Last week I bought a second-hand Ashdown Little Giant 350W on eBay for £130+ shipping. I'd been looking to upgrade my Behringer 300W head for a while, and liked the idea of a mini head that was easy to take to rehearsal studios. I saw mixed reviews of the LG350 (mostly relating to it being quite quiet) but the price was right so I took the plunge.
It arrived, plugged it into my Marshall 1x15 (250w 8ohm) and was impressed with the tone shaping, but it definitely was really quiet and it all seemed to relate to the preamp - with gain all the way up, my Fender Jazz was hardly getting the VU to react, let alone give much movement. A compressor pedal helped sort that out though.
Fast forward to tonight and I'm in a decent rehearsal studio playing bass with a new band. There's a stack of Ashdown Mag cabs there, so I plug both speakers into my Little Giant. The preamp thing is still a bit of an issue but there was still plenty of output volume to keep up with the band, running at 60-70% output volume. Happily playing away and all of a sudden the output rapidly nosedives and cuts out completely. The VU is still responding though so it's getting a signal, just not putting anything out.
I switch off, check the speaker connections (it'd be odd for both to go anyway) and turn on - still no output. I have a fiddle around again; it's feeling warm but not too hot to touch, and the fan hasn't kicked in at all. I plug the studio's Mag head in to check the speakers and all is working. Plug the LG back in and it's working again, phew! Carry on jamming, 20 mins and the output goes again. At this point I unplugged it and carried on with the studio's head for the rest of the session. At packing up time I gave the LG one more try, and it's back working again.
Got home and googled it - apparently overheating and fan failure is a common issue with this amp, causing the symptoms I'd experienced. Apparently the fan is supposed to briefly spin on powering the amp up to show that it works - mine is not doing that, so I imagine that, without the fan running, the amp just can't handle being pushed into higher volumes. I've requested a refund from the seller (the listing said "perfect working order" and unfortunately it isn't) but it's a real shame as I actually really quite liked how it sounds!
Comments
Out of interest, what was the combined impedance of the Ashdown cabinet array at your rehearsal venue?
The Behringer is a much better amp actually. Far better engineered.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Look at the stage setup for any Ashdown endorsee...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
What alternatives would people recommend? How about the Ampeg PF350 or TC Electronics 250W mini head?
MarkBass gear is excellent - the Little Mark head is probably the most common. I've never seen a dead one of those either.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Actually some of the cheap Electric Blue series have a row of LEDs instead, and surprisingly they are also some of the least unreliable Ashdowns overall too. Apart from blown speakers, anyway...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Edit: noticed it also has a little aux in socket and headphones out, and can be run without a speaker load, which makes it super useful for practising at home.
What speaker does the Marshall cab have? If it's the old Celestion Sidewinder, 250W into it is safe - if it's anything else (especially not a Celestion) be more careful... although as long as you don't audibly overdrive the speaker it should be OK. There's a reasonable chance the amp might not quite put out as much 250W at 8 ohms either, sometimes the de-rated output is a bit of a guess… it could be as low as 175W in theory, although I would expect somewhere between 200 and 250.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I have the older Staccato '51 and Classic 450 heads. The only problems these ever had were due to pilot error.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/WTX264/bass-amp-heads/eden-wtx264-260w-mini-bass-amp-head