[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

OWEN O'MALLEY: Welcome back to Gearwire.Com. I’m Owen O'Malley, and this is the Line 6 LowDown Bass Combo. Specifically it’s the 110 combo. It is a modeling amplifier. A lot of the sounds are based on the Line 6 Bass POD, which is a pretty excellent sounding amp simulator made for bass. I thought it was superior to the guitar version but that’s just me. This has four different combo simulations built into it plus a bass synth patch which sounds a little bit like the Boss SBY-1, which was kind of modeling sort of Moog sounds, synth sounds.

This first model we’re on is called Clean, and it’s based on the Eden World Traveler head, which was a very -- or is a very hi-fi bass head. Let’s play with the controls a little bit.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

We got a three-band EQ. We got bass, low mid, high mid, and treble.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

There is a drive control which acts as your preamp volume.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

There is also an opto compressor. Now, the control that actually says that as you bring the dial up it increases the threshold which is sort of true, but it kind of behaves more as a gain compensator than a true compressor. You’ll hear what I mean. If I’m not even playing and I bring up the opto, you can hear a lot more noise comes through. It is basically a compressor but with its sort of like fixed point, it has like an automatic gain attenuation. It’s more like an expander I guess. Anyway, let’s bring it down. I know we’ve got our master control here.

Let’s move on to the next amp model which is called R&B and this is based on an Ampeg Flip Top.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

Our next model here is called Rock. This is based on an SVT head.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

And the last of the bass models is called Grind. Physically this one is modeled after the SansAmp Bass DI and they mixed a little bit of the clean tone in there to sort of keep the fundamental.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

Last but not least, there is a bass synth model on here. You engage that by pressing the R&B and the Rock buttons at the top here at the same time.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

The tracking is a little wonky. The controls are a little bit different whe we’re in bass synth mode. Drive is the same. [PLAYS A NOTE] It actas as the drive would on a synthesizer. Bass now becomes the cutoff.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

The low mid is the resonance.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

The high mid becomes the envelope.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

And the treble is the attack or the decay.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

Opto compressor now becomes a waveform select. You can choose between their square waves.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

And lots of crazy stuff in there.

[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING BASS THROUGH THE LINE 6 LOWDOWN STUDIO 100]

There is a balanced XLR line out on the back of this guy. There is also a ground lift. The line out incorporates the AIR technology from the Bass POD which is basically just a cabinet and microphone simulator. It spells air if you didn’t notice. And all in all, it’s a pretty excellent sounding combo and it’s pretty light compared to, you know, an SVT stack. So, this is the Line 6 LowDown Bass Combo, the LowDown 110. I’m Owen O'Malley. You've been watching Gearwire.Com. See you around.