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Line 6 HD400 lowdown - yay or nay?

C

Chadster87

Mar 14, 2012
11
1
Lancashire, England, UK
#1
Advice anyone? found one of these for £180, amp shopping on a shoe-string, anyone own/played one of these? torn between this and the behringer bx4500h which i've played through several times and think its a good bit of kit for the price but people tell me to avoid at all costs!
also does anyone know of any alternatives, preferably under £200, i know that doesn't help and there isnt much a market for that sort of cash but any advice would be recieved with open arms! cheers all
Chadster87
 
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#4
Bought a HD400 new from Line6 about 2 years ago and only had it about 2 months. Did not care for the tone and had issues with digital popping and software not working correclty. Had to factory reset it numerous times. Line6 dropped this head.
Sold it and bought a Carvin BX500 which also had issues going into protect mode. Carvin sent me a replacment and I have never had any issues with this one and it sounds great. Bang for the buck I vote Carvin BX500.
 
#5
I have an HD400 that I have been using for almost a couple years now with no problems. I have heard of the issue Mag1guru mentioned though, but have not experienced myself. I like it. The presets have to be tweaked to your liking, which can become a hassle if you are not familiar with Line 6 programming. But I found it pretty simple, others dont like it. I found the effects on it were pretty much useless. Maybe the chorus on it every now and then. The synth is cool, but does not track well. Maybe for 1 note lines that are played slower. Dont really like the filter effect much and the octaver not so much either. These are just my opinions and I have not spent much time trying to tweak them either. All in all, I like the head and the other members in the band like the tone as well.
 
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#6
cheers guys, think i'm gonna decide against it, may have to put the cash aside/maybe add to it and be patient and or shop around, i'm not really in to fidgety computerised stuff, just need something basic(ish) plenty o power and built to last, i'm gettin the impression the line 6 and behringer aren't these things... thanks all for advice
 
#7
FWIW, I saw a Jonny Lang concert on TV the other day. His bassist, Jim Anton I believe, was using a Low Down Rig and his tone was sick. I guess I am a gear snob, because when I saw the Line 6 stuff I scoffed, but the dude killed it. Playing and Tone were nothing short of incredible. I can't vouch for the reliability, and I don't recall if the cab was miced or if he was using a DI (the heads or some other DI). It sounded great though. It got me firing up my Shuttlemax 12.0 and trying to dial in some of that tastyness.
 
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#9
Have me curious now. I looked up Jim Anton. I just recently watched a Jonny Lang concert on DirecTV and never noticed. I will have to pay more attention the nest time around. Are there any other fairly well known bass players using these?
 
#10
FWIW, I use a Lowdown 300 combo and I'm very happy with it. I didn't stick with any of the presets that it came with, though I used a few as a starting point and tweaked from there. I personally love the filter effect, but I'm also a big Claypool fan and like over the top filter effects. The only thing I'm not wild about is the synth - it can get some decent sounds for like a droney section, but nothing really good for say funk.

So I would say don't get it if it's the synth that's your main driver, but if it's the rest of the options at least check it out - and play with the knobs, don't just judge by the preset sounds.
 
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#11
Long Post, but worth the read.

I bought mine about 2 months ago and I love it. Also upgraded from the Behrigner BX4500HD head/8x10 stack to The Lowdown HD400 and an Ashdown ABM8x10. I was weary about buying Line 6. But after I screwed around with it for a few minutes, I realized its got the tones. I play more of an Alternative Post Rock, and it sounds awesome. Blows everything I've gigged with away on stage, for the price.

The presets aren't far off, especially for the Clean model, and the Rock model. The compressor is really only useful if you play with your fingers or slap. The effects are meh, but its a good place to start if you are new to using effects.

Personally, I chose the one amp model that gave me the best tone for the genre, and made 4 separate presets for that setting. They all pretty much use the same EQ, but some of my pedals have a volume drop, so I set up a channel to run those and keep consistent volumes. Thats my favorite part about it.

Its cheap. its powerful, and it sounds awesome.

And even if you don't have a nice cab to be mic'd up at gigs it has an SVT 8x10 cabinet simulated DI!

Don't get me wrong, its got some aspects that irk me! No effects loop makes me sad, the EQ is a little different, and tricky to get the hang of. Like I said before fx are almost useless, synth is cool, doesn't track well enough to use realistically.

Buy it and use the model thats closest to the amp of your dreams, until you can afford it
 
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