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Behringer V-Amp 2

Summary
Price New Behringer V-Amp 2 @ Musician's Friend
Manufacturer URL http://www.behringer.com/
Ease of Use 8.5 (308 responses)
Sound Quality 8.3 (309 responses)
Reliability 7.3 (234 responses)
Customer Support 7.2 (104 responses)
Overall Rating 8.6 (299 responses)
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Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 77 USED
Submitted 08/06/2009 at 06:46am by Arjun Kaul
Email: arjunkaul<at>gmail dot dot com

Ease of Use : 10
>How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
>How about Editing patches?
Very easy. Start by rolling OFF both effects and reverb.
Put Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Volume at 5. (10 being max)
Select an amp model that you like. VAMP2 will automatically select a matching cabinet for you.
Now play this for a bout a minute. If you feel you need more "thickness" or "push" on the sound, go into edit mode by pressing the < and > buttons together, then press the B button (which controls DRIVE) and set the value to 1.
Now you will have a basic crunch tone.
REMEMBER: The VAMP2 is an AMP modeler. It doesnt model POST-production effects like parametric EQs and maximizers etc. Its a virtual amp.
Now if you're set with this basic tone. You can go an create specific patches for it:
For instance: Boost the Gain to 8, mid to about 8, add delay at 6, reverb at 4 -> This will work as a nice lead tone. Adjust the noise gate accordingly. If you want your lead tone to cut through, increase the presence by holding down the TAP button and moving the treble knob. This controls presence. If you want to be able to do smooth fast picking a la John Petrucci, try putting the presence on 0.

>How is the manual for it (if there is one)?
The manual has a lot of data and its only abput 20 pages. So you can go through it pretty fast.
In a nutshell:
Configuration mode: Press the B and D buttons together. In this mode you can adjust INPUT GAIN: Hold down the TAP button and move the Gain knob. This controls the input gain of your guitar signal. If you need more gain and are using weak pickups, put this to a higher value.

Edit mode; Press the < and > buttons together. In this mode, you can set: cabinets, noise gating, reverb type, and midi functionality.

>Do you know the firmware revision number? Has your unit been upgraded?
I bought a VAMP. I upgraded to a VAMP2 via 2-2-4 firmware upgrade. I burnt the EPROM myself lol! The upgrade is absolutely free

At this point, i highly recommend you join our VAMP2 users group on yahoo and also check out the amazing Korb's Vamp patches page.

Sound Quality : 10
# What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with?
I have about 7 different guitars:
Ibanez Xiphos with Dimarzio D Activators
Ibanez RG270 BloodlIne with Bill and Becky Lawrence L500R and L500 XLs (ultra cool pups)
Fender Standard White Stratocaster
Gibson Les Paul Custom Tobacco Sunburst
Ibanez JEM 77FP
Pluto Acoustic with EQ
True Tone - Reflective Insight Guitar

# Is it noisy? On what settings?
It's about as noisy as the pickups you sue. For instance, for years I used it with my RG that had standard Ibanez powersound pickups which are great but can be a bit noisy and muddy. Once I changed those to the L500s, voila, crystal clear with no noise even at massive stage volumes. Its all in your pickups and cables dude. The VAMP only throws out what you put into it :P

# Are the effects weak or do they always sound great?
The effects are really good. A real bonus. You get about 2 seconds of delay which is awesome. You should check out this youtube video of the VAMP2 delay in use. The guy uses it to play Judas Priest's dual guitar intro to Victim of Changes on his single strat. Search for expert villages tutorial on using guitar effects II: delay. The guy uses just a vamp2 and explains some radical concepts about using delay in music.
The other effects are very usable, the key is to dial them in right. Basically, use the tap button to change parameters for either effects and adjust them till you get it right.
The phasers, chorus, flangers, tremolo, are all good. Lush and full. Smooth and juicy.

# What amp are you using it with?
When i sue it at home, I usually use the AUX in of my Marshall MG15CD which has a great 8" marshall speaker. Its good for practice. I would also run my VAMP into my DAW and listen to it out the PC speakers or monitors. Sounds great through them as well. And of course through head[hones.
Live: I always go DIRECT into the Mixer with a flat EQ. Killer tone.
Go check out my videos on youtube. I've used the VAMP on almost all my live gigs with my band PRITHVI.

# Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Who are they?
Pretty easily out the box. It depends actually. A lot of my favorite artists started using a lot of post-production EQ'ing etc later in their careers. However, here's some tips:


Steve Vai: Modern High Gain. Mid, Bass, treble, Gain: all at 7. Presence at 5. Delay at 5. Reverb at 4. DRIVE: ON
Cabinet: 12

Megadeth (Rust in Peace Era):
Dave's rhythm: Custom Hi Gain, Bass, Mid at 3, Treble at 9, gain at 5. DRIVE: ON
Marty Solo: Custom Hi Gain, Bass: 7, Mid: 8, Treble: 5, Gain: 7 or 8, DRIVE: ON
Cabinet: 10

Van Halen (VH1, VHII): Just use Preset 2B. Its dead on.

To get a great SRV tone, Use the JCM 800 model with DRIVE ON and gain on 4 or 5 and Bass: 7, Mid: 5, Treble: 6. For leads boost the Mids and gain.

I'll be putting up a new patch page soon with loads of artist patches. Check out Korb's page for more.

# Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? Very bad?
LOL
Nothing bad in this. The effects are not exactly lexicon quality but then theyre not needed for what its meant for. Theyre super-usable.
Check out Gary Schult on Youtube for more info.

Reliability : 9
# Can you depend on it?
YUP. Used in over 60 gigs. Never broke down.

# Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
YUP. have done so many times. Though unless you're playing on a desert island, there's every chance there's an amp lying around somewhere. lol

At this point i would like to point out that due to its plastic body, the buttons are quite sensitive so you really need to keep it AWAY FROM DUST when you're not using it.

Customer Support : 9
# If you've dealt with the company, how helpful/friendly were they?
Free upgrades. Customer execs on forums. etc. Its all good.
With the VAMP community, you'll never need customer support.

# Ever get an upgrade, or try and get it repaired?
I got some knobs replaced on my own. Its fun. You can get your won knobs like skull shaped ones or maybe door knob style..god you can really get creative. That's the bets part. Try doing that on other processors! Its quite Customizable.

Overall Rating : 10
# What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?
Its a very versatile unit. Think of it this way:
If you think of guitar music of the last century, this here blue jewel has it in it. You just have to move those knobs and search them amps/cabs.

# How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
I've been playing for 12 years.
I have a lot of nice gear:
Guitars mentioned before,
Line 6 Spider III 75
Marshall MG15CD
Boss ME8
Zoom 505II
Stranger DA1 Distortion
Presonus Firebox
Simulanalog Guitar Suite

# If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?
I would probably get another. I just like it more than anything else.

# what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?
I like the fact that it FEELS great to play. I love the responsiveness. The FEEL is very sweet. I love its compactness and ruggedness. Its userfriendliness. When i use it, I end up player 10 times more tahn i would with anything else. It makes me a born again- guitar addict every time. I lose sleep...

I hate the fact its hard to get them here in India. Plus, I wish the body was made of cast iron so it would last forever!

My favorite feature is the AMPs and Cabs. They're gorgeous.

# Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?
I've played every processor and amp out there.
Theyre all nice in their own way. I just prefer this one for its character. Its unique. I've played PODs etc. Theyre nice for sure, I just like the sound of the VAMP over them. Its my personal preference.

# Anything you wish it had?
Umm:
1. A harmonizer!
2. Stompbox, wah modelling in front of the AMPS.
3. Compressor in front of the amps
I'm currently using my ME8 as a pedal board in front of the "virtual" amp: VAMP. Its working out excellent.
Since I already have all these on the ME8, I'm not really bothered.

# Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?
It does. Big time. I have written most of my best songs on a VAMP. It also makes me wanna play guitar 24 - 7. If i didnt have to go to work and do chores, I'd prolly be jamming away on the blue jewel.

# Anything else you'd like to share?
Thanks for reading my review. I'd be more than happy to help you with anything. Contact me of you like. I'm on myspace as well so go ahead and check me out. /arjunkaul
Take care and peace and love to you!


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 79.00 USED
Submitted 05/11/2009 at 05:37pm by RoccoTaco

Ease of Use : 8
I wanted to write this review to thank that "James Acker" guy who reviewed this product on here (3 years ago). Your battery suggestion (below) just brought my V-Amp 2 back to life. So where ever you are... THANKS!!!

On to the review!

Very easy to use. Never used any editing patches. Bought it used... no manual, don't need one. You can download the software and user manual for free online, but I've never needed it.

I'd highly recommend this before buying one of those way over-priced Line 6 things (that do the exact same thing). For the value, it's unbelievably cheap ($99 new). Why not have one of these lying around? Cheaper than most stomp boxes.

I'm going to give it an 8 just because you really need a manual or something printed to find what preset number matches what sound (like 11 for Van Halen). But I rarely used the presets.

Sound Quality : 8
I mainly use a Fender Strat with humbuckers. I use the V-Amp when I want to get cool sounds at low volume, headphones, laptop recording. Works great, but I don't think I'd use it live.

You could use it live I suppose. I believe there are ready is some speaker emulation thing on it... so I don't know how that would sound through an amp & speakers. It could work though.

My fav artist isnt important. Whatever your looking for, I'm sure the V-Amp could get close.

Reliability : 10
O.k. As I mentioned before, this thing crapped out on me and I thought it was dead. It wasnt dead... just a simple watch battery replacement and a reset (thanks again James Acker, below).

Anyway... before I knew what the real problem was (I was in Afghanistan) I opened it up. From the conditions I was living in the thing was filled with dust. I blew all that out... still wouldnt work. Then I got mad and slammed it down a few times hoping that would fix it. Then I gave up on it and threw it in a junk box. It sat in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees for months. Then tonight I learned it was only the battery.

Sure it's in a cheap plastic shell, but considering how much unjustified abuse I put this thing through... and the fact that it now works perfect... that should say something about it's reliability.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to use

Overall Rating : 10
What do you got to lose?


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 09/19/2008 at 01:29pm by gtennison

Ease of Use : 9
Like any multifx, especially at this price point, it could be easier and the manual COULD be better. But it's super easy to get started and the interface is straightforward. Wish it had an on/off switch, but for a hundred bucks, including bag and foot pedal, this is pretty hard to beat.

I'm giving this a 9 based on it's VALUE for the buck.

Sound Quality : 8
People who trash this unit are clueless.

I spent many years on the road as a pro player and have a great live rig, guitars and more boutique pedals than I have room for on my pedal board. (e.g., Hotcake, Eventide, Cusack Music, Barber, etc., etc.). Anyone who expects this little powerhouse to compete head to head with "real gear" tone is beyond naive.

It will NEVER sound like a Plexi or AC30 or whatever rig you love.

It's not a high end modeling unit for recording, though I'd imagine it makes pretty passable demos in garage band.

What it is AMAZING for, are three types of players.
1) Students trying to learn how to use effects and wanting to experiment with many different sounds easily and on a budget
2) Occasional Hobby players who just want to hook something into a cheap amp or stereo and a sound pretty impressive
3) Semi-pro and Pro players who want something portable for practicing and hooking up an ipod to.

For these, this unit is amazing. Other players would dig it too. But there are comparable units (pod, vox) with different capabilities that may be more appropriate...but MORE MONEY.

The layout is smart. The ability to turn up an aux input is inspired. The tap tempo and tuner are helpful. Etc. It's a long way from perfect. But it's a less than the cost of most effects pedals and exponentially more versatile.

And the sounds? Yes, they're a bit digital. Yes, every preset isn't great and there are some volume issues across the presets that could have easily been smoothed out. It's not dead silent. The trem could be better. The wah is useless. Chorus, flange and phaser are so-so. But all in all, it sounds GREAT for what it was generally meant for...Practicing and perhaps some home demo's.

Reliability : No Opinion
I wouldn't gig with it. It's plastic, not a pro piece of gear, though it can sound fairly pro. Don't know how long it will hold up, but I'd expect fairly well with normal semi-careful use.

Customer Support : No Opinion
have never dealt with Behringer.

Overall Rating : 10
If you're a budding player, buy this...yesterday.

For the money, it's a better value than the POD or pocket POD. Spend the extra bucks elsewhere. Over the years you'll buy LOTS of gear if you're like most players. Assuming it holds up, this is a unit that will remain in your arsenal, but take on different roles as you progress. It'll start out your main rig, making you sound more pro than you are through a cheap amp or some kid who's daddy bought him an expensive amp but no effects. Then it'll become the thing you play with headphones so you don't bug anyone. Etc. Etc. On down the line until it's like Woody from Toy Story. Old and worn but with too many memories to chuck it.

For me, it's what I'll throw in a dufflebag and use when I travel or when I don't feel like dealing with the hassle and volume of my amps. It won't ever replace tube satuated bliss. But it'll help any player built their chops and hone in on what tone they like, so that when they drop real $, they do it smartly. Nothing sadder than somebody throwing down heavy cash on the wrong kind of amp, then being forever frustrated that they can't get the tone they want.

The only similarly good value I can think of for the beginning player or hobbyist is the new Fender XD. Don't know how they'd sound together.

My guess is that more inspiration and songs come from units like the V-amp, pod etc. than any pedal/amp set up out there. Only the plain ol' acoustic guitar probably trumps these in the writing category.

Three thumbs up.




Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 08/10/2008 at 10:13am by Daniel Vernon
Email: play_a_record<at>hotmail dot com

Ease of Use : 9
Very easy to use. Anyone with basic knowledge of guitar effects processors can use this. Otherwise, the thorough instruction manual included should help. Patch editing and saving is fairly easy too.

Sound Quality : 8
With a decent set of studio headphones it sounds really good (I use Audio Technica ATH-M40S 'phones). For the price (mine was ??67) it's an absolute steal. I had a Line 6 Pocket Pod prior to this, and while it sounded pretty good, it was really fiddly and hard to edit without a computer. This unit sounds better in my opinion, the high gain stuff is on par with the Pocket Pod and the clean and crunch sounds are better (to my ears anyway). It also has a more natural 'feel'. Don't know why as it's digital. The effects are good too. Not as good as some processors (I have NI Guitar Rig 2 and 3, a Line 6 Toneport with Gearbox, IK Amplitube 2, Metal and Jimi Hendrix and Revalver 2 and 3 demos and the effects on all of them sound cleaner). But the effects are on the V-amp are very good. The reverbs in particular surprised me. They can be selected independently from the other effects. Reverb #4 is my favourite; it sounds like a long delay but without the repeats. Sounds gorgeous with an acoustic plugged into it and the preamp bypassed. As far as amp models go, they're on par with Line 6's. The other software I have has models that sound cleaner and more detailed, although their simulated speaker cabinet response is much better, as the software is much newer.
However, I record with the V-amp as it's much easier to use. I'd rather tweak the V-amp than try and tweak a program clicking a mouse.

Reliability : 8
It hasn't died yet and I've had it 8 months.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I've never had to contact Behringer.

Overall Rating : 10
This is a really good unit that is excellent value for money. I hope they update it in a couple of years and refine the amp models and effects. The V-amp 2 is really quite old compared to the newer processors. I'd buy a V-amp 3 without a doubt.

Any questions, email me. I'll happily provide soundclips too.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 04/28/2008 at 03:16pm by Nathaniel O'Bier

Ease of Use : 9
I use this as my practice amp. It's pretty plain and simple, to get to the different amp settings (17-32) just hold the tap and twist the knob. All things can be learned through just reading the manuel.

Sound Quality : 8
Compared to the pod xt, it would be a 10 imo. But in general its just an 8;average. I play tech death metal, and I mainly use the modern high gain amp, and I can get a great death metal tone. The cleans are pretty decent for the most part. The fx are good as well, kind of the basic stuff though.

Reliability : No Opinion
it's has been fine so far, but keep in mind it is made of plastic.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
If you are a death metal person and are confused to what home recording/practice amp to get, the v-amp is your best route or the pod 2.0. The pod xt is just too fuzzy and every tone you use with distortion/compresssion is going to come out muddy, unless you spend hours(im not lying) ****ing with the parameters and placeing effects in your amp settings ect. ect. ect. Plus it only costs 100 bucks you can't really lose. Also, if you are still unsure, look up matt soleto of decrepit birth on youtube of him playing along with his songs. All done with the v-amp 2.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 04/27/2008 at 01:29am by juanypei

Ease of Use : 7
i've owned this for 3 or 4 years now. in the beginning, all i had was a soild state that i thought was silly, and i was able to coax some really nice sounds that could make my solid state sound less silly.
that's the thing...this thing is very tweakable, if you like that. like me.
some presets were not accurate.
so you must be patient to get the accurate sound, but once you figure out how to use it, there's a lot you can do. the manual is pretty good at telling you what you get.

Sound Quality : 7
in the beginning, i used this with a peavey solid state and got good sounds.
i enjoyed the andy summers-like preset, but had no presence so i had to adjust the drive, found that the srv was pretty harsh in the highs so i had to adjust the treble, but other than that sounded great. i'm a huge vox fan, so i loved it in the beginning because i thought the vox sounds were good. now i have an ac15 with an ef86 channel and i think the vox on the behringer will just not do. i love the chieftain, but found that the modern class A is in now way a sound like a matchless. blackface twin and fender champ settings are good, as are the soldano-ish and jtm 45 sounds. jcm800-ish sound was not too bad either, and if i were in a mood to play van halen (like when i use the "eruption" setting for ain't talking 'bout love with my gibson les paul!) i don't think i've ever done any tweaking. the worst of the tone bank presets, to me, is the factory setting for "streets", which is A1. the amp setting, cab, delay, feedback, and reverb are all wrong, and you have to tweak it to get the right sound. i find that the roland jc-120 setting had been a better amp for this, and even using the presence feature (tap button + treble) along with this amp, made the jc-120 sound a little tubey, like the roland bolt60's (remember those?).
in fact, the jc-120 (80's clean) sound is the best sound on this, but again, you have to increase the drive to 1.

currently i am only using this at home. with my solid state amp, which i now realize has a pretty good solid state clean, i use the amp settings, but with my vox, i am only using the digital effects.

like i've said, i used this in the past with a les paul or a dot into a solid state, but currently after having put it aside for almost a year, i took it out again and realize i like the digital delay, and have actually used it for noodling around at home, and currently the setup has been strat into vamp, delay setting (long delay with feedback at 4-6 repeats, tempo 132) reverb at 2.5 - 3, into vox.

right now, i haven't the time to sit with this thing and try to remember everything i've known thing to do. one is enough for now.

Reliability : No Opinion
a couple of times it went bizarro world on me and shorted out or something because i lost presets and got crap sounds that weren't even preprogrammed. i don't even know where they came from.
but i restored the factory presets and everything was ok. if you leave it unplugged for a while, you'll lose your presets.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion
i play different kinds of music, and honestly i haven't taken the time to see what this thing can do. i mean i may have at one time, but since upgrading my gear, i don't do much with this anymore.
been playing off and on for about 16 years.
i have a gibson les paul custom, a dot, and a 62 strat. i play through a vox ac15 and a valve jr with mullards through a divided by 13 cab fitted with a g12h heritage series speaker. i also have cute little vox da5 for practice, which also has a good delay feature and some nice fenderish sounds and passble, though still voxy marshall-ish sounds. i use a fulldrive mosfet, an old dunlop wah, sometimes that fender deluxe boss pedal, and sometimes an old turbo overdrive to color my sound. lately i've used the behringer vamp2 for it's delay setting only.
what i love about this is the jc120 setting.
what i love about this is the tweakability.
what i hate about this is the tweakability.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 65 USED
Submitted 04/07/2008 at 09:17pm by Jim

Ease of Use : 7
I've used this for 3 or 4 years live. My environment was not amp friendly so this is what I've used up until I needed to play acoustic and electric. Doesn't work for acoustic well and I'm trying to limit my baggage, I just bought a digitech GSP1101 and the jury is still out.

Ease of use: It depends, its easy to access the necessary areas (volume, EQ, patch switching (5 at a time from the included footswitch), you need to manualy push a button up or down to change banks to get the next set of 5 patches (5x25=125). I have 5 sounds that I switch between.

If you want to customize the effects you need the software. Which I got to work after buying a $35 midi to usb cable. It gave my xp fits so I would install it and then uninstall it. I would not recommend spinning the effects selector. Case in point, factory reset the whole unit before you settle in with it. If you are down the road go to bank 1C and reset that patch. Now listen close and play, you hear compressor, Chorus and Delay. Spin the effects dial and then return to that point, the delay is now gone and you can't get all 3 back unless a) you don't save the patch, b)factory reset, c) software. You can switch anything else all day long no problems getting back or if you only want 2 effects. I would simply switch patches and then try different amp models.

Sound Quality : 10
I just run this straight into the board with a behringer di. Can be somewhat noisy at times especially with a cheap cable. Buy a good cable. Isn't that why we play guitar, to make some noise? Don't run this unit into the preamp section of your guitar amp. It will sound bad. Run it into your stereo or headphones or mixer board or the "power amp in" on you guitar amp and it will sound great (for digital). For $99 unbeatable. If you are search for a tone that defines you, this isn't it. If you are looking for inexpensive versatility with descent tone this works great.
I play a strat and prefer the compliments of the fender amp models: 65 Black Twin (SRV),57 Deluxe Tweed Combo (Jeff Beck blow by blow), and the Bassman. Not perfect but hey to buy all those amps? I also switch to the vox ac30(not the treble boost version). I'm going to give this a 10 based on digital unit that sounds similar, not exact, to thousands of dollars of gear.

Reliability : 9
Only failed me once, at home fortunately. Back of cover says "do not remove bottom cover no user serviceable parts". There is a lithium battery inside. If you unit ever starts sounding different then the day before without explaination then this is it. I serviced it myself and I'm still alive. Used it for 4 year with much satisfaction. I'm older and play in a worship band. If I was younger playing near a mosh pit it might not do so well with sudden impact.
I've used without a backup for years. Although, since worship can be anything you create it is not necessary to be identical to the last time you played the song. Tthere are 2 keyboardist and a piano player that can cover the cords if the v-amp were ever to go on the fritz. If I got paid and it was crucial I would consider a backup.

Customer Support : 2
It seems like I tried emailing them for some reason, can't remember what. No reply.

Overall Rating : 10
We play worship music, anything from modern, to latin, to swing, to jazz, to hymns. We have a very skilled pianist from motown. Included: Lakewood, Hillsong, Tomlin, Baloche, Gungor. I've been playing off and on for since I was 19 so I guess around 27 years or so. If I didn't just buy the digitech GSP1101, (which is highly customizable from the unit without software and sounds great but $500), I would replace it in a heartbeat. I like the aux in so I can run an mp3 player into it and blend the guitar. I don't like the shape so much for cabling. Tones of tone in a compact unit. This seems as rich to me as the GSP1101 and seems warmer then the pod. 24 bit is nice. I wish it could handle acoustics better. If you can't use an amp for whatever reason. Buy this unit.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 80
Submitted 03/28/2008 at 04:14am by Hans

Ease of Use : 7
To get the full effect of it, you need to read and re-read that manual to get the best tone off this. The manual sucked. Could be a lot better... but just read on. Don't know the firmware version.. I wish it were easier to load the new one... haven't figured that one out yet (I have no MIDI cables or interface) I'd like to upgrade it and I know I can (sys file on the website). Date code is 05 05, I have no idea what the FW version is. Editing is very versatile.

Sound Quality : 10
I put this directly into a regular stereo with EQ options, 2 8 inch speakers. It's not noisy and needs NO extra noise gate. It seems people reviewing this are confused about how to use it. (When you switch from studio mode and live mode the gain control is the noise gate's first parameter, then use the two arrow buttons and click the E and set it from 1 - 15, third use the compressor and use the tap to edit the "presence" of the effect with the effect knob) Same goes with all the other effects with the tap key. This is all key to the sounds of the effects. They sound great if you tweak them. I use the Savage Beast, Modern Hi Gain, and the ultimate v-amp for metal. Once again: You really need to tweak the hell out of the settings for the amp presence, the cabinet, noise gate... MOST IMPORTANT: The distortion isn't weak... you need to up the DRIVE option to get some deep distortion.) For rock I use the Brit Class A, Custom Hi Gain, and classic clean and clean v-amp for clean setting. and the mighty American Blues and the tap on the same setting. I don't want the sound of my favorite artists... but I can get a great tone for Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Death, October Tide, various doom bands. Not really a great tone for brutal brutal metal. The reverb is nice on 2 or 3. Good for recording and jamming.

Reliability : 4
This thing is cheap plastic... so i'd be careful with it. Behringer is notorious for bad dependablity - considering the plastic use. But I think this is what makes the price really reasonable. I wouldn't use it at a gig laying on the floor. A heavy step could break this little killer tone master.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to.

Overall Rating : 10
Play: Metal, Rock, Blues... good for just about everything but the really brutal metal. I'd replace it in a heartbeat... this thing is my favorite guitar accessory ever. I wish is had a 10+ band EQ and a better amp for EXTREMELY heavy stuff, and an On/off switch


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 80 USED
Submitted 01/03/2008 at 11:08pm by Ben-

Ease of Use : 10

Im using a LTD ex-400 ( explorer model with EMG 81/60 active pickups)

Im playing in my bedroom and use the v-amp 2 with headphones ( sony MDR-200 ( a pair of 30-40 $ headphones )


thats all .

Its easy to use , just plug and turn the knob , you can choose out of many amp . hold the tab while turning for the second parameter and presence . its very compact and doesnt take place .

Ive never edit any patches , i just want to plug the guitar and play and get hi-gain , and nice clean . well the v-amp2 does that very well . basically , its bedroom use . its a toy with awesome sound .


Sound Quality : 10
Im mostly into metal , grunge , alternative so my review is base on that .

The unit sound very great , the rectifier head , the ultimate-vamp settings and a couple more give solid distortion with emg81/60 , specially playing in dropped tuning ( D or C ) ,

Its noisy if you have cheap guitar and pickup , i had a cheaper LTD ex-50 before and sound like crap . everything was noisy i couldnt heard what i was playing ( the change of strings ) . its better with emg 81 .

The only thing i complain is the palm muting ( but its probably the emg-81 , it give weird palm muting , im sure it would sound great with good passive pickup like seymour duncan sh-4 and a fat strat ). but dont let this remark change your mind about buying . its ahard to have punkrock palm muting with the emg-81 , this pickup is great but not for everything IMO . ill try it with a seymour duncan passive humbucker and write another review .


otherwise , the unit is very great for a bedroom use . its a toy made of plastic but it sound great . i wouldnt take that on tour on recording , its not a serious amp , its a bedroom toy .


ive never plug it to my computer , so i cant tell about midi stuff and everything .

Its better than the Line6 spider 2 i had before , im glad i sold it for a 80 $ behringer v-amp2 .

So for the price , you cant go wrong . through headphone , it sound fantastic , ive never try it with speakers cabinet or through a amp . i use it as a stand alone unit . i even bet it would sound better headphones . while playing through headphones , the cabinet selection is disabled i think but its no big thing , it sound nice .


Overall 10/10 for a unit under 100 $ . its really inspiring ( yes theres great sound in the hi-gain section , maybe not a tube amp , but really close to some artist like seether , nirvana , three days grace etc..., easy of use and get nice distortion . theres 4 type of clean and they sound crystal clean .

so if your a bedroom player who want a easy of use amp that take no place , give great sound and various amp and effect , get a v-amp2 .


sorry its a bedroom player level review . but its great . i would defenatly buy another anytime . the best amp ive had so far and perfect for what i used it .

Better than the fender frontman 15 , line 6 spider 2 amp ive had in my life .

Reliability : 10
Mine was bought off ebay used and work really well . never had problem with it . its made of plastic and look kinda cheap toy .

its realiable but wouldnt drop it on purpose .

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to deal with it .


Overall Rating : 10
for bedroom playing , late jam through heapdhone , its fantastic .


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 80
Submitted 12/27/2007 at 10:26am by Ethan Lewis
Email: eml<at>ethanlewis dot org

Ease of Use : 9
Just read the manual. The product is deep, but the knobs help, and it is pretty simple to use in the heat of battle if you understand how to read.

Sound Quality : 10
This has lots of great sounds. I have mainly used the Blackface model, as it sounds the most organic to me.

Reliability : 8
The plastic seems sturdy, and the knobs are encoders, not mechanical (except for master volume). The fewer moving parts the better.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
I play the blues. I like to ride my volume knob to change sounds, and this gives me more headroom to do so.

I just got the VAMP-2 a couple of weeks ago, and I am very pleased. I took it to the local blues jam tonite, plugged into the fx loop of my Behringer GM-110 amp (on mode L1). I used the blackface model, and when necessary boosted the signal with the Behringer PB-100 booster in front of the VAMP. It sounded killer. I am so pleased that I can get such a good sound with such inexpensive, high quality gear.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 100
Submitted 10/02/2007 at 06:50pm by Unshakendude

Ease of Use : 10
Very self-explanatory! You have to be dumb to not be able to figure it out. The onlt thing kinda difficult would be MIDI if you don't have training or prior experience with running MIDI.

Sound Quality : 8
I think the secondary parameters have better tones than the first. Effects are very clean and adjustable. (Speed, depth and rate adjustments)

Reliability : 10
Never had a problem...... And I've owned mine for over 2 years.

Customer Support : No Opinion
? Never had to call

Overall Rating : 9
I'd buy another if I had to. I recommend it and have had 4 friends of mine buy it as well because of the impression it's made when they heard it.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 100
Submitted 09/28/2007 at 12:13pm by The Hellion

Ease of Use : 8
With the Behringer V-Amp 2, it's fairly easy to get a good sound out of it without reading the manual. However, after reading the extensive manual, it will become second nature. The manual has everything you could possibly need to know, and editing patches is a snap. It is kind of a 'geek' processor, meaning that there is a bit of a steep curve at first, so newbies will find themselves overwhelmed.

Sound Quality : 10
Two words for you: holy crap.

Considering that this unit costs only $100, a mere fraction of the competition, I was of course skeptical. I figured I could get a fairly decent sound to get me by, but I had no idea what this sucker could do. Now, I'm using this in my home studio so I could plug directly into my computer without the need for an amp. I'm not trying to get my favorite artist's sound; I'm using this so I can get MY sound without an amp.

Before I got the V-Amp 2, I wasn't 100% sure what "my sound" was. Folks, I believe I have found it. I use this with a modified B.C. Rich Bich Platinum Series with Seymour Duncan pickups (read my review elsewhere on this site). Whatever my evil little heart desires, I can pull from this unit. You want a slightly overdriven bluesy sound? The V-Amp will give it to you. You want face-melting metal distortion that still has note clarity? Just ask and you shall get it. The modulation, delay, and reverb effects are everything you could possibly ask for, too. It'll take me years just to see what this little marvel can do.

Reliability : 6
Honestly, I'm actually using my second V-Amp 2 because the input jack on my first one failed me after only a couple of days. Thankfully, it was still under Musician's Friend's warranty, so it was nothing to send it back for a new one. Just a pain in the a$$ to have to wait. The second one is treating me pretty well, though, but I'm being extra gentle with it.

Frankly, I wouldn't use it for a gig at all, but then again, I wasn't planning to. If you want to gig with the V-Amp 2, you're better off either getting the V-Amp Pro rack unit or even the V-Ampire, which is essentially an amplifier with the V-Amp 2's brain (I plan to do the latter, actually).

Customer Support : 10
Behringer was very helpful with any questions that I had, usually responding to my emails within 24 hours. When I approached them about my input jack problems, they essentially told me to ship it back and get a new one, which is exactly what I did.

GET THE WARRANTY!

Overall Rating : 9
I am in an experimental metal band, so I need to have a versatile amp modeler. The Behringer V-Amp 2 delivered what I needed in spades. I've been playing for 16 years and have used many different amps and effects units, including a Korg AX-3000G, which I still kinda miss like an old girlfriend even though I'm now happily married to my Behringer. I've also used Crate and Peavey amplifiers, which I'm turning my back on when I get the Behringer V-Ampire head and an Ultrastack cabinet.

When shopping around, I was flip-flopping on the V-Amp 2 or a Line 6 Pod XT. When I got a gift certificate to Musician's Friend which put the V-Amp 2 within my price range, I went to that and I'm so glad I did. This has everything I can possibly want and at $100, I'd feel like a greedy little b!tch if I were to ask for anything more. I DO wish it were sturdier, though.

If it were lost and stolen, I'd just get a new one no sweat. Not before putting a curse on the soul of the ba$tard who stole it, though.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: GBP 65
Submitted 09/08/2007 at 07:02pm by Dave

Ease of Use : 9
Very easy to setup, i got a good sound out of it after a bit

Sound Quality : 10
i got a few guitars with good pickups and the Ultimate V Amp settings r rubbish, i found the best tone 4 metal is surprisingly the Numetal Head despite not liking nu metal and playing death metal. i bought this 4 uni so i dont have 2 take my pedals and amp (boss metal zone and other various things) and using the Numetal head amp i can get a tone as full as the metal zone. clean tones and effects r very nice.

Reliability : 7
pedal tht came with it is very sturdy, annoyingly when changin between presets theres a delay before the preset takes effect.

Customer Support : No Opinion
never dealt with them

Overall Rating : No Opinion
good enuff for uni, 4 me it wasn't bought as my only effects processor as i have my proper setup. but it could take tht place but switchin live between clean and distortion would b an issue cos of the delay.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 100
Submitted 04/26/2007 at 09:25am by VAMPIRE

Ease of Use : 10

Sound Quality : 10
I LOVE THE PRESETS OF SMOLSKI AND BEYRODT.

Reliability : 10

Customer Support : 10

Overall Rating : 10
EXCELLENT. THE V-AMP 2 SOUNDS EQUAL TO POD 2 FOR ME. THE PRICE IS VERY LITTLE FOR THIS BEAST.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 03/27/2007 at 06:54am by Valtyr

Ease of Use : 7
This thing is pretty easy to use, i dont think ive even looked at the manual yet.
I have used this on almost every song i have recorded and released with my band in the last 2 years, i have also used this thing a few times on stage connected to a direct box for a good live sound with no problems at all.

Sound Quality : 8
This box sounds pretty good, some of the effects are quite useable such as the tremelo and delays although i wish there was a little more control one could have over effect parameters, maybe its possible but im just too lazy to open the manual and have a look.

Reliability : 6
its made of plastic so its not really that roadworthy, i have used it live without a backup

Customer Support : No Opinion
It hasnt broken yet but if it did id probably just throw it away without even checking if it could be repaired, its probably better and cheaper to just buy a new one.

Overall Rating : 10
When i bought this i really wanted one of those Line6 Pod thingies but i was broke at the time and this one was much cheaper, i use this thing mostly in my bands recording studio, i have recorded guitars, basses, harmonicas and even vocals through it and the results have been just fine, sure, i wish the effects section were a bit more advanced but for this kind of money i would say this is a real bargain.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 03/09/2007 at 11:18am by Robert Plas
Email: rplas<at>uol dot com dot br

Ease of Use : 10
It's very easy to get nice sounds, especialy distorted sounds.
Also very intuitive editing. Nice and clear manual.
I bought it 3-4 years ago, never upgraded the software.

Sound Quality : 8
Very easy to get Steve Vai, Queen, Van Halen, blues sounds. I think some sounds are unatural, but maybe occured after my unit was fixed ( i broke once ). I think some sounds are not as they were. I have to check that out but i'm vary lazy.
The effects are nice, mostly delays and echos. Others are ok. Auto Wah and Phaser not so good.

Reliability : 8
I think you can trust the unit. It's made of plastic, but look strong enough to get some abuse.
Better to bring a backup, it's so cheap.

Customer Support : 10
Very friendly and helpful guys. Always answer very fast!

Overall Rating : 8
I mostly play from clean, almos jazzy, to metal stuff, depends on the music. I've been playing for almost 30 years now, and i have one Yamaha Pacifica modified and a Steinberger GL4T. Some acustics guitars too.
I would surely buy another v-amp, so easy to find sounds and very cheap.
I love the speed to mount it ( like 5 min ) and the sounds/flexibility at home, stage.
I hate Auto wah and Phaser, can't use them, and also no switch to turn it on.
I wish guys at Behringer could put nice effects, balance volume and delay from amps, which is annoying sometimes.
It helped me A LOT to practice and record.
Please listen the record i recorded some solos, EXCLUSIVELY using v-amp2 : http://musea.musearecords.com/ext_re_new_catselect.php?np=34170


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: Can 200
Submitted 02/13/2007 at 11:52pm by Billy

Ease of Use : 8
Read the manual and you shouldn't have a problem using this. It is somewhat cumbersome, however, and takes some getting used to. The "tap" button seems to have been a bad idea overall; would have preferred a more regular dial for tempo features. Can be difficult to get a good sound out of.

Sound Quality : 7
I mainly play metal and bought this for practice and recording, mainly the latter. In both cases, I find the high gain amps are quite muddy, even with bright guitars (a Squier Telecaster!), and the only way I've been able to cure this is to put a Zoom Powerdrive before the unit, to boost the highs going in. Clears it right up, effectively, and keeps my ESP LTD EC-100 from being ruined.

For practice, this thing is exceptional, no doubt. I would buy this over a practice amp any day, especially considering they're about the same price. So many combinations of sounds that you can tweak this to suit even a very specific pair of headphones. Hook it up to a decent pair of PC speakers and you've already got way more than what you paid for. It's a good ear trainer, too. I wish I would've had this when I started out.

Recording is another story... I've been going at it for quite a few months now and have not found the right sound. Only about half the high gain amps have usable sounds, notably the Dual Rectifier, Savage Beast, and Brit High Gain. The others are either overdone, fizzy, or lack punch compared to these ones. Then there's the cab sims... oh boy. These things are very hard to judge, because they're quite misleading and not balanced too welI. The 4x12 cabs, especially the default (15), are pretty weak and brittle and require a definite volume boost over the others to have any effect at all. They also respond very poorly to post-recording EQ. Again, only about half the cabs you can really use; I'd say 3, 7, 10, 12, 15. Make that a third, plus dependency on amp types.

I've tried to use this for band practice with a tube amp (vamp into effects loop, no cab sim) and found it was totally impossible. The thing emitted a high-pitched squeal at every end of note. The noise suppressor did not help, nor did any of the settings on the unit. Perhaps a boss NS-2 before the unit might have helped, but in any case the high-gain amps sounded way too harsh and ended up having the same characteristics at high volumes. Not for high volumes in general.

Despite these two paragraphs, there is lots to love about the unit. The dedicated Reverb and Presence controls and a true blessing; can no longer live without and essential for recording. I don't use the effects much, but the delay is absolutely beautiful. Although only a fraction of them sound good, the sheer amount of combinations of effects/amps/cab sims you can pull off with this could keep you entertained for years.

Things it could have used:
-parametric EQ as global EQ (the global EQ is good only for practice/rehearsal as it is)
-presence control on global EQ
-decent noise gate and compression (compression should have been a separate effect, too)

Reliability : 7
Thing seems pretty shaky, sometimes makes crackling noises. But, it's held up so far.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 8
Excellent unit FOR THE PRICE. Would never rely on for shows/rehearsal, and will probably not give you the exact recording sound you're after, but excellent for practice and getting a general feel for different amps. There are so many ways that you can incorporate this into your setup that you're bound to always find some use for it, whether it be a simple effects processor or full-fledged combo simulation. It's a master of nothing, but a good general help, as long as you don't expect the very, very best.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: NOK 1500
Submitted 12/28/2006 at 11:54pm by Chopper
Email: hnf_band<at>hotmail dot com

Ease of Use : 10
if you don't get this unit, then you're done! :P

Sound Quality : 8
i most certainly can get the sounds from my favourite artist out of this thing! i have played both line6 (even the pro version, THAT thing really disapponted me!) and the v-amp, and the v-amp blows the pod right out of the water, especially on the clean sounds! the only thing that bothers me with this kind of digital guitar-thing, is that the tone never fades out realistically, the noise gate drowns out that sweet, almost feedback-tone you get from real amp. but hey, that's just pickin'! lol

i use this in a recording enviroment, tried it live once, and it worked great there too.

i hear alot of people don't like the distortion-sounds from this thing, but i have to disagree! the dist sounds are killer, if you know have to dial them in. the clue is not the crank the distortion-knob all the way to 10. the way i do it is, i use the drive-function, set the distortion to around 5, and roll of alot of bass (as low as 2) many don't believe that it is behringer-distortion on my recordings! :) and remember, alot of the sound is in your picking-hand, it doesn't matter if the sounds are pristine unless you play loose and "jazzy"! play it like you mean it!

Reliability : 10
had it for 3 years, used it almost every day. never broke down on me once! that says alot...!!

Customer Support : No Opinion
never had to use them... :)

Overall Rating : 10
there is no better product than this if you're looking for a multi-thingy. it beats the crap out of line6, thats for sure. i can recommend this thing forever! the only thing, as i have seen others have mentioned, for recording, the effects don't quite measure up, but thats what plug-ins are for, right?


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 12/08/2006 at 04:45pm by guitarsean
Email: guitarsean<at>gmail dot com

Ease of Use : 7
Pretty easy to get started but I highly recommend reading the manual. There are a lot of multi-function buttons and its not always clear as to how you access parameters just by looking at it. Having the midi/pc software for edits and backup is nice.

Sound Quality : 9
I use it for all kinds of sounds, even as an acoustic pre-amp. I'm using it with various guitars including a Yamaha RGX-TT and Washburn 7-strng. I use it direct for recording and also with a Mosvalve power amp or a Fender Deluxe 112 solid state.
To start with I was kinda so-so on this thing. But then I read the manual. VERY IMPORTANT- 1. Learn how to engage the "DRIVE" setting. This is basically a boost pedal function. Yes, it will be louder but more important it makes every sound (clean, distortion or otherwise) punchy and present. If you think your V-Amp recorded tones are wimpy this gives you more of that "speakers moving air" whoomp. 2. CHANGE THE SPEAKER MODELS. Each amp sim has a default speaker cab. Usually these are ok live but not the best studio choice. For example, the recto model has a 4x12 cab. Ok, but who mics all 4 speakers when they record (or live for that matter). I found the 4x12 to be kinda mushy and gray sounding. I changed it to one of the 1x12 models and it's awesome. Very clear and full. So take the time with these tweaks and you'll get some very usable sounds. Just keep tweaking. The wah isn't great but it's very usable if you have a controller like the FC1010. My only gripes are that there seems to be a "fizz" as the noise gate closes and patch changes between setting with different pre amp models are not seamless (if the models are the same then it is seamless). So far it hasn't been a problem, just an annoyance.

Reliability : 7
I've had it problem free for about a year and a half. It is my backup for live playing (I use a Digitech 2120/Mosvalve setup live) with my progmetal band Strange Land (www.strange-land.net). I use it with my blues band with just my amps built in distortion as backup. It's not as flexible or powerful as the 2120 but its as compact as a few stomp boxes for my blues gigs. Its plastic, don't throw it across the room.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Haven't dealt with them in this or any other stuff (I also have an FC1010 foot controller and a Mixer)

Overall Rating : 8
I play Prog metal, Satriani-esque instrumental rock, blues, jazz, acoustic. Its a great affordable way to record direct, especially if noise is a concern. It also plays well live if you need more than a few stomp boxes or if you're going direct to a PA. I can get almost all of the sounds I need out of it. The only thing I can't get are pitch shift/harmonizer/whammy sounds (which I need with the prog band). My dream gear would be a 2120 with a good built in amp/speaker sim. Overall its a handy compact toolbox to have around. Its nice to fire up my computer, plug in and go when I'm feeling creative. Try it on vocals, bass and other instruments, too. I also use the Amplitube plug in, which I like, but its a big drain on my computer power. I would likely buy another one if lost or stolen (I'm hoping for a next gen V-Amp soon)


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 11/01/2006 at 07:04am by James Acker
Email: jacker<at>online dot no

Ease of Use : No Opinion

Sound Quality : No Opinion

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion
Since it seems they have removed contact info (otherwise I would have emailed this) I thought to reach out to DAZZA... if you had read further down on the reviews here, I mention in my review (James Acker) that the problem you are experiencing is simply the backup battery worn down. You can search for my review where I describe how to repair it (takes all of about 10 minutes, one screwdriver, and you have to have the battery already...one of those flat "pankake" batteries, Lithium CR2032 3v batteries. They are sold all over, easy to find) Take out the screws on the back, carefully lift the cover and find the battery up on the top there. Carefully (EXTRA careful) remove it, replace it, button it up...good to go.

The problem seems to be when you have changed patches on any of them and the battery goes. It can't remember it's settings but knows it is not "default". Temporarily you can make it go to default (see the manual) but this only "holds" until you power down/up again. After that it STILL thinks the patch has changed, and same problem.

Changing the battery will fix this, and costs all of about 2 bucks I think.

Good luck.

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/30/2006 at 08:54am by DAZZA

Ease of Use : 7
It's fairly easy to use. The LED's really help! But sometimes all the 2nd parameter things get a little hard to remember. I guess that's where the manual comes in.

Sound Quality : 3
OK, here is the downfall. I don't know if any longtime V-AMP owners have had this problem, but most of the time all of my patches now have this horible fuzz and low volume with a really bassey sound....YES ALL OF THEM! It doesn't matter if I wipe my sounds, and start again, it's full whacked! I do have to admit, that the sounds were half decent when I first got the unit. All the amp models are preset to certain cabinets. It's funny because if you try the other (non preset) cabinets to amp models, they don't sound that good. You could maybe only use 1-2 cabinets with a usable sound for each amp model. One more gripe (sorry for all the rambling), there is limited layering of effects. Now I understand you don't use phaser, compressor, delay and wah at once all the time, but it's nice to have that flexibility. I have owned a super cheap Zoom thing before, and even that had way better flexibility in the effects department.

Reliability : 2
Is it just me, or does everyone else's V-AMP work great at the start then go downhill! Firstly, it's very rare that my patches actually save when I turn the power off (yes, from the powerpoint first, then unplug the adaptor). Super frustrating, because I always have to dial them in again. Secondly, there is always some type of noise coming out of it, even if I have the noise gate full way up. Thirdly, all or most of the patches have a horible buzz going through it. And lastly, there is no on/off switch, what were they thinking? Maybe I bought a dud....I dunno!

Customer Support : 4
I haven't tried to contact them. But one thing that is half decent, is that they have all the manuals readily available on the website.

Overall Rating : 3
I'm not very pleased with this unit. The only really great thing about it is that it comes with a bag and a small channel selector. Apart from that, this is a dog! If it were stolen, I wouldn't really care. I'm looking to sell it, hopefully I can get at least $100 AUS if I'm lucky. If you're looking for a similar (and cheap) option to this, get the POD 2.0.; It absolutely canes this in terms of sound. But I'm getting some cash flow soon, so I'll probably get a Tonelab SE or something like that.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/17/2006 at 09:34pm by Moosakid

Ease of Use : 9
The basic controls are easy and intuitive to use. The effects require some reading of the manual, but I found the explanations to be pretty straightforward. I didn't use the presets/banks much, but when I did, I found them a litle confusing. Using this thing manually like you would amp controls, its pretty simple.

Sound Quality : 8
I really liked the British Hi-Gain, BlackTwin, and JazzChorus sims. The chorus settings are decent, and the auto-wah great if you use it with the right distortion. I liked to use this direct (sounded great), and I thought it sounded good when plugged into my solid state amp (using the amp on a neutral setting).

Reliability : 3
Notice that I used past tense for some of my descriptions. I was a huge fan of this thing, it was perfect for my needs. But then I would occasionally get this horrible squealing tone that did not change from setting to setting. Rebooting the V-AMP would make this noise go away. This was after I had it for about 6 months. About a year after I had it, the horrible sound became permanent, and I haven't used it since. I would not use this thing in a gig without a backup, no way.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I didn't deal with customer support. When the unit failed, the warranty was up, and its so cheap that buying a new one was a better option than trying to get it fixed.

Overall Rating : 6
I play blues/Classic Rock. I have been playing guitar for 23 years. I own a Telecaster and a Les Paul. I have considered getting a new one, but the unreliability of my first one prevents me from pulling the trigger on another one. I loved everything about it when it was working. It certainly helped me make music; I was able to get a lot of great sounds from this thing, and found it very easy to tweak for just the right sound.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/17/2006 at 02:21am by pima1234

Ease of Use : 9
Minimal tweaking needed for decent tone. Editing is simple. No idea how to upgrade to new firmware.

Sound Quality : 8
Amp models sound great. Effects leave something to be desired.

Reliability : 5
AC adapter is not reliable. Unit tends to become very hot upon extended use (eg., teaching for 7 straight hours). Some software glitches.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 7
Good basic unit for the price.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/08/2006 at 09:10pm by jay

Ease of Use : 8
It took me a day to get used to it, was confused at first, not much experience with these types of gadgets, but quickly adapted and its not bad at all.

Sound Quality : 10
This box can take you on a historical journey of all the legendary rock heroes & amp sounds of the past, it's really an amazing piece of equipment.

It's all in here, and I mean ALL! Fender, Marshall, Mesa, Soldano, even the "boutique" amps like Matchless, Budda, and some I've never even heard of. Some of it sounds so good, I can almost "taste" the tone. If you play guitar, you probably understand what I mean by that. Some of the tube emulations are so sweet it almost brings tears to my eyes!

After using this for a day, I can honestly say that I don't understand why anybody would ever buy a "stand alone" stomp box, where you're getting maybe one or two particular amp settings or fx, when you can get this thing that has 32 very realistic amps and tons of cool fx settings for the same price of 1 stomp box!



Reliability : No Opinion
Well, if you don't go out in your backyard and play football with it, I'd imagine it will be fine.

Yeah, it has a plastic case, but it pretty solidly built, I would not characterize it as "flimsy". It also has a really nice carrying case.

As far as gigging without backup, I'd always have a backup for anything. For this price, I'd carry two around.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
I mostly play tele's and my Squier '51 through it, they sound great.

I play blues & classic rock.

If it had a drum machine, I'd marry it!

Do yourself a favor and try out one of these things, it's hard to believe how great it is for this price, or any price.

If you can't find a ton of tones that you enjoy in this, you should not be playing guitar.



Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 120
Submitted 09/27/2006 at 08:00pm by Morean

Ease of Use : 9
Basically very easy to use, considering how much is jammed into this little box.
Open the manual and you're up and running in 10 minutes.
Editing, saving, copying is also super easy.

Sound Quality : 8
This is a cheap little plastic box. For that, it's amazing, period. You have believable simulations of lots of different amps and cabinets plus a basic supply of effects in an extremely portable small shell. Of course, a tube amp will always sound better - digital emulation sounds flat and artificial compared to the real thing, and you always have to fight with latency because of the digital conversion. Having said that, this little thing kicks the asses of many of its much more expensive colleagues, and in the wide array of preamp and cabinet possibilities everyone can find satisfying sounds. It is a perfect tool for quick recording and for gigging with public transport.

The pre-fx and distortions are good and definitely usable, even for professional studio productions if you're not Testament or Deep Purple. The problem starts when the tempo climbs beyond the standard metronome, where the inherent latency becomes destructive to your timing. Also, very dynamic music loses a dimension with this thing which is, well, only a simulation. In the beginning, I thought the V-Amp answered all my questions; 3 years later, I carry around 160 kg of equipment again if I need really good sound.

The post-fx (delay, chorus, reverb) range in quality from extremely basic to purely horrible, and should be seen as practise effects. Nevertheless, it's nice they are there to use them occasionally. If your standards aren't really high, you can go a long way with this thing, especially in recording. Live I found it works best when used without external preamp. And it's programmable and MIDI-controllable.

BTW: a MIDI footswitch drastically reduces the preset switching time, compared to the included up/down footswitch.

So, again, it's not Mesa Boogie or Eventide, but a good and very compact low budget all-in-system for everything except hi-end demands.

Reliability : 7
Basically dependable. There is a widespread problem though which many reviewers here report, which is the spontaneous loss of presets and erroneous sound behaviour. I experienced it as well after 2 years of frequent use, and I thought it's broken, but after I changed the battery inside it worked fine again. CHANGE THE BATTERY, GUYS!
And it is made from plastic, so try not to step on it :-)

Customer Support : 1
Zero, actually. I have some other Behringer things, all with their little problems and annoyaces, and I never received any answer to any of my polite questions through their German website. These things, as value-for-money as they may be, all have issues that every user sooner or later stumbles over, and the fact that they don't even mention these obvious problems in their help section, let alone offer any solution or even answer their freaking emails is a fact that doesn't help this company at all. It's a shame, because otherwise their approach to music gear is commendable, but I got angry too many times trying to get their help. Customer support? Forget it, the worst ever.

Overall Rating : 8
All in all I give it an eight because it's still unbelievable what this little thing does. Know what to expect, and you'll enjoy it. Rehearse and play low-profile gigs without breaking your back. Work on the road. You want great sound? You'll need better stuff.

(As a side note I'd like to add that the shape is cute but very impractical and inefficient. What's wrong with a box?)


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 09/04/2006 at 10:19am by Tullsterx

Ease of Use : 8
Very easy to use. Comes with a handy little foot-switch. Also, if you hook it up to your computer you can download software that allows you to upload new programmed sounds and edit from your computer. Extremely cool.

Sound Quality : 8

Like always, the sound you get is going to depend on your playing ability and your pickups and your guitar. This thing sounds really good. I think people that complain about the sounds just don't know how to use them. Very versatile and you can certainly sound like crap with it if you want, but you can sound great too.

Reliability : No Opinion
No problems

Customer Support : No Opinion
No problems

Overall Rating : 10
This thing is amazing for the price. For like $200 you end up with more that you could get for $1500 fifteen years ago. Great value. You can't lose with this thing at that price.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: USD 94
Submitted 08/08/2006 at 05:28pm by solometal

Ease of Use : 8
Pretty straightforward controls...getting a basic solid tone is easy...accessing the different cabs/reverbs/gains levels is a bit annoying...adjusting effect parameters--which is quite limited, mind you, is also sort of annoying but easy once you get the hang of it.

Sound Quality : 9
I'm actually very baffled about the contributors who bash the sound it produces...between the numerous amp settings, the cabinet variations and the effects, getting a good sound, I've found, is very possible...cleans are quite clean and tight sounding and the heavies are very heavy (though they could have put a couple of obscenely heavy ones in there, too...the heaviest one is great, but could be a touch crunchier/more devastating)...I'm a metal guy so more options there would be good, but the spectrum of clean/blues/rock settings is very solid. To be honest, I really like the clean settings a lot...I find them snappy, glassy and tight with plenty of attack...don't know where other folks are getting their bad sounds from.

Reliability : No Opinion
Seems pretty reliable...it never leaves my desk so I don't know...hard plastic construction would likely withstand a gig or two but I'd stay away from gigginb with it.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I have no experience with this.

Overall Rating : 9
I'm a metal/rock guy and it suits me just fine...having two little kids, it's a solid toy to just plug the phones in and jam when they go to bed...really, that's all I use it for, but I have plenty of fun dialing up mulitple tones...I can get anything I want...the effects are bothersome, however, with their lack of parameter flexibility, but for $94 I didn't expect too much...great variety of sounds to suit your mood.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: SEK 800 USED
Submitted 07/31/2006 at 08:51am by Erik Runeson

Ease of Use : 4
Too many buttons with multiple functions, lot of useful settings are only accessible through MIDI and editor software. Too much functionality and too few buttons.

Sound Quality : 2
High gain sounds are OK, but the low-gain simulations are simply terrible. Everything sounds like mud. In addition, all amp models have an insane amount of bass. You have to turn the bass knob to zero on most models to get a decent sounds.

All the Fender, Vox and early Marshall amp models sound basically the same - like a really bad fuzz box.

Reliability : 2
It's cheap plastic. One of the knobs broke off. I managed to glue it back on, but I'd never take it to a gig.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 1
Yet another gizmo that amazes you at first with the multitude of sounds and effects avaiable. Once you actually get down to do some serious work with it, you realize it all sounds crap.

You can get computer guitar plugins that also sound like crap, but are free...


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 250 (Euro)
Submitted 06/17/2006 at 12:32pm by Nicky C

Ease of Use : 10
It is really easy to use but I guess this aint the big point....

Sound Quality : 3
Using gibson lp standard premium plus and ..... .. but i guess this aint the big point.Disturbing noise at high gains,non interesting low gains,not bad effects.Dont know Why I bought it..

Reliability : 7

Customer Support : 9

Overall Rating : 3
Play the Blues and Stoner Rock.Not good for sure 4 these styles but i cant imagine any kind of style that it would fit.Guess that most SOFTWARE amplifiers are Better!


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 122 (euro)
Submitted 06/13/2006 at 11:07am by Peter
Email: peterdavis<at>netcabo dot pt

Ease of Use : 7
It is very easy to use...But, honestly, too easy...There are some parameter missing. How about chorus rate or depth???You cannot edit effects...And every distortion in it has background LOUD noise...

Sound Quality : 1
Like I said, the sound quality is the worst...I do regret wasting money in this...I was finishing a recording of guitars in a project, I had to stop...I will NOT record with all this background noise in distortions!! The only way to use this is to put "pream bypass". You cannot use the AMP of the V-AMP, what is the purpose?...

Reliability : No Opinion
I dont know, I have it for 1 week, and i want to sell it...The aspect and lights, and tuner are OK, the bag is also splendid...But...I wont play live with all this noise. I have no opinion in realiability, it never got to the garage...So, it wont see a stage!

Customer Support : 1
I asked what the hell is going on, selling stuff with so much noise, and no one answered...This crap has so much noise using the amp section, and you cannot mix effects or edit their parameters (like said, chorus rate, depth, delay times, depth, feedback...

fuck!What will I do? I wont have money for anything else this year...Play live with my 5150 only.Crap.
Any one can help me? peterdavis@netcabo.pt

thks!

Overall Rating : 3
I play metal, gothic metal, and other stuff. It would be helpfull if i could change FX parameters and use this distortions without the background LOUD noise...


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99
Submitted 05/18/2006 at 03:20pm by Ken

Ease of Use : 10
Not as complicated as it first looks. Just read the manual to understand what does what. Editing patches were a breeze, manual was good. After reading the manual and messing with the unit I was able to figure everything out in about an hour.

Sound Quality : 9
Using this with a pretty cheap 20W solid state amp. The effects sound really good, of course they don't sound 100% like their real-world counterparts, but I'd say they got them 90% of the way there. The sound quality is great and makes my cheapo amp sound a lot better (see below). When I first hooked it up I thought the distortions & effects were great, and they still are, but this unit shines when bringing out clean channel simulations. I play mostly metal and hard rock, but find myself liking the clean channel blues and jazz sounds (and I hate the blues and jazz).



(Note: When the V-Amp 2 is first hooked up it is automatically set for use with a PA system. In order to make this unit sound good, switch to the Live 2 (L2) setting when using it with an amp.)

I haven't tried hooking it up to my computer, but I wouldn't doubt that it sounds good on there as well. And with headphones, this thing rocks!

Reliability : 9
Built out of hard plastic so I would not recommend using it for a gig, unless you are absolutely positive it won't fall or drop. Get the V-Amp Pro rack version if you want to use it for gigging (that's why they made it). Perfect for home use and band pratice. I haven't had any problems at all with the unit.

Customer Support : No Opinion
No problems

Overall Rating : 10
Read reviews on the V-Amp 2 on this board and trusted what others have written about this product, so I bought it. The price, sound quality, and overall fun of this unit deserves much applause. If you are at all skeptical whether this unit can compete with the PODxt, go try it out. It's easily on par with the PODxt in my opinion.

I've been playing for about 8 months and still trying to learn...uh...everything. Of course, you don't have to take the word of a beginning guitarist, but read the other reviews of many long time players and they will say the same thing, "Go buy this thing NOW!".


Easily worth the $99 I paid for it, plus some.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 480 (Malaysia)
Submitted 05/16/2006 at 06:16pm by Juniaf Jaafar

Ease of Use : 9
Gets u a while before mastering each button and knob function.Manual given is comprehensive.

Sound Quality : 9
This is my third effects.The sound is really fastastic.So much reading about the item in review, I was amazed they are all true.

Reliability : 9
I would use it to gig with live band and in my room studio(computer).
Maybe I have to use more careful when playing live since it is made of plastic.

Customer Support : 9
Great. I've just registered online. They gave feedback instantly with customer support.I bought it from authorised dealer.

Overall Rating : 10
I think this would be my last multieffects I'll be using ( I don't know). I can get as many sound as I want.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 05/14/2006 at 11:14pm by Sue
Email: sue08401 at yahoo<dot>com

Ease of Use : 7
I was very old school when I bought mine. So I had to read the manual a few times to get it all sorted out. Once you've done that making changes is a snap.
I only use a few sounds so the 5 chanels for each bank works great for me. What I've done is to set bank 1 for my strat, bank 2 for my FA70, bank 3 for my PF200 and bank 4 for my Duo Jet. When I switch guitars I just change the bank and I don't have to fiddle around with volumes or amp settings. I also like the fact that I can go to channel 1 and get to the tuner. And I can turn down the guitar volume and chat with the audience as I tune the guitar.

Sound Quality : 8
I use a number of guitars although at the moment I am using the strat most. I do occasionally get some noise but that's more the strat than the V-amp. I don't have that problem with the other guitars.
The one problem I did run across was the fact that after I had all the chanels and banks set that I had used while recording they really didn't sound good when I plugged the V-amp into my Marshall. They sounded great when I went directly into my PA though. So I searched around and found that a Fender FM212 was basically a guitar PA. It had no specific character so when the V-amp was plugged in it sounded good.

Reliability : 7
I haven't had a problem with it yet. I do carry corus compressor effects just in case of a problem because mainly those are the only effects I need to get through a gig if there was a failure. But I am gentle with the V-amp. I use one setting for an entire song so the pedal really doesn't get abused. So I really don't get to concerned about it's reliability. Besides I could do all my songs like the good old days with just my guitar.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Have never needed it so I can't say.

Overall Rating : 8
I play some unusual songs for a female solo musician. But playing solo was just intended as a kick that it turned out I do very well. The V-amp allows me to get the basic sound that fits the songs I do (would you believe a solo version of Mountain's 'Nantucket Sleighride'). I usually play in small places so turning up an amp isn't an option, so I can get that sound at a low level. I do wish it had at least a stand by switch. I have to remember what order to turn things on and off to avoid a big pop.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 05/05/2006 at 01:25am by Tom

Ease of Use : 8
It is an FX-unit with a lot of bells and whistles so you've got a lot of knobs to turn. It is easy enough to dial in a good tone though... And I like the way the rotary light thingies on the knobs show you the exact setting of each patch. You can always see exactly where you're at.

Sound Quality : 9
Fan-friggin-tastic!

Unless you get a lemon that doesn't function properly, I don't see how anybody could knock this thing?

The amp models are the usual suspects with a few Fender models, a few Brits (Marshall, Vox) and some Mesa/Boogies for good measure. On top of that you get a JC120 model and some extra V-amp models. 32 models in all.

The effects are pretty versatile and you can dial in enough parameters. They're digital, so the sound is absolutely hifi.

I usually play the V-amp through headphones, or plugged into the clean channel of a Laney TF200. Through the Laney, the sounds are already pretty good, but through headphones it's amazing. It's like you're listening to a CD-recording. Through the phones, set to a small tweed amp with a number 5 reverb and some delay you get some mighty trippy sounds, man! Like Jeff Beck on acid.

I've also played it through a stack and it just blew me away. All these differences means it DOES let you guitar/amp shine through and it doesn't all sound the same. Which is good, because why would you want your 2,000$ Gibson to sound exactly the same as a 100$ plywood Squier?

The only quirky thing I could find soundwise is that some of the models (mostly Behringer's own models) are considerably quieter than the others. It's no big problem, though.

Also sometimes you get some digital feedback.

Reliability : 9
Pretty dependable. I would gig with it, but WITH a backup.

I've had mine 4 years now and I used it extensively. It broke down once. Nothing major.

The plastic casing doesn't seem very rugged, though. So treat it with TLC.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
This thing is great. I think they're about 140$ nowadays and for that you get a tool you can use for recording, as a preamp AND it sounds brilliant through headphones. It's a great practice tool, but you could use it in live situations as well.

Yeah, it's made in China. Yeah, it's made of cheap plastic. But like I said: 4 years of extensive use and it only broke down once. Good enough for me.

This is still the coolest little bag-o-tricks on the market to me. I've heard the Line6 stuff, but it doesn't really sound better and I've not yet been able to justify the price difference. I've played the Roland Cubes and they're pretty cool, but the V-amp is just more versatile. I own a Tech21 TM10 as well, but I really only love the Marshall setting on that one and if you turn it up loud it becomes too harsh.

I've owned tube amps and yes they sound better... If you can crank them up loud! I'm mostly a bedroom player / basement tinkerer who does the occasional gig. I used to live in an apartment so you can't really push a tube amp there. Sold my tube amps. They were just not useful for me.

This little Behringer really rocks! I promise if you try it, you'll buy it!


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 60 (UK pounds) used
Submitted 04/10/2006 at 03:35pm by JimiH

Ease of Use : 9
When I first got it, I took a while to go through the manual, as it was the first multi effect I'd had, but once you get the hang of it its easy, the manual is straight forward, it's the latest version, got a carry bag, power supply, and the pedal included.
Patches can be downloaded from the behringer website, direct to the v-amp, although I haven't tried it yet
I kept getting a little autowah sound on some amp settings, but a quick referal to the manual sorted this out.

Sound Quality : 9
For the price it's an absolute steal second hand, I'd definitely recommend them to anyone, I'm using an Epi Les Paul Standard, there's little if any background noise, a little hiss on higher gain amp models, but you can compensate for this by increasing the onboard noise gate setting, at the moment I'm using a Sound City Artiste combo. Pinched harmonics could sound better I think, but that may be the pickups, its as good if not better sound wise as the Pod.

Reliability : 8
Has not let me down, the only negative is that on mine the memory loses the settings if I havn't played it for a few days, which could probably be cured with a new cmos battery, but I keep a note of my favourite settings, haven't gigged it but I'm sure it could cope

Customer Support : No Opinion
Not had any problems, so can't comment, although website is helpful

Overall Rating : 9
I play mostly rock, metal, and acoustic, and it handles them all well, I've been playing off and on for 15 years, my son's got a POD, which I've tried several times, but I prefer the control layout on the V-amp
If it were stolen or lost I,d definitely buy another, Its a very versatile piece of kit, there may be more complex and maybe accurate gear out there, but when I see pods and the like advertised for twice the price I can laugh because I know it does the job for a bargain bin price!
I have a Marshall GV2 pedal which I use sometimes with it, and can get a pretty good Marshall tone from the combination.
The only weak point as far as I can see, is that the casing is plastic, but it hasn't broken or anything


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $149
Submitted 04/06/2006 at 11:30am by Andy

Ease of Use : 6
I've had my V-Amp 2 for about a year now. Figuring things out takes a while. In one sense, it's very easy to use if you just push buttons and turn knobs until you find a sound similar to what you're looking for. However, if you want to start tweaking your sound, or you are trying to program it for certain things, like gigs or home recording, then you may run into some serious time spent reading and tweaking.

Sound Quality : 9
This is where I'd give the V-amp 2 it's highest rating. There are very few sounds you can't dial up with this. I've been able to find about any sound I've been looking for. And all of them are then able to be modified in a nearly infinite number of ways. While I'm not an amp-geek, I think I intuitively know what sounds good. We all do. The important thing is whether we like the sound, and I like a lot of the sounds in this. That said, I'm into bands like Coldplay, U2, Third Day, David Crowder Band among others.

I'd also like to point out that I have a friend who's played and taught guitar for many years. He'd never actually tried out a V-amp until he used mine. He loved it and is thinking about buying his own. We dialed up a couple of dozen different presets (not our own, but just factory presets) and he made them sound like Eddie, Clapton, Hendrix, just to name a few.

Reliability : 5
It's been very reliable for me. I've not had some of the problems others have mentioned on here.

However, I have to say that this is where it gets its lowest score from me. It's all made out of plastic and probably wouldn't hold up well to constant, heavy use. That's unfortunate.

Recently, a teen in my youth group tripped on a chord going into the input jack and cracked the jack. I opened it up and all the jacks are just plastic inside--not very sturdy for constant use at all.

Also, the power jack has to be plugged and unplugged constantly--there's no on/off switch. This is unfortunate.

If Behringer fixed these issues, this would be a truly great product. I don't know if the V-amp Pro takes care of these or not. You might check it out, but I don't think it's as portable.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Haven't dealt with them.

Overall Rating : 8
Like I said above, I play mostly Christian worship, but also some Coldplay, U2, Third Day, David Crowder Band kind of stuff. I've been playing for about a dozen years, although I've never had any lessons--all self-taught (with help from a lot of friends). I own a 1980 Alvarez Yiari acoustic, a Fender Telecoustic (for messing around on retreats and in youth group), and a Sammick AV-6 Les Paul style. I play through a Crate GX-60C or through the PA system wherever I'm playing.

If it was damaged beyond repair, or lost or stolen, I think I'd shop around, but for the price (they've come down $50 since I bought mine) I doubt I'd beat it and would probably end up buying another.

I love the portability, the sound quality and the diversity of sounds you can get from it. I doubt that few other units in this price range can even come close.



Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: RM (480)
Submitted 03/24/2006 at 01:08pm by zihuz86

Ease of Use : 10
easy to use , need about 10-15 mins to figure it out . believe me , need no manual .easy to edit the presets n the amp are excellent . no prob , grab 1 from your nearest music store .

Sound Quality : 8
my setups are mainly to riffs n lead solo . great stuff , i can get many good effects @ artiste presets ...yngwie , steve vai , kirk , santana . the blues setup , i'm not reali going for it . the metal sounds good too . i like de chorus , delay n auto-wah . the auto-wah is this model sounds great !

Reliability : No Opinion
dunno , just hv it 2day .

Customer Support : 3
dunno , but my previous behringer amp takes few weeks to fix . slow and bad responds. just go to your nearest music store who knows how to repair amps !!

Overall Rating : 8
good for beginners n low budget guitarist . overall i will giv 8 out of 10 .


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $50.00 used
Submitted 03/19/2006 at 09:28pm by www.nickmatty.com
Email: nickmatty<at>nickmatty dot com

Ease of Use : 10
I believe this unit is extremely easy to use. However, I have a lot of experience with these types of units. A beginner will have to spend some time with the manual!

Sound Quality : 10
I must say I am totally blown away by the sound. I have played products from Line 6, Johnson, Zoom, Korg and Digitech and the V-AMP 2 just blows them all away. I cannot believe how realistic the amp models sound. I am into every think from Shred to Jazz and this unit can handle it all. My recordings have never sounded so good. I like it so much I just ordered the V-AMP Pro for my studio. I just can't believe the price of this thing!

Reliability : 10
So far so good. The unit is made out of plastic which is not the best. I would have liked to see a bit better quality with the design, but a lot of my past items have been made from plastic and have help up just find. You never know. Mine has been reliable so far.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I have heard nightmare stories from my guitar students about the customer service. I have yet to have to contact them so I cannot rate this section. I hope I never do.

Overall Rating : 10
I am into Shred guys like Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, John Patrucci and Greg Howe. I also play some jazz . This V-AMP 2 fits both styles very well. The factory presets are very good and usable for recording situations. I am extremely happy with it


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99
Submitted 03/07/2006 at 08:52am by rob

Ease of Use : 5
While I do appreciate the number of features that Behringer has attempted to put into this thing, I think all the V-Amps are pretty overcomplicated to use, and I am a gearhead / tweaker at heart. Holding down the "2nd param" button to get to the other 16 amp models or presence knob gets old fast. If you don't have the manual in front of you, you have no idea what cabinet you're patching into (not that it really matters, admittedly). Adding to the difficulty is that the dark blue finish with grey writing for the "alternative" parameters makes it impossible to see or read knob or button functions on the panel in a low-lit room. Of course, they're trying to squeeze a lot of stuff into a cheap desktop-sized box. That said, I am not sure why they didn't expand a little bit on the V-Amp Pro.

Sound Quality : 6
I have been using this with a '93 Hamer Special FM with Duncans. I have not tried it with single coils at all. I don't adhere to a particular style but I tend to be experimental, and on the other hand I will readily admit to doing a bit of drop-tuning power-chord wanking when I'm just not in the mood to think about things very much.

This is going straight into the board for use in recording. Although a lot of people are doing it, I honestly can't understand why you'd buy one of these things for live use through an amp. I think that's an inherently bad and utterly tone-killing idea. You should get a dedicated modeling amp if that's what you really want.

I have owned a Bass V-Amp for about a year now. I ended up getting this because I wanted a "jack of all trades" processor. While I've used it with some success to create decent tones, I felt the BVA didn't have quite enough guitar amp models for me and was hoping that the V-Amp would have a little more life and sparkle to it with a guitar plugged in.

I feel the V-Amp 2 doesn't really offer that much for guitar that the Bass V-Amp doesn't already have. The tremolo is really nice to have (and sounds good too!), and if you're one of these people that loves to have reverb (I don't, ever) then the dedicated reverb control replacing the full-time compressor knob on the BVA is a big plus. But the effects in general are not as diverse as I would like. Mostly, you've got delay, chorus / flange / phase, and combinations thereof... not that interesting. It would be really nice to have a fixed pitch shifter, for instance, or a ring mod. The filter options are better and more diverse on the BVA as well (the V-Amp is limited to an auto wah), so if you like that kinda synthy weird stuff you should probably look into that machine instead.

As with the BVA, I find the clean and overdriven models on this box totally silly and just not useable. The gain controls on things like the blackface Deluxe models are set laughably hyperactively-- it is impossible to get a nice round Fender clean tone out of these, and if you give in to the gain structure here they really don't sound anything like overdriven Fenders. The metal-and-up tones are alright but most have a hard time dealing with palm muting-- they flub out a bit too much to be convincing. In general I feel like the VA2 doesn't have enough "air" or "life" on any of its models, and this is a problem with the BVA also-- they both sound kind of dull and lifeless in a way that post EQ just can't seem to fix entirely. Although the V-Amp's bread and butter would seem to be hard rock and metal, here's also a tendency toward harshness on some of the higher-gain models. The JCM800 (Brit High Gain) is probably my favorite, most musical and actually-amp-like amp simulation in here, but again, that model is in the BVA too.

All this said, we're talking about a hundred-dollar box that does pretty much everything. I don't suppose we can expect it will do any of it very well.

Reliability : 7
Lots of people have had trouble with their V-Amps; I've had my BVA running constantly on my desk for over a year and have had no issues. I think these things are probably hit and miss. The 1-year warranty is nice to have.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 7
I have been playing all kinds of styles for a while and, yes, at one point I was a serious tube amp and analog-gear snob, with my whole house filled with the stuff. When I became more casual about the habit, I got a Yamaha DG60 cheapie modeling amp that changed everything for me; unfortunately, while it sounds utterly fantastic (especially for what it cost!), it is just too darned noisy for recording. So I've been looking for a long time for something this good in a direct-recording form factor. The DG Stomp (long since deceased) was a huge disappointment compared to the DG60 or anything in the should-be-absolutely-famous Yamaha DG line, and I'd prefer the V-Amp over the Stomp.

I want to like the V-Amp 2, and I think it makes for a neat practice toy, but I really don't think it's completely suitable for its primary intended purpose, which is recording. I may give the V-Amp Pro a shot, to see if it does better when connected through SPDIF. It would also be nice to have the bypass option, because I'd really like to use the box as a "draft tone" option so I can process dry guitar tone with something more proven later on (like the Amplitube plugin, which is harder to set up but, once set up, whips the snot out of any such hardware modeling box I've tried).

To be fair, I have yet to try one of these modeling boxes that I think really gets it right. I tried a Vox Tonelab at my local GC thinking that it would be the ticket. I thought it sounded awful. Might have been the headphones.

If you are going to buy one of these things, you might as well buy the Behringer. It's really no worse than any of them, or so it would seem. I just don't think modeling is 100% there yet-- it requires too much "covering up" in a mix, and as nice as it is to just plug in and play, there's a lot to be said for a couple of tracks of dry Princeton-and-Rat or something that required absolutely no processing or tweaking because the tracks sounded totally perfect straight out the speaker and into the board. I suppose that is why you can't find a Princeton for less than the cost of 8 V-Amps at this point. Wish I'd held onto mine. But I believe that somebody's going to get this modeling stuff down, and soon... just not soon enough for me.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $90
Submitted 03/07/2006 at 06:53am by FrankyGoes2Holiwood

Ease of Use : 7
This review is early seeing as how I've only had the Vamp2 for about 2 months and haven't had a whole lot of time using it. From what I've seen so far it seems to be easy enough to use. I would imagine at some point and when I get more serious with it I will have to start doing some editing and add my own presets but I'm not there yet since I am still having fun exploring the presets they provide. I don't have the unit with me right now so I don't know what patch it's at but I bought it in January 06 if that helps?

Sound Quality : 8
I'm currently using my Vamp2 with an amp a friend made about 10 years ago. Don't let that fool you, my friend sold his amp design to another company. I believe the amp after being sold was called the "Bedrock", my amp being only the 654th amp he made was called "Fred" (get it? Bedrock -> Fred...I guess he liked the Flintsontes?) Anyway, the Vamp2 sounds great. I need to pick up a half decent pair of headphones though because that is the way I intended on using it, so I can play without bothering anyone in the house. Eventually, the big plan is to record with this thing using CakeWalk. I think the flexibility of the Vamp2 when used in recording will really show it's flexibility...I hope anyway! There are so many ways to tweak the sound of the Vamp2, I don't see how I won't be able to find the sound I want when recording? The Wah Wah may be a bit lame but most other effects sound pretty good from what I've heard.

Reliability : No Opinion
Don't know yet since I've only had it for 3 months!

Customer Support : No Opinion
I used the sales office when I was first thinking about buying the Vamp2. I realize that being "sales", they may take the opportunity to be nicer than usual, and they were. They didn't have a problem answering my questions regarding competitive devices. I can only hope support is the same!

Overall Rating : 9
I like it! It beats dragging around any huge amp which I've done many a time in my 28 years of playing.
I like any music that sounds good on the guitar, which for me falls largely into the rock category spanning from Led Zepplin, Van Halen, to STP, NickleBack, AlterBridge, etc.
The biggest factor for me in purchasing the Vamp2 was price. I asked them if they would take $90 and they said "Yeah!". So for $90 how can you go wrong? I can switch amps at the press of a button. I don't want to get into sound to much because it's objective. Iknow this thing cranks though and you can get it to sound as dirty or clean as you want. Comparitive modelers were much more expensive. This one is a good place to start I think.



Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 99 (GBP)
Submitted 03/06/2006 at 03:55am by Mark Heath

Ease of Use : 9

The user interface is one of the best of any amp modelling products, mainly thanks to the LEDs round the rotary controls, which show the current patch's most important settings. This has the added benefit of being educational, as while you are playing a preset you get to see at a glance how it was set-up (unlike my previous unit which required you to delve deep into sub-menus to get at the parameters for a patch).

Its easy enough to navigate the patches, and the included footswitch is very useful for live performances. Its a shame that it doesn't cycle round from patch E to A though. The tuner is good and easy to use.

Modifying a patch also couldn't be easier - just turn the rotary controls. There are some features that you need special key combinations to get at, but a quick read of the manual will get you up to speed. The important one to remember is how to set the output mode to match what you have connected it to.

The freely downloadable Windows software for patch editing is excellent, and it allows you to audition patches downloaded from their website. It gives you greater control over the effect parameters than you actually have on the unit itself.

Although it features a wah effect, you can only make use of this if you buy a MIDI controller board (eg FCB1010). It is a shame that the V-Amp doesn't feature a simple expression pedal input, as this would allow the Wah effect to be usable without paying out the price of the unit again.

There are 125 patches, which means that there is plenty of room for you to keep your live and studio patches without overwriting your favourite presets.

Sound Quality : 7
I use a Yamaha RGX-321 guitar with 2 humbuckers and a single coil. When I use it live, I connect into the power amp input of my Marshall 1080. The unit's strength is in the direct recording category though.

There are 32 amp models, and 15 cabinet emulations (that's 480 combinations). I found about 4 or 5 of the amp models became my favourites, with the others rarely being used. The very high gain and the clean models work best for me, with the ones in between often sounding a bit too digital. The Marshall emulations are sometimes good, but they totally override the tone from your guitar.

There is a generous helping of effects, and the quality is adequate for most uses. There is quite a restriction on what combinations can be used (although the software can compensate somewhat for this - you can actually combine compression with other effects).

As with all amp modellers, it will take some effort to get it sounding good through a guitar amp. The V-amp has a variety of output modes and some feature a 3-band EQ to help you match your amp. It also features an input level to match guitars with high-output pickups. If you have the patience to experiment with these settings, you should be able to find something that works reasonably well with your amp and guitar. Some patches will require tweaking the noise gate to ensure silence when you are not playing. I found that turning reverb off completely helped tremendously when playing live through an amp.

I used to own a Boss VF-1 which features the Boss COSM modelling. There are some good sounds I miss from that unit, but on the whole V-Amp has a comparable selection. As with the VF-1, I found that I got the best results using my single-coil pickup instead of humbuckers.

Reliability : 8
Although the power supply connector does seem rather flimsy, as others have pointed out, the fact that Behringer have bundled a gig bag free with the unit should go a long way to extending its life.

Customer Support : 8
I haven't dealt with them, but the website providing software and patches adds a lot of value to this product. There are also a number of lively V-Amp discussion groups about, so if you have a problem you should be able to get advice from fellow users.

Overall Rating : 9
This unit gets a high overall rating for its excellent value for money. At this price, the inclusion of a footswitch and gig bag is incredible (and I notice it has dropped another 25% since I bought it). Some of the amp models do need some enhancements, but most people will find at least a few models that they like.

This unit's greatest strength is how easy it is to tweak a patch to your liking.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $120
Submitted 02/28/2006 at 02:23pm by Louis

Ease of Use : 5

Sound Quality : 10

Reliability : 7

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 8
Pros = you can use 14 different cabinets with each amp. Some modelers ( digitech ) are tied to one cabinet, very versatile. Footswitch, power supply and case are included. Price is right.

Cons = delay in switching amps or cabinets. Drop in volume when effects are added. Noisy when using effects only and using your amps distortion. Even through an effects loop and the noise gate on. Maybe it?s my Randall 100 watt head? Foot switch only goes through 5 banks unlike some 80-channel petals out there.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 01/20/2006 at 05:23am by James Acker
Email: jacker at online<dot>no

Ease of Use : No Opinion
This is an informational update to my review from before.

Manual is not bad at all, EXCEPT they don't mention the backup battery.

Sound Quality : No Opinion
Not rating this, as I already have, but this unit is STILL great sounding. I can get LOTS of fantastic sounds out of it, I use it in recording all the time up until it started getting flaky (simply due to internal backup battery going flat, not a problem with the actual unit) and then I was more involved in my band and practice, so I didn't use it that much til lately when I decided to try and fix it.

Really is fantastic, a great bargain.

Reliability : No Opinion
Just a quick FYI.

After a coupel of years, my V-amp2 began acting strangely (This also can happen with the Behringer amps I am reasonably sure) in that any patch that differed from the factory preset sounded llike crap, muffled, no effects, etc. You could tweak some parameters and change it, or use the button combination to reset that one patch to factory preset, and it would sound okay, but as soon as you turned it off and on again, same problem.

Of course, I immidiately thought "bad backup battery". Strange thing is, there is no mention of battery in the manual, no battery access panel, and even asking directly Behringer if this could be the problem, they stalled, and wouldn't confirm or deny that it even HAS a battery.

Haven't been using it much lately anyway, but just got around to changing it out. Easy as pie...5 screws, lift off the back cover, little round Lithium 3v, Type CR2032 battery in its battery holder.

I changed it out, STILL (and this is important) had to reset all user patches...you do this by holding down the D & E buttone while powering on, then the display reads "CL" for clear, then you let up on the D & E, and hit the left and right arrow buttons at the same time. Now all is back to factory reset, I changed a couple patches, saved them, turned the unit off for 20 minutes, on again and voila, all is well again.


Just writing about it here to get the info out to anyone experiencing this.

Customer Support : 3
They have a form on their site. I described my problem, the symptoms, and since I guessed there was a backup battery, specifically asked (note: not if this WAS the problem but if it COULD be) if it could be the battery. Instead of saying "it could be" they demanded more information, like serial number, fimrware revision, date purchased, etc, etc.

No help at all. I don't know if this is calculated (they have no access panel for battery on the unit...okay there are others that do that too, but...) but they don't even mention the battery in the MANUAL!!

That is bad.

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US Christmas Present
Submitted 12/26/2005 at 07:30pm by Anthony McCarthy

Ease of Use : 8
Its pretty easy to use once u get going. can get very good tone out of it (in my opinion and ears)

Sound Quality : 9
Wow, for 100, this puppy is pretty good.

Reliability : 10
i havent tried it yet. it would seem very good live

Customer Support : No Opinion
never delted with em yet

Overall Rating : 9
wow, this is a true value for the money. i play VH, and other classic rock, and the tones u can get is pretty awesome for the price.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 12/23/2005 at 01:24pm by eddiem
Email: foxxymoron2003<at>yahoo dot com

Ease of Use : 10
I have the original V-amp 1 and the upgraded V-amp 2 along with the midi footcontrol unit with the two expression pedals. I find it extremely easy to use and get live sounds out of. Editing is intuitive and easy once you get experienced with it. The manual is starightforward and easy to understand.

Sound Quality : 8
I use this live in 3 ways. Some gigs I run a stereo seTup through two amps, a Laney 100 Watt Head and 4by10 cab and a 100 Watt cARVIN TUBE AMP using L-2 configuration, sometimes through two behringer b-300's and sometimes directly into the board. Each of these set-ups requires a thorough sound check and extensive tweaking. If you take the time to do this and use your brains and patience, you can achieve wonderful, amazing guitar tones. This unit has no reverse reverb but believe me, if a guitar can or has made that sound, you can find it on the V-amp 2. The original unit was meant for practice and recordings, not for live performance but the V-amp 2 is meant to be used live in many different set-ups. I find everything to be amazing on this unit. The wa effect when programmed into the footcontroller(27) will change the tone of the preset to slightly tinny but if you're using other effects in conjunction with the Wa it sounds good. I have 2 side by side presets for 'Crazy Dreams' by Los Lonely Boys. The 2nd ofcourse is the wa'd lead and I've gotta tell ya, you can't tell a difference from the recording. It's that close ! Be sure that you program amp gain(12) into the 1st pedal and narrow the range to nothing (122-127) because the 1st pedal will move when your hammering away on the 2nd pedal (brains). Use American Blues amp simulation with the drive on, compression and reverb to taste. 32 bits ? It does not and I repeat does not matter. You can't tell the difference between 44 and 32 bits. To me the higher the sampling rate, the more 'digital' it sounds. This unit does not sound digital at all. For world class recordings who knows cause I somehow doubt that many people here have done that kind of recording. Ask Carl Culpepper. He's done some of the best rock guitar mixes I've heard. I'll betcha he could use this device in the studio and blow you away with it !

Reliability : 10
Very reliable and well built. My V-amps are 5 years old and still sound the same as the day they came. Treat the devices with care and respect and you will be rewarded with years of reliable service. Use common sense. Find a stable secure place for it at the gig and keep it at room temperature as opposed to storing it in the garage or in a Vann in a cold, wet environment.

Customer Support : 8
The website is world class.

Overall Rating : 10
Remember guitars themselves are a big part of your tone and take that into account. I play a strat with dimarzio aftermarket pickups and a fat hollow body Sammick which humbuckers as well as a Dean Exotica acoustic. You can't make a jazz guitar sound like a hot rodded strat but I can get a kick ass Eric Johnson 'Cliffs of Dover' sound out of the Sammick. Use your brains. Behringer has given you a huge gift with this product in conjunction with their midi foot controller. This is all you need in conjunction with decent amps or PA to get kick ass guitar tones that cut through the mix in any configuration. The rest is your brains and talent. It's all there for you to discover.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: GBP (Sterling) used
Submitted 11/24/2005 at 04:52am by SIMON PETTITT
Email: pettitts<at>bloomberg dot net

Ease of Use : 5
Not an easy unit to use as each (small) knob is multifuntional. Editing patches is pretty easy though once you accept the above. manual is great.

Sound Quality : 6
I use a Gibson Les Paul and a Febder Strat through this into 2 small Marshall combos. Not noisy. Factory pre-sets are useless on the whole unless you want a quirky jopke-type setting (e.g. "Monk Akka" - what's that all about?) I can't get a particular artist's sound out of it at all except a bit os U2 but that's more to do with the delay technique than the sound itself. Chorus is good, reverb is good, distortion is best avoided, delay is excellent, modulation not bad, EQ is excellent.

Reliability : 10
Very very reliable and no need for a backup. Placed in a rack its very sturdy. Placed on top of an amp its vulnerable to being pulled off by the guitar lead.

Customer Support : 2

Overall Rating : 10
I play all styles (covers band) so its a great addition to my setup (but you need amp modelling too). I wish I could find the 2 flat shelves that bolt to the bottom of the unit so I can rack mount it properly. ANYONE OUT THERE GOT SOME THEY WANT TOP SELL? So I have to tape it to the generic rack shelf. The footswitch is great as you have 5 patches at your disposal and if you switch into 1 particular patch, 4 effects within each patch (there is no time delay for switching between effects but there is an annoying time delay between patches).


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 100 (EUR)
Submitted 11/08/2005 at 05:24am by MrTNT

Ease of Use : 8
very easy to use. manual is ok.

Sound Quality : 7
this is my setup:

guitar(with humbucker) ->
V-Amp2 L2 mode (speaker simulation OFF) ->
Behringer Ultra-G GI100 with speaker simulation ON ->
(XLR balanced cable) ->
MIXER

this works good.

the sound is ok in this setup.

good presets are in the BANK11 and BANK 16 (for hard-heavy sounds).


Reliability : 8
ok.

Customer Support : 9
ok.

Overall Rating : 7
ok for guitarists on the budget.
ok for home recordings.
ok for practice.

................

Boss GT-8 and Line6 Pod XT Live are much better & expensive,
not for beginners & people on the budget.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99
Submitted 10/19/2005 at 06:23pm by guitargeek

Ease of Use : 8
The manual isn't the clearest on how to operate the unit, but once you understand how it works, it's pretty easy. It's rather intuitive, actually; I think the manual just confuses everyone.

Editing patches is easy, make your changes and hold down the bank button for a couple seconds.

Sound Quality : 8
I use this with the following guitars:
Hamer Diablo USA with Dimarzio Evolutions
Fender "Roadhouse" Strat
Aria Mac-50 7 String guitar

I don't use any of the onboard effects, other than compression, or reverb occasionally, I use external units:
Crybaby 535Q wah
Akai Headrush delay
MXR Phase 90
RealTube overdrive (occasionally)

I run the unit on L2 mode into the power amp of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (40 watt tube amp), with an extra 12" speaker cab loaded with a Celestion Greenback. I use it as my preamp, not run into the Fender's preamp. I have not used it to record direct, or used it through a mixer into a PA.

You have to be picky on what amps you use with this unit. I don't rate the quality of it based on how accurately it replicates the amplifier, but rather how useable the sound is. Most of the sounds are useable in some form, but others are considerably lacking.

For clean sounds, I tend to stick to the Boogie Mark IIc clean or the Fender Twin. The others can sounds pretty thin, but how many clean sounds do you need anyways? Actually, side by side, the Mark IIc clean sounds really similar to the Fender Hot Rod's own sound.

For just a little bit of grit, the options open up quite a bit. Again, the Fender Twin sounds pretty good, and the V-Amp "Crunch" is great, it has a nice full bottom end. The Fender Bassman is ok at low gain settings with a Tubescreamer to make up the difference in gain. I have a feeling this is how most people are using it anyways.

And, finally, the distorted tones, where I spend most of my time. I play every Sunday in church, and the Boogie Mark IIc dirty channel is perfect for this with my humbucker guitars. Warm, with a lot of character, but tight enough that fast leads don't run together. Nice.

I also enjoy the various rectifier sounds it has, particuarly Behringer's own "Ultimate V-amp". I actually use this sound for worship sometimes, if it's a kind of upbeat song. Great bottom end, scooped mids, and plenty of gain. Sounds best palm muted. The two Mesa Boogie rectifier sounds are pretty good, but lack that fizzy, buzzy top end that the real thing has. I guess that's alright, that's usually what everyone hates about them anyways. The regular Rectifier setting is good for Dream Theater style prog rock. Neck pickups sounds really fat and round for alternate-picked solos, and the bridge pickup is nice and acticulate.

The Soldano model is great for Van-Hagar era sounds, or just about anything 80's or shred-rockish.

I also really enjoy the VoxAC30 sound, although I realize it sounds almost nothing like the real thing, the simulation is much darker, but I find it quite useful for a Trey Anastasio kinda sound. Turn the gain way back, mids up, and add a little compression, and you're golden.

I don't usually use effects too much, so I don't want to steer anybody wrong there. But I do prefer my external pedals to the built in ones. I just use a touch of compression here and there, and it's not enough that anyone would hear a significant sound differece between one or the other.

It find the sounds great for everything I play, which is worship/praise, prog-metal, blues, classic rock, and fusiony jamming.

I will also add that if you go into configuration mode (by pressing the "B" and "D" buttons together) and adjust the input gain back, the unit sounds much better when used as a preamp. My pickups tend to be pretty hot, and I was getting a digitaly breakup when I would play hard or use a lot of gain. Turning this back cleared that up.

Also, when in any of the "L" modes, you have post EQ available. Make use of it! It can really help when using this thing live.

Others have complained about a delay when switching between sounds. Using "L2" mode helps to eliminate this. Also, you'll find that if you don't change amp model, there is NO delay at all, so if you can find an amp simulation with a decent rythym and lead sound, this shouldn't be any problem.

Reliability : 7
So far, it's been reliable, but I've only had it a few months. I use it every Sunday for worship at church, though, and God hasn't let anything happen to it yet :) I also play everyday through it.

The knobs, as well as everything else, are plastic. And not "It's ok to drop me" kinda plastic, like a Tonka truck, more like "If you look at me the wrong way, I'll crack" kinda plastic. Because of this, I always keep it in the padded case that comes with it. The input and output jacks make me nervous because they seem very "grabby", and I'm almost afraid that I'm going to rip it out.

I play regularly without a backup for it, although I'm considering moving to the V-AmpPro so that there's less chance of an accident.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Haven't had the pleasure, although their website seems rather useful.

Overall Rating : 8
As stated before, I play worship, prog-metal, blues, classic rock, and fusiony jamming stuff. It fits the bill perfectly, and when I monkey around with it, I hear other sounds that are familiar in other styles that sound good.

I've been playing about 8 years seriously, but first picked up the instrument 14 years ago. This is my first amp modeler, but as far as gear, I also have or have owned the following:
Ovation Ultra GP solidbody
Strat copy, customized with two Dimarzio humbuckers, sperzel locking tuners, and Wilkinson trem (under construction at the moment)
Behringer Ultrafex sonic enhancer
Akai shred-o-matic (actually, I liked it so much, I bought two!)
Ibanez tubescreamer
Original Crybaby
MXR Dyna-Comp
Dunlop Fuzz Face
Boss Ds-1
Halifax Buzztone (vintage fuzz)
Arion flanger
Korg Toneworks Digital Delay (the best delay I ever owned)

I admittingly have not tried any other similar products, other than breifly using a PODXT live for about half an hour. I've tried several modeling amps, though, for a few hours each in music stores, and this at least sounds better than the first amps that Line6 sold!

If it were lost or stolen, it's quite possible I would buy it again, although I would be more likely to make a more informed decision first. I bought this on a whim when I aw it go on sale.



Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99.00
Submitted 10/09/2005 at 01:55pm by Todd Matherne
Email: toddmatherne at eatel<dot>net

Ease of Use : 10
I would like to include some hot tips to assist new users trying out the Vamp 2 for the first time. Having owned a Line 6 Pod previous and various digital multi-effect units I found programming to be quite simple once I understood how the manual is constructed. If you are looking for a step by step manual this isn't it. If you scored high in reading comprehension this manual is for you.

But editing is now a snap. To save a preset you simply hold down the appropriate channel (A-E) within the bank for 2 seconds. The light will turn steady and that particular patch is saved. If you have owned a Pod previously then programming will be much the same.
To enter edit mode simply press both arrow keys. To enter preamp bypass mode simply press the Tuner+Tap keys. The Tap key is also used in conjunction with the Gain, Cabinet models, Effects knob, etc..

And of course the most important feature is pressing the B and D buttons togethor to select one of 5 appropriate modes. S1, S2, "L1",L2, L3. Noticed I placed L1 in quotes because most likely you will be using this feature live. I purchased the Vamp-2 to return to testing direct playing live and based on the sound quality of last night's gig, I will be persuing the Vamp Pro rack mount along with the Behringer midi controller. For those of you who struggle to get a good sound and bash cabinet emulation products remember, you need to understand the appropriate modes for Live use and only use your Effects Return or preamp in for monitoring your sound.

The whole object is to run a direct feed to the board and carry less equipment. And one other thing, Keep it simple, if you only play through one amp in the night, then select the best combination of amp and cabinet, create a clean sound, save the setting across all 5 channels then slowy increase the gain and drive for each channel respectively. Thus creating a multiple effect, multiple channel direct signal. This also corrects the delay problem when switching patches. I chose the Dumble head with cabinet model #14. (4X12 cabinet tilted). My Les Paul Studio came to life, the band was quieter and the mix was cleaner.

Sound Quality : 9
I am currently playing a Les Paul Studio, Audio Techna wireless, Vamp-2 in L1 mode, Left channel using a TRS balanced to XLR cable to the main console, and right channel patched to the Effects Return of my Peavey Transtube. I am currently using the supplied 2 button foot controller but will soon purchase the Behringer midi controller.

My distortion's have never been cleaner. (yes, there's such a thing), the flange and autowah or somewhat weak. I substituted Phaser for Flange and use chorous on another patch. My Patch selection is as follows:

A-Clean Chorous
B-Clean Compressor (with drive=1)
C-Clean Compressor (with drive=1 and gain)
D-Clean Compressor (with drive=1 and more gain)
E-Clean Phaser

I'm not really trying to capture sounds of my favorite artist. I just like good tones, no matter what combination of equipment or guitar. Plus playing 6-11 times a month, I have been striving for reducing my setup time to nearly nothing. Currently 10 minutes.

Reliability : 10
I noticed the Vamp 2 is made of plastic unlike the POD. I am not sure if Behringer really intended for this device to go on the road or not but for $99.00, with a foot switch and a very nice carrying bag, power supply included this is the best value I've ever purchased as regards to effects. I paid myself back in one gig. I currently set the Vamp 2 on my old Pod bracket on top of my amp. I keep every piece of equipment in either some type of carry case, original box, etc.., If you place this within your pedal board then you might be cautious.

Once I purchase the Vamp pro and add it to our rack I'm certain reliability will not be an issue.

The knobs are plastic, but realize these are digital knobs. LEDs indicate the location of the selected position. I'm giving it a 10 because, I take care of my equipment. If this device crapped out tommorrow then I would'nt hesitate to purchase the Vamp pro. I will like having both because, for small gigs that only require a combo power/mixer, I can just use the Vamp 2.

Customer Support : 10
I have'nt dealt with customer support and hopefully don't need too. A brand new music store opened within a mile of my house and carry's Behringer equipment at magazine prices. They can deal with any hassles.

I will comment on Behringer's website. You can download manuals, patches, and editing software which supports all products. So, I will rate their website a 10 which is where most of us get our support from anyway right?

Overall Rating : 10
What style of music do you play? Is this a good match? I play 50's dance, country, southern rock and funk. I am a basic 4 patch guy and I was able to emulate my 4 previous patches. So yes,

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
25 years. Vamp-2, Les Paul Studio and some Teles, Peavey Transtube.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else? Vamp Pro and Midi controller

what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature? It's portable, but efficient. Don't want to hate it. Favorite feature=The same A/D engine in the Vamp, VampPro, Vampire, makes patch editing easy.

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one? For only needing a few basic patches and can emulate or come close to the sound of a 4X12 or Tweed you just can't beat the price.

Anything you wish it had? Yes, like the Pod I wish it had a foot switch with a button per channel.

Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way? It has to help make the music, because we are a 4 piece band with only 3 instruments, (drums, bass, guitar )and loving it.

Anything else you'd like to share? Yes, I value the rating system on this website and anytime I consider buying a piece of gear I come here first looking for ratings above 8. I value the input of musicians that are in the same boat I'm in. Weekend warriors gigging in their local area, fan base, roady their own equipment, and look for ways of centralizing their rigs while producing quality sound.

And finally, yes their is a delay if you switch between "different amp/cabinet models" You noticed earlier I mentioned an average joe only use's one type of amp in the night unless you play professional in arenas, with 18 wheelers pulling your load. Press B+D arrow to L1, press Tuner for Exit and program all your patches using the same type of amp/cabinet model. You will not have any delay problems what so ever. Behringer previously designed the device to load the emulations in memory thus the delay when switching between programs. Remember it's digital.

Secondly, keep it simple. Create your base sound, save it, copy it(by holding each channel for 2 seconds) then add your gain and effects for your taste.

Thirdly, you have now entered into the world of direct. You are no longer mic'ing your amp, just using it as a monitor. Your tone is now supplied by the Vamp. So remember, to use your Effects Return or Power amp in. You may need to select L1, L2 or L3 based on your situation. L3 has two seperate channel mixes.

Fourthly, if you have owned a Pod previously then you know the importance of balanced cables. Purchase a mic cable, then cut off one end and solder a stereo 1/4" cable (a schematic is included in the manual). This is a TRS to XLR balanced cable.

Feel free to email me for questions, or how you are using your Vamp2.



Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99
Submitted 10/03/2005 at 01:26pm by hazy
Email: hazyjames<at>zoomshare dot com

Ease of Use : 10
Tweaking is easy... just dial up the amp, cab, effects that you want and push one button to save. Easy to adjust during live performance. What usually happens with effects units is your distortion at home is either too loud or not enough, so just dial the saving volume down when out live and save, nothing to it. You have 5 places to save in one bank so you can save, say a rhythm level in one, and a lead level in another, then use the foot switch to toggle between the two, and have 3 more for jumping to clean or whatever.

Sound Quality : 9
I have a vox tonelab that I gave over 6 bills for, and the sound of this is as good in some ways, better in others. The Vamp won't distort on the clean settings, which is a problem I have with the Vox. I think the distortions sound great. You can tweak it to a real heavy metal distortion, or tone it down for a warm blues sound. The delay's are real good. The autowah is the only thing that could be a little better, but hey for the price, I can afford an external wah unit, but it's pretty good.

Reliability : No Opinion
I've had it a few months,so far, so good. The gig bag it comes with is ok if you are just going to carry it in your car, of course you may want to get something more durable to carry it in a packed situation. It's plastic, but seems to be pretty tough. I dropped it on a concrete floor once and it's still working.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Have'nt had to yet!!!

Overall Rating : 10
I play classic rock, 50's to the 90's, country, & blues. I play a solo gig with a sequencer and I'm getting the V-amp Pro rackmount version because I keep everything racked and next to me during solo gigs, and I"ll use this one for a back up.
I love that the cleans are real clean and the distortions are what they should be. It's light weight and easy to carry, so making it a back up will be easy.
For the money I cannot imagine anything being better. If you want a true comparison to the line 6 products I'd suggest finding a dealer that sells both products and trying them side by side, take your amp and axe with you for nothing else will tell you.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $119
Submitted 09/20/2005 at 03:40am by RC

Ease of Use : 9
Easier to use than the PODxt, but part of that is probably because the POD can do more. I use my VAMP2 much more often than my PODxt because I just want to plug & play and find the VAMP less intimidating.

Odly, I've owned the PODxt for the same amount of time as the VAMP2 but I haven't used the PODxt much, but I'd say the PODxt definitely sounds better than the VAMP2. One advantage (AND disadvantage, for me at least!) of the PODxt is that you can plug its USB cable into the PC and use GuitarPort to SEE the amp/effect setups more visually, and tweak the settings with your mouse, rather than messing with the controls on the POD. That is the reason why I use the VAMP2 more: I don't yet feel comfortable controlling the PODxt without the computer, so it means you have to boot up the PC and play in front of the computer... The VAMP2 is a bit easier to use.

Sound Quality : 3
In the beginning I was also one of those guys who said: "I don't care about what those tube purists say about modelers. I don't care whether it sounds like the real amps its modeling. All that matters is that it sounds good to me."

Well, now, about two years later, I'm starting to think, uhh, to be honest, this thing really just doesn't sound that good!

I use Strat(s) and I've played the VAMP2 with headphones, as well as directly into the effects loop return of my amp, and both ways it sounds pretty crappy. The clean amp models are OK, and the distorted sounds are good for power-chord type stuff, but for lead stuff (e.g. solos) it just sounds "digital". Also, when playing full chords (v.s. power chords) on distortion, the distortion does this really ugly digital sounding breakup. It just sounds very wrong.

I mostly use the VAMP2's chorus and/or delay effects, but I usually bypass the amp simulation completely. (Press Tap & Tuner keys together). The reverb is OK. The tremelo, wah, compressor are useless to me.

(Remember to change the VAMP to "L3" live mode when using it with an amp to disable stereo & speaker simulation).

Reliability : 8
It's plastic, but that's OK. When you buy a playstation or MP3 player you're not going to complain that it's not solid steel, so who cares. Just handle it with care. I avoid pulling out the IN / OUT cables unnecessarily (i.e. I rather pull cables out of the guitar / amp). But... of course you can clearly see/feel that the PODxt is just more robust.

Customer Support : 8
Their online helpdesk is OK.

Overall Rating : 4
I have mixed feelings about the VAMP2. I used to love it. But as I get better at my playing, I realize more how bad it sounds!

I've been playing for about 2 years. When I just started playing, I bought both the VAMP2 and the PODxt. I bought the modelers, of course not for budget reasons, but simply because my playing sucks and I thought it would be cool to use a modeler and headphones. That was a bad excuse to buy modelers. As one beginner to another, I ask you, please don't make that mistake.

It's with regret that I have to say, please invest your money in something else, preferably an amp, e.g. the Roland Micro Cube costs about the same as the VAMP2 and is way more useful. Yes, the VAMP is cheap, but if you have to buy a modeler, rather get the PODxt Live or a BOSS GT6/8 or a Vox modeler!!

If I had to start over, I'd rather just save my money to buy a decent amp and add a few effects pedals later.

As other people have said: You get what you pay for. You can't really expect a $100 VAMP2 to match a $300 PODXT/BOSS-GT6 etc.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $199
Submitted 08/23/2005 at 03:29pm by Tom

Ease of Use : 10
Very easy to use. Not rocket science here. Lighted LEDS make it superior to the POD, or POD XT in this category.

Sound Quality : 5
This is where the Behringer V-amp lacks. The sampling rate is only 32khz, (LESS THAN CD QUALITY!) which make the guitar tones and distortion sound "trashy" like a cheap amplifier. I found that to make the guitar tones sit well in my mixes, I have to make the whole recording sound a little bit trashy using overcompression and killing the dynamics to match the guitars.

Very hard to impossible to get a studio quality sound out of these. At best these are great for Apartment recording or late night jam sessions w/ your computer.

Dont expect to ever Gig this thing and play it out of an amp. It will just sound wrong.

The dynamics on the output of this unit are non existant. Meaning that when you listen to the playback or just analyze how it sits in a mix, it sounds very thin and harsh to the ears, definately does not sound like it could pass as a Mic'd cabinet.

100% of the time now, I can hear a POD, or a V-Amp guitar track in a recording if presented a sample to listen to. There is no tricking people with units like these.

Reliability : 7
I'd say they are reliable, I bought one of these when they first came out, the V-AMP one for 199$ at guitar center (this was like 4 years ago). Then upgraded the Flash chip to V.2.0 (not a big improvement I might add).

This unit has never broke down. Although it is anoying that it doesn't have an ON/Off switch you have to unplug and replug it in every time.

Once, a pin got bent in the A/C plug.

and my tuner button is less responsive, i have to hit it hard for it to move into tuner mode.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had any issues so i cant comment

Overall Rating : 8
Bottom line: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. and you will not feel ripped off with this, especially if you do not have any other alternative for apartment recording and late night jamming.

There might be other alternatives that are better like the POD XT, however all of these MODELER units all sound the same.


SAMPLES of songs I recorded guitar tracks w/ the V-amp:

http://www.csupomona.edu/~tgao/myhome/demo1.mp3


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99
Submitted 08/12/2005 at 10:34am by Matthew
Email: metherington at smcems<dot>com

Ease of Use : 8
This unit is very easy to use and editing patches is not at all complicated. The manual is very easy to use and the proper amount of time should be taken to understand the capability of the V-amp 2. Getting a good sound out of this unit can be difficult and is very subjective. It takes plenty of "tweaking" to get the tone you want. "Tone" means different things to different people. A large part of guitarist's sound is in his/her style, fingers, pick, guitar, cable and power source. Take time to experiment. This is a versatile piece of equipment and it will be difficult to find a good sound in 15-20 minutes.

Sound Quality : 9
I am running a Parker Fly Deluxe into 4 modified (self modified and they sound GREAT!) pedals. A Boss SD-1, a Boss DS-1, a Boss MT-2 and a Boss GE-7. The GE-7 is connected to the input of the V-amp 2. I use the 3 Boss distortion pedals to get a variey of bluesy/distorted/heavy sounds. The GE-7 (EQ pedal) is used to either "shape" those sounds or is used as a lead boost. I use this set-up with V-amp 2 set on the "Tube Preamp" setting. The "Tube Preamp" is a nice foundation to build from and to my ear it sounds the warmest of all the clean simulations. With this set-up I run the V-amp 2 straight into the PA and on occassion I will run it in stereo.

** It is important to remember that the EQ on the Mixer/PA will require some adjustments to get the sound your after. Different PA speakers and mixers will sound unique just like guitars, amps, pick-ups, etc. Again, take your time, be patient and experiment.

If I am not using the modified Boss Pedals I will use a variety of the amp simulations to get various clean/blues/dirty/crunch and heavy settings. I really don't care how close they are to the actual amp they are simulating. My main concern is that I get a good sound regardless of the simulation or model. My favorites are "Custom High Gain" and the "Brit. Hi Gain." With these settings I go from that bluesy tone to something really heavy and everything in between.

I will try to use it as an effects only in the effects loop of my Peavey Classic 50 4/10. The V-amp 2 allows you to by-pass the preamp simluations allowing use of the effects only. I am not sure how this will sound but for $99 it is worth the effort to try. After all, it's another option.

Reliability : No Opinion
I can't rate the reliability fairly. It is plastic which tends to be less reliable than a metal housing. The pedal however is metal and since I will be stepping on the pedal I am not that concerned about the plastic shell on the V-amp 2.

Customer Support : 9
I had the original V-amp and I own other Behringer equipment. They have always been very helpful and have provided great customer support.

Overall Rating : 9
I have been playing about 16 years and yes, I would consider myself a "Tube Snob." In my opinion, there is no replacing a tube. I play a variety of rock, blues, pop, heavy and praise and worship music. I grew up listening to artist such as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Many different styles and strengths very few of which I can play but I enjoy trying. The V-amp 2 provides me with the opportunity to sound like any of them.

The things that the V-amp 2 has to offer are well worth the money. It is a great unit to record with and you have the luxury of running it straight into a PA. Where else can you spend $99 on a new piece of music equipment that is this flexible? Sure, there is better equipment out there but I have yet to find a $99 toy with all of these features that sounds this good. I personally have not a heard 1 piece of Line6 gear that sounds good to me. In fairness to Line6 I have not spent much time with their equipment. I don't particularly care for the Digitech stuff. It sounds way to "Digital" to me. The Boss stuff including the GT-6 and the new GT-8 are not bad but if I had an extra $500 laying around (Who does?) I would probably checkout the Vox Tonelab SE thoroughly.

It would be nice if this where true bypass to better allow its use with a guitar amp. I don't prefer to use the V-amp 2 straight into a guitar amp because it colors the amps tone. Even a good tube amp may negatively affect your opinion. I think it works very well with a PA and Mixer. I am even considering the purchase of a powered monitor so I can use it as a spot monitor and run the V-amp 2 straight to it.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $129
Submitted 08/10/2005 at 09:22am by D.S.
Email: jammincat at gmail<dot>com

Ease of Use : No Opinion
Basic features are easy to use, but you definitely need the manual to learn how to tweek some parameters like presence & effects/reverb settings.

Sound Quality : 5
I've been using this for over a year for private practise and lately for a couple of gigs. I never really cared for the compressed sound I heard through headphones, but I assumed the unit would be okay through a PA or for direct to harddisk recording. Boy was I wrong! This toy just sounds flat & lacks character. You are far better off with a real tube amp. Considering that this thing costs less than most pedals, I can easily conclude that you get what you paid for here.

Reliability : 3
The input jack has become tempermental. I have to wiggle it to get signal sometimes. The same with one of the 1/4" outputs. Oh well, that's what you get from cheap piece-o-crap Chinese parts and manufacturing.

Also, there is a significant dropout when you change to some presets. So this is definitely NOT a gig-worthy piece!!!

Customer Support : No Opinion
I doubt you'll get much support from this German design outfit. My Pro audio friends tell me that Behringer makes throw away junk that isn't worth fixing when it breaks. THAT SUCKS, but I should have known based on the low price of this thing.

Overall Rating : 4
This is an okay toy for a beginner guitarist with a low budget. Or better yet, GET A REAL AMP! Seriously, a small tube combo amp and a couple of pedals will provide much more satisfaction & inspiration.

If direct recording is your goal then try a Rocktron Voodu Valve - it's a far superior tone generator.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 90 (CDN) used
Submitted 06/29/2005 at 06:02am by George Kirk
Email: shredbaron at yahoo<dot>ca

Ease of Use : 8
It's pretty easy to get usable (if not the greatest) sounds out of the V-Amp 2. Editing patches without the V-Amp software (which requires a seperate MIDI cable) isn't that intuitive. It makes more sense to configure the unit while it's attached to the PC, and the software is quite easy to use. The manual is comprehensive enough, yet easy to to follow.

Sound Quality : 6
Here's my signal chain: Fender strats (loaded with DiMarzios) - Peterson Strobostomp tuner - DOD YJM 308 Overdrive - Modded Crybaby Wah - SansAmp GT2 - Boss CH-1 Chorus - Boss DD-3 Delay - Boss CS-3 Compressor - V-Amp 2 - into either my computer (SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro soundcard) or a PA system.

This unit is great for playing around at home with your computer and laying down some basic tracks. The amp sims vary from very good to piss-poor. The speaker sims are useful. The effects are hit and miss.

Good effects include the delay, ping pong, and flanger. I hate the chorus, compressor, auto-wah, rotary, and just about every other effect on the unit. They sound quite sterile, hence my use of Boss pedals.

For high-gain sounds, the V-amp 2 is OK. Cleans are sterile. Mid-gain tones (blues, etc) are passable, but I find my Sansamp to be much more responsive to my playing style and volume changes.

Overall, it's a nice toy that I enjoy using to "stereoize" my signal going into my computer. As far as quality tone goes, it sounds a little sterile. Most of the effects are lame.

Reliability : 7
I wouldn't use it on a gig without a backup, considering it's a computer in a plastic case that could easily get fried due to a power surge or voltage fluctuation. For home use, it's fine.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 7
I play classic rock, heavy metal, jazz, classical and fusion. This unit represents great "bang for the buck".

For the price (especially used!) it's worth every penny. This unit is FANTASTIC for a beginner guitarist. If you've been playing for 15 years like yours truly, you tend to be a bit more discriminating with your sound.

For my purposes (an easy interface for my signal chain into my computer), I like it a lot. Some of the amp sims are good and I enjoy using them to get different sounds when I do some recording.

Is it professional-level gear? Certainly not. If it were stolen, I probably wouldn't buy it again. I notice a distinct "coldness" to the tone. I'm not a tube snob, but I am picky about what I hear, and I feel that I get much better sounds from my analog Sansamp then from the all-digital V-amp 2.

People who rate this a "10" for sound either haven't been playing a long time, are used to playing through beginner-level gear, or are still basking in the glow of "new toy syndrome".

Still, for the price, I'd recommend it.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: rented
Submitted 06/24/2005 at 07:09pm by Caveat Emptor

Ease of Use : 5
This machine is very basic and good for beginers who want a amp modeling multi effect for a cheap price. Good for say a 10 or 12 year old just starting guitar. However, there are other options out there that are much better at a similar price point like the BOSS ME-33 (far superior to the VAMP)

Sound Quality : 1
I'm writing this because I think that Harmony Central is a fantastic resource for learning about gear you're thinking about buying.
Based on the reveiws for the Behringer Vamp 2 that I read here I would have foolishly gone out and purchased this pedal . . . I'm glad I didn't.
Instead I rented the Behringer VAMP 2 and a Line 6 PODxt (the original that Behringer is ripping off) for a two week trial period in my home recording studio.
It was used by myself a professional guitar player and audio engineer for 22 years, another Engineer and 2 other guitar players with decades of experience and great ears for tone.
We recorded direct with it and also through a Fender Tweed, 1964 Fender Bandmaster, VOX AC30, Marshall & Fender Twin.
This thing sounds like crap.

Reliability : 4
Patch changes make a sound . . . that's not right.

Customer Support : 7
I have experience with other Behringer gear and I know that their customer support is quite good.

Overall Rating : 2
It is very misleading of other reviewers to compare this to the Line 6 POD as an equal option. This machine does not approach the same tonal quality or depth of the POD at all. I don't even want to get into the details of the differences, there are too many.
I just felt that there were too many good reviews here and it wasn't right.
I have over 250 vintage and modern guitar effects and I honestly don't think that this machine does anything particularily well and it's certainly nothing like the POD. I'm not saying that the POD is perfect but it is in a class apart from the VAMP 2.

Basically if you're going to buy something like this make sure you check out all of your options before opening up your wallet.
Line 6, BOSS, Vox & Digitech all make multi-effect pedals with Amp modeling that certainly outshine Behringer's effort.
Shop with your ears folks.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $62 used
Submitted 06/18/2005 at 08:46pm by www.sixstringtheory.com
Email: mark2741<at>sixstringtheory dot com

Ease of Use : 9
Fairly easy to use. I'm not a big "tweaker", so I don't bother with a lot of the settings. I basically just go from bank to bank and then tweak the stock presets to taste. A lot of the stock presets, to my ears, sound very good - particularly the heavy distortion ones. Some slight tweaking and off I go.

Sound Quality : 9
This was my first try with a multi-fx unit in a while. I got a POD v1.0 last year on a trade and tried that. It was absolutely useless - sounded HORRIBLE. I wanted it to record into my PC but every setting I tried sounded terrible, so the next day I sold it.

I wanted a multi-fx pedal that would give me some effects and be cheap. Something to record to PC. So I looked on zzounds.com (best online retailer without a doubt) and found the new X-Vamp2 for $62 ($5 discount for the factory resealed version). It is a scaled down Vamp2 but with an expression pedal. A couple of days after ordering it I come home to find a bigger box than I expected sitting at my doorway. Sure enough, I got lucky - zzounds sent me the regular $99 Vamp2 instead of the $62 X-Vamp2! Nice eh?

So I set this thing up to record into my PC and it sounds excellent for the price. Excellent period. The high gain tones are very good. Particularly the rectifier and british hi gain models. The classic clean model is decent. The vamp clean is okay. The American Blues model, which seems to be popular with others, sounds terrible to my ears. The distortion models are good, the cleans are usable. I can't get a great jazz tone out of it, but good enough.

As for the effects - the auto-wah is very cool. The compression and delay are very good too. Surprisingly, the reverb is excellent. I don't use the other stuff much if at all (chorus, flange, etc), but they are usable if you like them. Keep in mind that I'm sure individual boss pedals would be better, but for the $62 I paid for it (and the $99 you would have to pay for it) this thing is excellent.

Reliability : No Opinion
Seems reliable. I've had it a couple of weeks and it hasn't broken. NO power switch, but who cares.

Customer Support : 9
They have some software for free that you can download from their site. That alone gives this a 10 compared to others. I'm a computer junkie, but I haven't had the urge to interface my Vamp2 with the PC yet.

Overall Rating : 10
I give it a 9 overall. I'm a tough grader. Not all of the models are good. But there are decent to good cleans, and excellent overdriven/distortion sounds to be had. So if you want to record to your PC, this is the thing to use. Can't be beat for the price. I wish it weren't so cheesy looking and the cheesy name makes it sound like a toy. I doubt it would be my first choice to use live, but I'd bet it would work well. For live work I'd always prefer individual pedals, if I wanted effects at all. I'll soon have some sound examples up on my website: www.sixstringtheory.com


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $100
Submitted 06/16/2005 at 12:09pm by Surfcaster

Ease of Use : 8
One of the easier modelers to use. Editing is a snap...manual is quite adequate.

Sound Quality : 6
I use a Charvel Surfcaster with a Dimarzio PAF in the bridge, Kent Armstrong Hot Lipstick in the neck and a MIM Strat with Lace Sensors.

Usually just use this for headphone practice, but occasionally run it into the effects return of my Mesa F-50.

Unit is very quiet, decent noise gate will help out hi gain settings.

Effects are decent...very useable but nothing spectacular.

There are a lot of amp models in this unit...I really only use a handful. I really like the Blackface, the JCM800, and the Soldano models, and the Boogie MarkIIc. I use the Plexi model as well as the JTM45, but find them a bit dark...can't dial in enough treble for my tastes. It's useable, but not quite how I'd like it...with both buckers and single coils. The Bassman model is also good. Oh, the Van Halen modded Plexi is also pretty cool. Don't care at all for their models of the Dumble, which is a little disappointing. And for each of the JTM 45 and the Plexi they have their own custom models that are supposed to be much more tweakable...I find them completely useless...waste of programming space if you ask me. But no problem, there are so many other models that are decent.

I had one of the cheap Valvetronix amps and actually thought it had better models on it all around, but for the money, the V-Amp2 is a deal, and for playing with headphones it does me fine. If I ran across a cheap used Tonelab, I might replace this with it, but until then, it'll do me fine.

Reliability : No Opinion
Only had it a few months so far...no problems. Besides, I just use it for practice.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Don't Know

Overall Rating : 8
Great bang for the buck!

if it were lost or stolen, not sure whether I'd get another one or not...probably check out my options. This technology is constantly changing with something better on the horizon.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $150
Submitted 05/25/2005 at 07:31am by Carl

Ease of Use : 8
You get 25 banks with 5 patches per bank, works great and the included pedal allows you to switch up and down between the patches. Lots of knobs and a fair amount of menusurfing, you have to hold one button down and press another to do certain things etc. Overall, good layout for a multieffect. Illuminated knobs are the best idea since presliced bread since their position changes with the patches, like they should rather than presets that change parameter value by bypassing the knobvalue.

Sound Quality : 9
I use it with a Epi standard Les Paul and right to my computer. It sounds awesome, maybe partially due to my 5.1 surround, I would guess that if you use a cheap amplification system, its gonna suck pretty hard. It's not noisy at all, although with everything maxed it is. There's a noisegate though, but it's pretty bad. Effects sound OK, compression+chorus effect is great. Delays sounds pretty good too. Phase,flange,wah are all fine, great for coloring the ampsimulations. However, the tremolo effect sucks, you can't adjust anything other than speed and mix, no waveshape!

Amp sims are great for the money and through a good PA it will definitely give you a great sound, Hi-Gain Brit is the best!

Reliability : 9
Its plastic, but the pedal is metal and you get a gigbag with it so yeah, you can depend on it. Doesn't seem to need a backup either, just dont step on the case. I havent had any problems at all with it, and its about 6 months old now.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 8
Worth it! It is capable of pretty much all genres but it only sounds good if you know how to tweak it. I would not buy another if it were stolen, I would go for a footbased multi instead. This is more of a studio, stationary effect. Its awesome and if you want a way to record great guitarsounds or just jam in your home, on low and high volume, then this is it! The extra money for a POD hardly seems worth it to me.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 1.270.000 (Rupiah)
Submitted 05/20/2005 at 01:40am by Ho_eXcel

Ease of Use : 9
extreeeeeemly EASY! Must read the manual though.... everything is simple as turning knobs, taping buttons, and double functions. after you read the manual, it should be easy. Getting good sounds...also easy. Editing patches... super easy. The manual is about v-ampire, v-amp pro, and v-amp 2. it's a little bit confusing by the first time I read it. But I understand it in my second read.

Sound Quality : 8
the word is.... WOOOWWWWW. As long you use it as it meant to be used. It's a VIRTUAL amplification. It sound best WITHOUT AMPS!!!! So just plug directly into the mixer. You can turn off the speaker sim though and plug into your amp. Sounds good, but not best. I use an Ibanez GRG-270DX chinesse made (Very cheap guitar with a so-so sound) an Ibanez IBZ10G amp. I plug it into the amp and my first thought is..... not bad, but A LOT BETTER THAN MY ZOOM GFX-5!!! trust me dont buy ZOOM, ZOOM's distortion is crap!! then I a headphone.....my reaction was....OH MY GOD.........I CAN'T BELIEVE THE SOUND!! V-Amp's Distortion is a little bit noisy, great for rythem good for leads. Chorus is WONDERFUL !! I LOVE IT !!! The Delay.... GREAT!! Auto wah....not good, gonna need a pedal for this one (Behringer FCB1010), can't afford it. When I turn the speaker sims off, it sounds better in my amp, the boogie dual rectifiers distortion's a little bit muddy though (Little bit disapointed at this point). Others are good. in my headphones, the dual rectifier's sound is GREEAATTT can't tell the difference ! I can get Daita Ito's (SIAM SHADE's lead guitarist, great japan rock band) sound easily! for your info Daita is a big fan of dream theater, which means, a great fan of John Pettruci. Daita uses the same amp as Pettruci, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier.

Reliability : 7
Ummmmm. Plastic, Hard PVC. As long as you take care of it it's ok. Well you're not gonna stomp on it, it's not a stomp box. The footswitch, there's where you gonna stomp. The footswitch made of metal, veerry sturdy! carefull though, the button's still plastic. I don't have any other effects (Sold my good for nothing GFX-5), so i have to gig with it. Well the -NOT SLIGHT- delay when you change amp simulators is not good. You can't go from clean to distored or distored to clean in a blink! well a little bit practice on this would fix it, just push the footswith with the -NOT SLIGHT- time earlier before you want the effect to change(I think).

Customer Support : 8
The Dealer.... VERY FRIENDLY, they explained everything!
about behringer, The V-AMP yahoogroups is very helping.
Never dealt with them directly though.

Overall Rating : 7
I Play in the church, so I play a very wide range of music. But I like Rock the most. Currently i'm listening to SIAM SHADE (seriously, a very good band! buy one of their CD's, much lighter than Dream Theater,similar to DT but has a wide range of rock). I LOVE the amp sims especialy the dual rectifier. Well if I had the money I would buy a BOSS GT-6, damn! that thing is just too expensive for me. Well this thing inspired me to play! ussually I only practice about 30 minutes a day, but now i can play for couple of hours and forgot to eat (bad for your health ^_^), i can play at night with my headphones at night without disturbing other people WITH GREAT SOUNDS !!!. If you don't have enough budget but want a goooooood effect(not the best), then this is for you. Don't buy ZOOM.... Just to remind you. This is an AMP SIMULATOR it will never sound as good as the real thing (it's 90% the same though).


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $140
Submitted 05/17/2005 at 02:19pm by Just Some Guy

Ease of Use : 8
Had mine for about 2 years. Easy to use, easy to edit patches, great manual.

Sound Quality : 8
Sound quality is great. This was my first processor, and for a married guy with kids, the v-amp fit the bill. Used to jam occassionally through fx loop of Behringer GX210. Pretty good sound and flexibility for $350 total. Mostly used through headphones, and it sounds fantastic.

Reliability : 5
Uh oh...there go all my presets and the thing sounds "tinny." Factory reset...and it happens again. Reliability is far from stellar: battery life sucks, no off switch? plastic casing? switch delay?

I recently "upgraded" to a used Digitech GNX3 for $150. All the options of the v-amp..w/an 8-track recorder, drum machine, looper, and bass sims!!!

You kidding me? The GN3 rocks plugged into my fx loop, through phones or recorded to computer.

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A - just traded mine in for something more reliable. Great starter processor.

Overall Rating : 6
Play metal/rock/pop...what ever suits my fancy. Been playing for about 10 years, just for self entertainment. Sound quality on the v-amp is pretty good, particularly for $100.

However, I'm totally stoked with the GNX3. The addition of a looper, bass sims and drum machine make "jamming" at home SO much more fun.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 90 (english pounds)
Submitted 05/14/2005 at 10:26am by joel
Email: joel91<at>btinternet dot com

Ease of Use : 9
the v-amp is quite easy to use, but you definetly need to read the manual first(common sense). Editing patches is very easy. you can get a good sound out of it quite easily aswell. The manual is very good it tells you everything about it and how to use it.

Sound Quality : 8
The sound qualities good, but some of the distortions sound very muddy if you crank it up, i'm using a good guitar aswell, an ibanez S470. it can be very noisy aswell, but the noise gate does quite a good job at the noise at bay. I'm using it with a peavy combo and it sounds good. The modulations are a O.K but sometimes aren't powerful enough.Personally, i think it sounds better than a POD.

Reliability : 9
so far it has been very reliable, no knobs missings,no LED's gone and no cracks in the plastic. But i've heard on some reviews that
the saved patches will start to corrupt. Now i've had mine for nearly 2 years and that hasn't happened yet, but i'm not looking forward to it if it does. If i was to gig with it i think i would take a backup just in case if the patches started to sound crap.

Customer Support : No Opinion
never needed them.

Overall Rating : 10
overall i think it's very good for the money. I play mostly yngwie or randy rhoads style and it covers the stuff quite well. If it were to get stolen i think i would probably replace it with an effect unit worth about 190-200 pounds. For the money it's outstanding.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $139
Submitted 05/10/2005 at 04:31pm by Dave Comeau

Ease of Use : 10
It was fine, I enjoyed using it. It wasn't fool proof, since there are a lot of options, but I think Behringer did a good job on the usability aspect.

Sound Quality : 9
The reason I bought this thing was because my Fender Princeton Chorus amp (Which I regret buying BTW, not good for me) is to powerful to play in my apartment...I couldn't even turn the volume onto 2! I just wanted something I could use in my apartment to fool around with, nothing too serious.

I really liked the way it sounded. I didn't get the a nice warm sound using headphones, but I don't know if it would have been better if I'd had a better set (I was using $50 Sony MDR-7502).

I got good results hooking this up to my shelf system home stereo. I could produce some rocking sounds and it sounded pretty warm, not digital.

I did get a few chances to hook it up to my amp, and it sounded fine. I was overall happy with the sound.

Reliability : 3
Mine broke, so I can't give it high marks for reliability.

I'm not really sure what went wrong, but I think others had the same experience. The memory seems to be fried it now sounds like shit. If I reset to the defaults, and start looping through the presets, they are all over the place too, so I know it's fried.

Unfortunetly, I didn't really use it too much during the warranty period because I was swamped with projects at worked, but had I spent more time with it, I probobly would have been able to return it.

As far as the physical durability, it's fairly durable. It's not made of steel, but it's nice and light yet still tough. For the price range, it's impressive.

Make sure you send in your warranty card! I'm not all that pissed about the whole thing since it wasn't that expensive, and I think if I had my act together I would have been able to get it replaced.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I don't know. Like I said, I didnt' have my act together.

Overall Rating : 10
This unit is really an amazing value. It's $99 USD now, which makes it an incredible buy I think, considering I was amazed it was only $139 when I bought it shortly after it was released. If that's what your wanting to spend, go buy it now, don't wait!

One more thing, the kit bag and pedal really put the icing on the cake. It's so easy to store and take with you.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $125
Submitted 05/03/2005 at 12:12pm by Kirk V.

Ease of Use : 8
I find it easy to get tones suitable for home recording/demo grade recordings, but ultimately a good tube amp and microphone still sound better. I have a home studio, and do all the production/engineering for our 4 piece rock band, plus I record my friends stuff as well. Some of the V-amp2 sounds are definitely better than others. My personal favorites are the Marshall high gain and the Fender Bassman. I've created 2 patches using the Bassman, one with crunch, and another with less gain that souns clean until you play heavy,when it breaks up nicely. I generally bypass the effects on my own presets, but will use them when the song calls for it. I find that experimenting with different cabinet and reverb sims will yield a better sound when creating presets. I don't find it difficult to make my own presets. The manual is adequate, but the information is sometimes scattered on different pages. Better organization might make for an easier read, but the manual isn't tha big to begin with, so I can usually find what I need pretty quickly.

Sound Quality : 7
I have 3 good electric guitars- a '87 Les Paul Custom, a '00 American Strat, and an '02 Epiphone Dot Deluxe. By far the Les Paul gets played the most,especially live. The other 2 are used more for recording, and so are actually more likely to be played through the V-amp2. My only real amp is a Mesa Boogie Mk IV, which is great and versitile on its own. The V-amp2 gets used mostly for tones that are unavailable on the Boogie, as the Boogie obviously sounds better. It should for the price. Effects on the V-amp2 are okay, but not nearly as good as my friends Vox tone lab. Again, they are not in the same price league, but more $ does seem to equal better sound. Im not hung up on apeing other artists sounds, But the U2 "Street w/o name" and David Gilmour "crazy diamond" sounds are convincing and useable. All in all, it's definitely worth $125.

Reliability : 5
I have read some of the other reviews of this product on this website, and find that I'm having the same problem as some of the other users. All of the presets will just "lose it", and sound flat and lifeless. One of your other reviewers called it an AM radio sound. I've heard AM radios sound better than the V-amp2 when this happens. The only solution is to Default back to the factory presets(the manual describes how-pretty easy), but then I lose all my own presets. I've only gigged live with the V-amp2 once, and of course this happened then. It took 10 minutes of stage time to regain a facimilie of what I had before. Very frustrating. There is also a delay when switching patches(about a second of silence!), so I had to anticipate solos and loud sections, and switch before I normally would. Besides these problems, overall reliability has been good-no problems yet with worn out buttons or broken jacks, but the plastic case is suspect. When gigging, it's best to leave it at home.

Customer Support : No Opinion
No need yet...

Overall Rating : 8
I'm a meat and potatos Rocker, and have been playing for 20 years. I also like folk, but this is an electric guitar product. I've never plugged my acoustic into it. The best thing about the V-amp2 is its value for the money. Yes, more expensive units(POD,Tone-Lab etc.)sound better, but this is great for the money. Analyze your budget and needs- the V-amp2 could be what you're looking for. For the price, it works well for me. If it were stolen,and I was on a tight budget, I would buy it again, but if I had more $, I would probably upgrade to something else.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $200
Submitted 04/24/2005 at 01:05am by CHILLWORX

Ease of Use : 8
i give it a 8 coz its really easy to use this.a 9 if i can edit patches or effects thorougly without the need for a computer! the manual is ok but really good though but one you figure it out even a kid can use this.

Sound Quality : 9
OH I LOVE THE SOUND THATS COMING FROM THIS BABY! I LOVE ALL THE MARSHALLS,SOLDANO,RECTIFIER, ETC THAT THEY PUT IN THERE. BUT NOT THE V-AMP MODELS.IM USING MY PARKER NITEFLY SA, FENDER STRAT 62 RE-ISSUE, IBANEZ EARLY 80'S RG420 WITH EMG PICK UP,S-S-HUM CONFIG.SQUIER STRAT JAPAN SILVER SERIES.CUSTOM MADE ES335 COPY,OVATION ACOUSTIC.THE VERY GOOD THING ABOUT IT IS THAT THE GUITAR IM USING MAINTAIN ITS OWN CHARACTERISTIC OR SOUND WHEN PLUG INTO THE V-AMP!KNOWING THE SOUND EACH OF MY GUITAR IS CAPABLE OF ITS EASY FOR ME TO FIND THE SOUND IM LOOKING FOR. COOL!

IT IS QUITE NOISY ON HI GAIN SETTINGS BUT THE NOISE GATE CAN CLEAR THAT UP.BUT WHEN USING IT WITH EMG EQUIPPED GUITARS?? MAN ITS A KILLER! YOU HAVE TO HEAR IT!ESPECIALLY ON CLEAN SOUNDS USING THE TUBE PRE AMP SETTING!TRY IT !

HERE IN THE PHILLIPINES WE DONT BRING OUR OWN AMPS TO A GIG OR TO A BAR. WE USE WHAT THEY HAVE AND LOTS OF TIMES ITS A PIECE OF CRAP!I USUALLY GO DIRECT ON BOARD WITH A DIRECT BOX AND BOOM!!!!! IM FLYING!! HA HA

THE EFFECTS ARE REALLY GOOD! I LOVE THE CHORUS!COMPRESSOR! BUT I HATE THE PHASER.AND OF COURSE THE MEAT POTATO!! DISTORTIONS!

IM REALLY NOT INTO GETTING SOUNDS OF MY FAVORITE ARTIST BUT WITH THE SOUNDS THATS IN MY HEAD.BUT YOU CAN WITH THIS THING. SRV,VAIs ARE EASY.

Reliability : 8
IM PLAYING 5 TO 6X A WEEK! WITH 3 SETS OF EACH.I HAVE TO PLUG AND UNPLUG 3X EVERY GIG. IVE BEEN DOING THIS 10 MONTHS!! AND THIS MOTHERF??KER IS STILL KICKING ASS.

WITH THAT SAID I THINK ITS DEPENDABLE WHEN USING IN LIVE SITUATIONS.IT WORKS FOR ME, SO IM SURE IT WILL WORK FOR OTHERS AS WELL.BUT NOT FOR EVERYBODY HA HA

Customer Support : No Opinion
DONT NEED THEM YET.

Overall Rating : 9
BEING IN PERFORMING BAND "CHILLWORX". WE PLAY ROCK,RnB STUFF,pop,ETC I HAVE BEEN PLAYING FOR ALMOST 20 YRS AND OWNED ALOT OF GEARS AND STUFF.I'VE BEEN USING MY DIGITECH 2101,V-TWIN,TUBE KING 999 ETC..BUT RIGHT NOW V-AMP 2 IS MY BABY.

WELL ONE THING I LOVE ABOUT IT IS THAT ITS EASY TO BRING ALONG WITH THE CARRYING BAG.I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT EXCEPT THAT ITS MADE OF BRITTLE PLASTIC.GOTTA BE CAREFUL WITH. AND THE NEED FOR A COMPUTER FOR PROGRAMMING!HATE THAT ALOT! WELL I DONT BRING A COMPUTER WHEN GIGGING. DO YOU?

MY FRIEND HAS A POD AND I TELL TOU THAT ITS A 50-60 RATING! SO GO GET ONE NOW!


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 1700 (SEK)
Submitted 04/20/2005 at 02:56pm by Erik

Ease of Use : 5
99% of the factory patches are worthless. Editing patches isn't much harder than turning pots on a normal amp, rather OK. Very difficult to get a passable sound for recording, especially high-gain sounds. 9 out of 10 amp models sound really flat and unrealistic. The "Brit Hi-Gain" is just about the only hi-gain amp that is at all possible to use for recording.

Sound Quality : 4
Using with an Ibanez RG, directly into computer or headphones most of the time. Don't use it in front of an amp, it wasn't made for it.

Most of the built-in effects and reverbs are pretty weak. Half adequate, but nothing that will make you excited and inspire playing. Can get good clean sounds, but as said, distortion ranges from utter swill to "almost passable in a mix full of other instruments".

I play metal, and all/most of the high-gain amps sound flat, dead. They don't breathe or feel like a real amp at all. No heaviness, no bite, no nothing... The Brit Hi-Gain can sound OK with a change of cabinet sim and post-EQ.

Reliability : 2
Absolutely not dependable. Piece of fucking plastic. At least two knobs have broken off. After a while, the arrow and patch selection buttons stop responding to presses unless pressed EXTREMELY HARD. Also, after a while, this will -- for no apparent reason -- lose all patches AND/OR have all amp sims break down into something that sounds like a broken auto-wah played through AM radio, or something. The ONLY solution when this bug happens is to reset all the patches. Recently, my unit has decided to make it IMPOSSIBLE to reset the patches when this happens (about every week. This unit WILL and DOES lose all patches after a while, battery good or not.) so what I have to do to reset patches now is open the unit up (five screws) and remove the battery so that the unit loses its memory and resets itself. I recently did this, and it worked as usual for about 2 minutes before breaking down into the AM radio fuzz sound. The whole procedure again. I WOULD have thrown this out the fucking window by now, but there's one particular sound my band needs out of this unit for recording; hence, I keep it. I can't use it for practicing or anything anymore, it's practically a paperweight as it is now.

Would ABSOLUTELY not use it for a gig, recording or anything else. Well, before it started acting up I might have, but this WILL not last more than a year or two before gradually turning unusable. I have no idea why. Others have had the same kind of experience I have. Get a POD instead.

Customer Support : 1
Mailed them about the AM radio patch reset deal. Received a completely useless e-mail stating basically that they wouldn't do anything about it.

Overall Rating : 2
Owned it for a few years, it says it was made in December 2002. Now this unit is HALF DECENT for as long as it works, it's cheaper than a POD and it sure as fuck SOUNDS cheaper too; it has some OK sounds for recording demos at home, but basically worthless for anything more serious due to its absolute shit reliablility and very flat sounds which makes it much more of an inspiration killer than something that actually helps in the creation of music. I'd get an idea, then poke around with the V-Amp for 30 minutes first trying to get it to work correctly, then trying to find a sound which doesn't sound like absolute bollocks; needless to say after that any inspiration is gone and only V-Amp-induced frustration remains. NOT RECOMMENDED. Spend the extra few dollars on a POD2.0 instead.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: R$ 790,00 ($US 175)
Submitted 04/15/2005 at 08:18am by Aleksej Aleksandro Nobre Marques
Email: aleksejmarques<at>click21 dot com dot br

Ease of Use : 8
Inicialmente, o usuario pode sentir alguma dificuldade para uso mas, depois de algumas mexidas tudo se resolve. Qualquer duvida e sempre bom ter o manual de instruc?es a m?o, apesar do mesmo ser escrito em portugues para Portugal. Com certeza e bem menos complicado do que programar uma pedaleira da Digitech como o RP-12, por exemplo. Tem a dificuldade normal de qualquer pedaleira ou multi-efeitos.

Sound Quality : 9
Ja usei pedais da boss e outras marcas, ja tive Zoom 9002, 9000, 2020, 505, 606 e tive oportunidade de usar pedaleiras da Digitech. A qualidade do som das distorc?es e simulac?es de amplificadores e alto-falantes e muito boa, principalmente comparando-se com equipamentos bem mais caros. Os sons de Mesa Boogie, Marshall e Fender e Roland JC 120, s?o bem proximos dos reais. Os outros efeitos s?o muito bons tambem. O que se deve ter em conta ao adquirir o equipamento e a relac?o custo-beneficio. O V-AMP2 e um equipamento com qualidade profissional e fica muito bom se usado em conjunto com a FCB1010, a pedaleira mid da Behringer.

Reliability : 7
A construc?o e em um tipo de material plastico bastante duro, mas n?o sei se aguenta quedas (n?o quero testar). Por curiosidade (alias, faco isso com todos os meus equipamentos) abria a carcaca e pude observar que se restringe a uma pequena placa de circuitos e um chip muito bem acomodados. Aconselho a usa-lo com cuidado (evitar quedas) e em lugares ventilados (ele esquenta bastante).

Customer Support : 8
A Behringer oferece um site muito bem montado e os programas para atualizac?o da EPROM do equipamento.

Overall Rating : 9
Eu toco ha 18 anos. O meu equipamento hoje e: 1 Fender Squier Stratocaster Japonesa 1990, toda original, branca (igual a do Jimi Hendrix), uma Charvel/Jackson CXM-DLX preta com captadores Duncan Design Duplos e single (meio) Kent Armstrong e uma Ibanez RG 350-DX, amplificadores Crate GX-120 e Warmmusic 108 GT, X-VAMP e pedais S3 Fortes (clone do GT2 Sansamp, pedal de volume Korg. Ja usei muita coisa como disse acima e realmente, o V-AMP2 me surpreendeu na qualidade do som e relac?o custo-beneficio. Caras e bem simples: tenho todos os efeitos que sempres quis ter e 32 amplicadores que sempre sonhei em tocar mas nunca teria dinheiro pra tanto.
Um abraco!


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: $170.00 (CAN)
Submitted 04/07/2005 at 11:29am by D Pynn

Ease of Use : 7
I found that this unit has a lot of great features, but for me it was a little difficult getting used to accessing them.
I do not like the manual. I found it was not concise and easy to navigate.

Sound Quality : 9
I use a custom built Strat copy with EMG's and a Peavey T-60. I can say this is the most fun I have had in years. I love the sounds and I am looking forward to testing it on a large touring PA system. Effects are not perfect, but they are very good. For me the light to medium overdriven sounds are the best. Very punchy and full. Clean sounds are pretty good, but not excellent. Heavily overdriven sounds are pretty good as well especially if you back off the gain a little. Really the only complaint I have is that the unit is a little noisy but the built in gate helps resolve this very well.

Reliability : No Opinion
No real opinion yet other than to say that I would not want to drop it on a concrete floor!!!

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never dealt with them

Overall Rating : 9
I have been playing guitar a little over 30 years now, and I really enjoy this little unit. I play southern rock, Blues, MOR and country. As with any unit, you will need to take some time to get what you want from it. Tweaking sound is a process that never ends and is always evolving along with personal preferences. I am convinced this unit will deliver to my satisfaction any sound I will require. Especially for what I paid for it. I will recommend this unit to anyone who cares to ask my opinion.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $100 used
Submitted 03/30/2005 at 09:55am by Alexandre Correa

Ease of Use : 9
Achei a pedaleira muito boa. E uma excelente opc?o para quem n?o tem grana pra comprar um grande amplificador ou uma pedaleira das mais caras. N?o achei muito facil de usar, mas uma leitura detalhada do manual resolve qualquer parada. Ja tive uma Zoom GFX-5 e uma Digitech RP-300 e esta pedaleira da show nas outras. A Behringer n?o e melhor do que a POD, mas custa 1/3 do preco. As simulac?es de amplificadores s?o muito boas e os patches de fabrica tem muito bom gosto. Um VAMP2 novo esta custando uns R$600,00 e por este preco vc n?o compra nada melhor. A versatilidade para shows e um pouco prejudicada por n?o ter uma pedaleira de varios pedais, mas pode ser usada com um FC1010 e ai da show.

Sound Quality : 10
Vamos ser sinceros... Reverb todo mundo faz, Delay todo mundo faz, Phaser muitas tem, Flanger ent?o ha dezenas. DISTORC?O e OVERDRIVE e o que conta pra diferenciar uma pedaleira de outra. Esta pedaleira tem uma gama de efeitos de distorc?o e simulac?o de amplificadores muito boa. Tambem n?o vamos achar que esta pedaleira e melhor que um Marshall JCM 900, MesaBoogie, Mark IV, Soldano, Vox e etc. A quest?o e o custo-beneficio. Comparando precos e produtos ela e vantajosa com certeza.

Reliability : 8
N?o achei muito resistente, mas tambem eu n?o exponho meus produtos a condic?es insanas de uso.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
Toco ha 20 anos. Ja tive Epiphone, Cort, Washburn, Eagle, Condor, Gianinni e etc. Hoje tenho uma Fender Double Fat-Strat Americana e acho que o som e muito bom. Ja usei, Marshall, Fender, Staner, Meteoro, Warm Music e etc. Hoje tenho um Marshall Vasvestate 8080 e acho que o som e muito bom. Com esta pedaleira, as possibilidades de sons se multiplicaram por 1000.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $100
Submitted 03/29/2005 at 07:08pm by james buniak
Email: jamesbuniak<at>netzero dot com

Ease of Use : 7
Once you get the hang of it.. its not that bad.. I wish you could do some more of Nice effects stuff.. but for 100 bucks.. its a good starter.. oor back up

Sound Quality : 7
Not bad when 3/4 of the way up on max volume.. hardly any when you have the right effects.

Reliability : 3
I can't say i can depend on it. Its not road worthy.. i play about 2 shows a week and this think just keeps on like canceling out on me.. all the sounds go crazy.. i like it.. but i keep spending hours on makeing the sounds just perfect and they cancel out on me.. kinda sucks when that happens right before a show ehne i go to plug it in..

Customer Support : 1
I cant find any help for it..

Overall Rating : 6
its good for lighter stuff. the distortion can sound nice but not great.... effects id like more versitility... tones,,, good but not great.. im a perfectionist in music.. and i dont think this can help me reach it.. even tho it was 100 bucks.. well i guess i cant complain.. haha oh well. you buy stuff you learn..


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 160 (euro)
Submitted 03/28/2005 at 03:43am by Riccardo

Ease of Use : 6
Easy when select a pre-built tone o make a small change. A little bit difficult to operare and the manual is not clear.

Sound Quality : 9
The sound is good for this kind of equipment. I use electric Fender guitars (Stratocaster '79, Stratocaster '00 with Texas Special, '84 Japan Telecaster with custom pu at neck and '90 G&L Asat Classic Special) and some acoustic guitars (Guild, Daion and resophonic all piezo-equipped). I don't use v-amp with an amplifiere but throught a p.a. system or recording console.
Is a little noisy on distorted sounds, but I normally use little crunch or clear sound. I try to make my own sound so I can't compare with my favourite players tone, but I found all effects good.

Reliability : 9
I've bought it only a week ago so ...
I bought it as a back up on gigs if my main amp goes down. I use it as preamp with my acoustic guitars too. (all equiped with piezo)

Customer Support : No Opinion
none

Overall Rating : 9
I play almost blues & rock blues with my band. I make a lot of recording session with my Mac and I found it useful.
I'm playing since 1969 and I owned a lot of multi-effect processor. This is one of the best, easy to use, with footswitch and gigbag.
If stolen I bought another.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 45 (#) used
Submitted 03/27/2005 at 06:19am by Steve Madden
Email: hm001g3170 at blueyonder<dot>co<dot>uk

Ease of Use : No Opinion
This is quite easy to get a rectified/highgain sound(aslong as you dont put it up to loud), but found it alot harder to get an decent overdrive bluesy sound from it, i connected it up in-line first and was getting a kind ring modulation sound on the non-wound strings, it wouldn't go no matter what i did with it. Then i put it through the FX loop and the clean sounds just sounded amazing(maybe they sounded so good beacause i was getting some crappy sounds before). The manual isn't very helpful

Sound Quality : No Opinion
Guitar: 1979 Fender strat(hardtail). Amp:Trace elliot super tramp 100watt single 12" combo. FX:Big Muff, Double muff, SD1 super overdrive. For recording i go in this order: Guitar to SD1 to Double Muff to Bigg Muff To amp. The Vamp2 in the FX loop, but i connect the output of the vamp2 to a behringer DI 100, the direct output to the FX return and the DI output to my pc(i think thats the best combination??)

Reliability : No Opinion
Not had it long, so couldn't give an opinion.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion
Dont know if i'd replace it if it was stolen, i'd probably try a J Station or even a Digitech GM 200(i've heard there pretty good) just so i could compare.I've not given any marks out of ten as i dont think i've had long enough. These are just my first impessions. Definatly worth the #45 i paid for it. I'll probably give a more detailed review in a couple of months. If antone has any tips please e-mail me with your suggestions.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99
Submitted 03/21/2005 at 01:26pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 8
Very easy to use. The LEDs on the knobs are a joy compared to, say, the PODs phantom knobs that don't correspond to the internal state of the machine. Manual is plenty good enough. Firmware is upgradeable only by switching out an EPROM chip physically -- voiding the warranty. So far haven't had the need for such an upgrade. If I have complaints, they are as follows: some of the labeling is in white letters, some in dark gray. The dark gray ones are too hard to read, except in good light. Use of the TAP key as a shift key is kind of annoying. The cabinet models are encoded rather than explicitly spelled out on an LED screen or some such, so that you don't know what they are unless you have manual in front of you, or memorized. Lack of an on/off switch, and external power supply is annoying. At least it's an in-line transformer rather than a wall wart. I just use a power strip and turn it on with my foot.

Sound Quality : 8
Generally excellent. I am in love with the chorus (specifically preset 6e, changing effect to compression+chorus and backing the level off a bit.) However, the high gain settings are noisy, and there is some weird kind of intermittent noise -- something vaguely unnatural and digital sounding, like something's going vaguely wrong in the digital processing on the high gain sounds. Turning down the guitar input helps some, but even with the guitar volume at 50%, really bashing on the strings can bring in this bad sound. This is my most significant complaint about the unit, and I also have a PODxt, and the PODxt has the same problem. I think most people don't notice it. It's pretty subtle, and it didn't stop me from buying two of these v-amp 2's, one for home and one to keep in the office for lunch-break shredding. Were it not for that problem though, it would be perfect.

I have gotten better tones recorded direct with this v-amp 2 than I have been able to achieve with a real amp mic'ed with some pretty decent mic's, all with considerably less mucking about. However, if you are a perfectionist, the noise issue might be a killer. For a practice amp, casual demo recording type situation, the noise has been tolerable, and ignoring that defect, the tone is otherwise excellent. You should play with the thing with some good headphones, then you can tell for yourself whether the noise will be tolerable for you and your purposes.

Also switching between patches is not the best. Switching between presets which change amps or cabinets causes audible disruption. For that reason, live use might be problematic. Given the super cheap price, you could always just buy two of them and use an a/b switch to get around that if it's an issue, I suppose.

Reliability : No Opinion
Eh, seems ok, haven't had a problem. It's a hundred bucks, dirt cheap for what you get.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Don't know.

Overall Rating : 10
For the money, this thing is awesome. I have been playing for 14 years, mostly metal. I mostly use some modern high-gain sounds, and some clean sounds, not so much bluesy sounds. To my ears, this is a much better match for a metalhead like me than any of line-6's stuff. (I keep trying line-6's stuff on reputation, thinking maybe I'm missing something, but so far, I continue to like my stupid little v-amp 2 better.) Because of the price -- a hundred bucks -- it's a fantastic deal. I seriously bought two of them.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 03/17/2005 at 11:11am by Anonymous

Ease of Use : No Opinion
This is more a Tip
This thing can sound steller out of a dry effects loop out of a tube amp or a nice power amp

I've run this on a dry effects loop of a Peavey Pag 60 us Amperex 12 AX7s and Mullard 12AT7 *(dutch and british N.0.S), with 6L6 Sylvania (american N.0.S), through a marshall 1936A and could get very closeley similiar sounds to An ENGL SAVAGE (my friend who lent me the CAB plays ENGL, and Marshall JCM2000 (which another friend owns), it cant replicate exact but id say its at least 80% of the way there
the EQ touch isnt the same, but some sounds you can not tell a damn difference.

My Guitars
A Fender Standard Strat
A ESP VIPER 400 L.T.D

PEDALS
BOSS DS1
BOSS TU9
Marshal JMP1 Jack hammer

MY AMPF
Marshall MGIII 1x10 Combo
Peavey PAG 60 ALL TUBE 1x12 60watt Combo

Sound Quality : No Opinion

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 03/17/2005 at 09:40am by Anonymous

Ease of Use : No Opinion
Reply to the last posting;

Pick a preset. It doesn't matter which one. Go with bank 1, sound A for the hell of it. (Use the up-down arrows to get to "1", then push the "A" button.)

Now, lets go for a nice clean sound. How about a 1965 black face twin?

First turn the effects knob and reverb knob all the way down.
Hold Down the "tap" button and turn the amp dial to "classic clean / black twin" It may be confusing because if you hold down the tap, you get the black twin. If you don't, you get classic clean (JC120)

Now turn the tone knobs all to 12:00 o-clock position. (flat)

Hold in the tap button and turn the treble knob to 12:00. This is the presence control for the amp.

Turn the gain to about 9:00 O-clock and the volume to at least 12:00.

Turn the master knob until you can hear yourself through whatever your playing this unit through.

Now, start tweaking with the tone knobs and reverb like you would on any amp.

Once you like what you hear, press the "A" button down and hold it until it stops blinking. You saved your patch to this location for all time. (If you were on 1-A, then that is where you saved it.)

If you hold down B, C, D or E, you would then save the sound there.

By changing the bank from 1-25, you have A-E to save them on. That is a total of 125 different memory locations to save your patches to!

Once you get comfortable with this, you can start messing with the effects and different type of reverbs, cabinets, distortion related stuff, etc.

See my posting before yours regarding what you play this thing thru. Alot of guys get mad when they run it thru a $2000 amp it it sounds mushy and dead. That is not how it was intended to be used. That is what tube screamers are for or standard stomp box "stuff". This is an amp modeler that is supposed to be a stand-alone unit.

you can use it thru and amp, but you have to shut off the cabinet simulation and re-eq. all your patches to fit the frequency repsonse of the amp, or shut off the amp simulation all together and use it for an FX processor.

For the money, it should make everyone pretty happy.

Sound Quality : No Opinion

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 159.00 (Canadian)
Submitted 03/12/2005 at 09:15am by Wolfzbane
Email: wolfzbane<at>gmail dot com

Ease of Use : 3
Well, I think the manual stinks in trying to explain how to edit and create your own sounds.
And you can't just fiddle with it out of the box, you'll get nowhere except going through the presets.
The controls seem all backwards, maybe I'm dyslexic, but if you want preset C-18, well you have to shift up/down to 18 THEN press bank C. The logical way would have been selecting bank C THEN going though the different presets of that bank. All very confusing for nothing.
I've had it for 3 months now and still haven't figured how to create my own sounds..... I just browse through the presets.
And please, who is the imbecile that decided to use that matte gold/brownish color on the body for the lettering. You can't see it at all, even with good lighting it is very difficult to read what's written there. A really bad choice of colors, possibly the worst I've ever seen anywhere on a product.
The power cord is a hassle to connect to the body too, it uses a round 4 pin connector which is very difficult to align to plug in. They could've at least painted a white line on the body and on the connector tip to help aligh them at first view.
All in all, full of very bad design flaws.
Thus, my score is low for this, a 3.

Sound Quality : 6
The sound is really good. Not as authentic as a Pod, but then it's a third of the price too.
I say it can replace a whole set of pedals for practicing, but I would not use it professionally. It's not THAT good.
Let's say that it's a real fun gadget for under $200.00.
Of course, I haven't figured out how to create my own patches with it. Although I don't think that would change much of my opinion.

Reliability : 5
I always take extra care when handling it, it seems so flimsy.
The plastic feels cheap.
Don't drop it would be my ultimate advice.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Haven't had to deal with them.

Overall Rating : 4
This was a X-mas gift.
Ultimately I wanted a Pod, but it was a tad expensive to ask for as a gift, lol.
I use it everyday, I kinda like it..... although there's no love between us yet. I don't know if it will eventually come to that.
It can be useful as a practice gadget because it replaces many pedals and is not cumbersome. But I would not bring it to a recording or a live session. First it doesn't sound good enough, second it's way too fragile, and third it's way too complicated to set rapidly.
My guess is that I will eventually dish out the $$ and get myself a Pod.
My son can use the V-amp then if he wants.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 03/10/2005 at 09:43am by Mike

Ease of Use : No Opinion

Sound Quality : 10
I have already reviewed this product. This is an update.

Do NOT play this thru. a guitar amp or a guitar cab of any kind. It makes it sound like complete ass.

Play this thru full range speakers. (Doesn't really matter what kind, but the flatter the repsonse, the better.)

Headphones cause you to loose alot of the bottom end signal, so it makes it sound thin. Headphones are for silent practice, not for dialing in and tweaking amp patches. NEVER dial in tones with headphones that you intend to use for recording. (See note above regarding sounding like ass.)

If nothing else, buy a $15 pair of powered PC speakers. You will be amazed at how good this thing really sounds.


Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $100
Submitted 02/20/2005 at 02:51pm by Jay
Email: darkshadow40<at>hotmail dot com

Ease of Use : 8
I found this thing pretty simple to use. Sounds pretty good outta the box, although most of the presets are not that great. The exceptions being the SRV, VH, and AC/DC sounds are pretty dead on. It takes a little tweaking to get what you want, but not that difficult and actually pretty fun to do.

The knobs are labeled according with a bright red LED to let you see what you are doing. The only major issues I have are the way the amp models are labeled. Some of them are labeled in a very bright white while others are in a darker grey that can be difficult to see without the proper lighting.

Also, to open some editing options is abit of a pain. You sometimes need to hold the tap button or hit two buttons at the same time to open up some features. Not difficult, but you should definately read the manual first.

The editing software is where this thing really shines. Plain and simple drag and drop menus, and everything is at your fingertips. If I were gigging with this I would prefer to have a cheap and small laptop nearby hooked up to this for ease of use.

Sound Quality : 9
As far as the sounds go, I like them. Now I know you're never gonna get that "classic tube" sound from emulation...but I'm very happy. My roomate has a 59 bassman and we compared the two and they sound very good. I personally like the modified marshall, the Vox AC30 and Fender Twin models. Lots of good combinations can be had.

The effects sound pretty good too. The reverbs are excellent. The chorus is nice and lush. The delays are easy to set-up with the software. The auto-wah is pretty decent too, although a foot controller is highly recommended to get the exact sound you want. The compressor can be a little noisy, but thats nothing new. Just apply the noise gate and you're good to go. For the price, you definately can't beat the flexibility.

Reliability : 7
This is another big issue with me. The model is made of a hardened plastic, not metal. I'd be afraid of dropping or stepping on this thing and watching it malfuntion. Although I haven't had any problems with this, I'm not sure if I would take it out gigging and put it on the floor. Now if I had a nearby table that would be another issue, just be careful.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I haven't had to deal with Behringer at all. Although Guitar Center said if anything goes wrong with it in the next 2 years to just bring it in.

Overall Rating : 10
I play a mixture of different styles. Anything from classical to rock, from blues to metal, and everything in between. For price and flexibilty of this project I would say it is a great deal. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the POD XT, but this is also a third of the price. This unit has made practicing and playing fun again and I would hate for anything to happen to it. If something happened to it I would most certainly replace it.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $100
Submitted 02/16/2005 at 02:07pm by Brandon Cangelosi
Email: Kidsthatcolor at cox<dot>net

Ease of Use : 8
For me it was very easy to use right out of the box, but those not familiar how processors work it may be difficult to start editing, but I'd say sit an hour with it and the manual and you'll certainly be able to do anything on it, besides every kind of effect has to be tinkered with before you know what you're doing.
The manual is very detailed, almost too detailed, may look intimidating at first, but I promise it's not as many things to remember as you think. Even if you can't figure out the editing right away, the presets are quite amazing.

Sound Quality : 9
I play everything from Blues to Punk to Country
My main setup: Self made strat with Seymour Invader in bridge position-->V-amp 2---> Custom wired Kustom 2x12(120watts)w/ 2 Celestion super 65 speakers.
My setup is built for extremely high gain.
Since my setup is was made for high gain at first I was having problems with alot of feedback when the volume was up on my amp. Simple Solution was turning the noise gate up and boom problem solved. Also since my set up was made for high gain my clean before was not very desireable, a little teaking around with it and my clean was wonderful.
The effects are very flexible and all have excellent sound quality.
The auto wah is the only effect I would consider sub par.

Most of the cab models are almost perfect (especially for the price) some are quite a bit off, but for 100$ this unit delivers far beyond what you would expect.

I can agree with the other guys here, go directly to the guitar input in your amp. With headphones it is excellent espicially for guys that travel alot and don't have the luxury of having an amp all the time. I have not tried it through my cpu yet.

Reliability : 8
The V-amp2 it self is rather goofy plastic crap. So if you were it wouldn't kill you ot make a protective box or something for it. The footpedal is metal, I see no problem with it other than the chord is actually atached to the body and doesn't plug in. So if it were to go out or short, there would be no switching on the fly.
My friend uses his to gig with out a back up and has for quite sometime but we built him a protective casefor his(hint). As for me I'm not sure if I will use it to gig yet, mainly because of the slight delay while switching between presets.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to deal with them neither has my friend.

Overall Rating : 10
This hting is good for any style. If it were stolen I would get another. I have owned 2 Zoom pedals and numerous other single effects from Digitech and Boss.
This little unit can out gun anythign within 100$(maybe a little more) I garantee. If I had the luxury of being able to spend 1000$ on a processor I would probally get one, but I don't so if your like me and working on a budget have no worries with the V-amp 2 it will not disapoint you, for 100$ I couldn't be happier.




Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $100
Submitted 02/01/2005 at 04:27pm by Skratch Legbah
Email: doobensloth<at>yahoo dot com

Ease of Use : 9
It was very easy to start dialing in authentic sounds. I've owned most of the amps labeled on the panel, and with the help of the compressor, can come SCARY close. I wasn't interested in the presets, and immediately began creating my own dream collection. The manual is way too much, since they give it to in every language in modern time, and for three different products. What a waste of paper! I'm unaware of the version, but it's dated 0704. Upgraded? Not to my knowledge. The inputs and outputs need to be labeled with larger, brighter letters, like the rest of it. I like to work in studios and stages with low-lwvwl lighting, and it was a hassle seeing the dark grey lettering.

Sound Quality : 9
Sound quality is exceptional, especially since it costs the same as a bogus Tubescreamer or boss delay! I use mostly vintage reisssue type guitars, real vintage tube amps, and handwired stuff, and this unit works well for that type of stuff. I also do a good bit of sessions, where its easier and more profitable to go direct, and it does that extremely well, too. I generally don't use noise reduction on the guitar, since I'm not a high gainer, but putting it through its paces, it seems like a decent, workable NR effect for the high gain stuff. It gets ant and every sound I need ot to, from rockabilly to Hendrix to Zeppelin, to Cream, to CCR, to Kiss, to Van Halen, to STP, to me.
The effects are very good, and they're easy to edit. My main test for all units is to see how responsive to various picking/playing techniques and how well it goes from almost clean to almost overdriven. If it can transition smoothly, and respond like an amp, I like it. This unit does respond to the player's ability.

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
I play any and every style, depending on the situation at hand (haha). This thing seems to be able to do more than I need it to do. I've been playing since I was born, and have had too much gear to list. I'd probably get another one, maybe not, it depends on what else comes out. I really like the gigbag, footswitch, and sound of it. Great overall package, and unheard of at this price point. I've been using an Ibanez virtual amp since mid 90's, Boss ME's, Digitech RP's, vintage amps, tube, solid state cheap stuff, pedals, whatever, and this one is too cheap to pass up, plus it sounds better than anything Digitech will ever make! I immediately started pulling off new licks, when it only took a few minutes to tweek up.
***For what it's worth, and this goes for any piece of equipment: If you suck, it sucks;if you're able, it's able. As long as it turns on when it's supposed to, and stays on while you play. No reason for any complaints at this price. It does what they said it would do.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $90
Submitted 01/26/2005 at 11:37am by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 8
Once you have read the manual, it is reasonable easy to use. But it is hard to see the secondary labels on the controls unless the light is bright. Manual is fair, could be more complete, but it was easy to get started.

Sound Quality : 8
Used with 2 les pauls and a hollowbody Ibanez. The guitars all sound different and do retain their character. The V-amp2 is noisy on high gain settings, just like most amps actually. The chorus and delay are quite good effects, as is the reverb. As others have mentioned, the clean amp sims are really good (twin, small combo). I often use the V-amp to play through headphones along with using the line in for backing tracks, and for the price and versatility this thing is a great value. But still, using the V-amp2 direct as an amp substitute does leave a bit of harshness to the sound that good tube amps don't have. When I plug the V-amp2 into my fender pro reverb (clean channel), then the sound quality and warmth really blossom. Used in front of a clean warm-sounding amplifier, this unit really does give great access to lots of classic sounds with minimal expense and tweaking. I have classic Marshall, Fender, and Boogie amps also, and the models for these amps are very close. The California Drive model really does sound like my Mark II Boogie, and since I can compare them directly to each other, it is obvious they spent time doing their homework. In fact, the clean modeled boogie sounds just like a boogie clean channel. The Marshall sims are good too, and the fender sims really are great. Unlike when using the real amps, I can play without disturbing the neighbors--the real amps need to be pretty loud to sound good. I don't like the "modern" models, nor do I really like the actual amplifiers they are based on.

Reliability : No Opinion
No problems with it, but it is not really designed to be used on stage or on road.

Customer Support : 10
Never dealt with them, but: for the value Behringer gives to all of us, (I have a few other Behringer accessories) they deserve a 10. Would you rather have the V-amp2 priced at twice what it is (still cheaper than POD) and have Behringer use the money to man phone lines? I'll take the extra money myself and not worry about support.

Overall Rating : 10
I like this thing better than the POD 2.0 I had and sold. It is less expensive, and to me the sounds are at least as good or better. A bit less easy to use than the POD, and of cheaper construction, but what an amazing value and a very versatile piece of equipment.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 800 (Swedish Kronor) used
Submitted 01/24/2005 at 02:15pm by Erik Runeson

Ease of Use : 7
The features available from knobs and buttons are easy to work with, however, you really need the editing software to be able to get access to the full flexibility of the thing. For instance, you can't get Compressor+Chorus+Delay, without the software. This would be hopeless in band practice (unless you have a computer nearby), or live if you need to make some changes.

Sound Quality : 4
I loved it at first and spent a lot of time playing through headphones and a small practice amp, trying out different sounds. However, then I made the misake of plugin into my Peavey Classic 30 just to get a reference to a real tube amp.

What a difference! After that, no matter how I turned the knobs, the V-Amp sounded crap. Ok, I know digital modelling can never be the "real thing", but it was surpising just how big the difference were. I made an immediate promise never to use digital amp modelling ever again (if I can avoid it).

As soon as you go from clean to mild overdrive and crunch, the low end looses all definition and the sound muddies away to an undefined fuzz with no dynamics at all.

The Blackface model is good, since it doesn't really go into overdrive. It gives you some of that sweet tube-like compression. The custom hi-gain is also a really good sustain-rich EVH-type sound.

Reliability : 5
One of the knobs broke off when I dropped the bag it was in. I managed to glue it back with some epoxy and it has stayed on since. It's a low budget piece and not really intended for serious live-duty, so be really careful with it.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 6
I've been playing for some 15 years, but I don't play regularly in a band nowadays. I have the occacional one-off gig which can be virtually any kind of music from Black Sabbath to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Jazz. I wanted a simple piece to take to the occacional gig but mainly to play at home.

As long as you promise yourself never to go anywhere near a real tube amp, the V-Amp can probably be adequate. However, since I already got one, I'm a lost case. I'm even considering building my own low-watt tube amp just to get someting "real" to play with at home.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 150 (euros)
Submitted 01/05/2005 at 08:16am by fred metz
Email: fred91 at gmail<dot>com

Ease of Use : 8
I bought this because i needed an effects processer and at this price i didnt expect much but i was proved wrong!
After studying the manual for 20 minutes i started to get the hang of it but some things took longer to figure out, like the edit mode and the tap control.
The presets are very good and when i wanted to create my own presets i was stuck on which bank i should replace!

Sound Quality : 10
I use a squier strat and a marshall g50rcd with the v-amp and it makes my guitar sound a few hundred quid better!
Some amp models are a bit muddy and i havent figured out how to fix that yet.
The effects do exactly what it says on the tin and im very happy with them. The delay, flanger and phaser are outstanding! The only one i'm not entirely satisfied with is the autowah.
I can get the sounds of my favourite artists on the v-amp, theres even on board presets for ac/dc, EVH, Dire straits and many more!

Reliability : 10
The plastic case looks quite sturdy but i wouldnt want to drop it or gig with it. The foot pedal on the other hand is solid as a rock!
I think its sufficient for "bedroom" use or in the studio and very dependable

Customer Support : 10
The customer service is brilliant. The folks at behringer are kind and helpful and even hang out in yahoo groups to answer questions from people like me in their spare time!

Overall Rating : 10
I play rock, punk, blues, metal and ska and this box covers all the genres and more!
If this was stolen or lost i would definitely get another one because its the best in its price range.
The effects are brilliant, and so are most of the amp simulations (they're a matter of taste)
The thing that bugs me is NO OFF SWITCH! Everytime i call it a day i have to pull the cable out the back and fumble round with it trying to get it back in the next morning.
Unless you want to spend +400 euros this is the one for you!


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $80.00
Submitted 01/03/2005 at 08:48pm by Bruce

Ease of Use : 7
This Behringer V-amp 2 was purchased through zzounds.com as a B stock unit. It was 80 dollars plus 5 dollars shipping for the total unit with the foot pedal, adapter and case. All that was lacking was an owners manual. With no owners manual the unit is not really usable and I was in the dark for a while. I probably would not have purchased it at the regular price of 100 dollars which was down from the previous 140 dollar figure.

Sound Quality : 8
Digital effects are digital effects. I have a zoom 505-2 that sounds nice like the v-amp 2. It just takes more tweaking to get a good tone. Blindfolded I probably could not tell much of a difference between the two. The v-amp 2 is very impressive with all the accesories that it comes with. The zoom pedals may come with an adapter and thats about it as far as accesories go. A good understanding of the manual is need to make sense of everything. I have a crate V58 5 watt tube amp that does not sound that great. I hook up my V-amp 2 to the crate amp and it transforms it into a nice sounding amp that I enjoy.

Reliability : No Opinion
hummm......well it's plastic, it looks like it's better suited for home use and in the studio

Customer Support : 10
Amazing that the Behringer techs actually hang out in Yahoogroups answering dumb questions on their own free time. That's dedication.

Overall Rating : 10
That 80 dollar price at zzounds was to good to pass up. I had owned a couple Behringer amps that I was happy with also. I can make this unit go crazy, just run piezo pickups through it. My Behringer GMX110 also goes crazy with piezo equipped guitars. Overall it's much more impressive than any other modeling device under 100 dollars which is why I bought it. I'm not into mixing computers and music which is what many owners of the v-amp 2 seem to be into. I just think the unit is ultra-cool and better by far than any other amp modeler in it's current price range.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $94 incl. shipping
Submitted 12/28/2004 at 11:23am by dave

Ease of Use : 8
It's fairly easy to use. One problem I have, like it seems with a lot of these amp modeling setups (e.g. Line 6 Spider which is my main amp) is the adjusment of effects. The tap button is used to affect one parameter of each effect but it takes some time to figure out what exactly it is i.e., if you're tweaking the speed or depth of the flanger. Accessing different amps is a piece of cake. Getting to the cab models is maybe one step too many but gets easy after a while.

Sound Quality : 9
I think it sounds phenomenal. I'm not an amp snob, nor have I played throught 50 different amps (I've used a Fender Deluxe 85, Line 6 Spider 212, a Bogner the model of which I can't remember, an old Vox, the obligatory Marshall stack and a couple others). But I know when something sounds good and these sound great. The cleans are clean and the heavies are heavy. The heaviest settings have enough bite/chunk to do Pantera/Slayer type stuff but have a touch of tube warmth that fills out the sound nicely. The full spectrum of sounds is certainly available. The ability to run the amps through 15 different cab types is outstanding. Again, I'm not a pro on cab sounds but it's nice to get different type ambience through the same amp setting. The effects are very high quality. Again, you don't have a TON of wiggle room on how they sound but enough to tweak them to your liking. The reverbs are a strong, strong aspect of this little thing. The Ultra setting lets you get crazy for that spacey canyon echo sound while the other settings give you a wide range of ambient feels. The auto wah is also nice. I don't have the foot controller but a nice hidden feature is that you can emulate a variety of different wah types. It's not that straightforward how to get to a specific type, though, but messing around with it is half the fun. The factory presets are a nice touch, too.

Reliability : 7
I have no plans of ever using this for a gig. I play mostly through headphones these days so as not to wake my kids so for that purpose it's fine. I've seen written that it's plastic, therefore flimsy. It's actually hard PVC and seems sturdy (though I've yet to drop it!) I wouldn't gig with it, though. But for a little home thing it's phenomenal.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I've never dealt with them so I have no opinion.

Overall Rating : 9
For my purposes, I'd give it a 8.5, maybe 9. It sounds great, isn't extremely difficult to use and gives me everything I need at my fingertips. I play a lot of metal, hard rock and older rock and it's got everything I need. I can get Pantera heavy, tripped out spacey and everything in between. For guys who just want a little cheap unit to mess around with and make some nice guitar sounds I'd highly advise it. Especially when you consider the price.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 150? (currency is almost same as US dollar)
Submitted 12/27/2004 at 07:05am by P.Korhonen (Finland)
Email: pjtk2002 at hotmail<dot>com

Ease of Use : 10
I have this effect now for 6 months and it is great, price and quality are different as usually...with this product the quality is great and price is low. Using is easy, that also means that there is less options than many other effects in little higher price than this. Manuals are made that anyone can understand it and working with patches and setups are very easy.

Sound Quality : 8
Sound quality is good or even great in amp modeling. couple things are not so good,clean and some lead sounds are hard to edit. I want sometimes harder lead sound than this can give me...more distortion / overdrive is wanted,compsound is great with this at my setups.

I use Jackson DK2 guitar with it and original duncan designed pickups and it sounds great. I have also tryed it with some harley benton and maison strato copys and it can give nice sound of those too...so this works for anyone.

Reliability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion
havent need any support so far!!

Overall Rating : 9
I started play guitar 14 years ago and now i'm 26 years old. I Play metal music and actually i compose melodic/powermetal at my home and this product works great for me. I had before BOSS GT-3 effect prosessor and it was 3 times expensive than this and this is better for me so this cant be bad at all ;)

Setup is easy,some sounds are hard to get out of it but it doesn't bother me much. Volume and Master volume pots could be better with some other pots because i record in line and it is very important that volume is always same in output of "Vamp" and these pots moves so fast and easy that it sucks.

ON and OFF switch is must in all elecrtrical products and it is missed with this one.

OVERAL RATING: GREAT DEVICE FOR NOVISE OR EVEN PRO PLAYER!!!



Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $125
Submitted 12/02/2004 at 07:47am by phyllo

Ease of Use : 8
I don't particularly care for things with lots of knobs, but if you take the time to read the manual, it's pretty straight-forward and easy to use. It's got so many features, I haven't had time (or the need) to try them all yet. The manual is good, brief and to the point.

Sound Quality : 9
Really amazing in this aspect. Like the last guy I'm getting to be an old geezer and like simplicity and basic guitar into a good tube amp. I don't use many of the effects very often, but they seem good to my ears. The Marshall, Fender and Vox amp simulations are just amazing to me. This thing somehow picks up all the nuances in style that I can throw at it. I use this for late-night practicing and it's real easy to completely lose track of time. One thing I will recommend if you use it as a headphone practice amp like I do; get some GOOD headphones. It makes a world of difference. This isn't a criticism of the V-AMP 2 at all. In fact, when you hear the sounds through good 'phones, it just reinforces how good it is (just like a good amp with a good speaker or speakers). I bought some Grado SR80 headphones and fell in love with this thing all over again. It's definitely made me a better player just by making me want to play all the time.

Reliability : 10
Been great so far (2 months) but it has an easy life with me. If I'm gigging I'm playing drums, so, no worries.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I've only done the online registration, so far. Very quick response to that. From what I've seen and read, it should be good.

Overall Rating : 10
Like almost everyone else says, incredible value. GREAT sounds, easy enough to operate. If lost or stolen, I'd definitely get another. I have no idea how they can sell them so cheap, I'm just happy they do. Also, like everyone else, put an ON/OFF switch on it and it's perfect.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $130
Submitted 11/30/2004 at 09:22am by C. Adams

Ease of Use : 8
I found the unit fairly easy to use. I did read the manual and it did help wuite a bit.

Sound Quality : 8
I mainly use my V-amp 2 as a late night headphone practice tool. It sounds good for the money. I am not real fond of how the cleaner and vintage models' volume drops some. I wish it was more consistent. But again it is a great practice tool for the money.

Reliability : 8
I has done fine for what i have asked of it. Again it is only a late night, company is over practice tool, and that is what i bought it for.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 8
If you want a nice practice tool, or something to take on a trip with you, then this is great. I have not done recording with it, so i am not sure how it would sound on tape. From a price standpoint, it is a great deal over the POD series and i would consider buying the bass V-amp 2 also.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $150
Submitted 11/29/2004 at 08:01pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : No Opinion
This little box got me playing guitar again. I went out to buy a little valve combo and came home with this. I am blown away. It comes loaded with pre-sets, (125 IIRC), many of them very silly, but good for recording applications perhaps. I have since learned to edit these using a PC. I now have the sounds reorganised into patterns that I can easily use from the foot switch. I even down loaded some settings from the web that I have been able to make sound just like my old pair of Marshall SuperLeads 100w (no poofy master volume) used to sound like turned up to 11. Except without the 3 days of ear ringing.

Sound Quality : 4
I have one bank of sounds set up for a Les Paul, and another for Strat. What I find amazing about this thing is the way it can simulate a valve amp just feathering into clip- (Jimmy Page, The Rain Song) that sound of a valve amp being driven hard, but with guitar tuned down so that your touch drives the amp into that glorious sound. I dunno how the setting work, I am not interesed in palying with chorus delays, flangers- although the sounds I use, and have modified, all make use of these effects. Just amazing stuff. I can get a pretty good sound out of a bad amp, and really good sounds out of a good amp like a Marshall or a Boogie. I will get myself a little Marshall of Laney combo when I get round to it, but the point is, I can turn up and with a guitar and this thing and just go to it.


Reliability : No Opinion
If i was playing like I played years ago, Id get the rack mounted version. I hate the dinky design, but heh, If this thing f...s up, I'll buy another one, and restore my settings from the computer. Its built to a price, the smarts are inside, and so far, it fine. Needs an on/off swith tho.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I believe it is very good. No direct experience.

Overall Rating : 10
I am troglodyte, I admit it, I dislike concepts like "simulation" enormously. I like good old guitars and valve amps. But- this is the best coupla hundred bucks I have ever spent. Its great in the bedroom (arent we all), but the V-AMP cuts it live running into big iron amps too. I love the built in footswitcbable tuner, I love the fact that there is no break in my line through multiple boxes and pedals, i love the simplicity it offers (once you have it organised in a way that you can use it). It makes great great sounds and I get to shut up and play my guitar while everyone else is fiddling with the paraphanalia of guitars. I wish I had had this thing when I was playing music for a living- but now, playing for beers and grins, its just the cats meow.

Fitness for purpose Mr Behringer, this little box is a winner and has brought me much, much pleasure.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99.99
Submitted 11/24/2004 at 04:10pm by Carlos Conde

Ease of Use : 7
It is not very easy to use without reading the manual (I mean, it is not intuitive at all). The highest flexibility of this unit is in the modeler section. Effects are good, but not as flexible as many other units (Digitech, Zoom, etc.).

Sound Quality : 10
For $100 you will be extremely impressed. I have many other guitar effects (Boss, Zoom, Digitech and several Behringer), but this unit has excellent distortions and its capability to simulate amplifiers is really outstanding. The other effects provide enough seasoning to make this unit good enough to be used alone.The sound quality can be described as excellent.

Reliability : No Opinion
I do not know. The box is made out of plastic and it does not seem quite strong. The pedals (which are the ones that you step on) are enclosed in a bullet proof metal case. I think again, Behringer are very smart guys and put the costs were they are needed.

Customer Support : 9
I needed support from Behringer in the past for other of my products and they were diligent and provided good support.

Overall Rating : 10
Excellent piece of equipment. You can use it alone and still get excellent sound out of it. For the price and overall features I can say that you will never get anything similar to it in this price range. I think it is the best value for your money.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 129 (euro)
Submitted 11/03/2004 at 01:41pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 9
This is a nice recording tool for every guitarist who can't afford to put his tube amplifier on 11. It's pretty easy to get some decent sounds out of it. A bit harder are things like speaker simulating, live-set-up, noise gate etc, but thanks to a well-written manual this will take you 10 minutes tops. Editing is really easy. Just twist the knobs. It has quite a few banks, and there are 5 different sounds available per bank: A, B, C, D, and E. These are footswitchable. Unfortunately there's a delay of about half an second if you switch to a differnt modeled amp. But since I only will be using this for recording (and live just the effects) won't this be a problem to me.

Sound Quality : 8
I use a PRS Santana SE (mahogany, 2 humbuckers). For solo's, I use the rectifier mode. Sounds quite good. I think it's one of the best sounds. For other stuff I mostly use a Tweed or a Marshall. Still the rectifier is my favorite. I use it for recording, so no amp is used.

The factory presets are quite convincing. The manual refers to famous artists/songs. You will regognize which song the sound belongs to. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for me!

Reliability : 8
Looks reasonable dependable. I think I would use this without backup, since it's not a very important part of my live-setup. The footswitch is really good quality. Dropped it from a metre and a half, there a scratch on the floor but the footswitch looks just as new. Great!

Customer Support : No Opinion
I never dealt with them. I guess it wouldn't be a very big problem because I live in the Netherlands, which is next to Germany.

Overall Rating : 9
I play rock, hardrock and pop (Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and stuff on the radio). I can get a nice sound for every musical style. I bought this with a Korg PXR-4, for recording, because I didn't like the Korg sounds very much. This V-amp is a really great deal. Just wish that the switching betweens amps would be possible without any delays. That would make it pretty much perfect.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 11/01/2004 at 12:50am by Dave Mason
Email: dave_mason<at>totalise dot co dot uk

Ease of Use : 9
When I bought this unit, it had obviously been demoed somewhat by somebody in the shop because the settings were all over the place and the presets didn't sound like anything remometely sensible. A quick scan through the manual revealed the 'restore factory presets' option, and I was then cooking on gas. I can't understand why anyone would say this unit is hard to use - it has a few knobs, a few buttons, and all dual functions are clearly labeled on the unit. The LEDs are bright and clear, and compared to other units I have owned suffering from dual function buttons, this thing is a breeze to use. Half an hour with the manual and everything made sense. I give it a nine purely because the manual could be easier to read (perhaps a 'quick start' section would be handy), but I'm used to reading Microsoft programming reference manuals in my day job so I'm not complaining. Editing is easy too - select an amp, select a cabinet, do some EQ-ing and press one button to save your patch. I can't really see how it could be any easier.

Sound Quality : 10
I play an Ibanez RG570. My musical style varies with the weather - everything from acid jazz, funk / disco through to hard rock / instrumental metal when the urge takes me. I expect a lot from my amps - especially in the funk arena. I like a clean tone that really spanks and cuts through the mix. When I go distorted I've always been a Marshall man, but Marshalls truly suck for clean funk tones. This little box is ideal for getting the best of both worlds. I had a very cool clean sound dialed in within about 5 minutes, just a little bit of compression and some minimal eq-ing gave me a sound that I would be happy to gig with and record. A little bit of crunch with the wah pedal sounded awesome for those Shaft riffs. The amp simulators are first class - I'm used to the Roland COSM technology which is pretty junk compared to the quality of this. Cranking up the Brit Hi Gain amp and dialling in a suitable cabinet gave a first-class distorted lead sound, and before I could help myself I was playing Megadeth's Holy Wars. Whoa! This thing really kicks ass. The amps simulations are all very impressive - purists will say that they don't sound exactly like the amps they are simulating (of course they don't - they're simulations), but I really don't care. They are first class sound wise and I don't think anybody in the audience at a gig is going to care whether you're going through a Mesa Boogie or a simulated alternative - if it sounds great (and it does), then it won't matter. What I really love is that you're no longer at the mercy of a sound engineer who a) may not be that good to start with b) may not know how to mic up an amp correctly c) doesn't have time to do the guitar because he's spent 45 minutes trying to make the kick drum sound like a wooden spoon banging off a plastic tub (no joke, I've been there). I've only had it a couple of days but already it has inspired me into actually sitting down and playing for hours on end just for the joy of playing, something I haven't done for years. In summary - great clean tones, great distorted tones, super-easy to use. Other people will be better able to comment on the old vintage tones as that isn't really my bag, but I'm pretty sure there's something for everyone in this box. And for such a low price, I'm truly stunned.

Reliability : 8
If I were to gig it, I would probably build a little protective case for it, as it does seem a little on the light side to stand up to stage abuse. More likely, I would buy the pro rack version. The gig bag it comes with is very good, however, and I would be happy to use it as is for rehearsals, jams etc. It's not a stomp box but as with all gear, look after it and it will be fine. Haven't had it long enough to make an informed judgement but I'm not worried.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to. My Behringer desk has never failed me so I've never been in touch with them.

Overall Rating : 10
This thing is a great all rounder, and provided you read the manual and spend an hour getting to know it, you'll get some great sounds out of it. I believe that anybody who says the sound of this is poor must either have it in the wrong configuration (e.g cab simulation on, going straight into another amp), have dodgy equipment and / or dodgy ears, or just generally like complaining. Considering the price tag, it really is a no-brainer. I love it.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $120
Submitted 10/29/2004 at 11:50am by Heirball

Ease of Use : 9
This thing is a piece of cake to use but let me be fair; Im not trying to develop and long list of presets. I have maybe 8 that I use for recording and sessions. I may do a little tweaking here and there as needed. If you can't do it with that, you can't do it at all as far as I'm concerned.

Sound Quality : 8
Currently I use a customer strat with EMG's, a Valley Arts Start (EMG's) and an Ibanez artist with stock pups. My ear has been accustomed to my Marshall Plexi, a Boogie Mark III and Roland JC120 so I think I have a good reference point. Good pups make a huge difference with this unit as they do with any amp.
I don't use this for live work; I only use it for direct recording/sessions since hauling gear is not what I do; I'm a guitar player and get paid for the music that comes out. With that being said, this thing sounds great to me if you know how to work your GUITAR and get the tone out of there first. If you're some young pup looking for a personality in your playing, develop one; don't buy one. I can get the close to the sounds I get live and have fooled musician friends with this thing .(Did you build an isolated room? Oh, its direct?) I do use this in stereo to get the wet and dry sound recorded and usually use the dry sound with the outboard digital effects. ( Sonar,Protools, etc) to get my effects I want. I use the V-Amp effects just for the pure feel/vibe.

Reliability : 8
Studio stuff only; no problemo so far. Sits on a stand for easy access while sitting and playing.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Haven't had to deal with them.

Overall Rating : 8
I play instrumental ( Beck, Carlton, Miles) write tunes and do live/studio sideman work. This thing is great but you need to know how to wrestle that tone out of your axe first. That's why some people don't like the Boogie MK III, YOU have to develop your tone; there's no preset for it. I'd buy the rack version of this just to make it easier to transport to sessions in the future.
Learn to play your instrument and don't expect the gear to give you talent or tone. If you can play well, you can play well through anything.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $99 on sale
Submitted 10/14/2004 at 03:08am by MadMordigan
Email: diyguitarprojects at yahoo<dot>com

Ease of Use : 10
A litte more involved than an amp but easier than most rack processors.

32 Amp models (one's a simulated tube preamp for mic's)
15 Cabinet models and though it seems confusing to store patches at first, VERY easy to operate.

Sound Quality : 8
The sound quality is Superb DEPENDING on how you use it. It's wicked plugged straight into the computer or straight into an amp. In my effects loop is isn't great but not bad.

When using it with an amp STAY AWAY FROM YOUR EFFECTS LOOP!!! An effects loop is AFTER your amps preamp. To get a warm rich sound from digital you need to get plenty of clean analog gain. Run it straight in. Guitar -> V Amp -> Guitar Amplifier
One guy says it sounds bad compared to his tube amp and I bet ANYTHING he's using it on an effects loop. Otherwise it's tones would put his amps ONE tone to shame. CLEAN ANALOG GAIN IS CRUCIAL TO SUCH UNITS.

The sound gate is excellent, effects are very warm and fluid like, amp models are quite accurate and the cabinet models top it all off to make it a versatile and priceless tool for home, stage or studio. Distortions are awesome and the cleans are warm and bright. Like a lower gain blues setting? Say maybe an SRV tone?
This does it DEAD ON.

Get a $50 tube pre and you'll see tube amps are going to become even less popular. My only complaint is the lack of highs when you use the cabinet simulators. Some clean analog gain,like a tube pre, cures this.

Reliability : No Opinion
So far BOTH V Amps I've owned have proven to be quite reliable.
....time will tell.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Haven't dealt with them other than requesting info. From my experiences and what I've read, they are very reliable and respond quite promptly

Overall Rating : 10
Overall it's one hell of a buy. You can use it with a power amp and a cabinet as another rig or run it straight into a PA. It's incredible for PC recording and will perform even better straight into the board in a studio.
EVERY guitarist should own one. The carrying case and footswitch are basically a bonus. The unit alone is well worth thew $99 I paid.

The ONE thing I wish it had was a circuit to give it some analog gain. They could do it with a tube but even just an op amp or transistor based circuit would do it. I run it through a power amp which I crank the bass and treble on since it's analog. ISSUE SOLVED.

If it were stolen I'd most definitely replace it even though I already own the V Amp Pro. This thing is MUCH more practical. I built a stand for it like the angled back amp stands and my V Amp rack mount looks like it may start collecting dust!

Buy one. It's that simple. If you don't then have fun with the headaches of mic'ing your amps. This is for the MODERN MUSICIAN who is about getting music recorded rather than jerking off to their overpriced $1000 amp.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $130
Submitted 10/13/2004 at 09:45am by Mike
Email: none

Ease of Use : 9
easy as any amp

Sound Quality : 4
I have been using this unit for more than one year now, and I've come to the conclusion that the sounds that it makes are realative. If I spend time playing thru one of my real tube amps, this unit sounds bad. If I only play thru the Behringer for weeks, it sounds great. The reality is; most consumers of music won't know or care if it sounds good or not. BUT, with that said, I think that alot of the distortion sounds are fine for rythm playing. It sucks hard for lead work. AND the clean sounds blow for everything. (unless you want the highly processed clean sound from 80's metal bands.) I play a custom strat with emg's, a 1973 LP custom and a 1979 the Paul.

Reliability : 5
It's plastic and looks dumb, but should be Ok unless you break it.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Don't know. Lots of web based "stuff".

Overall Rating : 5
I've been playing for 20 years.
I play just about any style that sounds interesting, but am mostly interested in composing. Currently not in a band. (or I am in two bands, depending on the situation.)
I still plan on working with this thing to see if I can get it to sound as good as my real amps. Note that I don't want it to sound like my real amps. Just to sound good and feel (respond) like an amp should. I have had some degree of improvement in lead tone and feel by running a TS9 into it, but it was still pretty fuzzy in a bad kind of way.
I will still be mic'ing my real amps when I'm doing "real" recording.
(I play Marshall and Sovtek tube amps.)
I sometimes like running pedals into the front of the amps when set both clean and dirty, sometimes just plug straight in with no FX at all. tubes just sound so good.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $139
Submitted 10/07/2004 at 01:23am by Pat
Email: imagineaz at yahoo<dot>com

Ease of Use : 7
It's not too hard to use; it would have been much easier if Behringer had dedicated a knob to every single thing this machine can do, instead of making us hold down buttons while we twist knobs, which makes it impossible to play and tweak simultaneously without 3 arms :(

The biggest complaint here is that certain settings/combinations can only be accessed via software, and if you set up a computer-only feature, you can't un-set it when away from your computer!

Sound Quality : 10
I play genuine metal, everything from Tristania to Decapitated. I've been using this V-Amp 2 for over a year now, and I feel qualified to judge its ability to play real metal.

I use it in four different setups and I have a completely unique set of patches for each of the four situations to achieve essentially the same sound. The bottom line is: you can get this thing to sound absolutely freakin' brutal, yet warm and crystal clear. I don't try to sound like any particular band, but I think my sound compares favorably to Decapitated's sound on "Nihility" or Dimmu Borgir's sound on "Puritanical...."

It's not ideally suited for use with a high quality guitar amp, as amp modelling is clearly its strength, but it'll make a cheap amp sound great. A friend who heard mine bought a V-Amp Pro for the clean channel on his older Mesa Dual Rec; he uses it for all softer stuff, but he often uses the heavier amp models when he's messing around and I think he's considering using its versatility to add new heavy sounds to his Mesa sound. I play it through my Crate MX65R with amp and cab modelling ON, and everyone who hears it just marvels at the huge, clear crunch.

I'm not qualified to judge the delay, chorus, etc., as I admit that I've never owned any stand-alone effects or any other multi-fx unit, but I sure can't imagine a sound that I can't produce with it. And it just went down in price, so it costs just about the same as any ONE delay or chorus or flanger pedal. As everyone says, the auto-wah is weak, bordering on silly, but I use the V-Amp 2 with the Behringer midi foot pedal, and the ACTUAL wah isn't all that terrible if you use it in conjunction with one of the expression pedals. It ain't great, but it's not too horrible...I use it during my rare solos.

Reliability : 6
The battery can come loose (which means you lose all your presets,) and if you visit the Yahoo users group forum, you'll see A LOT of people have had that problem. When you replace the battery, you can tweak the battery clip a bit to make sure it doesn't come loose again. Mine hasn't come loose since I tweaked the clip several months ago. Other than that, I haven't had any problem with it, but I'd take a backup to gig (I've never gigged) simply because it's plastic and just doesn't feel very robust.

Customer Support : 10
So far, I have had exactly 3 experiences with Behringer US customer support.

1. I called once when my V-Amp 2 seemed to have died on me. The support guy told me the battery had come loose and he told me to tweak the clip. Problem solved easily and quickly.

2. I called for a ROM upgrade. The call took approximately 30 seconds, including wait time and reading my address over the phone, and I had the chip in 2 days!

3. I called for a ROM upgrade to the FCB midi foot pedal. It was another 30-second phone call, and I again had the chip in 2 days.

The support guys sure don't chit-chat with you, but they get you exactly what you want, FAST.

Overall Rating : 9
For metal, including brutal death metal, this sucker sounds really, really good to my ears. I'm completely satisfied. I've played bass and sang lead in metal bands since the mid 80s and I don't remember any single guitar player I've worked with who had a better sound than I have now.

If it were stolen, I'd get a V-Amp Pro or a V-Ampire to replace it. I'm actually planning on getting a V-Ampire anyway, so I don't have to keep moving this one around.

Obviously, price played a major factor in my decision to buy this over a Pod or any other modeller, but I've heard way more Pod users prefer the Behringer sound than V-Amp 2 users who prefer the Line6 sound. In fact, there's a Pod users website that is totally dedicated to praising the Pod, and if you check out the "Competitors" section of the site, the guy actually states that, while scoping out the competition, he came to realize that the Behringer machine sounded better, so he has switched to the V-Amp 2. And now I notice that the site is gone. Maybe he has a V-Amp 2 users site now.

I'd have to say that I wish Behringer would go ahead and make a more expensive machine with a bigger face and dedicated knobs for every single feature and with every single feature and combination available right on the face of the thing (including POWER ON/OFF.) Also, I'd ditch the silly shape and put it in a simple rectangular shell. Plastic is fine for the desktop model, but invest in better battery clips and a better power jack.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $90 used
Submitted 09/27/2004 at 03:08pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 7
If you are editing patches directly on the unit it is easy to do the basics be more complicated for all the features. The labels are fairly clear. Not all the settings are displayed on the unit directly. Using the software is much easier. The manual is limited. The manual suggests to find a preset that is close to what you are looking for and then tweak it to get the sound you like. I found it easier to make a clean sounding setting with no effects and tweak from there.

The footswitch is nice to have but I would have rather had one that inidcated what setting I was on. I play with the unit behind me because I afraid it will get broken if it is on the floor on stage so I cannot tell what setting I am on without turning around. They make a midi control that can be used but it is overkill for what I need.

Sound Quality : 9
Once I played with this thing enough, I could any sound I was looking for - clean or heavy. It can sound great.

For recording, DI, or with headphones it really sounds good. Running it into a guitar amp can sound really bad if you have enabled the cabinet simulator. I found running this into a powered speaker sounds much better. It is designed for full frequency response so it needs something designed to play full frequencies.

The clean channels can be quite good but you have to level the sound between the clean and gain channels via the volume setting. If you use it with the presets the gain channels are 2x as loud as the clean channels.

The effects sound decent. They are not as flexible as a seperate effects but the units strength is in the amp modeling. The delay can sound a little too digital for my taste.

Reliability : 7
I have been gigging with it. Like others have mentioned, it is plastic and does not look too tough. I wish I had gotten the v-amp pro for durability. I have not had any problems but I treat it with kid gloves and make sure it is sitting out of harms way. I would not gig without a backup unless I had the pro.

Be sure to change the internal battery every year or it could go dead.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to deal with them.

Overall Rating : 9
If it was stolen, I would replace it. For the price it is hard to beat. The fun factor is high because of its versatility. It is not a real amp but it is very close. It does miss some of the nuances of real amps in some cases but then again it cost ~$100. By the way, I still get tons of complements on my tone with this unit.

Personally, I love not having to lug a big heavy amp to a gig. The carrying case is great. Throw that over my shoulder, bring my guitar, and maybe a powered monitor if I do not want to use the house monitors and I am ready to go.

To be fair the v amp2 is designed for home recording and head phones. If you want to gig, the v-amp pro is the way to go. The sound for the money is great. If you want to get into amp modeler, this is the place to start.

I have been playing for over 15 years. Mostly playing rock, blues, and jazz.



Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 257? (?)
Submitted 09/12/2004 at 12:14am by David
Email: dabi_m55<at>hotmail dot com

Ease of Use : 8
It could be easier to use. You have to make clear what you're changing, because the same knob is used for a few different parameters, but you get used to it quickly. The solution for all these should be a better display (only a 2 digit number can be displayed, while you can see the number, name and value of the preset or parameters on computer screen through midi) where more information about the parameter you're changing could be displayed. Parameters are really easy to change through midi conection, and software makes it really easy to use as you can see everything at once, this is the best way to deal with this machine when programming. The answer is inminent to every change way midi. If you're used to any other effects unit this should'nt be a problem for you to deal with.

Sound Quality : 9
I use it plugged into computer for recording, usually with my yamaha pacifica 821, or my ibanez satriani js100 (usually the first one). I own the v-ampire amp, not the v-amp 2 itseft, so it has a few different posibilities. Much better for recording this one than the v-amp 2 alone. It has 2 (left and right) balanced outputs that really are the direct box (ultra-g gi100) with simulation of cabinet that I've always used in my live performances. And you can change the mode so it has the emulation on-off. So you have another simulation apart from the ones included as cabinets, that is the one I actually use even for recording. There are some other modes which change the kind of signal emited through this connectors with effects, effects only through amp and output clean, etc. Added to this you can turn it to one of the 2 live modes and have another 3 band eq to make the sound fit for live performance. You also have the volume of the amp independent of the output signal on the back connectors (for making feedback while recording for example this is great). The sounds are quite good, I think. I don't know if they really sound like the real amps, and I don't really care. If you like the sound it doesn't matter, and it sounds good for the price. The clean sounds are very good, the reverb is ok and the chorus and delay which are the only effects I use, maybe compressor too. I plugged my boss gt6 to midi in to use it as a pedal controller and I don't like the wah wah at all. I play metal and I think it sounds good, but I recorded with a POD from a friend which I think sounds better but too much expensive. Compared to this one the v-amp sound is darker, I mean the high frequency response isn't too good. But as I'm having it only for a few days I can't say I won't get the sound I want, actually I'm really near to getting it yet.

Reliability : 6
No problems at all with it at the moment only a few days with it aren't enough to say anything abuot it, but it is slow at changing presets. As every digital effects unit it has a time of silent while changing, larger than the korg ax1000g, and of course than the boss gt6, which are the other effects units I own, and the ones I can compare this one with. The gt6 is the best by far in parameter and flexibility, but much more difficult to use and much more expensive, simulations aren't too good for recording if you don't expend lots of time programming.But you really can't compare these two ones. I may take my v-ampire to a live performance if I don't have much space to carry things, otherwise I'll take my gt6, direct box and my marshall. V-amp may be better for recording.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Nothing to say. No deal with them.

Overall Rating : 7
I play metal (heavy-thrash). I only have used it for recording a solo actually and practise at home and it succeded. I have to try it more time and get deeper, but I'm optimist about it.
Compared to my boss gt6 this is just a toy, but as it's much easier to use and needs few wiring it fits better for recording I think. Compared to my korg ax1000g, it has lots of possibilities due to the connectors (midi, send, return, balanced line out with cabinet simulation, unbalanced line out,...), but korg sounds good too (although you have to take pen and paper to take note of presets as you can't connect it midi). V-amp is the worst for live performance because of the silent interval between presets change, which is the longest of the three, and because the footswith doesn't add an expression pedal. What I like the most is the connection capabilities. Some people complain about the shape of the v-amp but the POD has a similar shape too. It is make of plastic but think that this get the price down (I dont have these problems with the v-ampire actually but I tried a v-amp from a friend too before buying mine). I don't like the sound being to dark (but I'll have to use it more before I can really complain). I bought it for recording. I wanted to have something plugged to my computer all the time with a good sound and the less atmount of wires messing around, and this one was the best choice (quality/price is the best relation). I tried one before buying from a friend, and a POD too. I'd prefer the pod if the price were the same. I wish it came with an expression pedal. I really like the way you can program it using midi and computer. If you're looking for something cheap to record this is your choise, for live performance there're some other better choices. Look for an expression pedal, and take care of the silent time between preset change when looking for live performance, appart form the sound itself, of course.


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: US $120.00
Submitted 09/09/2004 at 03:13pm by Lucky Mc Nasty

Ease of Use : 10
Purty durn e-zy if yer asken me. I've had it for a while, but have yet to actually program it other than adjusting the ore-sets as I'm playing. I have a half dozen or so fav's and seem o stick to them. If I ever have the time, it would be nice to spend an afternoon delving into the programing.

Sound Quality : 10
Well now....I bought this little gem as one of those dreaded "impulse buy's". I figured I was too much of a tube snob to be bothered with fake sounding V-amps, pods, j-stations and the sort. A friend had just given me a brand new digital recorder he never used, so I decided I might want something to give me a multi-tude of tones without scaring the neighbors. I must say, I am very impressed with the tone and ease of use of the V-Amp. For the money...forget about it! It's a no brainer. If I had paid $500 for it, I might have some bitches about the tone, layout, blah-blah-blah...but for the pittance Behringer charges ( ain't reverse engineering a bitch! ) I have nothing but praise. I don't use all the mega death distortion patches ( even though they are a blast with headphones or run through a little home practice system )as I'm an old fart that plays the blues, but many of the clean / semi clean patches are great. I'm surprised at how well they respond to the guitars volume control. The main thing I use the V-Amp for is to practice into headphones. I can plug my cd player in the the aux and jam along with BB, Freddie, Albert, Merle, Gary Moore, Delbert McClinton, Pink Floyd...whatever mood I'm in. The beauty is I can pretty much nail the tones I'm playing along with. I've played guitar for over 30 years and have an assortment of homebrews, fenders, gibsons and el cheapos. They retain quite a bit of their sonic character run through the V-amp. I've used it live in a small, coffe house type duo setting, but have not had the balls to try it with a band. For what it is....an inexpensive tone tool...it works well. I was never one to actually sit down and practice the guitar, but since the V-amp has come into my life, I find myself longing to don the headphones and play along with a CD. For that alone, I'm happy to have it. I consider it cheap inspiration! The 10 rating I'm giving this takes into account the incredible value the V-Amp represents.

Reliability : 8
Well....as others have pointed out...it's plastic. I don't mind though. I would buy one made of cardboard if it would shave some $$ of the price! I'm easy on my gear. I have several guitars, amps and effects that I bought new 25 years ago that still look and work like new. I've had some problems with it loosing it's factory pre-sets, but it only takes a moment to re-load them.....so, I don't worry about it.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
My overall rating for this would have to be good. Even though I'm pretty much a guitar, chord, amp player, having 3,000 tones at my fingertips inspires me. I love getting super clean, haunting tones and the V-Amp makes it easy. Nailing tones from Carlton, Ford, Clapton, Gilmore and the three Kings is pretty easy with the V-Amp. Again, for what it is, it has far exceeded my expectations. The fact that I paid less for this than I did for practice amp back in 1986 amazes me. It has made me want to play more and the more I play, the more I learn. Cheap inspiration!


Product: Behringer V-Amp 2
Price Paid: 100 (UK Pounds)
Submitted 08/20/2004 at 04:06am by Paddy Green
Email: paddy<at>uberdog dot co dot uk

Ease of Use : 7
I'm a fool who didn't read the manual for some time... and even without that I was getting some pretty good sounds out of it - now the sounds have just got better - you can work it without the manual, the front panel is nice and clear, but some of the features are pretty well hidden :-)

I found the manual a bit hard to follow, especially since it covers the v-ampire and the v-amp pro as well.

Sound Quality : 9
I've had no problems with the sound quality - we're a (heavy) trip-hop band, and both me and the other guitarist both use the V-Amp 2 - running it directly into the desk, so straight out, and into the monitors. Also, we use a LOT of different sounds (about three different patches per song) and the V-Amp allows us to really cover a lot of ground sound wise.

The effects could probably be better, but for the price they're astounding.

We use the units in the studio (lovely) and we use them live as well.

Reliability : 9
We've had to use them at gigs without backup. I was a little concerned to hear about the internal battery problem, and will make sure I check that out soon. We try to be careful with them, cause they certainly don't look that tough.

One thing that we discovered just as we were about to kick off at the biggest gig we'd played was this: if the power supply isn't plugged in properly, the lights can still all come on but the input/output just doesn't work. This is not a good thing to happen!

Customer Support : No Opinion
Not had to deal with them, so no opinion.

Overall Rating : 10
For the kind of music we do, the V-Amp is a wonderful piece of equipment - it allows us to make a whole range of sounds with a very small footprint, and it's a whole lot lighter than carrying amps about. It makes home studio recording a whole lot easier as well.

You can hear tunes using it at http://www.uberdog.co.uk, if you want an idea of the kind of sounds we're making with it.

Oh, one real complaint is the general look of the thing - whoever designed that body shell should honestly be stabbed in the neck, but I'm thinking of upgrading to the V-Amp Pro to deal with that by having all the features of the V-Amp 2 in a nice solid rackmount.

Seriously, this is a great bit of kit, and unbeatable at the price - I can imagine it wouldn't suit everyone in a live environment, but for a home studio setup it's absolutely magic.

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