Behringer V-Amp 2

Overall ... it'd dead simple to operate. Editing patches is a breeze, although it is not immediately obvious that there are "hidden" parameters, accessible only by using an external MIDI controller or the V-Amp Design software.

I am using a Line6 Variax 500 with the V-Amp (oh the unholy alliance that is, eh?) and the combination is killer. I can go from a 12-string acoustic with a lush chorus and delay for a "guitar pad" to a crunchy Les Paul to a really "spanky" Strat or over to a clean 6-string acoustic at a moments notice. It's a beautiful thing.

I have friends with PODs ... let's be honest here. The POD sounds better on some things, the V-Amp sounds better on others. Whatever.

I play almost exclusively directly into a P.A., and use floor monitors so I can hear myself. The fact that the V-Amp has BALANCED outputs makes a huge difference ... no need for a direct box.

The "POD or V-amp running direct to the board" concept goes against the grain of many guitarists, who will always want the Marshall or Rectifier stack behind them. My opinion: the benefits FAR outweigh the negatives.

I have heard so much about Behringer's famed lack-of-quality. Having friends who work for Mackie, Yamaha, Roland, etc. ... and having purchased a few Behringer items "for inexpensive backup", I can say that my experience is that these fears are largely unfounded. Almost everyone is moving over to Chinese manufacture. I've had ZERO problems with the Behringer products, which is more than I can say for several other brands of music products I use.

Standard precautions apply: Check it out COMPLETELY when you get it home. Use the hell out of it for a week or 2 to torture test it. Don't drop it off of a loading dock onto a hard cement floor.

No need ro deal with Behringer directly. They seem to have a well-organized (if somewhat slow) website.

A snap to set up and use. Not a brain strain to hook up. The manual is well written, and has some good technical information in it, though it could be a bit more descriptive about the amp models and a LOT more descriptive about the cabinet models.

Behringer had their thinking caps on when they put the controls together. The ring-of-LEDs-around-the-encoder approach allows fast and easy adjustments with instant indication to coexist with memory recall settings while avoiding expensive motor controls for the knobs themselves. Simple but brilliant. When you recall a preset, you can instantly see where most of the settings are. The only reason I don't give them a 10 in this category is the shortcuts they made with a few of the parameters, like where you have to hold down the Tap key while turning the Treble encoder to adjust the Presence. I'm not a big fan of two handed operation while my guitar head swings around to bump on the desktop. I'd also like to have a string of LEDs that indicated the Cabinet model, but you can't have everything for this price.

It sounds good! No complaints from me about the sound quality, but I have definitely heard better. I borrowed a POD xt from a friend for a week and I think it edged the V-amp out in tone. Not being a real guitar aficionado, so I'm not dead set on the ultimate tone at the expense of everything else (like price and convenience). What I do want is a way to make my sound appropriate to whatever I'm practicing. And to have fun. Let us not fool ourselves; this is a toy. A very nice sounding toy.

What can I say? I haven't dropped it or kicked it out the window, and it hasn't broken. OK, one thing: I had it on the California Clean amp model, I think, and I dialed in one of the combination effects, hmm... was it phaser + delay? Anyway, I had the Tap tempo turned way up to stumble my way through some cool Andy Summers stuff, and the effects were going unstable. I unplugged the guitar cord from the V-amp and it was still churning out a sound something like a loose instrument cable on the period of the Tap tempo. In a month of casual use, this is the only problem I've yet had. Like I said, it's a toy; I would never use it to gig.

Though I haven't had any dealings with Behringer myself, our lead guitarist did deal with them about a faulty DSP mixer. They sent him a new one before receiving the return, so I'll rate them well.

I've been playing for years, but I'm not what you'd call a good guitar player. I can play just well enough to impress non musicians, as long as I sing at the same time. I've got an Ovation Deacon and a tiny little 15W Crate amp at home and a Line 6 Spider II 100W 2x10 combo in the band garage. I needed a preamp at home for solo practice that gave me enough flexibility to set myself up somewhere close to the songs we're covering. I need to be able to play the guitar through the little amp and the CD through my stereo when nobody cares, but also be able to switch the CD and guitar to headphones when people are trying to sleep.

The auxiliary input is the feature that sold me on this unit. I had just about decided to buy a POD xt when I borrowed one and realized how difficult it would be to work with headphones (for the occasional insomnia jam session). Since I don't want to add to my clutter with a separate mixer, the mere existence of a volume controlled auxiliary input is essential to me. So much so that the dual 1/4" phono plugs (instead of a pair of smaller RCA connectors) hardly bothers me at all. I can switch from amp/stereo mode to stealth mode by turning off the stereo and amp, turning up the auxiliary input level, and donning the headphones.

Let's talk about interconnectability. I can understand the appeal that the MIDI standard has when incorporating your new amp modeller into your professional studio setup. And for the V-amp Pro, that's a great feature to have. But for a desktop toy, there is absolutely no reason that I can see to have two separate 5 pin DIN connectors when you could have one USB port taking up a quarter of the real estate! For most users, like myself, with no MIDI systems in place, these necessitate the added expense of buying a Midiman to be able to manage our presets via computer. Thumbs down on the MIDI, the second worst aspect of the V-amp.

And now, let us consider the design. I can't believe somebody thought this was a good idea. I'm embarassed to show my Playskool guitar processor to friends. A bit superficial of me, perhaps... but wait. Not only do you have this dumb looking blue Les Paul piece of doodoo sitting on your desktop, but also because it has no straight edges, all your connections splay out from it like a poorly conceived H. R. Giger rip off. You hook it up and it doubles its demands on your work space! Oh, to have a rectangular black box with the connections in the back and the knobs arranged logically (I mean, just look at all that unused front panel area)... you might even be able to put a couple more dedicated controls on. Imagine that. It could even end up looking like something an adult would own.

To end on a positive note, let us speak of value. All my complaints seem a bit less serious when you consider the $140 price tag (well, say $175 including the Midiman). You get models for three truck loads of amps and cabinets, and a passenger seat full of effects. And can you say included footswitch? Hell yeah! You plug it in and play, and it works and sounds great. Technology kicks ass. Buy one.

The Ease of use category can best be described as extremely easy. The knobs are clearly labeled Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Volume, Master Volume, Effects, and Reverb. The knob in the left center is the amps to choose from. The amp models are all clearly labeled and all have an incredible distintive sound. Editing patches is easy in that all you have to do is turn the knobs to the desired settings test the result and if you like the sound save it to V-amp 2. Any manual is overrated for the guitarist. The best bet for finding that incredible tone hidden in the blue box is to adjust the setting one at a time, until you have achieved tonal bliss.

The amp that I use is a Crate GFX-65. The guitars that I use are Fender Fat Strat, Epiphone SG, B.C. Rich Warlock with EMG-81 pickup in the bridge position, and a Lotus Fender Strat replica. The other effects I use are Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, Ibanez SM7 Smash Box, Digitech RP-300, and a Morley Mark Tremonti Power Wah. The unwanted noise level is minimal and if the unwanted noise level is to harsh the V-Amp 2 has built in noise gate to cancel out any unwanted noise feedback. Every effect in this unit is crisp and tonally correct to my ears. The main setting that use and recommend to anybody who buys this unit is setting the amp model to classic clean, Gain to 127, Bass to 60, Mid 100, Treble 126, Presence 127, Turn Drive On, Cab Model to 4x10" V-amp Custom, No Modulation, and No Reverb (use the reverb on your amp instead) set reverb to whatever, sound best, now for the ultimate secret in tonal bliss. Once you have all that programmed in connect you guitar to an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and then run the output jack to the Behringer V-Amp 2. The TS9 Tube screamer should be set to Drive 10, Tone 10, And level 10 (adjust volume on amp or V-Amp 2) doing all this creates the most intense AC/DC sound you could ever imagine. I honestly feel like Angus Young when I use this setup. Another detail is to use the noise gate to cancel out any unwanted noise. Also, use clean channel on amp, of course, and set Bass to 2, Mid to 10, and Treble to 8.5 or 9. Doing all this will get an extremely bright Marshall Amp rock tone.

I have gigged with it once, so far. I used the above setting with a B-52 LG-100 Half Stack to achieve Angus Young's signature Tone. When I used the above setting it brought the house down. My band and I covered Back In Black, You Shook Me all Night Long, Highway to Hell, and Hard as a Rock. The Tone was outstanding. The reliability, though, I don't believe would be great due to the fact it is made out of plastic; however, no problems on my end.

I have never used it.

I mainly use it for the above setting only; however, I have used it for recording and it has some great rock and heavy metal distortion. Distortion and Overdrive is all I am interested in, so I do not know about the clean sound it produces; however, the distortion is quite great.

The interface is very well designed for quick changes to patches but if you are going to make up your own then you really need to read the manual, this doesn't take long but is necessary to learn how to create the exact effect you want. I left the manual in the box when i got the v amp and only recently learned how you change some of the settings such as switching it to live mode and getting even more distortion!! Only now have i realised its full potential! when playing live it does sound crappy in the original mode, but if you read the book you can change this easily. using the dials is straight forward as it has brightlty coloured lights so if your familiar with the interface you can change settings on a dark stage. It does have an annoying button called "tap" (also second function -like shift key) which could have been placed better on the unit - you need both hands to change to one of the other 16 amp settings which ends up in the headstock of your guitar bashing into things! Also to get the most out of the effects and programming qualities you need to use your computer and buy a couple of midi cables which cost a fair bit!

As i said the studio setting sounds crap live - this sounds obvious but may be a reason for other reviews bad scores. It has five settings to suit different situations and set ups, and with the two live ones it sounds great! it has a huge range of different sounds from pretty much any kind of amp ever recorded with. These can be tailored in many ways, EQ, gain, effects, presence, reverb etc to make exactly the sound you want. This is within reason however because unfortunately it doesn't have a pitch shifting effect or decent wah, i would have paid extra for an expression pedal with these features. the stuff that it does have are good though. You can tell the difference if you put it next to a good valve amp but the versitility by far makes up for it.

Unfortunately my original v-amp malfuntioned after 4 months and made a horrible wah sound and would save patches properly, i now have a new one that will do everything perfectly. If something like memory patches being erased were to happen on a gig it wouldn't be a problem because it only takes 2 mins to program a couple. not many others seem to have had problems with behringhers equipment.

i emailed about problem above and they didn't know! hard to give an accurate score on this basis

Really good unit especially for the price, and you get a case for transporting it as well as room for some other gear. easy to use with the foot switch to change patches. wish it came with midi cables. Website is great for downloading other peoples patches. Can be used for any style of music, from death metal to pop.

Behringer manual is helpful. You have to read it to choose correct operation mode, use correct outputs and so. Comes with nice bag and footswitch. But you have to use it few hours to really get into it.

My setup is:
Stratocaster >> Boss BD-2 >> Electro Harmonix BIG Muff >> V-AMP2 >> 50 watt tube amp armed with Weber Alnico Blue Pup and Weber Alnico Silver Ten. I don't think it is noisy. It is much less noisy than ZOOM pedals. And it has quite intelligent noise suppressor.
To the amp simulations:
Clean simulations (right side) are almost all perfect. As you try to crank the virtual amps, some get digital crankie effect which is not very pleasing but usefull when combined with tube amp.
Left side simulations are almost all bad (at least for my ears). They may sound good on record, because cd is digital anyway so it ruins sound on its own.
To the effects: Rotary is crap for me, the rest are fine. Nice chorus, great delay.

My amp is custom hand made amp and it is not typical guitar amp. It has no sound filters, only 2 band EQ and volume. It is the V-AMP 2 which makes the amp sound like amp. And it does that job very well.

Never had problems with it, but I heard weird things.

I wrote them many times. No answer. Yahoo group V-AMP is better way to consult things.

I play U2 like rock. I use left side simulations and they serve me more than well. I play for few years now, heard many rigs and gigs on them. If the V-AMP2 was stolen it'd take me a month to figure out the sounds again, since I didn't got MIDI conncetin to PC to work. But that is (I believe) falut of cheapo onboard sound card.
I can't imagine playing without V-AMP2, but if your style is metal I'd go for a Line 6 POD. It has much better distorted sounds. I even preffer Zoom GFX-707's distortions and overdrives more than these. That's what I have analog distortion pedals for. I wish it sounded better on dirty settings. But that's neverending issue I guess.
I give it a 7 overall because of bad simulations of Marshall.

Its well easy to use and sounds great! You can easily pick up how to use it fully in a day or two. What with all the pretty lights and a really useful manual. I love it when you switch it on and all the lights blink!

I've got a fender Tom Delonge Strat and a Fender 60W amp. The distortion is excellent, you have a range of amp simulations and cool effects such as wah, phaser and theyre all adjustable - as is everything else!

Don't take it round to anyones house or gig without taping it to somthing cos it breaks well easity. Dont be roungh with the knobs on it or spill anything on it. I learned the hard way - and now it doesnt work anymore, but im gonna get it back on insurance- hopefully!
Not very reliable. But if you treat it well then it 'll be fine im sure.

They are based in another country and have nothing in england which sucks for a start. If it breaks, and you live in england, then you're screwed

Overall its well worth getting, and its relativley cheap. I would advise anyone who is thinking of buying some expensive amps or effects pedals to go for this instead cos its got it all! Just dont be rough with it!

When I first got my V-amp2, I thought that it would be a hell to get to know how to work this thing. But when I read the manual and played with it for a while, it seemed much easyer then I thought it would be. So this was no problem at all.

Here we go!

I think this modeling unit sounds really good. When you get to know how to use this thing, it's a whole world of possibility's.
I have used it to record directly in my pc, wich sounds great with the speaker sim. on, but until today I never really tried it with a real amp.
So I hooked it up with my Randall RH100 half stack, and switched it to the L2 mode (without speaker sim.) and it sounded really amazing!
I'm a huge Dream Theater fan, so I checked the Rectified gain.
It sounds awesome!
I surely am going to use this baby when I play gigs from now.
Sounds waaaay better then my amp's distortion.

My set up is:
Ibanez RG1527 - Boss Pw-10 wah - Digitech whammy - V-amp2 - Randall RH100 half stack.

Just make sure that you don't drop it or anything,
then it will be fine.
It is kind of fragile.

never dealt with them

Damn good.
I advise all of the complaining people to try out some different configuration modes and stuff,
just play along with it.
It really works and sounds great, I'm sure of that!

C'mon, this is really easy. A knob for every parameter...an LCD pointer for every setting...it doesn't get easier than this.

Well, here's the thing, I don't gig, it's home studio recording only, so I can't tell you what this thing sounds like thru an amp that will color the signal. I own a Parker Fly Supreme, a '73 Hofner Blonde, Cordoba FCWE, Gibson Hounddog Dobro and a dozen or so budget axes. Here's a simple truth...crappy guitars sound crappy. That being said, for the folks who think that the v-amp is noisy...my advice is to buy a decent guitar. The sounds are of excellent, I mean excellent quality. I tried this thing out for the hell of it (it's cheap enough), and got way more than I expected. Gain maxed, volume maxed....no noise from my better sheilded humbuckers; that's my test, and this model passes.

It's safe enough on a desktop or amp, and I can't really see it "shattering", what a stupid thing to say...it's made out of PVC, not glass. It even comes with a footswitch, so you can keep it out of the way after initial adjustments. Honestly, I think it would bounce if it hit concrete...it's light as a feather. The knobs feel a little cheap, so it gets a 9, but I haven't had trouble in 5 months of playing with it.

I'm writing this review because this kind of product should be supported. Behringer is producing great quality and selling it for 1/3 the competitor's price...GO BEHRINGER!..let's have more of this. I love guitar music...every kind. I play flamenco and 80's rock, jazz and blues. I've tried every combination of amps and settings, there's no style or sound I haven't been able to dial up. (the auto-wah is really, really responsive to technique) By the way, some dork said he couldn't find a blues setting....turn down the treble and up the gain with some compression, and bang, just like that, you ain't got no wooomun. THis product is excellent..and as far as bang for the buck is concerned..it is one of the rare few that deserves a 10.

It is not plug and play - you have to sit down and study the manual. Once you know the basics, it's a breeze to call, modify, store sounds.

The clean sounds are great over headphones, desktop speakers and straight to a guitar amp.
I mainly use for the distorted sounds and it just gave me the peace of mind of not having to use pedals ever again! The noise gate is good (don't go past value 5 or 6 otherwise it will cut the sound too abruptely)however don't expect long singing sustained notes as in a real cranked up amp!
The hi gain amps, Rectified Hi Gain, Brit Hi Gain, etc. are quite convincing. I don't bother if the purists say that the real amps sound better! Of course they do! But I'd rather have 32 "convincingly similar" virtual amps in my gig bag (consider the price you paid for it)than breaking my back carrying around 1 or 2 real amps.
The direct recording sound with speaker simulation is good but I'd rather mike an amp to get a better sound - I'm using the speaker simulators on with the clean channel of a Marshall JTM 30 (valve) and it sounds superb!

Definitely I'd use on a gig. However it requires extra care on transport and handling. Make sure you place it on a spot that nobody will step on it.

I haven't needed customer support yet.

I mainly play rock / heavy metal and it definitely delivers!
I'd played for over 20 years using analog pedals and valve amps.
The noise was my main problem now I can use hi gain sounds without the hum. I'm using DiMarzio PAF humbuckers on an Ibanez EX 350.
What I love about it is the ease of setup and pack up on rehearsals and gigs. The only thing I don't like about it is the footswitch - it should allow you to change the banks as well which has to be done manually - the footswitch only allows to change the sub-banks (A to E) also the absence of a main power switch is another flaw. The DC power supply plug looks very fragile and not easy to find (looks like a PC mouse plug instead of the traditional 9v plug - maybe because it needs more than one voltage value to operate, just like PC hardware).
Overall I'm very happy with the purchase. I've read many people's reviews complaining about the silent gap between one sound to another.Here is a good hint: use the same amplifier model for each bank - then the change of settings such as volume, gain, effects, compression are real time. For a particular amp model I'll use the clean sound with chorus for sub-bank A, and spread through different levels of gain and reverb over sub-banks B to E - done! The silent gap is inevitable - think of it as a PC; changing amp models requires changing directories, if you stick to the same directory, in this case amp model, you'll only change the parameters within the same directory and the response to the footswitch is immediate.

Real easy to use, but read the manual to have a good idea of what's on offer and how to access/alter some not so obvious parameters. By the way, I don't understand why some people complain about the manual... but maybe those are the type of people for whom "caution: contents may be hot" in coffee cups are written for :-)
It really is simple to read/understand.
The usage of leds to have a visual indication of where the knobs are in each patch is a touch of genius. I have used other modellers and it always annoyed me that the actual knobs do not reflect the settings... the V-Amp elegantly overcomes that by using leds... brilliant.

Pretty good!
First of all, ignore the presets. Make your own.
I like a lot the Marshalls (both the JCM800 and JTM45), which give you a very wide range of sounds from almost clean to very high gain. The "Drive" switch alters the character of each amp a lot, don't forget to experiment with it!
I find all sounds I want here, nice cleans, soft gains, bluesy, rock, metal... anything.
High gain can be a bit noisy (who would be surprised???) but the noise gate is effective, if not the best, it works well.
For headphone use and recording it's really excellent, especially considering the price!
It can also sound pretty good through a power amp, but not through a normal guitar amp. If you use a guitar amp, connect in the FX-in socket, not at the front.
I think the people who complain about how bad it sounds live is people who are programming a sound that sounds great on headphones, or at low volumes, and then expect that simply turning the volume up is going to sound the same just louder. It doesn't work like that. Not even in a normal amp. so: set it up at the volume you will use it.
The FX are not the best, but are useable. However, if you're keen on FX, you're better off getting separate FX. I mainly just use the compressor and reverb, both of which are just fine for me.

Use it as a desktop modeller, and it'll be fine. It's not build for the road... plastic case.
As for the problems other people mention: resetting itself, erasing memory and giving poor sounds... replace the internal battery! That cures it. There's no mention of it in the manual, which is weird, but it uses an internal battery that causes all sorts of mayhem when it's starting to fail. It's very easy and cheap to replace, and last a long time (I had to replace mine after two years).

I have tried other modellers, and the V-Amp makes me happy the most. The newer Vox Tonelab is very promising, but I haven't tried it yet. However, I can but 3 V-Amps for the price of a single Tonelab...
The sounds are good, easy to use, the leds give me the info I neead about each patch at a glance (unlike all others except PodXT apparently, and still, the XT has this tiny display... V-Amp's solution is the most elegant). The V-Amp is a great tool for recording and playing at home without waking up the neoighbours, playing alone or with CDs/backing tracks thanks to its aux input...
Just ignore the presets, and have a look at the manual to get the most of it. It can do all kinds of sounds, from clean to insanely high gain... and the free PC editor works a treat for storing presets and editing complex patches... Highly recommended. At the price they go for, there's simply no question: it's fantastic value.