Ashdown Woodsman Acoustic Amps

BigLicks67 · February 2018

Anyone tried one of the new range of Ashdown acoustic amps? If so, any good?

https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/acoustic/products/woodsman-classic
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Phil_aka_Pip · February 2018

I knew someone who bought a much older model of an acoustic combo by Ashdown (at least I think that's what it was). Don't recall her having any trouble with it, and when I heard it in use it sounded fine.

However I have heard stories about Ashdown power supplies.

BigLicks67 · February 2018

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I knew someone who bought a much older model of an acoustic combo by Ashdown (at least I think that's what it was). Don't recall her having any trouble with it, and when I heard it in use it sounded fine.

However I have heard stories about Ashdown power supplies.

Might have been an old Acoustic Radiator model.

ICBM · February 2018

I haven't personally seen any problems with the Radiators or heard reports of any, but I have to say that their bass and electric guitar amps are so universally poor that it would surprise me if the acoustic ones are exempt from the same sort of design and build quality problems.

That said, an acoustic guitar amp is actually less stressful on its components than either a bass amp or an electric guitar amp, so it is possible that the lack of failures is more than just down to relative rarity, and they are in fact reliable. It would be nice if so, since the Radiator did at least sound good.

KKJale · February 2018

I have the 60W 2 x 8" Jumbo (didn't buy it... it's on loan from a friend).

It's... okay. Doesn't sound unpleasant. But it's very cheaply made. Inside, it's just a nastily laid-out sweatshop thing. The handle, and its placement, is ghastly. It lacks metal corners. As far as I can tell the control panel layout/ functions are completely unchanged from the Radiators of 10-15 years ago. The difference is, though it's the biggest model, it's got way less power than the old ones. And worse speakers.

TL/DR: it works, wouldn't pay for a new one.

BigLicks67 · February 2018

That's worrying as the website is pushing how it's "designed to last" etc. I thought they seemed cheap in comparison to other brands obviously there's a fair amount of corner cutting going on.

KKJale · February 2018

Having had the back off one, I'd say it's "designed to save us pennies".

crunchman · February 2018

Looking at it, there are lmited EQ options. There is only 2 band Bass and Treble on the guitar channel, and a basic Tone control on the XLR mic channel.

The Fishman Loudbox Mini is around the same price, but gives you 3 band eq (Bass, Middle, Treble) on the guitar channel, and 2 band on the mic channel. It also has Reverb with an independent level control for each channel, plus Chorus on the guitar channel (although most of us will leave that at zero). It's also 60W rather than 40W.

BigLicks67 · February 2018

I imagine the Fishman doesn't have any reliability issues either, I think now the Loudbox Mini would be my first port of call if I was going out trying amps. My only issue is space which would probably mean giving the Yamaha THR5A a go.

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Ashdown Woodsman Acoustic Amps

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