The Voice of Rock, Glenn Hughes, has joined forces with Ashdown Engineering and has added its Arc and Low Rider bass guitars to his touring rig for the Dead Daisies.
This is big news for Ashdown, who reportedly secured a place in Hughes’ affections over afternoon tea and heady talk of custom gold finishes with Tortoiseshell pickguards.
Ashdown’s bass lineup was launched at NAMM 2020, and saw the British gear titan hook up with Chicago-based luthier Dan Lakin for a quartet of basses: The Grail, The Saint, The Arc and The Low Rider. It was the latter that Hughes’ attention at Anaheim.
“Glenn instantly fell in love with the look and playability of our Low Rider bass at the show,” says Ashdown. “After sitting and playing it for quite some time we were asked if it came in gold, and could it have a tortoise shell pic guard?”
Hughes also requested a P-style bass and that’s what the Arc is all about, featuring a single custom wound split humbucker and a vintage-style string-through bridge with brass saddles, and crucially could be finished in gold. Both basses then made their stage debut at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on the Dead Daisies’ Like No Other World Tour.
It seems While Ashdown has a formidable reputation for bass amps it would seem that its partnership with Hughes will be limited to bass guitars. After all, it seems like it was only yesterday when the former Deep Purple man had just announced a signature Orange Crush 50 bass amp, promising that the versatile 50-watter was a compact powerhouse for the home or studio.
“You can go in the studio, take that bass combo and make your album with something like that, it’s truly outstanding,” said Hughes. “It’s gritty, it’s punchy: sustain is so important and it's certainly got all that.”
Hughes has been an Orange artist for over a decade, and it’s unlikely that’s going to change any time soon. When the Glenn Hughes Orange Crush 50 was announced, he proclaimed, “Orange all the way… it’s the future, it’s the way to go, you heard it from me!” ...But maybe with a side order of Ashdown.
Hughes has typically been associated with Fender bass guitars ever since he decommissioned his Burn-era Rickenbacker and gave it to Geezer Butler, and has latterly used a Nash Guitars JB63 and also Ibanez on occasion.
For more on The Arc and Low Rider basses, head over to Ashdown Engineering.
