Ashdown Drive Plus

The controls are different from most distortion boxes you'll see, but not at all complicated. In level, LF drive, HF drive, balance, out level all explain themselves. I give it a 9, because the knobs have the tiniest little dot so it's hard to see what each thing is set at even in good lighting.

My chain: Ibanez RG400 bass ==> Boss DS-1 ==> Ashdown Drive Plus ==> Boss AW3 ==> Hartke head (w/ Behringer Virtualizer in effects loop) ==> Peavey cabinet with 2 10" speakers and 1 18" speaker.

I keep the Ashdown on 95% of the time. I use the boss pedals and the behringer unit for occasional alternate sounds. I keep the input at 1/2, LF drive at about 1/4, the balance at 3/8, the HF drive at 5/8, and the output at about 3/4. This gives a very nice, ut subtle growling bass distortion. I don't want to sound like a guitar, but I want it to sound distorted for sure.

My holy grail of bass tone is Godflesh, specifically on Selfless. This pedal doesn't sound exactly like that, but I have actually come to prefer the way this pedal gives amazing clarity to the mid and higher notes. This pedal is the key to my bass tone, and it delivers exactly the sound I want.

It seems very sturdy, and it has those convenient metal rails to protect the VU meter. I've had it for about 8 months, and I've gigged it a lot, always without a backup. Just bring a bonus 9V.

Never dealth with them.

I play a very heavy slap and finger style akin to GC Green in Godflesh, and this offers a perfect match for that. Even volume, lots of sustain, super clear tone, and very very heavy.

What sets this pedal apart from every other bass distortion (and I tried a lot), is that it lets you distort the high end and low end seperately and mix them later. This avoids the sounds that I got with most bass distortions (Boss, DOD, and even the MXR and Sansamp), which is that high-end fuzz where you just end up sounding like a guitar.

If this were stolen, I would be simultaneously ordering a new one and searching for the theif so that I might avenge my captured ally.

Pretty easy to use - all it has are input and output gains (with an analog VU to set the input), high and low band drive controls, and a balance control to control the mix of the high and low bands. I was able to get usable tones out of it without a lot of work.

WARNING - I do not play distorted very much. I mostly play a clean tone, but every once in a while (with a couple of songs I'm doing now), I'll need some distortion. I love being able to control the low and high band drives independantly - it makes the pedal able to get a number of differnt tones easily. Also, the VU meter is a nice touch to help set the input gain. The only downside is that it can get hissy at the more extreme settings on the high drive, but this really isn't the pedal's fault - it's the nature of the beast when adding high end drive. When bypassed, it doesn't affect the tone at all that I can tell.

I haven't had it long, so I can't say whether it will hold up, but it is built like a tank - metal jacks, metal box, metal knobs... The only part I'm afraid might get damaged is the VU meter, but it has a metal 'push-bar' protecting it as well. The only reason I'm putting 'no opinion' in is that I haven't used it long.

No opinion because I haven't had to deal with the company.

This is a good addition to my collection. It's clean and sounds good. It's allowed more tone variations that my old Digitech BP200 did, and is a lot cleaner than that pedal was when bypassed. It's a keeper.

Very easy to use, but you do have to play around with the knobs to truly dial in "the" sound. The Balance feature is great for boosting the lows or shifting the focus more toward the highs. You can also dial in if you want the Lo Freq or Hi Freq fully driven or not. Manual is not even necessary. Only negative is that the knobs are chrome with only a slight indentation to let you know what level you have them set. I use black electrical tape to remedy this minor problem.

Sound Quality is incredible. Can go from subtle to very wooly and fuzzy SVT on the edge. I use a GK 1001RB, 4x10 Cab, Aphex Big Bottom, 62 Reissue Fender Jazz Passive/Active 5 String Jazz. This is a low noise pedal with a True Bypass that doesn't color your sound when not active. The best part is you could keep this on the entire time and control your level of distortion through your playing. This pedal is very sensitive to your playing dynamics which is perfect in my opinion.

This thing is built like a tank. It is definately a "Stompbox" and you could probably drive over this thing without doing much damage. No need for a backup.

Never dealt with Ashdown support, and hopefully never will.

Overall this pedal is great for any application needing a good fuzz/overdrive. I've been playing for about 15 years and I've gone through many distortion/overdrive pedals. For $100.00 you can't beat this pedal. Now the only reason I can't give this a 10 is for 2 reasons. The knobs are impossible to read unless in full light, and the Meter doesn't actually light up. Now as for the knobs once you find a setting you can probably just run a strip of Electrical tape across them to keep them in place. All of the adverts I've seen show the meter lit up, which it doesn't. Having said all that buy this pedal for anything BUT over the top distortion.

Very simple to use. Really there are only 3 tone controls. The other two input and output just effect volume in/out. You have a low frequency drive knob, a high frequency drive knob and a EQ balance knob to blend the two together. It seems gimicky but the analog input meter does have a practival purpose. It makes it easier to balance your effects (if you have any of the other Ashdown units) becuase you can visually see how much input is coming in and match all the units together.

There is a very broad range of overdrive sounds you can obtain out of this. A warm fuzz, to a more dirty overdrive without losing any bottom end. You will not get a crisp, metal like distortion with this unit, it is more of an overdrive. I can dial in a very subtle overdrive that can be used in just about any kind of style to a very transparent Chris Squier type sound.

The unit is all metal and seems to be very solid. I think it would hold up well in most circumstances. Of course, I leave my unit on a pedal board so it is protected pretty well.

Haven't dealt with them. I purchased it from Music 123.

A really good bass overdrive with a broad range of tonal possibilities. Very dependable and solid unit. The pedal is not as large as pictures may indicate. It is about the size of a double Boss pedal unit, maybe a little smaller. I think these are really neat looking units and they sound great. For a "boutique" item, this unit is pretty reasonably priced (IMO).

It's really easy to get a tone you want from this pedal. You have low freq and hi freq overdrive controls, and then you can balance between the two, allowing great versatility. You can set the input to what ever you want. Ashdown recommends setting the input the same way you would with their amps, but if you feel you're not getting enough drive (haha), you can crank this for more.

I use a Yamaha TRB1006 going into a MAG C210t-300 (and soon a MAG115). Keep the EQ dials flat, and use the deep boost.

No noise when the pedal is off, and it doesn't affect your tone because it's tru-bypass.

The drive sounds great no matter what setting. I set up the input the way ashdown recommends, keeping the lows clean and the hi-freq drive maxed out, with the balance SLIGHTLY towards the lows, and I get a nice John Entwistle/ Billy Sheehan style tone. Cuts through a band like a hot knife through butter. This is my favourite setting. Very ideal.
You can max out the fuzz, cranking the LF drive, balance rolled right over to the lows, and the input cranked, and you get a really mean fuzz, very Muse like, still retaining the definition of the notes.

I've only had it for a week, but it's Ashdown. So it's bound to be reliable.

Never needed to contact them.

I play in a band which sounds very much like The Counting Crows and The Grateful dead. It's a good match, you'll hear some audio samples soon of this pedal in use with the band.

If it was stolen I would immediately replace it. I really like the control it gives you, the tone, the construction (except for the VU meter, it's not housed in place, but is attached by a ring of double sided sticky tape, but thats a problem easily solved. however this does dampen my overall rating by a point...) Favourite feature is definately the two band drive. I was going to try bi-amping, no need now!!