NAMM 2021 - Believe in Music Week
Mark Gooday, an already experienced amp builder founded Ashdown Engineering in 1997. Over the years, this company established itself as one of the premier bass guitar amplifier builder company in the world.
When Mark Gooday started his company he wanted to “engineer” a “better bass amp”. In the meantime, he reached out to legendary British bass players like John Entwistle and Mark King to see what are their desires for the perfect bass amp. Combining his years of experience making bass amps and the critiques from legendary bass players he started to make Ashdown Engineering bass amps soon after.
I am pretty sure everyone in the bass guitar community, and musicians in general, have heard about the legendary Ashdown amps and their superb tones. But not a lot of people know they also make bass guitars as well.
In recent years, Ashdown Engineering went a little further. They started to make their own bass guitars as well. Mark Gooday teamed up with legendary luthier, Dan Lakin (previously of Lakland basses) to come up with their own bass guitar designs. This collaboration started out with only one instrument being designed and built. They soon realized they have a lot more good ideas under their sleeves and came up with a whole line of basses. All of the Ashdown basses are made to order in Chicago, USA.
The build quality of these basses are extremely high. Besides using high-quality woods they also use Hipshot Tuners and Wilkinson bridges.
Let’s look at all the new models Ashdown is offering –
The Low Rider
The Low Rider is Ashdown’s take on a classic design at an affordable price. The Body is made with lightweight alder and has a high gloss poly finish on the body. The neck is maple and there are two fingerboard options – rosewood and maple. It has a 34″ scale length and has 20 frets. Two big humbucker pickups provide the punch on this bass.
Starting price for this bass is £999.00.
The Saint
The Saint is Ashdown’s go-to bass for versatility. With both a P bass and J bass pickup you can get tones ranging from old school all the way to more modern sounds as well. It also has a unique design that differentiates itself from all the other PJ basses out there.
The Saint’s body is also made with lightweight alder and has a high gloss poly finish on the body. The neck is maple and there are two fingerboard options – rosewood and maple. It has a 34″ scale length and has 20 frets.
Starting price for this bass is going to be £949.00.
The Arc
The Arc is Ashdown’s take on the classic P bass. The original Fender P-Bass was released back in 1957 and to this day they are without a doubt, really popular.
The specifications for this bass are similar to the previously mentioned models. It has the same body material, neck material, fingerboard configurations. The difference comes in the shape, which is a classic P bass body shape. The other difference is that it has a custom-wound split humbucker pickup that delivers rich familiar tones that we all like and love.
Starting price for this bass is £949.00.
The Grail
Lastly, we have The Grail. This has the classic J-Bass design with Ashdown Engineering’s extra touches, making it a really great bass for the price.
The specs are similar to the above-mentioned basses. The extra treat is that this bass comes in either 4 and 5 string versions. Oh, and also there is a Grail short-scale bass as well which is a nice touch for the people who prefer the short scale design to the regular one.
Starting price for this bass is £949.00.
To find out more about Ashdown Engineering basses go to their website – https://ashdownmusic.com/
To check out more bass features from Insta of Bass, click HERE.
