Behringer VD1 Vintage Distortion Pedal

It,s pretty simple to use, with those big knobs. JOst one thing though: the Sustain knob, well, it does control sustain, but that,s coz it's actually a gain knob, and by turning the gain up, youy get a compression effect. It's not the same thing as the sustain knob on a compressor pedal.

I've tried it with a Yamaha guitar (medium priced) and a solid state Marshall. It offers an interesting fuzz-like effect, akin to the sound of a Big Muff, but it doesn,T have all the agressiveness of a true Big Muff. Plus it has a slightly less generous low end, compared with a real Big Muff, I think. The effect, overall, has a grungy quality, I think. If that,s what youy like, this might be a good thing to try.

I must say that in terms of sound quality, this thing sounds a bit muffled; like it performs poorly in tha high frequencies department. Perhaps it would be a good idea to use it with bass guitars, then...?

Don't know.

Don't know.

I play guitar and keyboards. I play old school metal, punk, eighties hard rock and progressive rock. This piece of gear might be useful for creamy guitar solos, ?? la David Gilmour (in his early seventies period). It's an interesting alternative to fuzz units that have more of a square wave quality. It,s good also, I think, for post-grunge, Foo Fighters-style stuff...

But if you are looking for a distortion unit that provides lots of gain but retains very good sound clarity, ?? la Alex Lifeson or Satriani, I'm afraid youy should look elsewhere. One single pedal can't do it all, I guess.

Um...I don't know if I'm the person to talk about ease of use. I spent hours tweaking knobs, then I turned the Tone and Sustain knobs all the way up. But...three knobs and a footswitch. So for a Dinosaur Jr. hard rock sound it's effortless to use, but if you're going for something subtler...could take some time. Only issue is, the footswitch is a little weird. When you turn it on it's just like any other pedal, but switching it off, the distortion stays on until you let the switch all the way up. You have to really stomp and pull back.

Currently my rig consists of a Squier Strat with hot rails into a Morley wah, Behringer tuner, Danelectro octave, then this pedal, Digitech Hot Head, and Digitech Grunge, then into a Behringer PMP3000 mixer. Like I said, I keep the Tone and Sustain all the way up; that gives me a smooth, creamy distortion, but with a fairly hard bite. Like a lesbian vampire in a cheap porn flick. Turning down the Sustain turns it from smooth fuzz to more of a crunch sound, and unlike my Digitech and (rarely used) Ibanez distortions, with the Sustain knob at about one o'clock, you can even use open chords. Turning the Tone down results in a thick, rumbly tone. I heard a distinct increase in sustain, especially when I used it in line with the Grunge pedal...those two together really screamed.
Now, it is a bit noisy like any distortion box, but it's the quietest distortion I've used except an Ibanez TS-7 Tubescreamer. Very soft buzz. I can get some pretty close Hendrix, J Mascis, and Steve Turner tones, without turning into a total copy of them.
You know what? It's a Big Muff Pi. Just cheaper.

I'd put this at 10 if I'd had the pedal longer...but I just got it a couple weaks ago. I've been practicing and recording with it, but I've only used it on two gigs. I use it with a Boss power supply, so I don't know about battery life.
Anyway, casing's metal and fairly sturdy, and that's always been my main issue with pedals. I'd definitely use it without a backup, if I didn't already have two backup distortions velcro'd to the pedalboard.

Never dealt with 'em. If it broke I could probably fix it based on Big Muff schematics, so it's not likely I'd ever call them.

I've been playing grunge, noise, and hard rock for about two years...been doing it at a semi-professional level for about half that. From the start I figured the ideal setup was a Big Muff Pi, Boss DS-1, and Digitech Grunge...I got this pedal because it was so similar to one of those. I love the sustained grind I can get with it and the harmonics it brings out. I'd like it if I could get more of the damaged-speaker it has at low Sustain levels without losing the...well, sustain, but otherwise it's pretty ideal. My sound is very trebly, harsh and thin, and this fits it perfectly. 10 out of 10.

This pedal has a lot of features, in fact, it has the exact same features as the Line 6 Echo Park. It has many different settings for delay types that are controlled with one nob: ping pong, slap back, tap tempo, swell, and many many more. It also has a switch that lets you select between tape, digital, and analog sounding delays. It also lets the echos trail off after you turn off the pedal.

I play a Stellar hollowbody guitar or Eastwood Beatle bass into my pedal board, Behringer tuner->MXR m-88?->Zvex fuzz factory->Boss bass synth->Dunlop Crybaby->Russian big muff-> EH pulsar-> Behringer EM600-> Boss loopstation, then into a Peavey TKO 115. This pedal is a tone sucker. Both of my Behringer pedals are tone suckers, so I'm not sure this is entirely unique. But it takes some strange chunks out of my sound, my wah has become lifeless and the pulsar lacks its depth. That isn't to say there aren't good things. The repeats are really beautiful on the tape and digital modes, but there seems to be a wall of background noise on all the settings...this could be a problem. The decays on the analog and tape repeats are pretty convincing to me. If you weren't using other effects with this pedal it would be a great pedal, but in a chain it has some definite problems.

People complain about Behringer's plastic housing, but I think the housing's fine. What worries me is that every time you step on the pedal you push a rubber stick into a tiny switch on the circuit board. My tuner pedal has the same setup and I've used it for a year without any problems, so we'll see. If I were a touring musician I'd buy the empress super delay, solid as a rock with the same features without the tone rapeage.

This is my first delay. I play everything from droning Indian folk songs to industrial post rock. I haven't used this at band practice yet but I look forward to it. Up until early this year I really didn't know what delay was, which is kind of embarrassing where I've been playing for six years. I was going to buy a Malekko 600, but where I'd never used or owned a delay pedal I didn't want to spend $200 on a pedal that I may never use. This seems like a good pedal for demonstrating concepts in delay, and nothing else.

I really don't know what can be easier to use than a stomp box with three knobs and a switch. Well, maybe a stomp box with switch only.

First of all, I'd like to point out that I use this with bass. I tried this with guitar too but I really didn't get anything good out of this. But with bass the sound is really good, it needs some post processing but generally it sounds very solid. The middles get a bit muddy and highs are a bit edgy but those can be compensated with EQ only. I agree with most that the sustain knob doesn't really have much to do with real sustain and that the pedal just cuts the sound at some point but I don't play that long notes so I don't see it as a problem for me. There is constant high pitched noise when connected to AC adapter but I think the adapter is poorly regulated, haven't got a spare so I could try. No problems running on a battery.

The case is light but still it's metal so I'd count on it. The overall construction is so simple that the only thing that can break is the AC adapter socket. I know there are problems with Behringer's quality control but I haven't had any problems so far.

Never had to deal with them. Anyway, I suppose the unit gets replaced if it goes bang while still covered under warranty. These things are not made to be repaired.

It's not Muff, it's not Rat but it's still very good distortion pedal for bass. I wouldn't use it for guitar except at low gain or lead melodies. It's not a power chord distortion.

Couldn't be easier to use - it's a stomp box. Controls seem to work well, no complaints at all.

Sound quality is where this shines. I have 4 amps:a 6L6 tube amp, an EL 34 tube amp, a Hughes & Kettner little bitty practice amp (complete junk quality but nice clean channel) and a modeling head. This is good through all of them. This box sounds like tube distortion from the EL34 amp. Very nice, creamy, smooth... I really REALLY dislike harsh distortion like many of the new pedals provide. This one is just really, really smooth and rounded off tone... I play rock but this would work great for blues too. Of course every one will have a different opinion. This is probably horrible for the thrash metal players.

Seems like a pretty good piece. Metal box, very old school looking. Probably could be heavier but I think it's good enough. I've seen people rate Behringer poorly on reliability because of what other reviewers have said.... What the h***??? If the thing has been reliable for you it deserves a good number. Mine hasn't given any trouble, so it gets a 10.

No need to use customer support.... plug it in, it works.

This is really well suited to 60's and 70's rock. Probably an excellent choice for blues as well, or texas/southern rock. I have way too much gear to list, accunmulated over 40 years of playing. Even though Behringer seems to get knocked by a lot of people, I seem to be buying more and more of their stuff and liking it. In this case I wanted a distortion pedal but thought that most of the pedals were very harsh sounding. I just really can't stand that harshness - sounds like transistor clipping to me, very hard to listen to. When I heard this one that was it - I found one online and ordered it. It was not a price-driven decision. I would definitely buy this again.

Three knobs.. level, tone, and sustain, one ojn/off footswitch and a ststus led - could't be easier. I was able to dial in gorgeous tone in nothing flat!

Like I said, gorgeous creamy sustain that goes on for miles! Not one stick of noise was introduced into the signal chain. I had it patched up with a Marshall DSL-401, a Blackheart BH5-112, and a Fender Cyber Deluxe that normally doesn't play well with pedals but loves this one!

I have other Behringer products and they all work just fine. I don't anticipate any problems! I don't gig so they really won't be road tested.

Haven't had to call them but the unit shipped with a list of support numbers for basically anywhere on the planet! I wouldn't anticipate a problem here.

I play blues, rock, jazz, and my own brand of insanity. This pedal is way more than I expected it would be. Naturally, the pedal needs to be properly sequenced in the chain to sound "correct". I've been playing music for about 45 years... electric guitar about seven of those. For what I paid, I wouldn't loose much sleep if it was lost or stolen... I'd just buy another one. I've never owned a BM so now this unit has peaked my curiosity. I guess I'll have to get one of those too eventually. In terms of value-for-the-dollar, I think I'd be hard pressed to find something better than behringer.

if you need the manual, you need to go back to acoustic for a while... almost as easy as it gets, however i'm giving an 8 because i don't like the arrangment of the in/out jacks at the back, i want them on the side dammit! it makes my meagre collection of pedals look like a pile of robot spaghetti vomit, a horible mess of leads...

this pedal won't be for everyone, especially gear snobs that need the right names on thier stuff, but i think i might be in love... despite how it chokes on poorly struck notes (the price you pay for the noise gate), or how it seems to have no sustain on the skinny strings at the widdly end of the fret board, i prefer to look on these 'shortcomings' as a very unique feature of this unit, shit, if boss came out with a pedal that did that on purpose people would pay good money to have something different, which is why i like it; unique sounds, versatile, and because it says 'Behringer' most other guitarists won't touch it, so I DONT HAVE TO SOUND LIKE EVERY OTHER WANKER WITH A BIG MUFF (nothing against BM's, but every prick seems to have/want one). now, i'm a simple man, when i get a pedal, i find the sound i like then i stay with it. this pedal however sees me swing that tone pot from about 10 o'clock to 5 with some regularity, i don't know whats come over me... any way, my austere set up goes like this ; Jap fender 62 reissue custom tele(CIJ not MIJ)/ tokai TJ-65 Love Rock (double cut l-p jr copy) into--> boss sd1 --> VD-1 --> danelectro (don't laugh) french fries (octave distotion)--> Eq pedal --> epiphone valve jr head+cab. now it may have become obvious that i don't have the most expensive crap, but the theme here is value 4 $$$. and trying to sound a bit different to others. so don't buy this pedal or you'll sound like me and then people will laugh at you. anyway, here are the good points: my unit does not have any extraneous noise problems (unlike my sd-1 which hisses if you look at it), with my tele there is a definate difference in tone between the neck and bridge p/u, (neck is so thick you can spoon it out, crank everything and it sounds like the amp is gonna explode, bridge is like getting a root canal), with my set up i find it has excellent note definition, quite surprising for a unit with that much hairy gain and something that i fear a lot of people overlook. IT LOVES OTHER PEDALS! this little pedal slut loves getting it on with all my other units AT THE SAME TIME (-gasp-), which can be a bit raucaus but well worth it for the occasional wig-out... despite its old skool pretensions, if you put an eq pedal in there with a big scoop from the mids, prepare to lose fillings. one final point i'll add is that this thing cooks tubes soooo sweetly... my heart melts with that little 12ax7....

i haven't killed it yet, but, mmm, behringer, some of thier stuff works well, some works better as door stops or paper weights. the important thing is despite the footswitch no one likes (is there something wrong with me? i actually prefer this switch to the ones that click) and the cheap knobs (if you want chicken heads look in the mirror, they still work just as good),it can all be swapped out. you can even take everything out and have a nice case to build your own big muff clone.

i wouldn't debase myself further by asking for a replacement $10 pedal...

i guess my style would be somewhere in the bluesy rocky grungey sleazey field, maybe thats what they should rename this thing, coz it suits. if it were stolen i would feel pity for the poor soul who took it... my favourite feature is that it doesn't say big muff on it, and i don't know anyone else with one. in fact i don't think i've ever heard of anyone with any hint of credibilty using these... sounds just right for me then. i have to give it a 10 here coz thats what i paid for it (rrp $75 AUS), best value i ever got for a musical item. bought on sale, i had to jump the queue outside the store without getting beaten up, luckily i was in front of the one other guy that actually wanted it. sorry dude, but you did get a ds1 for $30, can't have your cake and eat it, so i'll just help myself if you don't mind...

Very simple to use, pretty much like all distortion boxes. No mistery. Only thing is, "Sustain" it's kinda "Gain" actually. Very versatile 2 knobs combinations.

First of all, i'm writing this review cause it's the first, I guess, addresing this VD1 used w/ a bass guitar. I'm a huge fan of distorted bass, and of course, the words Big Muff Clone are very appealing considering the price. I've tested a BMPi and this Behringer things, to my ears, it's only slightly brighter in the sound. Surprinsingly enough, this has some kind of true bypass, very doubtly True Bypass, but with no battery and no power supply it gets the signal thru the amp. Very silent in the noise area, it gives a silence class to both russian and american BM's. The amount of distorsion is huge, very versatile combinations with the tone knob. The bass screams. Only thing, it does suck some low end, as expected with a guitar pedal, but nothing too serious. Now I use my old, trusty BOD100 in a clean, boosting mode, giving it a little more "low", right after the VD1. Talk about face melting, ground shaking bass. Great, great sound for bass. I don't know in the guitar, but for bass, i don't really see the point of getting the big muff. Solid 9, nothing is perfect.

Here's when things get pretty pretty satisfying. I own two of the smaller, plastic, colourful, cheap boxes of great sound of Uli's factory, the BOD100 and the CS100, compressor/sustainer. Both things had the roblem of being plastic. You have to treat them like delicate ladies. This thing has a metal casing, seems very very resistant. The swithc, on the other hand, it's not that bright, but beats the hell out of the little BEhringers. Great look, the knobs are ugly, but firm. One thing that I loved about this one, IT DOESN'T NEED A SPECIAL POWER SUPPLY, it has a good old boss like ac/dc jack. Great!!

All in all, a great pedal for bass. Like all guitar distorsions, it sucks a little low end, but no more than the "real" thing, so for all bass player around, go get one. It's cheap, sturdy, and a great load of over the top distorsion, with greeat sustain and very musical harmonic content. Get, also, some booster to give your guitarist a hard time, or some equalizer, to add some bottom to your sound. Great pedal. value for money, that's the key.

Pretty simple to use, a no brainer.
Came with a typical Behringer manual explaing the 3 knobs.
I think it's an early model with the Balck/Red print. Dated 10/05

Hmmm, the sound. I'm not that familiar with BIg Muff's (Pi/Green or Russian) but I heard enough of them to know how they sound. The Behringer is close, although no cigar,imo. But that does't mean it's bad sounding effect at all! Although it is noisy! The bypass is not "thru" and it fizzles when not engaged if any setting is above 8, which is a bit anoying. And the unit is "percussive" meaning that hard striked notes sound superb, but softly played notes get choked away, also not ideal if you want to play smooth parts.
Giving the bad points, it also has some very interseting sounds. I like it's Fuzzy/driven sound, unlike any other Fuzz pedals I play(ed) and heard. Mudhoney sounds are easy to dial, so is some Hendrix alike sounds. But I think it's best for thick lead percusive/rythmic things, as long as they are not subtile.
I would say it's best when combined with a tube screamer in front. I use a Behringer TO-100 and then the sounds you get are superb. Both units bad sounds, seam to cancel each other out. I even opens the Vintage Distortion up imo. If you want "Stoner", you defenitely will. Very nice sounds.

So a 6 minus on it's own but a thick 8 when combined with a TS.

But the Bypass is a weak point.

The unit comes is a pretty sturdy (think Electro Harmonics) metal box. Top and bottom. footswitch and knobs are a bit wobly, but nothing bad.
I'll take it to a gig withouth expecting any problems. Never take back-ups with me, since I down't own a moving truck.
Although I will not use this one as my main distortion.
It will prove more useable for recording or thickening another distortion.

Don't know, never dealth with them. But I heard they are decent.

Is it a good product? Yes and No. I mean for the price you can't get wrong. Heck I couldn't even buy two packs of guitar strings for what I paid for it. Would I have bought it at retail price? probably not.
It can sound very good, but it's moody, kind of stiff. But I like it, especially when combined with other pedals.And it works very well with my old Fender amps and Jazzmaster guitars.
Although I will defenitely try to do something about the switch, making it thru bypass. In short, I think it's a good alternative for a Muff, it you don't intent to use it as your main distortion.
You get what you pzy for, so it's a pretty good deal if you can live with it's shortcommings.
Anyway, I will probably also take a good look at Behringer's Vintage Phaser as well, even as it also have some issues.

very easy to use, 3 knobs and a stomp switch with true bypass wiring (sends the clean signal to the amp and bypasses the effect when its off)

Level :
this controls the volume of the distortion (0-10 works just like the volume on an amp)

Tone : like the tone on a guitar, not very good on this pedal in my opinion it doesn't make much difference to the sound i just use it on 10 so its nice and bright.

Sustain : this controls the distortion along with the level, if this is on 0 it wont make much noise at all, if its on 10 it will scream.

seems to be a very nice sound i use a dimarzio super2 in the neck posistion of my tele and i get 80's hair metal sounds if i dial in the right settings.
there is a lot of feedback (the bad kind) with some setups where the sustain will need turning down.
works on any amp ive tried (orange micro crush battery amp, epiphone valve standard, behringer gmx212).

seems ok, had it for about a month, metal top plastic sides, crap knobs.

will be replacing it with chickenhead knobs

havent dealt with them.
wouldnt expect much assistance though.

its a pretty good pedal for the money, sounds like 70's/80's rock on the right settings which i love to play, if i lost it id get a different pedal just for a change, i like the way this pedal makes my Clean epiphone amp sounds like a rock monster, it would be nice if it had chickenhead knobs as standard and maybe some extra controls for gain/volume instead of the level knob.

its a bargin pedal that doesn't dissapoint.