Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
Welcome to TalkBass! Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Ashdown CTM-200R
- Thread starter Joris 55
- Start date
That's way more than a Reeves C225. I still like the form factor.
MSRP: $4,499.99 is a joke! and we still don't know about issues that may come up with a newly designed amp.
Last edited:
I'm glad I got mine when I did!!!! My second 2x12 is at my local UPS depot scheduled for delivery today. Hiwatt / Reeves are some of my favorite tone stacks... but the Ashdown is just as magical
I'm not concerned about a new design, the masterminds behind it have been at long enough and there isn't anything "new" about the components.
I think MAP is $3299. Still a wad of cash, and the reason why I primarily buy second hand (especially tube amps).
My notes say I am in the hole about $2050 for my Small Block 427. This includes a new octet of KT88s. I bought this amp B-stock and the original purchase price with shipping was $1,579. The plate supply was not configured properly when I got the amp, so it was popping output tubes. After the tech figured out/fixed the problem, I bought a new matched set of JJs, and kept all of the original JJs that tested good. Ashdown replaced some of the bad tubes.
I paid $1,100 for my CTM300. It came to me with EHX KT88 and the amp could not be biased. I swapped out the bias ranging resistor, but most of the EHX tubes failed in short order. It's running a sextet of JJs now...most of them were the good pulls from the 427, so the cost is already factored against the 427.
Purchase price for my AD200B was about $1,400. The only mark on the amp was a black smudge on the back of the chassis that came off with a bit of goo gone. Of the amps I will mention in this post, it's the only one that has not needed any tubes replaced (knock wood).
Paid $2,600 for my Reeves 400. Also near mint. This amp came to me with EHX KT88 and 6550. For a short period of time Reeves used EHX as their OEM tubes. The original EHX KT88 was bad when the original owner received the amp and a tech installed the 6550. The 6550 was running really hot when I got it. I immediately replaced it with a good pull that was a better current match. 4 of the remaining 5 KT88s failed within the first year. Its running good pulls from other amps and sounds great. Apparently, it's not finicky about the output tubes, but I do believe it runs them relatively hard. I've only had one failure since I pulled all of the EHX, and it was a tube from the 90s that simply stopped working.
All of my other tube amps were long out of production when I bought them. I would say about half of them came to me with at least 1 janky tube.
I cannot wait to get mine out in public! Past the Honeymoon, my only complaint is the volume of the internal fans
So, this is quite a number of years since most of these CTM200R posts have been made.
I wanted to share that I have just recently gone through a sell-off process of my heavy touring gear to prepare for a move to a new state, new music community, and a smaller home situation where we will be in a townhome where being a good (not loud) new neighbor will be important.
For years I have had 2 4x10 Ashdown ABM EVOIV cabs and the ever-loud and beastly Marshal VBA400 (400 watt all-tube amp) as my go to rig for endless amount of headroom, clarity, and tonal flexibility.
The issue was all of that gear was very heavy and 400 watts all-tube was almost impossible to justify on most stages. I rarely was able to set the volume higher than 4 or 5.
I sold all of that off, and decided on two Ashdown cabs again (they are so well made and can take every bit of rough playing and traveling for years) - this time I went with ABM 2x10H EVO IV Compact & ABM 1x15H EVO IV Compact cabinets that are each 300 watts @ 8 ohms. For amp options I went with the Ashdown ANT (200 watts @ 8 ohms) due to its tiny size and fantastic sound at small volume; and the Ashdown CTM200R (a B-Stock showroom model that had a few scratches on the side).
So far I have done 2 shows with both the 1x15 and 2x10 and the ANT where there was front of house PA support, and I was more than pleased with the presence, volume, and tone I maintained throughout both gigs.
This past weekend, I had the chance to do an outdoor show with front of house PA support, and I decided to put the CTM200R to work with the 1x15 and 2x10, and I was so glad for the purchase decisions I made during that show. I was concerned that 200 tube watts was not going to cut it from what I was used to having behind me on stage, but I was pleasantly surprised to find my concerns unmerited. I received many compliments and questions about my updated rig and the load in and load out were way more polite on my body.
I wanted to share that I have just recently gone through a sell-off process of my heavy touring gear to prepare for a move to a new state, new music community, and a smaller home situation where we will be in a townhome where being a good (not loud) new neighbor will be important.
For years I have had 2 4x10 Ashdown ABM EVOIV cabs and the ever-loud and beastly Marshal VBA400 (400 watt all-tube amp) as my go to rig for endless amount of headroom, clarity, and tonal flexibility.
The issue was all of that gear was very heavy and 400 watts all-tube was almost impossible to justify on most stages. I rarely was able to set the volume higher than 4 or 5.
I sold all of that off, and decided on two Ashdown cabs again (they are so well made and can take every bit of rough playing and traveling for years) - this time I went with ABM 2x10H EVO IV Compact & ABM 1x15H EVO IV Compact cabinets that are each 300 watts @ 8 ohms. For amp options I went with the Ashdown ANT (200 watts @ 8 ohms) due to its tiny size and fantastic sound at small volume; and the Ashdown CTM200R (a B-Stock showroom model that had a few scratches on the side).
So far I have done 2 shows with both the 1x15 and 2x10 and the ANT where there was front of house PA support, and I was more than pleased with the presence, volume, and tone I maintained throughout both gigs.
This past weekend, I had the chance to do an outdoor show with front of house PA support, and I decided to put the CTM200R to work with the 1x15 and 2x10, and I was so glad for the purchase decisions I made during that show. I was concerned that 200 tube watts was not going to cut it from what I was used to having behind me on stage, but I was pleasantly surprised to find my concerns unmerited. I received many compliments and questions about my updated rig and the load in and load out were way more polite on my body.
