The year @ Ashdown… 2020…
Well then… It has been an interesting year to say the least but one that has sprouted many surprises and events that will go down in history from what seems a lifetime ago way back in January with only little or no mention of the impending pandemic it was still in its ‘epidemic’ state and we were sat on a plane to LA in January getting ready for what was set to be our best NAMM show in recent years… With meeting some of our great fans, friends and family at the start of year to hanging out with Pete and Joey on the booth to swigging beers with friends at the Rainbow or hotel bar. Meeting so many great people and shaking hands, hugging without a care in the world. NAMMthrax is something we always consider as a risk at that show, so hand sanitizer and general hygiene was always important but this year more so with the whispers starting but let’s have a look at what we launched at the show…
Firstly, our BASSES!! With good old Dan Lakin, the basses have been very well received and are now shipping world-wide. Thanks for your support with this. The NEW CTM-200R head… I mean wow that’s one hell of a head! The ANT, The NEWT, The Studio Range… Needless to say a lot was established at the start of the year…. Then fast forward to the Birmingham Guitar Show in February (our last social outing) everything was starting to get a little strange…
Then March came with our Mark Gooday hitting the magnificent milestone of 60 years young and celebrating his birthday with the help from his grandkids and family. Then on the 24th of March Lockdown struck and with the amazing support and response from our family of musicians (you) we launched the Ashdown Isolation Sessions, just getting our friends to do videos from home and keep the world of bass moving with some incredible lessons from the awesome Phil Mann 8 Hours back-to-back via Facebook live to supporting the fabulous NHS Fest with a signed Geezer Butler bass amp for an incredible course we helped to raise over £160k+ for the NHS.
The Isolation sessions kept coming and our last chance warehouse clear-out started in full pace after uncovering some rare gems from the depths of the Ashdown archives, we started listing everything and offering service support where we could.
This was recorded via the CTM 30-Little Stubby and is a funky descending picked line.
With the Sweetwater GearFest fast approaching and the event having been moved online only for this year we went into the studio (social distanced and following gov guidelines) to produce some great videos for the event with our good friend Phil Mann.
The videos went on to be re purposed as the below videos show and many of you have enjoyed…
The TonePocket - The minuscule but mighty Tone Pocket is a premium bass headphone amplifier designed for home practice, studio and even stage applications.
Our Saint was used by James Johnston on the UK number one cover of the Foo Fighters ‘Time Like These’ in honor of the BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief to provide essential support to vulnerable people of all ages and backgrounds across the UK who will be significantly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The BBC went online for the Big Weekend with some great footages from years past as well as some spectacular live performances from some of our favourite live bands including the Foo Fighters.
Guy Pratt got on board with the pod cast world and launched an awesome Pod Cast with Gary Kemp called the Rockonteurs available for all with some great interviews with some very interesting people including Nick Mason.
Biffy Clyro went on to do the best gig of the year at Barrowlands in Glasgow with a fully immersive experience play through of the bands number one new record ‘A celebration of endings’.
All up this year has been an incredible experience on many levels and one we will never forget! Which leads us on to 2021 with a virtual NAMM show, needless to say we have some very cool new products about to launch with a sneak peek of our 12-Band head as a nod to our old MK-500 head with a slight refinement all built in our UK custom shop and to order…
We have also some very interesting news to share with you soon involving some of your favourite artists including John Myung, Guy Pratt and many more… Watch this space for some cool product news ready to hit floors in 2021…
Once again I can not thank you enough for all your support this year it has taken our breath away at times as to the support we have received from strange dark times going through shelves of stock wondering if the world would ever go back to normal to glorious highs seeing our logos on stages around the world…
Well what more can we say here’s to 2021…