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Post subject: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 10:45 am
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Location: East Tennessee
Does anyone have any experience/info with the Ashbory?

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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 7:48 pm
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I have owned one, and played it for about a year or so - here and there. What questions do you have?

Maybe I can say one thing without a question - I like the Kala UBass better, but will not own either again. Some nice videos on YouTube, professional players, but unless I was playing in a uke band, I really do not see the point of a miniature product, tiny frets, and rubber strings. (Yes, I know they aren't rubber...that just kind of sounded right) I thought it would be good to travel with, and to an extent it was, but then you are teaching your fingers a whole different excercise.

A friend of mine in St. Lucia has a UBass, and I enjoy playing it with his soca band everytime I visit - but he also has a Pbass that gets primary treatment, even though the UBass gets the looks.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:25 am
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Location: Albemarle, NC
The Ashbory goes back decades! It originally was made by Guild in the USA. There's a whole bunch of info online about them. Try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashbory_bass

The strings are not very durable and prone to breaking. You also need talcum powder on the finger tips of your left hand when playing one because the silicone strings grab your fingers otherwise and this can also lead to breakage.

I was looking around for a used one to mess around with and also tried the Kala U-Bass that Affprod mentioned. A typical electric bass, a Kala U-Bass and an Ashbory are three entirely different things! The Kala and Ashbory are just not very versatile. They are one-trick-ponies but sound real good doing their trick.

Strings are now abundant, but for a while were a tough find!


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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:56 am
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Location: East Tennessee
Thanks for the info. A guy in our group bought a Fender Ashbory and I played around with it one evening. I aslo played a Kala UBass at a local music store. Both have an incredible sound. I thought it might be fun use one for a gig or two...or a couple of songs but it would be hard to play all the time.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:40 am
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Well it looks like FMIC pulled the plug on the Dearmond Ashbory. Don't know exactly when it happened but it was within the past year. Now strings are getting to be in short supply and the price for strings is escalating again. Anyone with an Ashbory should stock up on strings and other spare parts like the machine head tuners you might need now before they vaporize. Good source for Ashbory strings and parts is a website called largesound.com. I just went there to see what was going in in Ashbory-Land and found this site doesn't have any new instruments left and that string prices have gone up by about 50%. Not good news for Ashbory owners because the strings break frequently. I guess the Kala U-Bass could be one reason they were discontinued.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 7:26 am
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Hey Bro Dave!

Do you know if the Kala Ubass strings fit the Ashbory bass?

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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 5:09 pm
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I'm sure someone is going to try it but I wouldn't try that myself for a number of reasons. The Kala U-Bass type polyurethane strings made by Roadtoad have higher tension. The inferior metal used in the gears on the offshore Ashbory versions probably won't take more tension, in fact gear breakage is one of the most common failures on the offshore Ashbory models even with the stock silicone strings which are ultra low tension. Also the nut is all wrong since the Kala strings are smaller gauged. The higher tension and the smaller gauge would magnify the inherent intonation issues when using the Roadtoad strings on an Ashbory. Finally, the Ashbory string install method of knotting the silicone strings at the bridge and at the tuner to hold them on is probably not going to work with the same strings used on the Kala because they are not as pliable and do not compact or hold a knot like the silicone. The Ashbory strings are still available from a few sources like Largesound.com and others, so I'd stock up if you have one, or sell it. The two inch longer scale of the Kala makes it remarkably more playable and the string material used on the Kala doesn't require talcum powder on your fingers. It should be noted that there are at least 4 different types of these Roadtoad strings made for different basses, maybe one of them I'm unfamiliar with would work better than the acoustic U-Bass strings, but I'd have great reluctance because of the weak tuner gears.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:40 am
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Thanks for the reply and all of the good information.

I don't currently own either the Ashbory or the Kala U-bass but I was interested in the possibility of picking one up.

I guess I will lean toward a Kala if a good deal presents itself.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:21 pm
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I think the original acoustic/electric Kala U-Bass would be the wiser choice in the long run. I don't have any experience whatsoever with the solid body Kala models. Anyone try one?


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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:00 pm
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Not a peep so far from Guild (under Cordoba ownership) about whether the Ashbory or any of the Guild solid body basses are coming back. Nice to see the semi-hollows back (takes me back to the SF sound of my youth), but no further plans in the blog, etc. I'd have to guess that Fender's discontinuing the Ashbory was related to the sale, given that both were at about the same time.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Ashbory
Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 9:55 am
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BD. I played a solid body also, my buddy has the acoustic/electric. The A/E sounds more like a double bass, IMO, the solid more like a P.

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