Ashton ASRB-282

I got my Ashton in about 2005 from a salesman who soon after quit the business he was working for and moved to one which doesn't stock Ashtons. I'd been looking for a semi-acoustic bass, something with a bit more of a woody sound than my stock standard Yamaha electric. The Ashton looked the sexiest, was fair value compared to its competitors (it had about A$200 on the Ibanez), and featured not only tone and volume knobs, but three switches which turned each of the three pickups on and off individually.

I used my Ashton while I played in a piano-driven pop/rock band which dabbled in blues, and it suited. I enjoy playing the odd bass solo, and the tone suited that just fine. There was plenty of twang for funky stuff in the pickups closest to the bridge, and a nice round sound for the subtler backing bass lines. The switches really made a difference - flicking a couple for a solo was as effective as stomping on a foot pedal.

However, the strings buzzed against the fretboard. A lot. I too had the bridge raised in an attempt to fix it, but it was impossible to do so. Having played other basses since, I realise it has an implausibly shallow action, and playing quieter music, this was quite a nuisance. The control knobs became loose over time, too, as you'll read below...

Here's the clincher. The Ashton to me is a well-designed bass built terribly cheaply.

The strings buzzed, as I have mentioned. After about six months, the tone knob stopped working, as a wire came loose on the inside somewhere. After that, the bass began crackling occasionally when plugged in to an amp, and started to do so more and more often. Finally, the wires connecting the volume knob (or something) fell off completely, rendering the bass unplayable. I'm sure that some keyhole surgery by a professional luther could fix it up, but you know what? I can't be bothered.

This bass was trouble from the get-go, and now that I have an Ibanez AEB-10E acoustic, I'll never look back.

First of all, Ashton arn't regarded as one of the better guitar brands in the buisness but I think this bass really raises their standards higher. The ASRB-282 is a unique looking bass. It is a hollow body (not that it does much to increase the sound levels) with 3 pick-ups. The pickups are controled by individual switches on the lower side of the body, so you can have many different combinations of them ( my personal favourite is the bridge pick-up because it gives a very clean cut sound and is good for solo work because you can hear the note and not just a deep thud). There are two control knobs, volume and tone. The volume know is fairly self explainatory but the tone was quite a supprise. On alot of guitars (especially cheaper brands like Ashton and Epiphone) the tone dial is not used at all mainly because you cannot hear the difference. On the ASRB this is not the case. The tone control can change your sound from being a deep thud to a rare bass sound where you can acctually hear the string and the note being played.

The neck I'm pretty sure is made of Maple, but when you play it for a long time you start the notice that the neck feels very sweaty and greasy. I've tried cleaning it and I wash my hands before I play guitar everytime but this greasy feeling is still there all the time. It has 20 frets and 4 strings although being a heavy metal/hard rock bassist I rareley use the two bottom strings and even more rareley go past the 12th fret.

The bridge is a standard Les Paul set up with the strings going into a piece mounted on the body.

The case was the part of the deal that I was disapointed with. Mainly becuse Ashton dont make a hard case to fit this bass. Whats up with that? This is a hollow body guitar and its not very sturdy! However my fears have been subdued and I have found that my fender p-bass gig bag works just as well (if not better considering the weight of a hard case).

The sound is awesom. I use a standard Fender P-Bass amp wich isnt the best but it works really well (240watts). I had thought that the hollow body might have made a weird sound but it didnt. As I said before I mainly use the back pickup for a nice clean sound and then turn the tone right up to get a mixture of clean and fine tuned sound with a bit of a deep thump thump to keep everyone happy! There is however a huge range of sounds, it goes from metal to jazz to rock etc very niceley.

The bass was set up pretty well but Ashton being a cheaper brand was bound to make some mistakes.

The strings rattle. I hate it it gets on my nerves when I play all i could hear was this rattling. "Simple solution, raise the bridge" you might say. Turns out I had to raise the bridge alot. So much that I couldnt press down hard enought to get the string to hit a fret. So you have to make the compromise between the strings rattling a bit and having to press down really hard to get the string to hit a fret.

I havent played with is live yet but in my room as I pracitice I always stand up and jump around heaps so I am pretty confident that it will perform well live. Sometimes the lead jumps out ( I tried a few leads so its deffinatley the guitar) and you just have to give it a hard tap... But maybe that was just mine.

As I said before the neck varnish seems to pick up sweat and oil really quickly and makes it a bit gross to play sometimes.

I would NEVER EVER play a gig without a back-up guitar. Im not saying it just with this one, it could be the greatest les paul or strat ever made but if you drop it and it breaks not even a strat will keep going, so no I wouldnt take it as my only guitar.

I bought it from Allans Music in Alexandria sydney, we go there alot and we get some fantastic deals there so that was good. I've never personally dealy with Ashton but I asume that just like any other company getting a repair done quickly or having a waranty sorted out would take a while but oh well... The solution to that is dont break the guitar.

I've been playing guitar for a year now. I started with a Squire Strat and learnt all the basic stuff on that ( my mum's partner is a fantastic guitar player and he helped me along, then he bought a Squire P-Bass and I began to develop a love for it.

If I lost it I would probably not get it again, I would go for a Gibson/Epiphone explorer just for a change and to see what other basses are like, then when I get serious I have experioence will a whole range of basses and know which ones will sound best for certain types of music.

My overall conclusion is that just because a brand is cheap and has a bad track-record doesnt mean that every once-in-a-while they can bring out a guitar that sets very high standards.