An epic tale of my eventful yet horribly disappointing day

[Petre]

Ok, so as many of you know i settled on the ashdown fallen angel as my next amp. I been saving and all and i accumulated 300 so far. anyway i was browsing the internet and came across a shop 30 mins drive away from me, who stocked the ashdowns, at half RRp (so £299) because they were ex-demo at ashdowns wall of sound exhibition. So, overjoyed i asked my dad if he could give me a lift to try before i buy next week sometime. Anyhow next thing i know were actually going today. so anyway, i arrive at the shop... and first try out the 40 watt FA with the DSP effects...

$%&#ING EUGH! Pure cr@p. Made me feel sick how muddy it was and how little gain it had. Its like those times you get a new guitar, go to play and it sounds horrible toneless.... only to find out the tone knob is turned allthe way down. I checked everything... full tone on guitar, on amp, gain cranked etc. It wasnt cracked that much but it was un-useable. Made my marshall MG15 with my uber metal seem godlike in tone. There was no punch at all, and no clarity. I am highly suspecting by this point that its the tubes. Anyway, as i heard in alot of reviews, you need the boost on for it to sound good. So wacked on the pedal and hey presto, still shite. So i try the other angle of sticking an OD pedal infront of it. The guy only had a BOSS OD pedal of some sort, but this in fact made it fizz at half drive (on pedal), and even muddier and shitetier on full drive. So anyway i even wind down bass and mids to 0 and treble at max and still no punch or clarity. So, convinced its the tubes i tried the 60 watt...

Same $%&#ing thing! Only slightly worse, and if the reverb or effects were on it would make a weird whirring noise. Anyway, very disappointed i left with my dad to "think it over". Didnt knwo whether to make the purchase or not. I mean if it was valves, it was still a great price if i had to swap in new valves... but then what if it wasnt...

Anyway i went back and tried it against some other amps, and with a better guitar. (the first guitar was a cheapo jackson RR something with some weird generic jackson covered stock pups. The new guitar helped a little, but still very very poor. I compared against a peavey valveking, and while the valveking still sounded $%&#ing awful, it had more punch and clarity than the ashdown.

I decided to leave it, and came home..

So here i am. Does it sound like <somehow> both the ashdowns had pwned valves? The guys in the shop werent overly clued up on any of the items they were selling, so i think its possible they may have done something to them.

Just so $%&#ing disappointed. Theres alot i need to get and save for. I really didnt want to have to save another shite-loada money ontop of what i have for an engl screamer or fireball (lovely tho it would be).

Thanks for input
Petre

p.s. Are the ENGL's realy as cube-shaped as they look?  :P

[TwilightOdyssey]

IIRC, the original Ashdowns were designed by a well known (and very good) amp manufacturer. Ashdown subsequently cheaped out on all the parts, dunno if they changed the circuit layout to make the amp more affordable.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Are the ENGL's realy as cube-shaped as they look?  :P

Huh?!

[Petre]

but this was inexcusably terrible. Something had to be horribly wrong... either that or its one of the worst amps i have ever played, and far from what everyone has said about it. Tight bottom end? no. nice crunch? not at all. Almost enough gain? pathetic amounts.

[Johnny Mac]

Sounds like a bummer if you had your heart set on it. Never mind, you will be able to pick up something much better than what you described for the same or a little more money. Just have a good trawl though HC and then try out some more amps. Take your own guitar for the tests too!

[jt]

:D Always disapointing when that happens.  :twisted:

You set your heart on something & it turns out its cr@p !!

But look on the bright side. You didn`t spend £300 on it to find it was shitee Lesson to learn = Try before you buy.  

 :D  8)

[OD-Black_Fire]

Look for B52. They really have tight bottom end and nice evil pounding crunch. And the 100watt combo is $750-$800USD. The 100 watt head version is usually between $600 and $700, and the cabs are like $350. The cabs have huge bottom end. HUGE.

[deg0ey]

p.s. Are the ENGL's realy as cube-shaped as they look?

I never thought they looked cube shaped...but to answer your question, no (not the screamer anyway...) The cab area next to the control panel is angled forwards to relieve it of boxyness

I may have pictures actually...*hunts for them*

[Davey]

sounds like my LC15R



wait a couple of weeks (this is starting to sound real generic) and i'll give ya a full review on a Laney GH50L  it's around 620 euros, so not THAT far from what you have at the moment (though it is a head, not a combo)

[dave_mc]

Are the ENGL's realy as cube-shaped as they look?  :P

Huh?!

frinkahedron-shaped... and the answer is "maybe". The screamer is pretty small/square.

er... anyway, the ashdown was pretty bass heavy when I tried it. The words muddy do come to mind. It had quite a bit of gain, but probably not mega-high gain. Dunno if it was as bad as you said, I'd have needed to be there. Did you try channel 1 with the gain up pretty high? it sounded pretty decent. More a rock tone, though.

I wouldn't buy it if you didn't like it, though. Or at least before getting to try another one, just in case it was the tubes.

In an unrelated matter, I drove 30 miles to a music shop today only to find it was closed on thursdays. Pwnt. Luckily another shop in the vicinity (oh all right then, it was only 10 miles away, I drove 40 miles for nothing) was open, and had some good stuff I got to try.

[chrisola]

comb ebay for an ENGL Thunder combo.. i've seen them for £385...

to be honest something like an older Marshall Valvestate 8080 series combo would be great.

Metal bands like Death, AT The Gates and many others around the early 90's swore by them... they go cheap, do ultra mental gain, and 'normal' type gain.

It does sound like both ashdowns were fecked... mine was ex demo but with my SD-1 it sounded semi good, and shite loads of bass, its was very 'chunky'

Other options? Line6 Spider 2 or a 2nd hand Flextone

Randall amps are good in that price range, if you can find one to try.

Basically matey, take your guitar into somewhere and test EVERY amp they have in your budget, and even ones above (that you could realisticly save for).. you never know what you might like.. everyone likes different tones and characters.

good luck again :)

[OD-Black_Fire]

If you try the B-52 next to a Ashdown you will be amazed. The B-52 will eat it alive D:

[Petre]

Yes i think ebay is best bet for a good deal, and davey the gh50l was my next choice... just a little concerned about volumes and such  :roll: . ENGL screamer is also another choice, but both these options are a bit steep price-wise considering id need a half decent cab too (whats the cheapest you can get a pretty good cab for??)

In an unrelated matter, I drove 30 miles to a music shop today only to find it was closed on thursdays. Pwnt.

lol! thoroughly  :lol:

and yea black fire ill look into that B52. Its defiantely arousing my interest so far!

Im still leaning otwards the fact it was the tubes. Coz when i tried to push it with an OD it just fizzed and got muddier. Anyhow, either way build quality wasnt impressive, and if alot of the muddiness was removed im still not sure im so keen on the voicing. Im after real good clarity, but the ability to dial in a loada bass to really grind away.

And about the ENGL combos. sorry! i didnt mean a perfect cube lol, just it seemed alot wider (from back to front) than other combos.


Anyway, big question. Couldnt i get a rack pre-amp and poweramp and then just feed that into a cab? I havent dabbled with racks or pre-amps or the such, but it looks very interesting!. If somebody could write a brief guide as to what you need and the pros/cons (or if ive missed the point completely!).

Thanks guys
Petre

[deg0ey]

And about the ENGL combos. sorry! i didnt mean a perfect cube lol, just it seemed alot wider (from back to front) than other combos.

Can't say I ever noticed it...It is quite big, but so are most combo (aren't they?)

I have to say, it's the most well built thing I've ever seen - It'd probably still work if my house fell down on top of it...

[dave_mc]

if you want to save a little cash, you could always get the screamer combo- but you're still talking about £800 inc. footswitch, or about £700 without...