bought last summer over the internet, too new to buy in the Danish shops. The EQ allows for some very different sounds which should come in handy for quickly changing styles when playing with different bands. It has effect loops and headphone jack but not much else. No fancy effects or anything but I wouldn't use that anyway. But if they were to make a new version with the ABM drive section, I may consider switching to that one.

I have yet to use it in a band but it was pretty loud when I tried it in a shop and that was only through one 12" cab.

I have so far tried it with a Fender Jazz but I am also going to use it with a Precision, an old H??fner and my acoustic double bass plus whatever I need to power up. So far, I have found it to sound pretty good. It may not be my 'dream' sound, for that I would have bought Ampeg or some other big tube amp, but it really sounds more than reasonable. I am going to use it primarily for soft rock, soul and jazz but maybe also with my rock band if I can't be bothered to bring my tube amp with me.

Noisy? Not more than any other amp and I doubt that you will be able to hear among all the other noises made by five or six people in a small room.

As mentioned, it has a pretty extensive EQ with editable presets so you can program your set so you won't have to fiddle the knobs too much during a concert or rehearsal. You can get a lot of different sounds out of it but it sounds like a transistor amp because that' what it is. No distortion yet but who knows? 2x250 watt may not be enough for some situations.

Haven't used it too much but it hasn't broken down yet.

Haven't tried this either.

Overall, pretty much satisfied with it. It was cheap, it fits my needs for a small, lightweight amp and it sounds really nice for my tastes. If it were stolen, I would try to see if it was available at the same price. If not, I might look at something else. It is not really that unique a product. GK, EBS and probably others have made similar products (which I have also tried out).

I wish it had a little more mojo. I am really into that vintage look and this is like from another world. But that is only the cosmetics. I am really happy about this amp and look forward to using it with my different bands.

solid state, 7 band eq, 99 presets,on board compresion,single chnl,250W duel chnl output into 4 ohm,effects loop, pre/post DI,15lb head weight,shoulder bag and strap . I use this as a light weight church rig powering a SWR jr goliath 4 ohm cab. Note Graphic, compressor and parametric can be edited via downloadable software from Ashdown

I play a Kinal MK5B and Fretless MM 4 this amp matches with both basses.

This amp has had a bad reliability rap from other owners and also great reviews from others. I just purchased head and have tried to push envelope on rig. I left on continuously to see how warm head gets. It does get warm but did not shut down. The output volume pot seems like it is mounted to the circuit board.

I emailed Ashdown and rcvd quick professional answer. Hopefully will not need repair. Warranty 1 year. I think that could be longer

I purchased this for times when I do not want to haul around my 80lb SWR Super Red Head plus this cab. . For the price I paid it was the deal of the century,Stolen I would replace

Interesting concept: create a sound with the graphic equalizer and the compressor and store it in one of the memory bank. Good creative engineering and useful for the musician who plays with a lot of different sounds. The buttons are not the easiest to use; they are small and require a lot of pressure to work. The unit can however be programmed on one's computer which solves this issue. This amp offers a true 250W x 2 (they are two independent amp sections in it).
It is light, compact and has no fan (no fan noise) so it can be used for recording or for low volume practice. It comes with a bag too.

I received three different Ashdown Superfly and they all had an electrical buzzing sound in the sound path, even when the volume was turned all the way down. The sound would have been decent (I would have rated it a 5) but this quality issue is obviously unacceptable.

It might be a fluke but 3 amps out of 3 had problems. I did not persist and returned the third amp. I believe this is a case of good design and bad manufacturing "made in China". Also note that the amps were set on 230 volts (Euro voltage) instead of the 115 US setting. I caught this before even plugging the amp into the electrical outlet.

Once the retailer referred me to the US distributor of Ashdown, the company took 5 days to get back to me. The second time, I gave up after waiting 9 days. It seems that the US distributor has no power to take decisions and has to wait for answers from the Ashdown in the UK, which obviously slows things down. Also the US distributor has no parts for this amp and is obliged to send brand new amps whenever there is a problem.

Again, an interesting and innovative design seems to have been torpedoed by defective manufacturing. Three out of three amps came out of the same retailers so this might be fluke or a bad series. I have seen positive reviews of this amp so my experience might be isolated. I would approach it with caution however, in the light of the limited after sale service. Ashdown has to decide if they want to seriously work/service the US market; in this case they need to give the tools and the power to their US distributor to react to customer issues. I believe that wanting the sales but not being able to service the market will prove to be a self defeating commercial strategy for Ashdown in the competitive US market.

Brand new amp, solid state 250W into each of two 4-ohm SPEAKON speaker jacks. One channel input. 6 way graphical EQ, compressor, with 10 factory settings plus 89 more available. Weighs 16 lb. even though the ads say it weighs 10 lbs., comes with a carrying strap and a protective bag. Effects SEND/RECEIVE loop. MIDI footswitch (not included) can be used to change settings. Bypass switch changes all settings to flat. This amp can make several nice sounds using the 10 factory settings. Additional settings can be made on the fly and then saved. PLENTY of power - 500W total into 2 cabinets of 4 ohms each, or about 340W into 2 cabinets of 8 ohms each. 2 inputs would be nice, max. power into 8 ohm speakers would be nice, ability to upload modeling sounds from a stomp box would be nice. Input control and output control are both rotary. LED power meters for input and output.

I am playing a Cort Curbow 5 string with 1 active Bartolini pickup. I play classic rock. It suits my style which is strong lows, medium mids, medium strong highs, not just thumping. I play finger-style, no pick. I play some percussive stuff but not real slapping. I play some power chords all over the fingerboard. I use round-wound strings. Speaker is an Acoustic brand cab from the 70s with 2 15" speakers, rated at 150 W each. GREAT, clean low bass sounds on my low B string. Nice highs when I crank up the active treble. No distortion at up to 75% settings. I rattled the windows and walls too much at that setting to open it up to 100%.

Just got it so I don't know about the reliability. I had great luck with an Ashdown EB15-180 Electric Blue amp so I would predict similar results.

Just got it, no repairs needed. I contacted customer service with a couple questions before I bought it, including output into 8 ohm load vs. the rated 4 ohm load. I received quick, helpful response.

I have been playing bass since 1967. I own a bunch of other gear including Peavey, Univox, and Silvertone amps. I own a bunch of basses and guitars including Vox, Cort Curbow, Ventura fretless, Vantage 335 copy, Hohner with Steinberg D-tuner bridge, Strat, Epiphone flat top acoustic. I chose this amp because of its relative light weight and small size with lots of power for strong clear low register notes - such as B to E on B string - and its onboard parametric EQ and compressor. I ordered a Zoom B2 modeling bass stomp box that I will try with this amp. I think this amp is GREAT value for the amount paid,