Ashdown FA-40 Fallen Angel

Everything the guys said below. Pretty good

The clean channel is booootuful. i have nothing bad to say about it. Can be crystal clear and chimey and blah blah. It makes my encore strat sound like a vintage fender (no exaggeration). Sounds best through low powered pickups. I play anything from chillis to creed to lost prophets (when they were nu metal).

Now to get dirty.....
This is where i feel let down by this amp. There is waaay too much bass comin from this channel, and even though you can dial it out with the EQ my floor should NOT be shaking with the bass on just above 6. YES its advertised as having low end but it should at least be useable.

The gain just pisses me off in that there isnt enough of it. Its like your always teetering on the edge of NEAR saturation, but it never seems quite there. You can max out the gain and still feel as if your playing through an OD or low dist pedal. The gain is just really buzzy,fizzy lifeless.
Turning the gain knob made hardly any difference to the amount of gain u get. The Boost switch just adds more fizz/fuzz. I tweaked for days and days, but there was no way to get a "full" sound out of it.

To be fair though i think this amp would stand out in a band quite well if you can control the bass.

Oh yeah, there wasnt too much reverb, but the amount provided is quite useable.

Ill give the clean an 8 but distortion gets a 5. It could never deserve a 10.

Ive had two of these amps. One crapped out after 2 days, and one came with a smashed VU meter.
This amp gets REAALLY hot. I mean so hot you cant even touch the knobs for more than one second before it burns your fingers. I dont know how long something could keep working in these kind of heat stress levels, but i doubt it would be very long.
As for strength it would stand up well to a good beating and is made well.

The responses to my emails were within the hour and quite helpful so id say its not too bad

This is my first tube amp and i can say i was not happy at all. For a high gain monster this seemed way too tame for me. I prefer the sound of my GMX212 to this which is SS modelling amp. I honselty dont know what these guys below are talking about and im suspicious as to why they didnt point out hardly any faults with this amp. If you like the description i gave then go buy it. If not dont. And please dont think i dont know tone just cos this is the first tube amp ive owned.

2 fully independent channels + boost on ch.2, 40watts pure tube power, 12?? Celestion Vintage 30, what else do you need?. With all these features, it's the most versatile medium power amp I?ve ever seen.

Do you like fat bottom-end guitar sound? This amp is for you.
Do you like sparkling bright guitar? This amp is for you.
If you look at it and hear it?s name (Fallen Angel, wow!) you probably think this piece is made for the heavier of the heavy guitarist, but NO.
I play mostly classic rock in a band (still searching that Neil Young?s sound), and my Ashdown beats the sound of all Marshalls and Peaveys other musicians use. I love it.

It has two very different channels:

Ch.1: Sounds like a kind of Fender, when you put the gain avobe 12 o?clock. The more you rise the gain, the more it starts to break the sound, until it reaches a fully crunchy Marshall sound. Great and very versatile.

Ch.2: Here you can have a smooth distortion, a little broken (with single coil pickups and the treble fully open, it even sounds like a fuzz). The more you you rise up the gain, the distortion gets warmer, heavier, fatter... very fat.

If you like bassy overdrive, you will love this little thing. But remember, it is more versatile than you can imagine... and the best of all, you can get all the sounds you like without having to turn up the volume! Fantastic.

Of course, then it sounds best is when the vu-meter starts moving "happy", even reachig the red line. I took out two of the four power tubes, so I have 20 watts, power enough for playing with my friends (drum, keyboards, bass, voclas and other two guitar players), believe me.

The only thing that really disturbs me is the cooler fan placed near the tubes. It can be really noisy when playing at low volumes, and it can?t be disconnected. I don?t like the noise it produces, but i?m sure it's a great idea placing a fan near the tubes. You get always the same sound!

Never played live with it but i?m sure it will work perfectly. Almost six mounths after i bought it and never had a problem. I use it for playing in the garage with my friend and soon i will play live, of course without a backup (I can?t afford one).

Works perfectly

You only have to write an e-mail, and they will answer you ainmediatly. Good thing.

I would give it a 10, but i think noting in this planet should be given a 10, so here is my 9 for one of the best guitar amps i?ve ever seen. If you are thinking about buying a 40 watts amp, try one of these jewels and you will be very surprised... and satisfied!

Greetings from Spain

Instead of me listing it's features check out their website www.ashdownmusic.co.uk

I play an SG Standard with stock pup's and it sounds amazing. The clean channel just sparkles with the option of adding more gain if you want a slight crunch, the o/d channel is also excellent. Both channels do seem slightly bassy but that's what the eq is for! Dont be put off by the marketing of this amp eg geared towards nu-metal, this amp is way more versatile than that. I play SP/Ash/Foo Fighters etc and it sounds fantastic.

Too early to tell but it's built like a tank and comes with a 5 year warranty!

Havent dealt with them.

I cant believe I got an amp this good for #309 inc postage. My advice to you is shop around and get the best deal like I did. Apparently Ashdown are putting the prices up on their combos as they feel that they are too cheap so do yourself a favour and buy one now!