Line 6 LowDown LD15

The Line 6 LowDown LD15 is a small bass guitar combination amp that is suitable for use in the studio or for practicing. It definitely seems to be designed for practicing, but where I've got experience with it is in the studio. Like the name mentions, it's got 15 watts of power. The amp has built in modeling it in, which is something I'll talk more about in the following sections. As far as the connections go, it's got 1/4" connections for your instrument input, as well as for a headphone output. It also has a mini-plug 1/8" input for a CD or mp3 player if you want to play along through the amp.

UTILIZATION

Using the Line 6 LowDown LD15 is really a simple thing to do. Most practice amps are made as simple as possible, but I would say that the LD15 has more features than your average practice amp. The parameters that it has include those for drive, bass, lo-mid, hi-mid, treble, opto compression, FX, and master volume. It also has four buttons for amp modeling, which has modes for clean, R&B, rock, and grind. A manual isn't necessary unless you're a true beginner.

SOUNDS

The overall sound of the Line 6 LowDown LD15 isn't very impressive to me, but it is by no means a bad sounding amp. It packs a good amount of punch for a small 15 watt amplifier, and definitely offers up the proper amount of control over your sound between the amp modeling, basic parameters, and effects. I will say that I think it sounds best when played clean and without the effects. The effects that it has are for chorus, octave, and a filter, as well as a separate parameter for compression. The effects are useful for messing around with, but I wouldn't use them for recording or anything permanent. The compression is good enough for touching your sound, but again isn't a professional sounding signal processor. Overall the amp has a very respectable sound, but I would really recommend it primarily as a practice amp.

OVERALL OPINION

For an inexpensive practice amp, the Line 6 LowDown LD15 will definitely get the job done more often than not. The features are definitely nice to have, like the compression and the effects, but they aren't the best sounding effects of their kind by a long shot. They do have larger amps like this one if you're looking for something to play shows with, but unless you are in a very small setting, I don't think that this will work for shows. All in all, the Line 6 LD15 is worth exploring for beginner bass players looking for an amp to get started with.