Behringer Bass V-Amp

It is easy to use, but the goofy chassis design makes connections and setup harder than it should be. form definitely does not follow function with this product-form follows marketing.
the manual is ok, but nothing great.
Once you know basically how to set it up, you can dial in the sound you want with little effort.

i use this with a variety of basses, and occasionally with a telecaster.
while the modeled sounds are quite realistic, this unit is noisy overall.
I've tried it with a mesa 400+, superfly, fender bassman 135, acoustic 126.
all of the effects covered by this unit was really pretty good. If it were as quiet as the POD units, I'd give this a 10.
nice tuner built in.
compressor and reverb work especially well.

works fine. i gigged once with it, but used it primarily for the compressor and tuner.

got me?...never contacted them

my experience with this product leaves me wanted a higher-quality unit that is quieter. It's only $60-70 though, so i guess I ought to be happy with it.
It's perfect for practice and jam sessions. i usually bring my pedal board with individual effects for gigs.

I would give this unit a better ease of use rating, but I find it clumsy to press a button to get to half of the controls on the unit. I would rather use the software that can be dowloaded to control things. Then, once you have set up some presets, it's very tricky to get them saved to your computer. However, by using the software, editing the patches is very easy, and the unit, itself, does a good job of saving my work.

I am using this with a Fender Strat, a Washburn Bantam Headless copy bass, and a Kramer Aluminum neck PJ bass. It gets plugged into my computer studio, and is usually monitored with headphones. The first thing I want to say is that the sound is terrible without the software interface. There is an internal gain and output (master volume)control on the setup window, only accessable from the computer software, that needs to be adjusted. If the gain is over half way, the unit will cut out when you hit a hard chord. If the output is over half way, you will hear squaking sounds that don't sound musical. Once you have these controls set properly, the unit sounds much better. But I find that I have to set the output every time I turn it on, as it defaults to all the way up.
I think the speaker emulations are fabulous, with the one problem being that they come out at different volumes, so when switching from speaker to speaker, you have to mess with the output control. The amp emulations for bass are good. The guitar amps are good, but are lacking a good blues setting. The mic preamp is a cool option. I don't have a keyboard, so I can't really comment on the keyboard settings. Most of the effects fair to weak, but the chours sounds good, and it's hard to mess up a delay. But, since I bought this unit to compliment my home recording studio, which already has too many effects, I'm not too worried about that. While I am into getting my own sound, I should mention that using the British High Gain setting does a great job of duplicating the amp sounds on Iggy Pop's Raw Power album.

For the home studio use I got this for, the plastic is holding up just fine. One of the jacks has gotten loose, but that happens on everything. I don't use this on stage because of it's fragile look, and the fact that I need a computer to eliminate the squaking problems I mentioned above.

I haven't had a problem, so that phase of customer support has been untried. I have downloaded some stuff from their site, and wish they could give me more user information (like on the built in synth).

I am a guitarist who also plays bass, but doesn't have a bass amp, so I was mainly looking for a unit that would make my bass recordings sound good, but find this unit to be a great cheap unit for over all home recording use. I have been playing since 1969, with lots of stage experience. I either call myself a very versitle blues guitarist or a closet punk rocker, and also like to do experimental and electronica work. Among my fovorite artists are Hendrix, Deep Purple, the Ramones, John Lee Hooker, Yello, and Crystal Method. Other than not getting a satisfactory blues setting, this unit does a good job of getting me what I want. I mainly only looked at this unit because it was cheap and I was poor, and the unexpected features sold me on it. While my favorite feature is the speaker emulations (the Sunn Coloseaum setting, emulating one 12" and one 18" is awesome), I wish it had more, like the 3" speaker Ritchie Blackmore claims he uesd to use (probably an exageration) to the EV 30" woofer. I also own a DigiTech RP300, which has a good blues setting and better effects, but lousy speaker emulations, so they compliment each other well. In the same money situation, I would buy it again. With more money, I would look into other units, but might want one of these to go along with a better unit. It has plenty of interesting bass tones, but not being a "real" bassist, I will leave the critique of those setting up to someone else.

I found it pretty easy to get going with this - buttons with multiple uses normally cause some initial stopping-and-thinking moments, but the manual (revision 1.2) is straightforward enough, apart from where it insists on over cross-referencing itself. I needed to revisit the manual to check how to edit each feature and one thing I would comment on design wise is that I find 5 patches in 25 banks a pain and think that 25 patches in 5 banks would be more helpful in limiting the amount of times you have to press a button when jamming out ideas of performing.

I have been recording for years, have done professional stuff and have a music tech degree, but my recording experience with guitars has always been recording other people either using a mic'd amp or a lead from a preamp/amp moddler (the most high tech was a pod original). I have had guitars for years for pleasure and was impressed by what I could get out of the free limited version of Amplitube I got with Protools LE, but didn't want to pay the price of the full thing and actually preferred the idea of some hardware I can jam with. The Bass V Amp is cheaper than the cheapest plugins and really brings the sound of my Bass guitar to life. What I wasn't expecting was just how good the unit worked on other sources - obviously my lead guitar and my electroacoustic, maybe my keyboards (as suggested on the box and legend)- but running an effects send through it opened up all kinds of fun hands on possibilities. The fact that I can automate stuff using MIDI is great - running a drum track through it and playing with delay effects, distortion or even just a basic amp model is great fun and sounds just excellent for the price. I wont be throwing away my waves plugins but this baby does the job I bought it for (making my old J bass sound good) but loads besides. Most importantly for me, it stands up strong against the sound quality of equipment I feel more 'expert in', namely my synths and electronic kit

The only thing I would say - which makes the unit a victim of its success - is that now I know how good it is, I wish I had bought the pro model for ??40 more, but only for the digital output, and this model is nicely portable and comes in a cool little bag.

Cant really comment as its early days. For gigging, Im a sucker for throwing money and the most robust stuff, if only because of bad experiences with early digital synths and computers, but I reckon I would trust this unit to perform until it proves otherwise,

Not needed support for this or any other behringer product I have used or owned, and I like it that way.

Guitar wise, Im a dabbler, but Im an old hand at production of a range of musical styles, and the V Amp is up to the job of providing a bridge between my fairly average guitar playing and my recorded music, which I set high standards for. This unit spends most of its time plugged directly into a Digi 002 control surface/interface/mixer and is run alongside some very expensive and rare synthesizer, not to mention some high end plugins. What I can't overstate is how much fun it is - I get lost for hours with this!

Worth reading the manual so you know how to make use of all the features, but not too difficult to just fiddle around with if you're familiar with other similar products.

The presets are good, and you have the option of editing them, and downloading them through the midi interface.

I'm mostly going to use this unit for recording straight from my acoustic bass, and so far its performed well. It's very quick to adjust things if you need to tweak the sounds and the range of possible tones and effects you can have is impressive.

You can get some noise with it but this is easily eliminated by tweaking the volume and gain. Personally I don't like have too much gain on my bass anyway so its not really a problem for me.

Also seems to work well through a standard guitar, I really like the way behringer suggest alternative setups and they clearly have tested their product and developed the sounds with these in mind.

Of course it is a fairly cheap unit, so you might not get the same sorts of sounds you can from thousands of pounds/euros/dollars worth of gear, but it is a nice compact unit with a massively diverse sound and setups for the money.

Haven't had it long at all but Behringer are an excellent manufacturer of all sorts of sound equipment and I trust that it is a pretty robust unit.

I am a musician who has recently got enthusiastic about home recording and I needed some sort of amp for my electro-acoustic bass and I eventually decided I might give an amp modulator a go. And any capability of working with an ordinary guitar, keyboard and vocals is a bonus.

I was deliberating about what to get for my needs, and saw this excellent device. It came today and I realise this review is a little premature as I haven't had many days use to test it but I probably would forget to write this by then! I wasn't sure whether to go for the V-Amp or V-Amp pro as the V-amp was so cheap I thought it might not sound very good. However I beleive I made a good choice in getting the standard bass V-amp otherwise I would be swamped with all the extra features of the rack-mount bass V-amp pro!

You really can't complain about a unit at this price that provides such a good sound, and a carry case, power supply and footswitch. I remember about five years ago I bought a guitar effects unit for well over twice the price and it came with nothing and had much less features than this.

I am slightly taken aback at how well behringer bass products have worked out for me so far and it leaves me wondering what the catch is considering the value for money you seem to get. Nevertheless I haven't found fault with this and I think if you're looking for a bass amp simulator with extensive features you should definately consider this one along with the bass V-amp pro depending on how much of a audio-tech head you are.

In a way it puts to shame a lot of the companies offering similar products for much more money or for the same money but with less features.

Well I had to read and reread the manual a couple of time to understand how to work with everything but after knowing how to acess de funtions its rather easy to use.
The one thing i think it laks is the ability to program (for example) the delay time either than the tap way. That can be overcome by using the V-amp softwere.

I figure the best way to test something like this is with headphones (i'm using behringer's HPS3000) cause like this there is no interference from the other things in the chain.

E-Guitar:
AMAZING distortion! the rectifier simulaton combined with the correct EQ setting and a 4x12' cab. sim. can make the famous "balls to the walls" effect.
I found that one can make an almost perfect simulation of an acoustic guitar wile using an electric one.

E-Bass:
Din't take mutch time with the bass but it has a pretty good sound

Keyboards:
The prime thing it was bought for but still not mutch to say. Put it this way, it does it's job.
One thing i'd like to point here is the X-over that alows the keyboard player to have, for instance, delay on the hi arpegio notes and nothing on the low chords

The footshitch is routh and, even being all plastic, it looks resistent. One thing it's important to analize here is that, because it has an external footswith and a rather long cable u can put it away from harm and your feet :)

Well nothing to say unless the store that sold it said that they never had a problem with behringer's tech support and waranty

Sound's great, looks cool, comes with a nice transport bag....need to say more?

Easy to use, but the manual can be somewhat confusing. The patches are user-friendly.

The effects, in general, sound great! There is some noise with a few of the patches, but overall, I'm very satisfied with the sounds. It is well worth the $100 I spent on it.

Just bought it, can't comment on reliability yet...

no issues yet

I'd highly recommend this one. This is the first effect pedal I've bought in years. Had a Zoom pedal that was a pile of junk, and I'm usually not an effects user, but this one is a treasure!

It's easy to use, but I'll put it a 7 for a couple of reasons:
1- upgrading is a pain in the ass
2- the manual could be a lot better
3- editing gets easy when you download the soft, but the interfase is not as good in the device itself. Programming via MIDI is a breeze.

Sound quality is ecellent for the money. Presets mostly suck, but a couple are actually really good.
I'm playing a Yamaha Attitude which I had made fretless, and getting a good sound was easy. Played through a PA, through studio monitors and amp, and in any situation the sound was satisfying.
FX are nothing to write home about, but reverbs, chorus and delay are OK, some are sort of fun, but for my style (jazzy) are not quite usable.
Not that the FX are bad, they're just generic.
Anyway, the sound of the amp/cabinet simulations is stellar for the price.
The acoustic simulations are pretty much useless, the electric ones are great for some stuff, perhaps the clean sounds are a little sterile. Anyway, this is a Bass V-Amp, and having the guitar and keyboard simulations is a great bonus.

I dislike the power cord, I think gigging is possible if you're very careful with your gear, but I don't think this thing is at home onstage, unless you're very careful.
Since I have it just for a few days, I won't rate it for actual reliability, but rather for the impression it gives to me.

Behringer has been quite good in the past in this department, and their website has lots of info, not to mention the free software editor. I think they're great at supporting their products, hope I don't have to deal with them for anyghint else ;-)

I play jazz and argentinian folclore mostly. I find it very useful.
I've been playing guitar and bass for almost 20 years, have and have had assorted electric, acoustic, basses, FX, amps, you name it. I work as an engineer in a project studioIf it gets stolen, I will probably buy it again, or perhaps if I have the money go for the big brother, if only for the digital out.
I think it's a terrific value for the money, find the gig bag a nice touch, hate the power connector that makes me feel a little worried about its long term survival.
Minor niggles, since it's all about the sound, and the sounds are there with some work, and having in mind the price, of course. Obviously simulations, and more in this price range, are far from the real thing, but being able to play with this lot of sound possibilities and getting this much sounds is just great.

Plug and Play. Easy accessable presets, which sound more like " I show you everything I can" than "This is maybe a sound suitable for you".
Besides the bass you can run even electric giutars thru the v-amp with guitar amp simulators taken out of the guitar vamp, but they are more on the distortion side.
The tap-knob for tapping in tempo is also the knob for the 2nd parameters and the amp-sim 16-32, not too cool.
Editing functions are quite easy to handle once you?ve got it & you?re able to remember and finally to use of all the possibilities this device has to make changes to the sounds (cab-sim, x-over...) Nice are the 6 different Studio and Live modes, which allow you to run the device stereo w/ or w/out cab-sim, or one channel w/ fx the other clean etc.
Manual is very good - it describes the device?s function not its coolness :-)

in brief: the sound is anywhere from shit till great. Most of the presets are as I mentioned good for the wastecan, but if you take your time you may find some cool sounding combinations according to your preferred style. The FX are midrange, surprisingly I like the phaser which sounds here far warmer & better than in comparable devices. VCF+Flanger is crap for playing with (but cool for noises), forget the reverbs. The bass synth is cool. The most of amp simulation is quite useless to me - I create(d) always my own sound out of it, which is quite ok, but will never reach hi-end quality. There is noise, yes, but you don?t need ro crank the volume at all, so it?s quite acceptable

D?oh! plastic! plastic! I don?t gig with it exept maybe at some performances with a DJ or electro laptop musicians. But that toy didn?t let me down so far, though it?s turned on rather every day constantly for hours.

no service used, no upgrades ordered

Mostly I play rock in all its varieties and I found some suitable bass and guitar sounds. If you rely on the presets you?ll be lost soon. But if it breaks one day I?ll go out to check something else I guess. I bought it because of it?s fair price and I needed something to get some sound of it for a theatre soundtrack production. After this job the Behringer helped me to record here and there some tracks for major music productions as well. I was close to purchasing a bass pod but this is mono and I didn?t buy it in the end. I give a six, because six means "well done", is far away from "crap" or "wow-wow-wow!"

Look cool, Great Nobs, Wish it had a digital display like the Line 6 Pod's. Using it can be kind of confusing, i recomend using the editor software online if your going for a really specific sound but its not hard to come up with some neat stuff. The Manual is great, They describe all the tones and controlls.

Im using this with a Fender Frontman 15B amp and a Fender Highway 1 Percision Bass. The Sound is terrific, its very clean and the denoiser works great. The effects are solid, you can make pretty much any sound you like, I made copied a bunch of the sounds from the line 6 Bass Pod i found online to this, Email me and i can send you them if you like. The Stearo effects sound terrific, i somtimes plug in the Frontman 15G to the line out left for the stereo effects. You can choose a bettween 32 amps and a ton of cabnets. Its great for recording.

Its held up great The only thing is that if your using it for a gig I would highly recomend the Behringer Foot Controller. It makes a quiet beeping noise when you switch presets so if you need to change sounds but that no big deal unless you have a bunch of different sounds for 1 song

N/A

Get the foot board if your going to do gigs with it, its got a wah wah pedal and volume pedal which are useful, Also when making sounds plug it in to a computer with midi cables and use the Editor software at avalible at the website.

Pretty intuitive, easy to get going as soon as you plug in. Editing patches is a breeze, though you?ll probably do much more if you use the software (free download) that Behringer has at it?s site (you?ll need a couple of MIDI cables and a card for your computer)
The manual works pretty well.

I use a Variax Bass and a Variax 500 guitar with it and I get a pretty decent sound for my project studio. Don?t expect the same sound you?d get from the REAL amplifiers (or guitars, in my case) but you?ll be able to get a lot of pretty decent sounds, depending on your style and taste.
The effects? I really wouldn?t count on them for ANY serious application, and since I usually use it for computer recording, I always use effects from the computer recording software.
The amp modeling is not exactly the same quality as the PODs from Line 6, but for this price is THE BEST you can get specially since you get BASS and GUITAR amps. Don?t really pay much attention to the acoustic and keyboard effects, I find them pretty much useless. The compression works halfways the way i hear it.
If you want to use this for direct recording in a DAW system, this is your best choice but it sure will take some time to get JUST the right sound and you?ll have to EQ, compress and mix it on the computer anyway. Sure will fool your ears, not to mention other people?s!

This is not made of metal but plastic. I don?t use it live much but it will sure hold if you handle it with care.

Behringer are REALLY TRYING to make their way through the market these days. Any help you need will turn out to be pretty useful, although until now I have not needed ANY support.

This will be VERY useful for a basic Live setup and a project studio recording situation. Simulation is OK, but don?t expect any miracles. You have to spend some time TWEAKING (as with ANY other piece of equipment) and you?ll end uo with VERY usable sounds. Maybe not as detailed and "PRO" as the Line 6 POD XT but sure as heaven a LOT cheaper!

To an extent, it is easy to get using this unit without the manual, but, as others have said, there are multi function buttons which it helps to know, so you will need to have a look at the manual to get the full whack out of it.

The manual is pretty straightforward, I tend to skim, then pick out the parts I need most, learning gradually. Comes with a free gigbag for protection, and most importantly, a footswitch of the up/down variety, to move through your saved patches.

Very easy to get going with, and addictive, due to the quality of the models and effects. 9 due to multi fuction buttons, and the fact that I prefer to edit via MIDI with my PC, using downloadable (should send a disk with the unit) software.

I use a US Fender Jazz Bass through this, into a Behringer BX1200 (120watt 1x12), and it is exactly what I've been looking for in 15 or so years of playing. Better sound quality than expected for ?90, better than expected for gear up to 3 or 4 times the price. I don't own any of the real amps modeled here, so I don't know about authenticity. Then again, would you need a ?90 box if you had any of these amps?!

For me it is amazing! I like the more tubey, slightly distorted sounds of bassists like John Entwistle, and I can get this. I feel I have created a "signature" sound for myself, and have saved this patch, with different effects, for easy stage and studio use.

At present I am in a "Stoner" rock band, who tune down to C, and both V-amp and Combo handle it excellently. I often use the drop-octave "ultrabass" effect, for extra grunt, but I would advise against using it too low on the bottom string as there can be tracking problems. It's just about learning your(and your equipment's) strengths, and playing to them.

I have recently played our band's 1st gigs, and have recieved an unprecedented number of compliments from fellow bass players and fans alike, regarding the strength and quality of my sound! Yes! I'm shocked too! My whole amp/effect rig cost under ?300, and it is better than anything I've ever spent more on!

Also excellent for recording guitar (good crunch and clean)and keyboards (like Leslie effect on E. Piano and organ sounds, auto wah on clavi), when I demo songs for the band. I record direct to PC, and have even used the effects and compressor for vocals and drums!

I've owned this rig for around 6 months, and have suffered none of the reliability issues mentioned for either the bx1200 amp, or the V-amp. Maybe it's the British 240v power supply or something? I don't know. Have practised hundreds of times with it, played gigs indoors and out, to 30 people and up to 1000 (outside). So far, excellent and no problems.

Some people complain about the plastic case, but I don't know what they intend to do with it? I am careful with my gear, but I think it could take normal wear and tear, and accidental bangs/drops. Try not to throw your bass at it or drop an amp on it, and you'll be fine!

No idea, registered all products online, will have to wait and see. Hope I don't need any support!!

As I said above, I play in a stoner rock band, which requires presence and volume in the mix. I've been playing for around 15 yrs now, and have never enjoyed playing as much as I have of late, and this coincides with my purchase of the Behringer Bass V-amp and BX1200. I wish there was gear like this when I started playing, I'd have progressed so much further. Heigh ho!

After about 30 mins of tinkering and a quick flip through the the instructions I was up and running and doing what I needed to do with the device. The product comes with a handy pull out which has a chart of all the different effect presets with all sorts of wild tones. It was easy to save my own presets and call them up quickly. I have made use of the footswitch while gigging and it has been great. I'm able to solo using a p-funk spacey voicing and come right out into a low thumpy ampeg sound in less than a second. It's great not to have to fiddle with knobs or buttons with my fingers.

The sound quality was surprisingly good. I was a bit leary because I had tried some behringer bass amps in the past and they were...well just bad. I use an American made Peavey Millenium 5 plus five string, a PRS four string, and a CB-10 Tacoma ABG. I have a 120W Hartke Kickback combo amp.

I have only had it for a month so I can't say. I try to have backups for everything. Why risk it?

Never had to deal with them

I play bluesy funk rock improvisational music and tripped out jazz. The Behringer has been a great match. I can dial in a great tone for fingerfunk, blues and then something spacey and trippy all within one gig using my foot. I have been playing electric bass for 4 years.

I would replace this if it was stolen or lost.

My fave feature is the footswitch...makes it really easy when gigging... i don't use my fingers and don't have to go searching as I'm able to organize all my presets.

I compared it to the Bass Pod and some others, but nothing came close to this low price.

I wish there was some sort of foot activated volume control. I have gotten around this sometimes by creating a 2nd preset 1 up or down from the one I'm using with a higher volume saved. However, it can't be tweaked. I would like something that I could adjust quickly and move on without having to stop my playing.

It definitely helps me make music.

I was able to get fairly deep into this thing without even looking at the instructions. There are some functions (tweaking EQ, etc) that require holding down a button, etc which one would not know without reading the instructions so you do have to break open the instructions, but there are no complex layers of screens

This thing defaults to the bass amp simulations, but with the press of a buttom you can get to the next "layer" of amps which include some guitar amps & "keyboard amps" plus some accoustic guitar simulations.

I was not expecting a lot (I only paid $80) but I'm very surprised by the sound quality. I've used this with a Fender Mexi Jazz Bass, an Ibenex GSR200 and some keyboard samples - in each case I found one or two amp sounds that seemed to work. The guitar amp simuation is OK but not great (I have a POD, so that's covered anyway. The accoustic simulation is poor - but I've never heard a decent accoustic simulation from any manufacturer. The effects are weak (although the compression works well with the bass amps)- but since I got this simply as a "bass amp" I don't really care about the F/X.

It is a cheap plastic case, which I doubt would hold up to stage use. I got this for recording, so I don't plan to abuse it. There is some noise, but amps have noise, so I can live with the same type of noise from a simulation. Running a noise gate takes care of the problem.

Behringer has a certain "reputation for poor QC, however I've had good luck with the 4 or 5 Behringer items I've bought (naturally, I'm selective (I would not chosse Behringer for my main mixer.

Don't know

Overall I give this an 8. For $80 (is goes for $99, bought I got the last demo in stock (it had only been on the floor 2 days) this is a very functional box. I've already widened my palette of recorded bass sounds - and it is fun to play a bass guitar through this thing.

I live in a condo, so things like amp simulation and electronic drums are a necessary evil. As long as you understand that a simulation is indeed nothing more than a simulation you can be satisfied, possibly even pleasantly surprised.

Most of what I record is pop & country (demoes for various songwriters) and so far, this thing gives me a solid bass sound that I can fit into the mix with limited effort.

While gear must sound good, it should also be fun and easy to use - to inspire the creative muse - the Bass V-Amp hits the mark for me.

The V-Amp Bass is very easy to use. For BASS, you can pretty much just whirl the many knobs and get good enough sounds out of it. I also tried out the presets for electric and accoustic guitar and they are nice too, but I bought it for bass.

The use of the electric guitar amp models is a bit less intuitive. I'll get the hang of it, but it isn't jumping out at me right now.

I use the Bass V Amp for direct to board or direct to keyboard amp use and it rocks in that configuration. I'm new to bass, but the sounds are great to me. I also really like the accoustic guitar side of things, also. Behringer has one of my favorite choruses going. The V Amp sounds alot like the Virtualizer Pro I sold to buy it. And again, they made the thing easy enough to use that you can pretty much get sounds at will that are at least close to what's in your head.

I was dissapointed in the plastic case. Not substantial at all. But, I've owned several Behringer products and have never been let down. This is no Boss compact pedal by any means, but I expect it will last if not abused.

I've emailed Behringer with good success in the past. They are quite a few notches above Roland in my mind on customer support. But a dead body in a graveyard gives better post sale support than Roland, so that's not really saying a whole lot.

I like the shape of this thing. It has an arch on it's bottom so it can straddle the top handle on amps. It looks cool, like a POD, until you plug it in and have 5 cables running out of it in all directions. Looks like a gold spider then.

I know it is a budget item, but I would have liked the ability to plug in an expression pedal for real time control of wah, flange and volume.

I have played guitar for years, bass for under a year. My gear includes a Brice 6 sting bass, A Parker Classic Fly, Boss GT-6, a SX Tele copy, a Roland Workstation keyboard, a Korg keyboard sound module and a Boss BR-8 portable studio.

I'll be using the V-Amp in a Worship Team as well as a neighborhood band and my own compositions.

I'm jazzed by the quality of sounds the Bass V Amp has and the accessability of changes. You pick it up, you use it, it does what you expect. Nice.

The thing is easy to use, you can access almost all of the options from the device itself, although first it takes some time to find all the functions hidden behind the encoders and push buttons.

I love the LEDs around the knobs. You can instantly see, what value each parameter has.

There is a footswitch included and stepping on it feels very good and switches fine. I like it more than e.g. Marshall type footswitches.

Some of the features are hardly mentioned in the manual...for example, there are four stompbox models, but they are not listed in the manual.

The BEST thing is that you can download FREE patch editor software from Behringer website. Connect any of your V-Amps via MIDI to a PC and you can edit all the parameters in one nice looking window. Here you also can access a few things, that you cannot really access from the device itself.

At first I have to say that I am a guitar player that also plays bass. I bought this one, because it is newer than the V-Amp 2 for the guitar (it has 8 guitar amp models) and I can also use it for bass. I play mostly metal - black, death. I need clean, brutal rhytm and screaming lead sounds.

The sound quality is GREAT. I am not going to compare this thing to tube amps or the like. Because no single amp, including tube amps like various Marshalls, Dual Rectifier and 5150 has satisfied me in getting the tone I want (without any stompbox). So at the price of 2 BOSS stompboxes I bought the Bass V-Amp.

Guitar sounds
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At first, i was a bit diappointed with the presets. They sounded much better than distortions
on a Digitech RP-200 which i used to have, but it was not exactly what i needed. I am so glad, that I didn't buy the V-Amp 2, because none of the amp models had sufficient gain for me. BUT i selected the JCM800 model and put the Booster Line Driver stompbox infront of it (all in the V-Amp editor software). VOILA! The result was MONSTROUS BRUTAL sound. Not exactly what I wanted, but definitely a great potential. At this point, this was the first time, that i had such a good feeling about my investments into guitar sound. I have never had anything better before. Further tweaking begun. I don't like very much the Rectifier sim (but even real Rectifiers SUCK) and the Ultimate Plus V-Amp (good gain without stompbox simulation, but not my cup of tea). After a little side-by-side listening to Chuck Schuldiners Death sound and tweaking the knobs, i've discovered another nice feature. And its name is "shape". I suspect, that it is some kind of sweepable notch filter with range from quite low to quite high. Just put it a little over 70 and in the range of two or three points the sound becomes UNBELIEVABLE. I guess it is that kind of "mid scoop" I always tried to achieve. Anyway, I settled down to using the Custom Hi-Gain (custom made Marshall for some artist unknown to me) with Booster Line Driver engaged. I get monstrous crunch and endless sustain i couldn't achieve before on any amp - with my transistor combo! Things get even better through a tube power amp with Marshall 1960AV speaker box.

The speaker simulations are also quite good, but the EQ has to be set very differently, of course. They do sound good with a pair of headphones, nice for silent practising.

The noise gate works perfectly, if correctly set. Then, there's absolute silence, i do not notice any hum from the Bass V-Amp.

Another great feature is the Live EQ. You can tweak the final live sound WITHOUT editing the patches.

The effect section is kind of bass guitar oriented. I don't use much effects, so I cannot speak very much on their quality. The flanger on the RP-200 was more aggressive, which I liked. You can use only one effect at a time (or a preset combination) A very cool effect is Delay-Chorus - but it is a virtue of necessity. One of the things I hate about Bass V-Amp is the little silence that occurs when you change patches. As far as I know, this is common to all Behringer DSP gear. The delay is minimized, if you set the patches with the same effect, the same speaker simulation, etc. - you get the point. So i use Delay-Chorus. Chorus with no delay on the clean sound, rhytm is dry and chorus and delay for the leads. This way, there are no delays when switching rhytm/lead and a tolerable delay between clean/rhytm. I also get an interesting sound by setting the delay time and chorus speed/depth to zero. The sound thickens without sounding artificial. A nice black metal sound.

Bass sound
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I am still searching my own sound. But the first one i've set was so nice, that i'll use it until i'll find a better one. I have to be heard, as we have a loud guitarist and a loud drummer:)
It satisfies me. It is great live directly into PA.

BTW i use a Dean "Z" with custom wound ALNICO pickups and a variety

I've had it for one month, played two gigs and a number of rehearsals with it. Without any problems.

Where I live, the warranty lies on the dealer. I get 2 years of warranty for any kind of gear. Behringer has a very informative website, where you can download manuals for and pictures of all their stuff. I did this before buing and the research was very worth while.

As I've said, these are the best 150 Euro I've ever spent on any piece of gear i've ever had. It is very versatile and satisfies my extreme demands. If there was not the delay when changing patches, it would be PERFECT for me. You get also get a cute gigbag.

If it was lost or stolen, first i would be pissed off, second i'd buy the rackmount version with a sexy 2U rack and Behringer FCB1010 MIDI foot controller and third i'd upload all my backed up patches to the thing.

I am afraid you cannot get anything better in this price range. And it competes well with much more expensive gear.

I only wish this thing was available at the time i started to learn the guitar. For beginners it is the best thing that can be bought. An i suppose, that it can be used for recording with success. I love it. Please keep in mind, that i am a metalhead and i have another demands than a rock or blues guitarist. But i can recognize a good sound. I don't listen to metal only, I like all well made music from classical to rock, jazz... I HATE POP,RAP, HIP-HOP, NU-METAL and other commercial sh#t music.

Hello again! I am the author of the review above (the one who paid 250$ for the vamp). Well, after 3 month of use the Behringer really has shown me its chinese face! Footswitch went out of order and started to toggle freely between the patches while playing! Remember, every time you change a patch there is around 1 second of silence! I took off the footswitch and used the device manually. Shortly after the vamp erased al my presets! I edited them all, but 2 days later the same thing happened. I wrote to Behringer and they said it's the best I'd bring the device back to the dealer. This is what I did and they weren't surprised at all that such a new device was brought back, because many vamps were returned with that memory problem! So it is a common defect. What I can say now: DON'T BUY THIS GARBAGE!!!!!! Sorry if my positive review from 3 months ago caused a purchase decision. How could I know?

Extremely easy and user-friendly. Let me start by mentioning I have owned the guitar equivalent (Vamp-2) for over a year and loved it. With some differences this has the same basic user interface...THEY get it, that guitarists like LOTS of knobs to tweak without going into menus and submenus.

I bought it new, and glanced through the manual. There is a lot of stuff there. I have only had it a week now, last night I set it so that I was recording mono on the left output with effects, and on the right output with the amp and cabinet but no effects. There are lots of configration possibilites.

The manual...wasn't as well done as the actual interface. I am going to have pencil in notations to make it easier to find what I want to adjust..It is like one long paragraph over several pages.

But mostly you can play it out of the box, really easy to save presets too.

So far I am using only passive pickup basses. I am mainly a guitarist, but play some bass. Basses are Aria fretless and a
Fender Squire. Not great basses but I got quite a few MUCH better sounds. Up til now the best thing I had found (I HATED the Zoom
bass/effects unit) had been Tech 21 bass DI, and it IS great but this
is way more versatile. I will be using this for pretty much all by bass recording from now on.

Some have mentioned, and I see it too, that some of the presets are REALLY noisy, with a high-freq sound in there. So far I take presets that are close to what I want, tweak them and save them over the noisy patches.

I really like some of the things the "synth" setting can do...they get kind of an over-the-top "boogie on Raggae woman" thing going.
Have mostly kept the effects to a minimum, what I like best is there are so many amp models, and that the knobs make it a cinch to tweak.

There is way more to be mined ther, with a little time and
rereasding some of the manual...speciall about some of the cabinet modelling.

ONE THING...and this may be a slightly bad unit, I'm going to find out tomorrow, is that I hear some clicks when going between some patches. This never happened on my Vamp-2.

The other, which really led me to thinking maybe this unit is a lemon, is the TUNER...the other night it got stuck showing every string, even if I fretted it, as G and showed it being flat. Prior to that it jumps around too much...especially on the E string. I did notice at first the display flickering, but thought that might have been a patch cable (after that I switched cables) but also one major difference is the volume control is still in effect when in tuning mode. On the Vamp-2 you only get a straight preamped sound, no overdrive or effects...with this one you have to turn up the volume so the unit can "hear" the note. I don't know if this is a bug, version problem, lemon, or if they all are like this. I can live without the tuner, but it is convenient...it doesn't seem that right on either...sometimes it worked without flickering, but even when it was dead on (green light..no yellow) I could hear the guitar wasn't completely tuned.

Going to check with the music store tomorrow.

Points I addressed above in "sound quality".

I am leary of Behringer from word of mouth. The Vamp2 has held up fine. I don't take them to gigs though.

They are inexpensive, and you get a LOT for the money, but just make sure the unit is working right from the start. The power cord sits solidly in the receptacle....though it shouldn't have caused the price to hop so much higher if they had just installed a power on/off switch on the thing...

Never dealt with them. Never had to yet.

Would buy it again if it were stolen. I still consider my Vamp-2 to be the best value for the money I ever have had with equipment. I think I might end up thinking that about this unit too. I am mostly running it direct into a Roland VS 1880. It has good signal, and lots of configuration possiblities. Could split the signal and run direct mono, plus another into a small amp and mic it.

I love the interface. I was so tired of menus. I still haven't used the MIDI interface on this or the vamnp-2 though I could with ease. I think I'll try it out tonight.
Wish it had a power switch.
Wish (and it may just be a defect or OS level problem) the tuner worked better. But even with all that...I like this unit.

Could not get much easier. The only way to make it easier would be to have a display that would show the name you called the preset instead of just a number.

I have the Bass VAmp Pro. I use a G&L and Ken Smith bass guitar. I was very pleased with the sounds that I got from this unit. Another reviewer stated something very very important which I need to emphasize. If you want the true sound of an Ampeg SVT or Trace Elliot or SWR.. the best thing you can do is save your money and get the amp. No modeling unit will ever be the same as the amp is models. That said if you want to get sounds like all those amps then this unit is a bargin.

Not only is it a bargin, but the sounds are great! Just as good as the bass pod in my book. A little different sounding, but just as good. Not sure about the XT though. I got rid of some of the presets and created my own as many have said, the presets are over cooked. A mild chorus is nice, but I don't like using effects on the bass much. Besides I have the Mackie UAD card and other gear for more pro sounding effects.

I also have a Eden bass amp which I am happy with. But when I need to get other sounds for different styles of music this Bass V Amp is great!

Behringer of old did not have a good reputation, but their newer products appear to be pretty good.

Chris Gomez at Behringer is great, friendly and helpful. Same thing with Richard.

purchased it on ebay for a reasonable price. was looking for the bass pod but that's too expensive for me. the bass vamp is easy to use - the manual is short but precise and easy to understand. editing is very simple, mostly just knob tweaking, sometimes you have to additionally hold a button.

i am mainly a guitarist. i do homerecording, for bass i play a old hohner arbor precision copy. my boss digital studio does have some bass sounds but they are highly unsatisfying, so the bass vamp is the right thing for me.
don't have any noise on the presets so far, the "denoiser" (i.e. noise gate) works fine.
the effects are o.k. i am not a huge fan of flanger, chorus or phaser on bass sounds anyway so i won't use them. i like the auto wah for funk sounds. the ambient effect is very good, the delay settings are also satisfying. the synth sound is fun but hardly useable.
i like some of the presets, some not - on the long run all of them will be changed anyway.
i can get very nice deep and full bass sounds a la reggae and much more (metal, punk, rock...). this thing is definitely for me, very versatile. it would be nice if it could provide a kind of acoustic bass sound, maybe i'll have find it yet.
the guitar amp and effect modellings are surprisingly good and compare well to my pod II. can't use the keyboard effects, though i find it a great feature to include them into this device. my applause acoustic with piezo sounds good also.
so there's a lot of cool sounds packed into this little device. considering the price it's fantastic

it's plastic. if i would gig as bassist i'd purchase the pro rack version. i wouldn't need a back up then - hopefully.

never had to deal with them - i own it three days!

i play all kinds of rock, from metal to punk to zz top and more. i like to experiment with styles, try to play reggae, funk, folk, jazzy stuff. i play for 25 years now. i have a mexican fender fat strat, a ibanez rg 470, a ibanez pf 200 (old les paul, let's say, "interpretation") and a squire telecaster. aside from that a applause ovation style acoustic, a fender mandolin and a samick banjo. i do own a acoustic 50w amp, a eko exercise amp and a no name bass exercise amp. i never use them as i would be kicked out of my flat, they are remainders of glorious basement band days. so it's a pod II which provides me with the right sound. drums come from my boss 1180 cd digital homerecording studio or a boss dr-570.
the bass vamp is the missing link in my set up. i just did some test recordings with it yet, it sounds very promising and it's great fun to play the bass through it. if it was stolen i'd buy it again. the best thing for me is that i can play it at low volume or with headphones and it sounds good. i work full time, have a family and neighbours - i can play at midnight if i want. i love that.
only thing i compared is the price - to the bass pod. this might be maybe better, but it's certainly much more expensive.
hobby players, get this.

This device is very easy to use,because it does not have many features.It's simple built.The user interface is easy to understand.Editing and saving amps and effects is quite easy.The manual is sufficient.All you have to know is in there.

I am using the V-Amp with a Cort Artisan A6 and a Behringer Ultrabass BX1200 amplifier.I'm sending the right output to the Power amp input of the amplifier and the left output directly to the mixer.This is only one of the six output configurations of the V-Amp.I think the device could suit most live or recording situations.
On some factory presets the V-Amp can be quite noisy,but IMO ALL factory presets sound awful.At least with my setup.With the right equ. settings you can reduce the noise drastically.There is also a noise filter with three different parameter settings,but I never had to use it.
There are not many effects.And some of them sound really NASTY!I liked the Phaser and the P-Funk effects mosts.Effect parameters are ridiculous.I.e. there is no separate depth and speed setting for chorus and flanger.So your chorus is either deep and fast or light and slow???!Doesn't make much sense to me,because surprisingly only the phaser has a separate speed control.The synth sounds were a big disappointment.They're simply useless.You can assign only one effect to a preset.So if you want i.e. flanger AND reverb,you should buy another device.The V-Amp does not offer that.The compressor works very well.Sensitivity and attack rate can be adjusted.Also there are some stompbox models,but I never use overdrive or distortion,so I can't tell much about them.All in all the modulation effects are not bad if you can get the right adjustment.But there are just too few possibilities of altering the sound!That's why I give it only a 9.
On the other hand the amp models sound very good.I've bought this device to add some different sounds to my amplifier and the V-Amp does its job very well.Most of the amp models are very good,but keep in mind that you will have to change the equ. settings to achieve a great and natural sound.

I think this is the strongest point of the V-Amp.The user interface is very well designed so you have always the chance to quickly change the parameters of a preset in case you don't like the sound you've created at home.Besides a three way graphic equalizer you have presence (for the treble), shift or shape (for the middle frequ.) and an additional bass boost control which are easy to access.I change the most settings while I'm playing or between two songs. No other digital effector I've used was so easy to edit during performance.One good thing about the poor effects module is,that there is not much possibility to mess up everything,because the controls are so simple!
One more thing I like about the V-Amp is its size!You can put it anywhere on the stage.The two way footswitch is extremely small and has a very long cable.This device is ideal for small stages.(I can't use my Digitech BNX3 because there is simply no room for it on the stage!That's why I've bought the Behringer).I'm using the V-Amp for one month every night on stage and it never failed to work.I think it's dependable.

The customer support of Behringer is very good.I had problems with my BX1200 and wrote them a mail.The answer came immediately.They even offered me to send them the amplifier to take a look at it at their technical service.That is ,of course,impossible,but what nice persons!!!

I am playing every style from pop to jazz to ethnic music.The V-Amp has a lot of sounds and is a good investment if you want to use different amp sounds with only one amplifier and some simple,but mostly good sounding effects (keep the synth module apart!).I am playing for 17 years,I own a series of different basses,two Behringer Ultrabass BX1200,a Digitech BNX3 and loads of other stuff you need to make noise.If it were stolen I would have to buy another one because this thing is so cheap and sounds so good,I don't know an alternative.
I love the user friendly interface which makes editing and saving during a performance very easy and fast.I don't know any digital effector that is so easy to use.I hate the synth sounds and some of the effects.The effects module could have been better,more parameters,less nonsense like the "voice box" or "vcf+flanger".They sound terrible anyway!But the chorus,flanger and especially the phaser is very good.But:please more parameters!!!I've compared it to lot of other products.I've chosen this one simply because it sounds good through my amplifier.It doesn't have the "muddy" sound of many other digital effects I've used.It's small and built simple.The footswitch is small,too and you can put ?it just ANYWHERE even on the smallest stage (believe me,I Know what I'm talking about!).This device definitely improved my live sound.Try the different amp models and you will see how the V-Amp changes everything in a second.By the way,I mean it literally: when you change a preset it takes about 1-2 seconds till you have the new sound.And inbetween?Terrible silence!!!So watch out before you change the patch,wait till there's a pause for the bass!!!Funny,I know.But at this price range...?

There is a very small bit of button-olgy and thumbing through the manual required, but it's much easier to operate than any other piece of digital gear I can think of.

Editing presets are a breeze, which is good because I didn?t find a single preset I could use, but everything is totally tweekable, just like the real amps this thing replaces. (yes, I said REPLACES).

Don?t think your going to be tapping effects on and off with the supplied foot pedal, it takes about a second a half to change presets. Maybe if you plugged in a MIDI foot controller, it would work better, I don?t know. Compare the foot pedal as an alternative to walking back to your amp and tweeking the knobs and you?ll be impressed, but compare it to a real effects loop and you?ll be disappointed.

The lights are really cool because at a glance you can see what the settings are, and when yo change presets, all the lights change. Try that with a Line 6!

I play live music once a week for an audience of about 300 and this little ?toy? completely replaced my all-tube head and cabinets. YES, IT SOUNDS THAT GOOD! I used to go direct out from my head to the board and was frustrated because our sound engineer kept having me turn down to reduce our stage volume and bleed through to the vocal mics (our drum kit is mic?ed and behind a shield and we use in-ear monitors). Up until now, digital bass processors were ok, but didn?t really sound like a real tube amp...

Through the PA, this thing sounds just like a real tube amp, no kidding. Okay, it doesn?t sound quite as good as when I stand in front of my rig, but that?s not the same sound that?s getting to the audience anyway, even if you mic your cab(s). If you play in a club and only use your PA for vocals (old-school), you might want to hang on to your old amp, but I?m telling you, YOU NEED THIS FOR THE OTHER 90% OF PLAYING SITUATIONS. Coffee house-size venue? No prob, plug into a keyboard amp with a 12 or 15? woofer and it?ll sound great. Bigger venues? ...go direct into the stage snake - all I did was make a 1/4? stereo to XLR cable.

Like most bassists, I don?t typically use effects, except for compression. The compression of the V-AMP is pretty good, although not a versatile as my digitech bass squeeze. The octave divider is better than my mxr pedal (I never used it much because it doesn?t track well unless your playing in the middle to upper register.) The ?ultrabass? effect on the V-AMP actually tracks well down to a low A or G, which is much better than anything else I?ve tried.

I keep going back to the mesa boggie sound - it?s a very open tube sound with plenty of over tones and has great tube ?feel.? Perfect for straightforward rock.

I have butter fingers and have managed to drop it a few times, even though I've only had 3 weeks. Once it flew against a brick wall (yes, I'm that clumsy), but it still works fine, except for a few scuffs. We?ll see if the plastic case holds up over time. If not, I?ll happily buy the ?PRO? model and put it in a 2-space rack case. Besides, I?m already thinking the effects loop on the pro model is looking pretty cool.

You gotta have one of these. If lost, destroyed, or stolen, I would DEFINITELY buy another (and couldn?t get it fast enough!). Don't be fooled because it's cheap, put this up against any other piece of gear on the market and you'll be impressed!

I'm not much of a technical person and I was pleased with the pre-sets on this unit. There were some decent sounds included with the pre-sets. I'm not much on reading a manual and never even tried to figure out how to program it. The pre-sets work for me.

I am using this with a home recording set-up and have been very pleased with the sound. I bought it so that I wouldn't have to use my amp to practice with a drum machine and I was very pleased. I did run it thru my rig to make sure it performed as well as it did thru my headphones and was very pleased. I don't know if the plastic case is gig worthy but the sounds are.

I've had the unit for 3 months and so far so good.

Haven't used customer service so I don't know.

Compared to a POD, I think it's a great deal. For the money I am very pleased with the unit. I have used it with bass, electric and acoustic guitars and have been pleased with with the result. For the price I think it is great. Other units may be better, but they cost alot more.

It comes with a nice Bag, a small footswitch and a short but satisfying manual.It has lots of Amps,Cabinets and FX for Bass,Guitar(some amps from Git V-Amp),Acoustics(also Ac.Sim) and Keys(Leslie).It has the same layout like all the Pods and J-stations etc..Easy to fiddle around,and the submenues are easy to access i find with this one.Like with all of them I dislike this 2nd Function-button-business.Everybody who tries to set up a sound and holds down a shift-button and tweaks a knob and hits a string the same time, knows what I mean.I do like the LEDs around the knobs, makes it easy to view where you are.The Tuner is not as good as the Pods one, because its too nervous for my taste, also it sometimes seems to stuck on a note(eb) and don't follow the strings I hit.Very good is the aux input, so you can connect your portable CD or Mp3 player to it for rehearsing.Because of the tuner and the 2nd Function-Button (of course I know its impossible to have every function linked to just one knob, but... ) I give it an 8.
(none of them would get more from me)

I use it with a Stingray and a LP Custom,Tele Thinline for recording and homepracticing.
Initially I bought it for our Drummer as a birthday present, because he got himself a Bass and wanted to learn a bit of the Instrument.When It arrived I had to try it out, to see if it works.As I am a Studio Pro and have my hands on a lot of fancy and expensive stuff I didn't expect much, regarding the price of the unit.I got it out of the Box and plugged a good pair of AKG-Cans to it, and was gone for at least 2 hours.
I immediatly ordered one for myself.
Its pure Fun.To me it sounded very direct and open ,not so diffuse like some other tabletop boxes.Then I started recording a few Basstracks with it.I really dig the Jazz and Bottom End settings,also the SVT, because they really sound good in the Mix.Everything is there from the start and I don't have to do much afterwork to make it fit in.When it comes to guitar, I see it more from the fun-point of view.Though there are some good clean sounds, the driven area is mainly made for Metal or Heavyrock, not the Blues.(..maybe I havn't found the right settins yet).But again I find myself not using my GuitarPOD(II) anymore, beacuse this unit has just more balls.When I turn back to the PODII after using this one I find it a bit dull and muddy against it.(to admit, I haven't tried the XT so far).The Eq-section is very effective and I like the control thats given over the bottom end.Also the Mids can be changed very drastically.Good!The Noisegate is very effective.The Fx could be a little more sophisticated in the way that I would like to have Chorus and Reverb at the same time.Because I use Macs in the studio I can't get the software running that comes with it(Only PC). Maybe in there it is possible to have more access than on the normal surface.(..like in the POD, where you can have Reverb ,Delay, and Chorus at the same time with deeper editing access over the Software Interface.
Overall I find it very versatile and enough good sounding for some of my Studiowork.
For the stage I don't have made any experience with it yet, but I genarally don't think to take any of these boxes out there, nothing beats real Amps and Cabs.
Regarding the Price I give it a 9.

To new to say...

Can't say so far....

I play all kinds of music from Rock,Funk,Blues,even Techno.I am a Studio Pro for 18 Years now.There are a lot of things you can do with it when it comes to recording and practicing.I wouldn't consider placing a Review here if this little thing wasn't so cheap and good sounding the same time.Its really worth tryin' out.Believe me.
For the Price of 2 stomp boxes you get a much more value in my eyes.
Thats why I give it a 10.

The unit itself is pretty straight forward to use, bass, mid, treble, and all the other knobs do pretty much what they say. I would give it a higher rating except that the manual is not great, but then again they rarely are. Also, every knob has an alternate function, which I think is a good way to compromise between simplicity while still providing deep editing, BUT the "2nd function" button has to be held down while you are tweeking, which makes it hard to tweek and play.

To be honest, when I first started playing with it, I was a bit disapointed. But after I had played around with it for a few hours, including recording a few tracks and listening to them back, I was really happy with the sounds I was getting. For example, I found I could use the Ampeg SVT setting to get a similar sound to QOTSA, and the Fender Bassman gave a great clean sound.

Some of the amp models do have a bit more hiss than I would like, which may be true to the originals, but you'd think using digital, they could have kept them cleaner. It does however have a simple and effective noise gate (they call it a denoiser, which isn't really acurrate) that cuts out excess noise.

I wasn't impressed with the effects, simply because I don't use them for bass, which is what I bought the unit for. The distortions are a mixed bag, it would really depend what you wanted, and I suspect at least 2 of them are more for guitar and bass.

Short story is you can get some great sounds out of this unit, but you have to be prepared to put the time in to develop them.

It is plastic, so I wouldn't use it to hammer nails. I would only use it in the studio, for live situations, you would be better of with the pro version.

All the knobs, apart from the master, are actually data wheels, not potentiometers, which means they shouldn't get scratchy over time.

I give it a seven just because I haven't had it long enough to tell otherwise

Never had to deal with 'em.

The do provide a free program to control the unit from a PC via midi. Haven't had a chance to use it.

Firstly, I'd like to say this: if you want the true sound of an Ampeg SVT or Trace Elliot or SWR or whatever, the best thing you can do is save your pocket money and go out and get that amp. No modeling unit will EVER be exactly the same as the amp it models.

That said, if you want to be able to get sounds LIKE all those amps, then this unit is a bargin. For not much more than what a stomp box will set you back these days, you get all the bass amps (plus some of the guitar V-amp models), effects, midi implementation if thats your thing, not to mention the cool little foot switch.

And while this unit doesn't necessarily sound great out of the box, it rewards experimentation, which is what being a musician is all about, right?

If this was lost/stolen I would definately replace it, probably with the pro model. I recently used it to record our EP (www.siamesesally.com), and it made it so simple to get my tracks down, and the engineer was impressed with sound.

Easy to get a good sound? Perhaps. It's just that all of the bass sounds sound pretty much like all the other bass sounds. You can twirl that "amp" know all you want but they'll all sound about the same, give or take a few highs or lows.

Boring. Quite a bit of digital hiss too, more than the V-Amp 2 for guitar. Loved the V-Amp 2 so this is a major disappointment. The effects aren't very good either. The actual sounds are better on a Zoom 506II.

No idea. Sent it back after a day's use. of course the tuner kept saying that every note I tried playing was an E Flat so....

Had it a day, sent it back. Thank goodness for 30 day return policies (Musician's Frined in this case.)

This Bass V-Amp is fairly easy to use and get a good sound out of. The editing of patches can be somewhat tricky because a lot of the buttons offer "deep" editing. However, if you connect this to your computer via a MIDI cable - they offer a free program that does an excellend job of editing the patches... there is even a compare button offered on the screen so you can see how your changes compare to the original.

The manual isn't that great, but once you have used the graphical interface, a lot of things become clear... Not every effect that you choose hase a tweek for it... in the interface, the ones you can't use are greyed out... without it, you are somewhat at a loss to what a button in a certain position means... which basically ties you to your computer...

I tried this out with my Stewart Road Runner, a Fender Strat a Godin LG-SP90 and a Fender Jazz bass. This Bass V-amp and Bass V-amp pro offer sounds for keyboards, guitars and bass guitars. I was blown away at the compression and the quality of the effects.

I played this direct through my studio monitors, through a Tech21 Trademark60 and a Hartke 4x10 cab... sounded great on all accounts.

This is a table top unit. I was debating on whether to get the table top or the rack unit. Since I use mostly multi effect pedal boards when I gig (Yamaha DG-Stomp for Jazz Blues, Boss GT-3 for rock and funk) I use this as my "recording effects box" because I can use it with my acoustic, electric and bass guitars without having to carry my acoustic rack or a host of other gear.

It comes shipped in a nicely padded "gig bag" and the parts seam reliable to date.

I play jazz, pop and rock - it works well with these types of music. If it were stolen, I probably wouldn't replace it - simply because I have a host of other effects and this was just an impulse buy.. something to keep with my portable digital recorder.

It does come with a foot pedal that comes with something like a 20 foot cable. This will let you select 5 patches in a single bank, but there is no way to bank up or down from the foot pedal.

Overall, pretty cool piece to have.