Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro

Pretty easy to use on the dial up of basic sounds - most functions are available from the front panel - Amp type, tone, basic effects and compressor (oh and tuner). I use it for recording via SPDIF and can control it by midi (not something I use a lot). Like my Pod 2 sometimes things require a bit of extra thought (re effects) but basic sounds setup is very easy.

I have a Gallien Kruger150B for live work but use this to DI my bass (Fender Precision Deluxe) into my computer recording rig. I find the sounds very good for bass (again I couldn't really get a great lively sound either through my PoD2 or via DI without really working it) With this I dialed up the sound I wanted and went. I haven't tried to do comparative sound emulation but really it seems to come up with any sound that I want it to i.e. setting it up by ear not by what it says on the front panel alone. I use the SPDIF output most of the time and it gives a great punch sound where I want it. Usually when recording I do not have to apply any additional treatment over the clean sound.

Happy with it so far however I have noticed a hum coming from the case of the unit. Maybe its because it has been left switched on since I bought it - over a year!

n.a.

Cover a huge range of styles - Rock, Punk, Jazz, Indie, Pop, 60s. Very happy with the sounds that I get from this.

I bought this predominantly for recording and am convinced that it represents so much more value than the Pod Bass. For guitar though I would never use it - the PoD is awesome for that and the VAmp leaves me cold but for bass - excellent

This unit comes with some pretty bangin presets, and editing those are generally easy. Once, you figure out how to work the damn thing. The manual made better toliet paper than it did help me figure out the beast, but at least it had one ....I guess.......

I play all kinds of different styles, from Metal to jazz, to funk, to etc,etc,etc.I'm playing an OLD Cort jazz knockoff with crappy pickups and electronics. I was amazed at how the v-pro made my shitter sound so good. I have yet to play it through a real cabinet yet, and am eager to do so. I really love the NuRock(Flea)preset and the Jamie J.

I haven't had this bad boy for long, but I know Behringers reputation for make killer stuff at good prices. I never back up anything for playing live. That take all the fun out of it. If is breaks on stage , then it DIES on stage.

Hope I don't have to.

Overall I think my bass V-pro will cure all the amp head woes of my past. I'm gonna run this thing straight to a power amp and straight to a cab and DI to the board. For the money you really can't beat it. Line6 seems to think their shit don't stink as they bend you over for $500-$600. One thing that I wish it had was a better way to skip banks with out the foot controller. And, a better manual.

I can't imagine how you could make an easy interface for such a complicated device with just a few buttons, knobs, and LEDs. But they've done a decent job. It comes with some good patches pre-programmed, and it is very simple to make modifications to them --- there are knobs dedicated to tone, drive, amp model, etc. Deeper editing is also not unreasonably difficult, but is much easier using their pc software. If you hook the thing up to your computer via a midi port and use their freely downloadable software, editing is just as simple as can be.

I have played guitar for a long time (over 20 years), and I play many different styles (jazz, pop, rock, blues, folk, etc.). A lot of amp modelers do a good job with heavy overdrive tones, but few of them do good clean tones or mildly distorted tones. Most units I've worked with are so noisy that you have to use a noise gate even on clean tones, and mild distortion results in beating harmonics which make an unpleasant edgy sound.

Unlike other more expensive competitors, the v-amp pro is very quiet. Without any noise gate, with the volume turned all the way up, I don't hear anything when my guitar volume is turned all the way down --- unless you've got a magic pickup you will be limited by the noise of your guitar rather than the v-amp pro.

The v-amp does a great job on the high-gain/high-distortion end, and does a much better job than most amp modelers I've used at the mild bluesy distortion. I've never gotten a completely satisfactory low distortion tone (to my taste) out of the v-amp, but I am very picky --- I've only gotten a low-distortion tone I was completely satisfied with out of a few amps/modelers, and all of them had tubes and cost in excess of $600! But what I have gotten is very usable, and the best I've heard in any product less than $600.

The included effects are well rounded. I've read some complaints about the effects in this unit, but I have been pretty satisfied. In particular I've read a few comments which trash the reverb on the v-amp. I've been using an amp with an authentic spring reverb for the past few years, and have developed a taste for it. The unit's spring reverb emulation isn't perfect, but it is actually pretty good --- good enough that I am not willing to drag my amp into the room when I record a track. The auto-wah is very responsive and sounds really nice.

The standard cabinet models sound great through the headphones, but you need to remember to turn it off if you are actually going through a guitar amp. The standard cabinet simulations are not bad when I record directly from the line or digital outs into my computer sound card. I found the Ultra-G cabinet simulation to be kind of muddy when I go right to the recorder, but for reasons I don't understand it sounds pretty sharp when connected to my P.A. speaker/amplifier.

At this price, you have to think that there are some cheap components inside the box. But, so far I have had no problems. I haven't taken a look inside, but the case is solid metal, the connectors and buttons seem solid enough.

I've never had to deal with the company. I have heard from others that they tend to give good support.

I have been playing for over 20 years. I mainly play through a strat and a deVoe archtop. I play a broad range of styles, and this unit gives me excellent tones to use in all of them. I am not completely satisfied with the mild-distortion blues tones I have been able to produce, but I am happier with these tones than with the blues tones I have been able to get from any other sub $600 unit I've played with.

The many output formats are a great feature. I especially like the sp/dif output, which appears to work flawlessly with my M-audio sound card. The free software makes editing patches very easy.

I wish that it had a more informative display --- I would rather remember my patches by a name than a number. The lack of a foot controller is also a minus --- but for the price of a pod, you could purchase a v-amp and a midi foot controller, and get more switches and pedals than I know what to do with! There is also an annoying lag when you change patches if the patch you switch to has a different cabinet model than the one you were using before. This means that you can't switch cab models as you go quickly from rhythm to lead patches. Of course, this isn't any more limiting that a real amp would be. I haven't noticed any significant lag when I change parameters in a given patch, etc.

This unit has a lot of good sounds inside, and extremely low noise. If it were stolen or lost, I'd pick up another one right away. I am a tough customer, but I've been completely satisfied with this product. I was happy with it the day I opened the box, and I am still happy with it several months later. I still can't believe that they can sell this thing for $170! If you don't need to change patches hands-free within a single song and if you don't need a wah pedal (the auto wah is not bad) then this unit does it all. If you do, then this unit plus a midi pedal board will do it all!

a bit tricky to start off but once you get the hang of the control system its all good and combined with the fcb1010 it makes it much easier

effects are great especially for the price range. the autowah function is soo good i sold my dod envelope filter...

however theres one thing that lets it down and i only found this out once i got the fcb1010 and its switching between effects. there is a delay and a space of silence for about a minit beween effects. i think this rearlly will fault it in live performances

very good no problenms soo far

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not a bad sound atall apart from that one let down i mentioned

The manual is not very comprehensive {probably because it is written in so many languages} and many of the most powerful features are not readily apparent. For example, you have to use the "tap" feature to get to secondary feaures under the hood. On the plus side, the front panel is pretty intuitive and it is easy to tweak sounds to your hearts content.

I know this thing is not the best modeling product out there [e.g., Line6 or Guitar Rig] but I like this box. I agree with some of the other posts here that the bass v-amp pro nails the Ampeg sound. It comes close to nailing a few other amp models as well.

The sound effects are very usable and I think the Delay-Chorus is a stand out. The Phaser is extremely playable and the auto wah/mutron effects can get you near that Bootsy vibe. Overall, the bass v-amp pro is just a lot of fun to play around with.

The set up of the bass v-amp pro is split up among four areas: Bass, Keyboard, Guitar, Acoustic Guitar. Basically, you have setups that are ideal for a bass guitar but could also work well with a sampled electric piano patch or electric guitar. Similarly, you can run your guitar through some of the guitar amp setups to achieve a variety of clean and dirty sounds.

Where the bass v-amp pro shines is in the studio. I run it directly into my roland vs-2480 and it is quiet unless I have a hi gain setting. I can get just about every bass sound from Stanley Clarke to Flea on this thing and just about anyone else in between. Using the XLR outs I obtain a really clean sound. Adding the on board compression allows me to get a signal that sits well in the mix and forgives my often sloppy playing style.

The best thing about the bass v-amp pro to me is the vibe factor. Most models can not capture the teeth grinding appeal of a 500 watt amp cranking a 4x12 cabinet. All you can really hope for is that they capture the character and vibe of the tone they are trying to model. To my ears the bass v-amp pro does capture the character and vibe of many of the amps it tries to model. Therefore, I place it in the category of other cool effects boxes [e.g., Sansamp] that take an input sound and makes it sound better. Thus, I use it on modern keyboards and synths to add a bit of vintage flavor. I use it on guitars in some tracks to create a contrast between other tracks where I used my Podxt Live[for guitars I think Line6 clearly wins the prize for authenticity, but the edge is not so clear in my view with regard to bass sounds. Any many circumstances, I preferred the sound of the bass v-amp pro to that of the bass Podxt]. It also does a nice job on drum tracks in the same manner as Scream works in Reason.

Bottom line- Its a versatile tool to get some really good bass and keyboard sounds tracked in the studio. It has some unique guitar tones [clean and distorted] that work well alone or along side other tracks done with real guitar amps or Line6 products. It can work well for gigging musicians in a small band if you have the patience to set it up properly.

So far so good. I have owned other behringer equipment and have not been dissapointed yet.

They have responded in the past when I had issues.

For the price you can not go wrong! I have tried to record top quality bass players with all kinds of rigs and have not been able to record better sounding tracks than what I am doing now with the bass v-amp pro. The Bass Podxt may have a slight edge in sound quality but to my ears it is not nearly as fun to play[e.g., the bass synth on the bass v-amp pro responds much better than the bass synth on the bass podxt]. Moreover, the bass v-amp pro is designed to be useful for processing keyboards and guitars and costs a fraction of the price of the bass podxt. For home studio use or small local gigs the bass v-amp pro is hard to beat.

First thing you will find out from nearly all multi-effects and amp modelers is: You can NEVER get the sound you want! And Bass V-Amp Pro is not an exception.
The low priced, amp modeler is easy to use. Even without reading the manual you can see that it is the most easy-to-use unit around.
The manual is complete and covers the whole thing.

Sound quality eh? I would say "disappointing" comparing to the rivals and as I have read the reviews, most people who are using it are low budget bassists. But for the price I think the sound is not bad. I think thats not a bad choice for a starter or a low budget bassist. Its good for geting used to amp modellers and effects when you are a newbie but for gig use of pro recording, dont even think of it. Has some funny and digital effects but its childs play.

Not at all!

Not Yet!

I play from Jazz to Punk Rock and Alt. Rock.
As I said before its not a good match for a pro but works for a newbie.
I have been playing bass for 5 years and I use Fender amps, Fender and Ibanez basses and some effects units like BOSS GT-6B.
I bought it just because it was so cheap and bought it used from a friend.
I like the funny effects and I actually used some of them in one of my recordings! But not for a bass line, just for some breaks and fills.
Comparing to POD or BOSS I think these rivals win over Behringer without doubt, but for a higher price. So I think if you found it this cheap #70 go and buy it cause it will help you someday.
The effects are too digital and not real.

Not bad if you are familiar with rackmount units. Editing is easy once you learn to find your way around, but the manual is pretty much useless.

As with any gizmo, all PA's and all rooms will make it sound a little differntly. Tweeking is easy.

Seems good, I rackmount my stuff and try my best to take take of it all.I don't go anywhere without a backup though...no matter what/where I happen to be playing.

I called them up to further check into the volume knob issue as I talked about in an earlier review. The people I spoke with were kind and helpful. Seems that the MASTER VOLUME is intended to work on the earphone and 1/4 inch anolog outputs only. The master volume is not intended to control the XLR output, and there is a reason. This is because the XLR output is meant to be connected to the mixerboard only, and to be controled by the person running the mixer. The 1/4 inch anolog output is for connecting to a power amp or a combo amp and you use the Master volume to control your stage volume WITHOUT changing what is being heard out front of the PA system.

Good unit for the $$$. Has a few quirks, but I learned to adapt or pay $500 more for the Line 6 Bass Pod pro.....hmmmm. See my previous review a few days ago and also come see me at: Bilvis.homestead.com

The manuel,as with most of Behringers products stinks, and it'll take you a while to figure this thing out. Once you do it's not to awful hard to work with but could be easier.

I don't know what some people are listening to when they talk about this unit. I agree it has a lot of different sounds and some fun effects, but once the nifty factor goes away, you are left with some pretty shabby tones. The absolute worst part is towards the end of each sustaining note there is some awful digital breakup/tracking/distorted noise sound that just chokes off every note. I have tried evrything to get this to stop but I continue to hear it no matter what.

Listen close people as it took me a few days to notice it....but it's there.

I've used it on gigs without a backup, but I feel lucky that nothing went wrong.

I play rock/jam and it could be a good match without the bad sound.
I would not buy this again. In fact, I am selling it and picking up the line 6 basspod in it's place.
I chose this unit because of the price to feature ratio. Looks pretty good on paper, but I would advise to spend a bit more and get a quality unit.
Also I bought the midi fcb 1010 footcontroller to try and run this thing....don't even get me started on that disaster.

I found this gizmo pretty easy to use. If you have monkeyed around with this sort of device before you will be zipping through the presets in no time at all. The LED on all the knobs are a great idea to see where the status is on all the knobs. Tweek to taste and save Editing patches takes some time and know how but you'll get it. I thought the manual was REALLY lacking in alot of information.

I use a Schecter c-4xxx > Behringer > BBE 482i Sonic Maximizer > Crown power amp (525 watts per side) > 2x10 + 2x15 cabs. As always some of the presets are good and some of them leave you saying "what were they thinking?" They do this to show ANY units veritality I suppose. Thankfully you can overwrite the useless ones and keep the ones you like. The manual also tells you how to set it back to factory condition so tweek to your hearts content! At the price they are letting the V-amps go now ($180 after tax), if you can find 1 -3 presets that you like, it's cheaper than a mess of pedals by far. I find almost half the presets are pretty good, so in my eyes it's money well spent! Like I said, you can overwrite any you don't like anyways. Some of the presets are SO FRIGGIN' NOISY they are unusable, but alot of the others are GREAT. Finding Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, and John Entwhistle type sounding presets is no problem! I'm more interested in a devise like this for it's amp modeling than for the effects, so if I use any effect, it's set real low.

I keep my stuff rackmounted to protect it, but it seems solid. I have other Behringer equipment and had (mostly) good luck with it. I don't go anywhere without bringing my (original) Line 6 Bass Pod for a back-up though. So far so good!

I haven't had to deal with Behringer so I can't really answer this. Like I said, I've had good luck with Behringer equipment in the past and so have alot of my buds. However, I HAVE heard/read some real horror stories :-).

I've been in and out of bands since the mid 1980's (mostly on 6 string) and now I'm playing bass in a cover band. When I'm not "playing out" I record my originals which is REALLY where my heart is at. If it were lost or stolen I would replace it, for the money you can't really go wrong. I did compare alot of other units, and yes there ARE much better out there. I liked all the outputs ( 2-XLR, 2-1/4, digital outs as well), and I wasn't willing to settle for a "one trick pony" amp either. Cost and REASONABLE quality won me over. I wish it had USB ports but for the money that's asking alot. Behringer nailed the Ampeg sound completly. The effects are useable, but I use effects sparingly anyways. BTW, I do have to say that the MASTER knob only works for the headphones, either that or my unit is defective, I have to investigate this further and get back to you on this. Come see me ans say "Hi" at : BILVIS.HOMESTEAD.COM

As with all f/x and amp modellers, knowing your way around the whole unit is no mean feat. With the Bass V-Amp, its refreshingly easy to instantly dial in an amp with effects and compression in no time at all. However, to edit more in-depth features such as the speaker cabinet and to access some of the other effects, can be rather baffling at first, requiring different combinations of held-down buttons sometimes which can be a pain in the ass if you want to try out different cabs quickly and easily. After a while doing all this is second nature, and different settings and preferences can be dialed in very quickly, but this is one department where the V-Amp lags behind its competitor, the Bass Pod Pro. The manual is extremely badly written, but a few reads will help clarify on how to operate the more long-winded stuff.

The Bass V-Amp Pro is very unique, as it does not just model bass! Indeed, you can also model guitar, acoustic guitar and keyboard, and this is a feature I love. For bass, I use a passive Warwick RockBass Streamer 5 string, and for guitar I use a cheapo Epiphone Les Paul Special II. The bass amp I use is an Ashdown Five Fifteen and for guitar I use a Marshall MG10CD. The V-Amp is also DI'd to my computer. Dissapointingly, some of the bass amp models are very similar sounding, but some of the models are extremely useful and very authentic sounding; I certainly think that the Ampeg models are extremely accurate, and if paired up with an Ampeg cab would actually sound pretty close to the real thing. The Pod has more consistent models and the same level of authenticity, but the V-Amp's guitar models are also excellent, authentic and also more consistent than the bass models. A tip though when using an amp modeller such as the V-Amp is to try and discolour the signal as much as possible, for example, the guitar amp I use is plugged into the CD-in, which bypasses the amp's preamp. The V-Amp is also an excellent recording tool, with more connections than the Pod, and is very easy to work with in this respect. The effects are of very good quality, but likewise with the models (but not to the same degree) they are a bit inconsistent, but I would only say about three of the 16-odd different effects apply. Each effect is vastly editable, and a whole variety of sounds can be easily attained from these set of effects. The manual has a detailed description of each amp and effect, which helps a great deal in trying to achieve a particular sound, so I always have my manual open on these pages when im making new patches.

The only thing this unit has sustained from the amount of abuse I've put it through is a few tiny scratches. This unit has been dropped twice and been through a few very rigorous, loud gigs. The unit does give off a slightly worrying amount of heat, so ventilation is a very good idea when using this unit at loud volume. One of the times I dropped it was at a band practise, and it slid off the top of my amp; it fell on my cable and chopped the cable in half!!! I have no qualms about it breaking when I'm playing it in any situation.

I have asked them questions before about the product and they havent replyed back, god knows what they're like on refunds and more important customer support.

The acid test...if this unit were stolen, would I buy it again? The answer is no, I would probably get a Pod if there were a next time, but at the same time I don't regret at all buying it and at the price you can get it for now (about #155) it really rattles those of the Pod XT (#225) and Pod Pro (#420). If there were anything I would change about it, then I would change some of the models (when I got the unit I was not very well educated on bass amps, but now I know that some of the amps are not to my preference, its only a personal preference). If you have the money for a Pod then get that, but the V-Amp Pro makes an excellent, quality buy laden with features at a fraction of the price of a Pod.

For more information on the Bass V-Amp Pro visit http://www.behringer.com/LX1-B-PRO/?lang=ENG