20 Years of Ashdown

As seen on major stages across the world with some of the biggest and most famous bands of our time, the status of the Ashdown Bass rig has firmly secured its place in rock ‘n’ roll history. Setting the stage since ’97, Ashdown have been dedicated to providing bassists with the best possible tone, on stage and in the studio.

The Ashdown story began back 1997, but this certainly wasn’t a new venture for company founder Mark Gooday. Having previously been managing director of industry giants Trace Elliot for the 12 years prior to forming Ashdown, Mark was already somewhat of a bass amp pioneer. You could say that Bass was in his blood.

Mark’s natural eye for design and enormous attention to detail in terms of bass tone has helped to establish Ashdown as one of the world’s leading bass amplifier brands on the market. Over the years Ashdown have earned the trust of many big names in bass – John Entwistle, Adam Clayton, Paul McCartney, Geezer Butler, to name but a few.

2017 signifies the 20th Anniversary milestone since the launch of Ashdown, but building a globally respected brand does not come without hard work, passion and determination. 20 years on and Mark Gooday and his team still strive to learn, evolve and take the Ashdown brand name to the next level.

Pushing the boundaries, Mark and Ashdown have tapped into new technologies and a new market with the launch of Meters Music. Meters Headphones use Ashdown’s trademark VU meter as the vision behind the brand and offers customers something never seen before – all-the-while with a sound quality that rivals some of the biggest names in the headphone market.

Despite becoming the brand we know and love today, Mark will never be one to forget what the Ashdown name was originally built on. Adopting the name of Mark’s wife’s family name, Ashdown remains a small, family ran business made up of primarily family and a few close friends.

Ashdown Amps are designed and produced from their small operation located in the village of Heybridge, Essex, with a little help from their chain of global distributors. The Ashdown team line-up features son and son-in-law, Dan and Lee, as well as electronics engineer and valve amp guru, Dave Green. Together Ashdown look forward to continuing to serve the industry for a further 20 years and beyond.

To celebrate 20 years of production, Ashdown have produced a very special, Limited Edition ABM EVO-IV head and cabinet combination. The UK built 20th Anniversary ABM-600 EVO-IV and ABM 410T EVO-IV are built on the foundations of Ashdown’s fifth and latest evolution of its leading ABM range and feature a luxurious diamond Tolex covering.

Also in the product line up for Ashdown’s 20th Anniversary is a Limited Edition CTM-30-Tweed Valve Head and 112T-250-Tweed Cabinet – again, each amp is hand wired in Ashdown’s UK Custom Shop. The 20th Anniversary CTMs come wrapped in an attractive Vintage Tweed covering.

Available in limited numbers, the 20th Anniversary models will run until the end of 2017 (Ashdown’s 20th anniversary year) and every unit produced will come tested with a hand signed label by the man himself, Ashdown’s Founder and Managing Director, Mark Gooday.