HI all,
I just laid some coin down on a second hand Ashdown ABM 500 EVO II.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of info about the ABM EVO II only the EVO III.
Anyone got any experience with this bass head? Seems to be a lot of slightly varying models out there.
Cheers…
That looks like a great head! EQ looks nice. I might have used one of those for backline at a festival a year or two ago, it was an Ashdown head that at least looked similar. I remember it being okay - being on a festival stage with quick changeovers isn’t really a good environment to test an amp in though.
I’m curious how the subharmonic thing works out - is it really an octave below, or does it end up picking up the 1st harmonic and then going below that, in effect giving you a boost to your fundamental? Is it an EQ or an analog octave circuit?
I’m almost sure it’s an octave down. I’ve had an Ashdown Electric Blue head with this sub-octave thing. I must say I’ve been pretty unimpressed by this amp, that’s the reason why I sold it to buy an Ampeg. (but it’s not the same exact model so I don’t have any conclusion about the ABM 500 Evo II)
Hi Josh,
When I get it, I’ll see if I can record a small clip and try out that subharmonic thingy. From what I can tell it’s a but like an octaver. We’ll see.
Interesting! If it is an analog octave circuit - seems like an odd idea to me, since analog octaves are monophonic, and bass has 4 strings and can therefore easily not work well with an analog octave running always-on if you want to play chords at all, or even if your muting technique is sub-par.
Plus, slap bass + analog octave = not great, the complex waveforms from the added percussive element confuse the tracking pretty hard.
Anyway, report back! Fun to nerd out about the good, the bad, and the poorly tracking. 
