Why the Ashdown Geezer Butler Combo of Doom Is More Than Just a Metal Amp

Pete Griffin has spent more than two decades playing bass in wildly different musical settings, from the crushing metal of Dethklok to the virtuoso guitar showcase Generation Axe—featuring Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt and Tosin Abasi—and on to the New Orleans grooves of Dr. John and the funk of Carl Denson. Through all of these stylistic changes, one piece of gear has remained constant—Ashdown bass amps.

"I first came across Ashdown amps when I was playing the Viper Room in Hollywood," says Griffin. "The drummer even said, 'You guys sound really awesome tonight.' I thought, 'It has to be the amp.' It turned out it was. I fell in love with the Ashdown ABM that was backlined for us onstage, got one shortly after and I've been using Ashdown ever since. I've had different basses, different strings, different pedals, different cables, but always Ashdown bass amps.”

More Than a Signature Metal Amp

Considering Geezer Butler's influence on heavy music, Griffin says the collaboration on the Ashdown Geezer Butler Combo of Doom makes perfect sense.

"If you play heavy music of any sort, you've stolen something from Geezer,” he laughs. “You know you have. Those guys nailed all those really cool pentatonic riffs you stumble onto when you're first messing around on bass. Then, you listen to enough Black Sabbath and realize, 'Oh no, I'm actually playing a Sabbath song.' [Laughs.] But the Combo of Doom is not just for the metal heads out there. It has a lot of different tones in it—all the Ashdown stuff does."

Tube-Like Feel From a Compact Combo

"A lot of bass amps have a contour or shape control that adds a little too much bottom and too much top,” says Griffin. “The way Ashdown voiced it really works for me. The Drive control is also important. If you run it just a tiny bit on, it makes a lightweight Class D amp sound like a big old tube amp—as if you were running a stadium stack. The Ashdown Geezer Butler Combo of Doom delivers 200 watts, which is enough for pretty much any gig you could do around town, or even a big stage where you're sending the sound to the front of house via an XLR cable."

From Rock to Funk to Old-School R&B

"I always set the controls straight flat,” says Griffin about tone shaping with the Combo of Doom, as well as most Ashdown rigs. “That's kind of why I love these amps. With it set flat, it's a pretty great rock tone. But if you want a more modern slap tone, you can add some bottom end and top end and take out a little of the low mids. You can get a mellow, old-school Motown sound by taking out some of the top end and adding those low mids back in. I've taken this amp from rock territory to funk territory to cool old-school R&B—it's really quite versatile despite being advertised as the Geezer Butler Combo of Doom. It can do more than just Doom."

Built for the Gig and the Practice Room

Griffin sees the Combo of Doom's versatility as rooted in more than just a rainbow of low-end tones. There are also practical features, such as a footswitchable Drive circuit, a passive/active input, headphone output and auxiliary input.

"So, not only is this thing lightweight and compact—it fits in the back of your car with no problem—but that 12-inch speaker gives you the highs you need and the bottom end you want," he says.