Ashton AG-180

Despite having no less than a dual single coil humbucker with two seperate single coils and a 5 position switch for each the AG 180 still manages to sound like a complete piece of crap. When set in the bridge position there is too much bass, either single coil no grunt and all 5 a muddy wash which fails to produce either a consistent metal sound nor a good clean tone.

This is by far one of the noisiest guitars i have ever played. I use a fender princeton 65w DSP, without exaggeration when i turn the amp up to anything past 3 with as little as half or a third distortion unless i palm mute the fret board it produces a sharp and wailing feedback from the amp which builds and builds to an ear piercing shriek, just from the single coils alone. This makes changing chords at any reasonable volume impossibile changing for a split second produces enormous feedback.

This is a cheaply made guitar, ashton are an australian bottom end brand the ashton AG 180 + 15W practice amp is what the squier strat pack would be to most other countries for example. I got this guitar with no illusions about quality however it fell to pieces pretty quick.

When i got it the action was wound way too high the frets were sharp and needed filing (ever broken 5 D strings in 5 weeks?).

Awful guitar.

As previously mentioned by someone else the input jack is always loose and needing tightening, the paint and body around the jack has chipped off as a result.

the tone switch broke very quickly, though thankfully it was pretty much useless due to the quality of the pickups anyway.

the volume cuts in and out with only the slightest bump when strumming, have to give it a flick to work again.

i wouldnt play this live if not for the fear of it breaking but for being seen playing an ashton.

Never dealt with ashton

not sure what year it was made, but it was purchased in 2003. Made in vietnam. 21 frets.strat shaped with standard strat features. 5 way selector, 1 volume, 2 tone controls. s/s/h. i think the body is made of basswood. rosewood fret board. its made in vietnam and it shows. purchased with an amp, strap, lead and some picks.

i play alot of classic rock, blues, jazz and a bit of funk. these pickups are really unbalanced, either having too much bass or too much treble. the tone controls are useless, because the pickups always sound muddy. this guitar is noisy, giving me alot of feed back and distortion on the humbucker on a clean channel. the pickups are no better. setup im currently using guitar -> pro co rat -> jim dunlop jimi hendrix wah -> roland gc405

when i got bought this guitar new, the action was very high, intonation was off, and one of the strings had been setup wrong. so first thing i did. lower action and fix intonation. now strings. stock ones were .9s i think, so i had them replaced with .11s. after this, the neck bent. so now it needs a truss rod adjustment, and since the neck is bent, the intonation has also gone off again. the input jack is always coming loose. gotta screw it in every now and then. overall, too much work involved.

well as long as you dont bash this guitar it will withstand live playing. the hardware will probably last, but i think changing them is a much better idea. i definitly would not use this guitar for a gig though. i have hit this guitar, bashed it, scratched it, and taken it apart numerous times. and i think it will last for a while.

ive never dealt with aston, and i hope i never do. never going to buy any ashton products again. but seeing as how alot of there stuff is made in vietnam, they must get hundreds of phone calls a day.

i have a fender stratocaster, maton em225c, and currently on the look out for a les paul. i wish i had known more about guitars before i bought this one. if this thing was stolen or lost, well i probably wouldnt even know. i really dont like this guitar.

Rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, fulcrum point bridge, HB-S-S pickup config. One tone one volume. 25.5" scale. Made in Vietnam.

The bridge humbucker suits distorted metal sounds although at this end of the price range you cannot expect EMG levels of response. However it performs very well in this range. It is let down by thin sounding neck pickup and slightly noisy hardware. (Although making a second earth fixed that problem.) The guitar lacks a strong midrange sound, although this suits the scooped out mids metal tone i usually play it with.

Bar my own modifications to the earth there have been no outstanding issues with this guitar. The guitar will go badly out of tune if you are into your whammy bar dives etc etc. But this is simply a property of the bridge as it isnt desgined for you to go all Kerry King style on it!!

Its redeeming feature is that is has an incredibly light weight and a very thin neck with a similar radius to the Kirk Hammett Signature ESP. This alone is probably what has made me hold onto this guitar!

The nut Needed* a slight adjustment for the g string(stop laughing) To stop the string from getting stuck when using the whammy. If you experience similar problems i'd suggest some sort of specialty guitar grease/lube.

The guitar does gigs fine, although i use an EQ pedal to iron out feedback and hum so you may need to take that into account. The build quality is very good and has held together better than a Yamaha Pacifica i also had for awhile.

I depend on this guitar without pause however i play in B tuning a lot also on an Epiphone LP, so i have at least 2 guitars with me anyway.

I am not aware of any warranty through ashton. Although i have been able to reach them online for other products i've bought from them and the service has been good

I've been playing for about 5years. If it were stolen or lost i'd try and locate another, but the exact model has been discontinued and replaced with a far uglier guitar, so i may not be able to find one.
Most of all i love the thin neck and low action. Well suited to light strings like 46-9s etc.

I wish it had a floyd rose bridge, but at this price point thats asking a lot of an already fantastic buy.

2000 model.. (lefthanded :P)
24 frets, Maple fretboard
iz gota volume know, tone & a 5 way tone selector
its got a hummbucker and 2 single pickups, just standard ashton
i dont know about electronics
its got a nice metalic dark blue finish on it.
dont know what bridge type it is.. ..
Maple fretboard

I got bugger all with my guitar, no trem bar no case . i had to go back to the shop i bought it from and get a trem bar.. but they didnt have one that fit my bridge. so that sucks.

it suits the style of music i like to play (try to play) well.. heavy metal/punk/SKA!etc

atm ive just got a Peavey 15w RAGE amp.. a boss DS1 & an Equalizer stomp box.

i can produce anything from metal/heavymetal/grunge/punk to really warm sounding ska tracks..

i like most things about this guitar except the pickups are loose for some reason and i think this creates a constant ringing noise.. sorta like the top string is just ringing.. but yea i dont really know (ive only been playing for about 5 months or something) ill most probly take it back to the shop one day and make them fix it.

appart from the loose pickups.. it seems to have been setup quite well.. i havent come across anything annoying on it yet.. its good to play.. doesnt hurt.. not too heavy.
all the tuning pegs and stuff have been put on well as far as i can see

this guitar has so far been excellent .. no dents or scratches or paint chips.. *thumbs up* :P
but that is probly cause i treat it like my girlfriend (hello lizzy)

hahaha
if i needed to contact them i wouldnt know where to go.. if it needs repairs i will just go back to the shop i got it from

ive been playing bout 6 months .. so im not very good at it :P
all ive got at the moment is the peavey amp, 2 boss pedals, a tuner.. umm 2 trem bars (they didnt fit but cost me nothing anyway) thats about it
if it was stolen.. i would be pissed off
i like almost everything about this guitar, the finish, the sound (cept 4 the humming crap)
i wish it had pickups that were screwed on properly! haha

HEllo to luke & lizzy if you read this!!!
(thats my girlfriend and her brother who is agreat guitarist)

any questions or something u would like to share .. drop me an email!