Ashdown Electric Blue 12-180

[Luke73]

So, I've had my Electric Blue Combo for around a week now, and have had a chance to play with it a bit.

 

Mine's an English EB 180, comprised of the EB 180w head in a combo with a single 12" Blueline speaker.

 

http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?ID=102

 

I understand they've now moved their manufacturing of this line from England to China. Mine was floor stock, and is the English version. What does that mean? I don't know, as I'm yet to play one of the Chinese models to make a comparison. I do know that the Chinese made Warwick Sweet 15 I recently bought was certainly quite different to the German made Warwick Sweet 15 I tried at the store.

 

Having said that, I do own an English Ashdown Mag300 head, and a Chinese Ashdown Mag 410 deep cabinet. The Chinese Ashdown 410 cabinet is very nice, so my hope is that the Ashdown amps now made in China are as nice as my Mag300 and EB12-180 combo.

 

The EB12-180 combo is small. Smaller than I expected it to be after seeing pics of it on the web. It's size took me by surprise in fact, and when I first saw it I was skeptical about it's abilities.

 

Ashdown's specs suggest that it weighs 25kg. It doesn't feel that heavy to carry though. The top carrying handle make it nice and easy to lug in and out of the car, and to carry into the rehearsal space.

 

It has two extension speaker jacks at the rear (one used by the internal driver), so it has the provision to attach an external cab. Minimum total load is 4ohms, and the internal driver is 8ohms, so it will happily take another 8ohm cab. I've tried it sitting on top of my Mag410 cab, and it's very nice. Note that of course with only the internal speaker connected the combo won't be providing the 180w RMS power rating - that's where the extra cab comes in. Of course if you want to, you can also unplug the internal speaker and simply use it as a 180w head by plugging in a 4ohm cabinet or two 8ohm cabs.

 

The overall tone of the EB 12-180 is very much like my Mag300 head, and seems to have the distinctive Ashdown sound. It's very warm, with good bottom end and strong mids. Higher frequencies are somewhat muted. Scooping the mids and using the high boost, with some additional boost in the high, and high mid section along with a little extra low end gives a passable slap tone but it's far from "HI-FI" and doesn't provide the sizzling highs some people like. If that's what you're after, I probably wouldn't recommend this combo.

 

Getting my "perfect bedroom tone" was fairly easy. I'm playing a Warwick Rockbass Corvette passive 4 string with DR Sunbeams through it, and when playing the combo at home by myself I preferred a light cut in the low mids with a little boost in the high end to bring out some more articulation in the upper frequencies. In that configuration playing my bass gave me a warm fuzzy feeling

 

...but a "perfect bedroom tone" doesn't mean much when playing with others, so I took my EB12-180 to band rehearsal tonight to further check it out.

 

We play a mix of Rock, Blues and some tunes have a bit of a country feel. I was playing with two guitarists plugged into two Fender 90w Deluxe combos, and a drummer playing at moderate volume.

 

The EB12-180 cut through easily and had stacks of headroom. The output of my bass is pretty low, so the gain was about at 3 o'clock, but the master volume didn't go past 10 o'clock, and sounded great.

 

One of the guitarists kept saying "wow - I'm really impressed with that little box"

 

I pretty much just ran the EQ flat tonight with our band - sometimes just boosting the lows a touch, but for most of the night, I had the EQ bypass switch engaged, and was really happy with the sound of the little amp. It's strong mid presence helped cut through nicely, and when playing fingerstyle over the neck pickup it gave a nice fat well rounded tone. Playing over the bridge pickup and digging in a little gave a really good strong burp that punched right through with no trouble. A couple of times our lead guitarist looked up with a very funny surprised expression!

 

In one of our slower songs I play some chordal sections in the upper register, and the chords weren't as cleanly defined as they should be with the flat EQ that I used for most of the night. The warm characteristics with slightly muted highs don't lend the combo particularly well to this style in my opinion, but with some quick twiddling I got a pretty nice chord tone with a little extra high mid, and highs and a little cut around 220hz.

 

The EB12-180 is cooled by a permanent fan that starts running as soon as you turn it on. The fan is slightly noisy, but can't really be heard once you stand a few metres from the amp, and certainly can't be heard while playing. It's quite different to my Warwick Sweet 15 in this regard. The Sweet 15 has a non-permanent fan which only engages when the amp warms up, then shuts off when the amp cools. The Warwick fan is much louder when it starts up. It sounds like my wife's hairdryer whilst the Ahsdown's permanent fan is much lower profile - you kind of notice it when you turn on the amp, but you quickly forget it's there.

 

So, I'm extremely happy with the Ashdown EB12-180 combo so far. It's great for rehearsals, and will easily be able cope with many of our gigs. If I need more I can sit it on top of my 410, and if I need more than that I'll use it's front panel XLR D.I. to the PA. Of course the Mag300 head is at home too for larger gigs, but I can see the EB12-180 getting more use.

 

 

[Tom Capasso]

Sounds like you made a good move.

 

Enjoy!

 

Tom

[Gruuve]

Thanks for the review Luke. I seriously considered picking up one of these or the EB15-180 (since it's only marginally larger and heavier) for church rehearsals, but I located an Nemesis NC210 before I pulled the trigger.

 

I wonder how those two compare (the EB and the Nemesis, I mean)? I like how the Nemesis sounds in the church rehearsal room, but I don't like how it sounds nearly as much in my practice room at home.

 

Dave

[Luke73]

Thanks guys

 

Dave, I tried the EB 15-180, and prefered the 12" EB 180. The 12 seemed to have a slightly better high end (although it's still somewhat muted) - but the 15 was still rather nice nonetheless.

 

I know exactly what you mean about the different sounds between the rehearsal room, and the practice room at home. The EB 12-180 definitely needs some mid-cut and high end boost for practice by myself at home, but sounds wonderful with flat EQ playing with the band at rehearsal.

 

Having said that, it's purely academic, as the EB 12-180 is only for rehearsal and gigs with the band. I have a Warwick Blue Cab20 as my practice amp at home which delivers a really nice "bedroom tone", and it's all I use for practice.

 

[Danzilla]

Enjoy it, Luke! Hope it lasts longer than the Warwick and fills your needs better.

[Luke73]

Originally posted by Danzilla:

Enjoy it, Luke! Hope it lasts longer than the Warwick and fills your needs better.

Thanks!

 

...so do I