Ashdown Rootmaster

maltingsaudio

Bassist walks on stage , plugs into the Ashdown routmaster we’ve been using all weekend as backline, no sound. Signal on the input dial nothing out the amp. Changed the speaker leads and guitar cable still nothing. Put bassist on a di and fed back through monitors so show can start. Google amps manual to find there is a tiny headphone switch right by the Speakon in which mutes the speaker output. Pressed it and all good with the amp replugged bass player back in. How the bloody hell was anyone who didn’t own one be  expected to know that? And how did it get knocked or was it deliberately pressed to screw up the band?

fretmeister

Everyone on Basschat knows about the headphone button.

Why are people who don't own a thing expected to know anything about it? Is Ashdown expected to educate non-customers too?

I have one - the RM800Evo2. It's a great amp.

I have occasionally knocked the button in too. But it's my amp and I know how it works.
It would be nice if there was a light on the front to show when the headphone switch has been engaged, but again if you don't know that mutes the main outs it wouldn't help much.

If it's been working fine all weekend and hadn't moved then it does sound like someone has pushed the button in on purpose. Whether that is for a bit of headphone practice or malicious - who knows?

maltingsaudio

fretmeister said:

Everyone on Basschat knows about the headphone button.

Why are people who don't own a thing expected to know anything about it? Is Ashdown expected to educate non-customers too?

Whoopy do! Sorry but however good an amp is, if it’s supplied for backline use at a festival , you cannot rely on everyone who is going to use it being a member of bass chat. The bass player in question was quite well known and they didn’t know about it, but that’s no great surprise. 

A feature like that should be obvious, Ashdown should realise that. And yes the backline supplier should have made someone aware of it on delivery. 

In my opinion it’s not fit for purpose and should not be supplied as a  professional backline amp.

ICBM

If the switch is a push-button near the speaker socket, chances are it was pushed by accident when plugging in the cable, not malicious. I had a look at some pics of the back, and I could see it happening.

In its defence, it's probably more reliable than using the headphone jack itself to do the switching. But it probably should have some sort of visual mute indication.

There's a catch on a few Mesa amps like that, with a rocker switch that mutes the speaker for direct recording hidden under the bottom of the chassis, where it's barely visible - it caught me out a couple of times when I had one.

fretmeister

maltingsaudio said:

fretmeister said:

Everyone on Basschat knows about the headphone button.

Why are people who don't own a thing expected to know anything about it? Is Ashdown expected to educate non-customers too?

Whoopy do! Sorry but however good an amp is, if it’s supplied for backline use at a festival , you cannot rely on everyone who is going to use it being a member of bass chat. The bass player in question was quite well known and they didn’t know about it, but that’s no great surprise. 

A feature like that should be obvious, Ashdown should realise that. And yes the backline supplier should have made someone aware of it on delivery. 

In my opinion it’s not fit for purpose and should not be supplied as a  professional backline amp.

Of course it’s fit for purpose. There’s loads of professionals using them every weekend without difficulty.