The Ashdown Electric Blue 15-180 is a bass guitar combo amp suitable for uses of all types. I've only used this amplifier in the studio when the bass player of a band I was recording brought it in for the session. Ashdown is a cool company as they make some great bass amps for reasonable prices. The 15-180, somewhat obviously, boasts 180 watts of power through a single 15" speaker. It's a solid state amp and gives you a plethora of connections and routing options to work with including both an active and passive 1/4" input, 1/4" tuner output, 1/4" effects send and return, and also an XLR output for taking the amp direct out.

UTILIZATION

Using the Ashdown Electric Blue 15-180 isn't too hard and at the same time there is a lot of parameters and controls to work with. This includes built in compression, input and output levelers, and a three band EQ. It also has a bright switch and a sub harmonic knob that can produce some interesting full sounds. I haven't seen a manual for this and I don't think I ever will.

SOUNDS

The sound of the Ashdown Electric Blue 15-180 is pretty awesome. It's super full sounding and between all of the controls you can definitely get a wide array of tones. It's pretty big and should be loud enough to play shows with in a variety of venues. When recording it I took both a signal from XLR output and mic'd it up, both of which gave us some great sounds - especially the DI sound which was awesome coming straight from amp.

OVERALL OPINION

The Ashdown Electric Blue 15-180 is a superb choice for bass players on all levels who are looking for a great bass combo amp without spending too much money. I really like the sound of the amp and also love that you've got so much control - built in compression is a huge plus! I was surprised to find out how cheap these are. Those bass players out there looking for a top quality combo amp without the budget for one should definitely check out the Electric Blue 15-180 and the other amps Ashdown has to offer.