FM 15 DSP Review

The FM 15 DSP offers a wide range of different amp voices and effects, without the need to open the owner's manual. This little bag-of-tricks lets guitarists go from Rock to Blues or Metal to Acoustic-Electric at the twist of a knob. Features include clean and amp emulation channels with a wide range of amp sounds, 15 on-board effects, aux input, 15 watts of power, 8" speaker, and more!

Features:	8
Sound:	7
Reliability:	7.5
Impression:	8
Overall rating:	7.6
Users rating:	7.4
Comments:	7

overall: 8.8

Featured review by: SethMegadefan, on march 25, 2006

Purchased from: Rhapsody Music

Features: Two channels, a clean-tone channel and one capable of distortion; get a channel-selector pedal and you're golden (I've still yet to buy one, however). For now I have to push the tiny little white button in between the channel 1 volume knob and the gain knob; can you say "inconvenience"? But the tones on this amp are simply awesome. It comes with a different amp settings knob, which gives you a wide array of possible amp "sounds": acoustic, jazz, tweed, blkface, British, hot rod, and metal. And trust me, this comes in handy. I never thought there was a need for all of those different sounds, but now I can play so many styles through just one amp, it's amazing. // 9

Sound: There's more, too. It also comes with built-in effects. Yes, they're built-in, but no, they're not complete crap. You have your bypass (normal), delay, reverb, reverb+delay, chorus, chorus+delay, chorus+reverb, flange, and tremolo. Granted you can't alter the individual settings of each effect (meaning, for example, the depth of your chorus will always be the same, or the rate of your tremolo), but hey, for built-in effects, I'm not complaining. // 9

Reliability & Durability: I've used this little amp for "gigs" (i.e. school concerts) without a backup, and it's been pretty reliable. I wouldn't 100% guarantee using it without a backup, but it's never crapped out on me before, so who knows, it might be completely reliable. I'm just so overly cautious about this kind of thing that maybe I'm only psychologically worrying about it shorting out or something. So, although it's never gone bad on me, I'm not going to say it never will. It just hasn't yet. // 8

Impression: This amp just sounds incredible. Though it's small and generally for practice, it'd definitely work great for practice sessions or even recording certain things. It's definiitely not for your gigs with hundreds of screaming fans, but at least it's something. This little baby's small, but she's amazing. // 9

overall: 6.5

Reviewed by: fender624715380, on april 21, 2008

Features: This is a great amp for me because it provides different sounds for me to play different styles of music. I mainly play metal music and it provides reasonable enough distortion to get the sounds I want. It has a clean channel and a channel that has various effects on it. It has a headphone jack for when you want to play by yourself and an auxiliary input for playing along to music. I wish this amp had a foot Switch to Switch between channels so you don't have to do it with your hand while you try to play. I don't play in front of anyone so the 15w of power is enough for me. But if you wanted to play at a gig you would probably need to go for something with a bit more power. // 7

Sound: I use a cheap guitar with a humbucker and two single coil pickups on it and I would have to say I am fairly pleased with the sound I can get out of the amp with it. The guitar doesn't really suit my type of music (metal) so I was surprised at the great sound I was getting. The amp is fairly noisy on the metal distortion effect but it isn't too bad when you start playing. The amp has has a wide variety of amp tones available including Fender Tweed, Fender Hot rod, British combo, British stack, Jazz combo, Metalhead and Fender Blackface. The amp also has 15 on board effects including reverb, chorus, tremolo, delay and flange as well as combinations. The clean sound isn't distorted at high volumes and the distortion is heavy enough for metal but I wouldn't call it brutal. // 5

Reliability & Durability: I think this is a pretty trustworthy amp as I have been playing it for over a year with no problems but I wouldn't use it at a gig simply because it wouldn't be powerful enough. The amp hasn't ever broken down because I treat it pretty well but if it had a bit of abuse thrown its way then it would probably break easily. // 7

Impression: I love to play metal so this amp matches that pretty well but also a wide variety of other styles too. This is my first amp and I have had It for over a year and I am still very happy with it. I am glad I brought this amp and I would probably get something very similar if I had to buy another one. I have no regrets buying this product. I love the fact that this amp has a wide range of amp types and effects on board because it wasn't very expensive. My favorite feature is the Metalhead effect because it sounds pretty cool. I really do wish it had a foot Switch for changing channels though. In conclusion if you don't want to go and buy a super expensive amp and pedals and you only play to very small crowds at a maximum then this amp is for you. // 7

Comments

[CanCan]

Hell yeah.

[freebyrd32]

yeah the fact that theres no controling the effects sux. Your better off just buying a cheap p.o.d. type pedal and getting a bigger amp with just drive and reverb

[zeppelinpage4]

One of my friends just got one of these and brought it over today, needless to say I pleasntly surprised for a 15 watt Fender it sounded pretty good.

[Sendrith]

I have one and I am finding myself very pissed at it.

Firstly no controlling the FX, as is stated above.
Second, I get horrible breakup on the clean channel. If I want clean I have to use one of the Tweed or Jazz models.
Third, the distortion is crap. I can't get any decent sounds out of it, on a variety of guitars, even after playing with the EQ for hours.

[kerno1]

awsome amp

[jrockfan1]

i have this amp, it's ok for 15 watts but the distortion is really bad

i would recommend a Boss DS-1 pedal to use if you don't like the distortion

[fender624715380]

i own this amp and i am very happy with it because it offers a wide variety of sounds without the need to go and buy lots of pedals.