Behringer BO100 Blues Overdrive

There is nothing special to any other pedal. You got three knobs like on any other pedal. Easy to use.

My standard setup are to MIM-Strats (one fat), an Epi ES335 Dot and and a low budget Tele-Copy. For Years I've been playing the TS7 (great!) with either an Blues Junior and an '65 Twin Reverb Reissue. The Music I play ist Blues and Blues Rock. From time to time I try another distortion pedal, for this is my most important effect. For British Sounds I sometimes take a Marshall Bluebreaker. I tried the Behringer because it's cheap but got very good rewiews eyerywhere. So I said to myself: if it's not worth beeing played, I could use the case, pots and anything inside for a DIY-pedal. How did it sound then? I was dissapointed! It changed the sound - took away some deep and transparency even, when it was not engaged. I Think there is no real bypass. That cannot be accepted! The sound in action is in my ears a little bit flat. Take Metal-Slided Tone to the 12th and let it sing...the This round, grouling dsitortion of the TS is not reached - far away. I will not use this one in real action. Sorry, I'm dissapointed. In Germany it is at 29 ???. The TS7 is at 60???. That is no difference if you think about a few years.

I opened it to look,if there is any chance to make it better or to take parts. I was astonished! It is not a simple chip with a few outer parts like most of the legendary effects. It uses a double-side charged plate on which all parts - inclusive the pots and the switch are assembled. I could not understand this cicuits. Whow....

I play Blues and Blues-Rock on a clean Fender Twin with pedals. The Guitars are Strats, ES 335 and a cheap Tele-copy. Usually I make it with a TS7 and an analog Delay only. The Behringer I dropped off after only a few moments of playing, because it changes the sound-charasteritics even if it is switched off! I did not find my sound. Distortion is cheap. Why should anyone take a pedal at 29 ??? that does not work, if you can get a lot of worthfull drivers up to 100 ???? You will get an acceptable sound but if you change between clean and pedal it is -in my opinion- not the same sound (only distortioned) any more. I say no!

I don't generally use pedals but there have been situations (broken stuff, playing through someone else's gear) where an overdrive or reverb pedal would have come in handy so I bought a Behringer Reverb and this BO100 overdrive. The BO100 is easy to use and sounds pretty good.

I've been playing for 40+ years but I don't have much experience with pedals. To me this isn't a bad overdrive with everything set at about 11 o'clock it doesn't color the amps sound much and provides a nice push on the front end of the amp. Without a pedal I generally run the amp hot and control "overdrive" from the guitar. With this pedal everything works about the same... turn the guitar down and it cleans up pretty well.

So far I haven't used it on a gig but I don't have any worries it seems pretty solid.

Haven't had any experience with Behringer but they have a nice website and a pretty good reputation.

I'm a blues player. I play four to six nights a month and have been playing for more than forty years. I have six amps from 14 to 50 watts and eight guitars. I try to match the amp to the room and with the volume police taking over in most places the 14 watter gets a lot of use. The BO100 is a good product for a poor man's price and I'd recommend it.

3 knobs is easy to use. A single 'tone' knob is minimal but this one seems to do it well and it's quick.

I've been looking for, what would it be now ..40 years?? for a pedal that leaves my guitar sounding like my guitar and my amp sounding like my amp and can add a little bit of distortion that sounds like it's coming from the amp - and this does it! I wouldn't know how it rates with the gain right up. This thing goes from clean to way more distortion than I want.
Yeah, there are heaps of pedals I haven't tried but lots I have, and this is the first I've found where I can leave my clean channel on the great sound it's making and bring in a little overdrive without it sounding like I just stood on a pedal. It does it well at home AND on stage - which is very rare. It ain't perfect but it's so close it makes me want to write praise about it. Funny, the best I've found should also be the cheapest. I play old Gretschs, because they have amazing personality, through Fender valve amps 'cause to my ears, few other amps can do those guitars justice .. so if this pedal fits in there so well, it's good.

wouldn't have a clue - no trouble yet.

no need

From reading other reviews, it's obviously not for everyone but I suspect the players who don't like it are looking for a whole different different animal from a blues overdrive.

Level, tone and gain. Simple

Oh my god. This is the box I've been looking for. Years. Years I tell you!
I shevled my TS9. It has all the gind of the TS9 without the stupid midrange hump. So, it sounds like your amp being driven. Changes depending on what amp your using. FANTASTIC!
I agree with the guy who said that this is for tube amps. You can't drive transistors with this thing to sound like tubes. duh!

IDK

Behringer will look into your problems via email. They even have test units of all their "stuff" in the call center, and they will mess around with it to help you answer any questions you might have. Pretty good in my book.

I play ****. I don't use this peddle for Nu metal or anything like that. I use it for making a clean or lightly distorted tube amp more distorted. (to play more distorted ****)
I'm old and have been playing for a long time. I have GAS really bad and have alot of stuff. Far too much for someone that never gets to play out anymore.
Anyway, the BO100 does exactly what it was designed to do. Bless Behringer's little german hearts!
I'm giving this box a 10, to offset the retards that gave it a **** rating for making their ass-tone amps sound like fuzier ***. (did that make any sense?)

Simple. Volume, tone and drive level.

I love this box. Every other box I have ever used colors your sound. I suppose the idea is to take a crappy amp, and try to give it tone. I usually wind up getting rid of my ass-tone amps after I one day realize that they suck. so the amps that I keep, I really don't want to change the tone of when I stomp on the pedal. This is alot like a tube screamer, without the mid hump. It makes distortion without changing the amp tone. yea, it does some compression and distortion, but no color. really, really nice OD. Much better than my TS9 IMHO.
I use this thing in front of my Marshall, my V18, my Mig50H and my VJ head. Not noisy. Just OD that sounds pretty much like the amp your are playing it through. Not a boost, unless you want it to be. It's more like a boost, without raising the sound level of your amp output.

IDK

Have emailed behringer before. They replied within 24 hours with feeback based on testing the product I asked about. Nice of them, I would say.

I play my own stuff. Progressive rock, I suppose. (cop out genre) Been playing forever. Have a TS9, a vintage tube OD 999, a TO800 (sound just like my TS9), an EH big muff pi, etc. a bunch of pedals that I don't use a whole lot.
I've been looking for this OD for years. I love it.

I was on the verge of sending my TS9 to be modded to get it to sound more like this pedal. Glad I took a chance and bought this one.

It has the basic 3 knobs: Level (more or less output), Tone and Gain (the drive itself). Just mess around with the three and you can find a great variety of sounds for a so called blues pedal.

I have a SX SST62 strat, and also a Aria Pro II, but I use it mostly with the SX. My amp is a crappy 20w solid state, but i can't have anything louder by now or I'll start a war with my neighbors. The thing the impresses me the most is the wide variety of tones this pedal can get for a blues pedal. It goes from a bb king light-saturation tone to an unbelievable classic rock sounding with everything on max, passing trough peter green, clapton, SRV, etc. It really does. AWESOME.

Not that this is really crucial, but in a world where there are things like Boss, this one looks really fragile. But remember, this thing is so cheap that if it broke 3 months after you buy it, it would still worth the price.

I don't even know if there is one. Again, in case of trouble buying a new one seems to be much simpler.

I play the Blues, and sometimes classic and hard rock.

Guitar world is a weird one... Actually I went to the store to buy the highly acclaimed TO-800 Vintage Tube Overdrive... but then the seller suggested me to test this one... and I was AMAZINGLY SURPRISED! I tested it on several amps (all solid state, but i don't have a tube anyway) and I can't help but thinking this thing basically does everything TO800 does and FAR MORE. At lower gain levels, it's pretty much the same as TO800, as well as the Holy Grail (which I tested too). But when you put all the drive in, it gets a nice classic, hard rock distortion, even too heavy for playing blues. I think this pedal is awesome not just for blues, but classic rock as well. Wish i could run it trough a tube amp and see how better it could get.

Oh, almost forgotten: If it was stolen, guess I would by more 3, just in case. :)

Straight forward

The BO 100 is basicly a volume level pedal with not much crunch. I don't notice much breakup from the pedal it's self. I can use it to drive my tube amp harder and in essence cause my preamp tubes to break up sooner. However my compresser sustainer pedal also has a level adjustment and it will do the same thing. I just bought a slew of Behringer gear. 5 Pedals, V Amp Pro, and direct box's. The BO 100 has the least amount of drive and distortion of all my OD/Dist pedals. For the price it is definitely good enough for a beginner to intermediate player. People complain about Behringer pedals coloring there sound in stand by mode. If it's being tainted in standby mode I can't tell. I'm playing a Hamer Artist USA and Fender Strat USA through 7 pedals into a Peavey Classic 100W tube head and it sounds decent to me.

NA, It's a China product if it breaks through it away and buy another one.

Behringer has a web site with all there products. I think manuals are down loadable. However the manuals don't tell you anything the knobs don't already say.

The manual says it draws 30 mA. This pedal and all my other pedals draw less than 6 mA each. Except my digital delay and it draws 75 mA. I'm using an external power supply on all my pedals. My pedals are Ibanez Compressor/Sus, Behringer BO 100 Blues Overdrive, Behringer TO 100 Tube Overdrive, Behringer TO 800 Vintage Tube Overdrive, Behringer OD 100 Overdrive Distortion, DOD FX 68 Chorus, Behringer DD 400 Digital Delay. Pedals are not rocket science. Most are a simple OP Amp operation. The only thing I don't like is the plastic housing and the Made in China sticker. If you can get over that, my Behringer pedal line up is pretty decent!

Three knobs, level, tone and gain. On/off switch and a horrible system for changing batteries..

Well, this is best sounding overdrive, and yes, I do own tons off stuff included the holy grail. The level can be set that high that my Vintage tube Princeton sings at any level. With the tone knob at 7 o'clock it sings. with the gain low, half or full throttle it gets me any sound I want, and yes, a bit of prehistory metal can be made with the tone full open. With any guitar! I play mostly single coil, Tele, Strat, Dearmond 100k, Jaguar or Höfner, it sings.. Never had it better

I can depend on it, although it's a plastic case. No need for a backup..

Didn't have to deal with the support with this thing. My experience with Behringer is perfect..

I don't think there can be a better effect for an overdrive. The other Behringer overdrives are not that good. I own tons of gear, but this one is the best.
The price is not to believe.

3 knobs; output, tone and gain, very easy to use. Changing the batteries requieres a little attention though.

First off: It's a BLUES-driver and I use it for playing blues and rock. I use it on my Marshall VS100 pretube stack with my Gibson SG Special or Fender John Mayer Strat (hell of a difference, I know).

It's an overdrive, not a distiortion. It's great for adding a little extra to your sound, or cracking up your output level for bluesy solo's.

Don't expect a distortion, I prefer using my amp OD channel when playing power chords or so.

Be gentle with your gear, don't jump on it, don't throw with it. In case you do, go play drums (no offence). It's reliable, though not as solid as Boss stompboxes, works just fine in case you use it right. No backup needed.

Since I'm Dutch, and Behringer hasn't got offices in The Netherlands, I haven't used it. I haven't needed it yet though, and I will probably never need it. Manual is included though very basic.

Great for adding a little extra to your sound.

I often hear complaints about the quality of Behringer stompboxes, that's why I haven't bought them myself. This was a birthday present and I was very pleased by the sound. I used an Boss ME-50 before but prefer using stompboxes. Boss' BD stompbox (Blues-driver) is better, but not significantly. Behringer is a lot cheaper and has got a reasonable sound. Go check out by yourself!

very easy, three knobs: level, tone, gain

The sound quality depends on your amp and on your pickups. It works very much like a preamp, it is really sensible to the pickups you are using and your amp. For example, on my VOX Pathfinder 10 it pushes the clean channel into a very similar tone like the overdrive channel; on my VOX AD100VT, when using teh AC30 setting, it works similar to the gain control of the amp, so as a conclusion, it is very good if you have a good amp and want to drive it. If you don't like how your amp sounds when driven, look for another pedal, or an amp modeler...

Well, it's plastic, with a piece of metal at the bottom, but when playing live it might slip, or might crack if pushed really hard, but I don't know how many blues players act like crazy on stage... Anyway, I would recommend this pedal for home use, and mostly for players who want to experiment with a different sound, but don't necessarely want to gig with this. If you are really into blues, I think there are lots of pedals (boss, digitech, e.t.c.) you can buy for some additional money... So don't rush, wait till you buy the perfect thing for you!

Never dealt with them.

I play metal (not with this pedal), but I use this pedal to play some ocasional blues at home.
I play electric for 3.5 years, have an ESP-LTD EX-351 with EMG HZ H1 pickups, but I am using this pedal mostly with my Squier Strat, which is heavily modified: SSL4 and HotRails in the bridge and CoolRails and SSL1 in the neck, all Seymour Duncan, the guitar looks like a two humbucker guitar, but with four single coil sized pickups.