Geezer Butler Reveals New Ashdown Engineering Signature Head of Doom Amplifier

Geezer Butler shocked fans this weekend when he shared the news of his new signature amp from Ashdown. The Black Sabbath legend posted a promo shot of his new Head of Doom while writing, “This amp is the closest I have found to emulate the old school sound I had in the 70s with its punch & clarity, it has the sound of DOOM I love.”

Ashdown founder and managing director Mark Gooday released a statement on the amp’s creation. “What a moment for me personally. Having grown up playing Sabbath with a band in school and learning all the bass lines with my mate Phil, who could play any guitar lick back after hearing it once,” he wrote. “Geezer’s sound and tone was part of my bass upbringing and has stayed with me until this very day. Geezer has used our Drop Head 30 Valve combo for practice and home use for a number of years, so after discussion of building a gig-ready rig, we naturally began by building all valve amps… however, we quickly learned that Geezer wanted to achieve a sound that was a little different to this. My son, Dan spent a lot of time with Geezer and [his tech] Terry to make the project a success and I’m thrilled with the outcome. That dark look and styling, great sound and twin VU meters – nice work, Dan! All designed and hand-built in the UK. This is what we can do as a small family business and sets up apart from others.”

The Head of Doom is a 666-watt bass amp fitted with dual Neutrik Speakon outputs. Built upon their ABM range, the signal starts with a single input with an active/passive instrument switch. It is the first to have two of the company’s trademark VU meters: one for the input signal and one for the output. Its 9-band EQ allows for precise tonal tweaking with a Shape control for further sculpting. Next, the Doom knob controls how much current is sent to the 12AX7 preamp tube for a “rich harmonic distortion designed specifically for bass guitar.” Ashdown also includes their Sub-Harmonic generator to add fullness with an octave below the notes. The Doom control, EQ, and Sub Harmonics can be toggled on and off via footswitch.

Butler’s new amp has plenty of connectivity with a tuner out, a line output, an effects loop, and a line input. “The Head of Doom’s ins and outs continue even further with three dedicated transformer isolated outputs with the option to slave from the dedicated slave input,” Ashdown states. “This feature was added so Geezer could power his 12 on stage cabinets ensuring the quality of signal was maintained.”

The Ashdown Engineering Geezer Butler Signature Head of Doom is hand built in the UK. It is expected to ship globally by the end of November with a to-be-determined price point.

Ashdown Engineering Geezer Butler Signature Head of Doom Specs: