Re: Ashdown Fallen Angel 60 watt 2x12 combo
I've played a second-hand one before in a guitar shop. It had nice cleans (although not fender clean) and warm marshall JCM-800 style distortion. I could get all those classic crunch tones no problem however it was JUST a inch short of getting a really saturated sound even with the boost engaged on the distortion channel.
For an amp named "fallen angel" I was expecting far more gain to be on tap. It helped a little bit to get to a saturated tone when I plugged a TS-9 in front of it, but I couldn't get that "liquidy" feel going. I was also a bit disappointed in how the bass response was a tad loose. Doesn't really help to get the "chugga-chugga" happening. I think this is partially to blame since the combo is of an open back configuration.
I've heard that these amps really get wild when you crank the $hit out of the master volume and get them tubes glowing however I got pretty nervous when I tried to get the master past about 4 or 5 and the whole damn shop was vibrating from it's output. The good thing however was that I was able to still get great medium-gain/clean tones at low volume. My 50 watt Laney AOR can't do that! It sounds fizzy if you have the master low.
Overall, from my experience, the Fallen Angel is a very nice amp for playing rock music with the bonus of a decent clean channel. I was going to buy the FA-60 combo since it was marked down to a great price but someone else beat me to it. Turns out though this particular amp was having reliability issues in the past and the guy who bought it had to have it worked over by a tech, hence the reason it had by marked down by the previous owner. There are some nasty stories about the Ashdown Fallen Angel and Peacemaker series regarding reliability so I urge you to be weary.
Also, the first generation of Fallen Angels are ones to look out for since they are made in England and superior in tone to the second generation models which are made in Asia.
Finally, despite what I said above about the FA-60 not being gainy enough, I have a clip of the same amp in action that someone posted on the Harmony Central boards awhile ago that kind of proves that notion wrong. Maybe this dudes guitar played a major difference in the results he was getting with the FA-60:
Ashdown-Fallen-Angel-60-Clip
