Ashton AB2 Reviews 4

I play bass in a band from Coburg. We play mostly rock, but Jack (the drummer) and I like to play reggae occasionally.

I bought this bass with an Ashton amp for about $200 to $300.00 I always shop at Allans Music Store - they always give me fantastic deals and I don't even ask.

I'm currently about to buy myself a very nice Fender Highway One Jazz Bass, but in between the time I started learning and now, the cheap old AB2 has served me suprisingly well. When I picked this up, I didn't expect fantastic tone or feel. But I was surprised by the nice mellow tone this bass produces. This bass is the best bass out there for the price. It's great for beginners too because it's extremely light and easy to play. The small body makes it less clumsy and the simplicity of a single coil pickup and two control knobs make it a winner. This bass is so easy to service! Any beginner can do it themselves! It is a great introduction to the world of bass. And I can't get over the tone! For a bass this price, how is it possible? The pickups are poor quality and week, the bridge is ordinary, and the rosewood fingerboard is nothing special - but somehow this bass produces such a beautiful mellow tone. Play it through a quality amp, like a Roland DBASS 100 studio amp, and it sounds just like something a lot rarer and more expensive.

I don't like the pickups. From day one, they have annoyed me. Oh well, I've grown to live with them. After all, even with that dinky piece of plastic under the strings, the bass sounds fantastic. And the bridge is pretty ordinary. The tuners can't hold a pitch for more than two weeks, the control knobs are really loose and there are numerous dead spots. But you can hardly expect more from a Bass worth under $300. Think of it like an old rusty beaten up torana. The car is a piece of junk, but the engine will sound absolutely fantastic.

The quality is not something that shines out on this bass. If you do buy it, get some new pickups and strings.

For 300 bucks, nothing out there can beat this. Buy it!

Chris Jeffs rated this unit 4 on 2007-01-04.

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