Behringer GMX212 V-Tone

Check the website for this -- I couldn't improve on their info.

It takes some tweeking, but honestly, it's the closest thing to having a Marshall JCM and Mesa Dual Rectifier in the same room. You won't get the full force of this amp until you get the FCB1010 footcontroller. Geez, it's $175 at the most -- just do it.

I keep reading reviews submitted by guys who had Behringer's go south on them. One guy said he had SEVEN AMPS go bad. I think we're talking about user error here. I started playing when I was 10 in 1976, and I've never blown or burned up an amp. Not once... Replaced lots of speakers, tubes and fuses though. I always up-sized my amps for the gigs I played.

If you're burning up your amps, you need to step up to a higher wattage -- bottom line. The GMX212 is just barely loud enough to gig with in a tiny small club. Anything over 100 people and you need a 100 watt half stack at the minimum.

Haven't used them.

Excellent amp for home studio, practice, rehearsal in a small space, and small gigs. Not built or intended for a real gig in a big club. Folks, if you're gigging regularly, you can afford to pony up more than $300 for your amplification.

Bought this recently as a spare to my Fender Tweed Blues Deluxe, as it has a habit of cutting out, which i have now repaired!! I has way too many features to go into but if you want two sounds then this is the amp for you. HOWEVER and it is a big however

Trying to make sense of the FCB controller for the effects is next to worthless as the instructions are hopeless, unless that is you have a deep understandng of MIDI but some of the presets are good.
It can be noisy it can be loud, but mostly if you want more than clean and distorted, look elsewhere, this amp is crap if you want to use inline or looped effects, as said before without a good Preamp, the power amp rear inputs are just not loud enough. HOWEVER...

I Now use my working fender- preamp out- into front panel of Behringer GMX and a little tweaking- I have the sound of GODs very own Guitar rig, it is truly the most awesome sounding set up i have ever heard, call it luck bu ti have discovered it. I use Variax 500 with custom fender neck, (original was rubbish) Korg AX1000G and Frender Blues Deluxe Tweed 40W.
with this set up I can recreate almost any guitar amp sound ever, I will be forever surprised....

quite helpful but veeeeerrrrrry slow

Ohh too much detail

I bought this Feb. 2005. This amp is pretty amazing for the price. I play mainly rock like Greenday, Foo fighters, Pennywise, and also classic rock. It is 2 channels and it includes the footswitch to change channels and turn FX on/off. Includes an effects loop, which was disappointing, and is the reason for a 7 instead of a 10. I will usually hook up my GNX2 preamp with my other amps using the fx return. Although this amp has an input for this, it's just not loud enough. Unless I'm missing something...But I doubt it. I do this with all my amps. Lots of in/out options. I use this amp in a large garage with a loud drummer and bass player. No problem keeping up(if I'm plugged straight it, no digitech GNX2). 100 watts. It has effects built in which can be programed to change with channel switching, but there may be a gap when switching channels if you use them. Has a MIDI in too, Haven't used it yet. Oh, the channel switching is not the smoothest most seamless in the world.

I play Ibanez guitars with Dimarzios or Seymour Duncans. The amp is a little noisy on high gain settings. Not too bad though. You have 3 amp models, three gain settings and 3 cabinet settings on each channel. BUT! You can't change them with the footswitch. Too bad...
Good distorion, and plenty of it. I like a little dirt on my clean channel, and it sounds great with a lush chorus in the effects.

No problems so far. I would gig out with it. No tubes to worry about, but I do hear some horror stories about Behringer. My bass player bought a Brand New Behringer 1X15 cab, and within 3 hours it died. His replacement is fine. I think Behringer may have a quality control issue. If you get a bad one, you're screwed. But if you get a good one, you'll be fine.

Emailed Behringer once about another product and NEVER received a response.

Been playing for 25 years. I also own a Peavey 5150 combo and a Rocktron Replitone 2X12 combo. Also have a VHT 2X12 combo. I like to use my Digitech GNX2 because I have a lot of effects and sounds programmed, but not with this amp because of the lack of volume when bypassing the amps preamp and slaving off the power amp. If something happened to this amp, I don't know if I would buy it again, only because there are a lot of choices these days. I may go for a VOX valvetronics. A lot more money though.
The only weaknesses with this amp are the effects loop/slave in. You can't get nearly enough volume if you use a preamp IN situation. I tried it with my Digitech GNX2. All my other combos produce much more volume with the effects return connection. Also, it would've been great if you were able to switch guitar models from the footswitch.
For the money, a 2X12 100watt amp, with effects, channel switching, effects loop(although weak), MIDI and a few more in/outs. Footswitch included! You can't beat this value. And it sounds good.

Bought the amp second hand off ebay, cost me #170. I didnt expect much to be honest, just wanted a loud amp with a 2x12 speaker set up and thats exactly what I got. Standard 2 channel amp, footswitch yada yada, you already know what it can do.

I hate the sound of this amp. I bought it purely to use as a slave amp for my POD XT and it does the job very VERY well. The inputs on the back of this amp are amazing for the money. Im runnin a POD in stereo thru the amp, so im basically using the power amp and the speakers, nothing to do with the pre amp or the channels. The amp is so versatile in this sense, more so than anything I have ever seen for the money. Its loud, its solid, its light, its just what you need if you dont want to carry a half stack around.

I get loads of noise when using the amp itself, ie pluggin direct to the amp. im told its the amp pickin up dodgy electrical signals from my dodgy house wiring, but i think thats a cop out....Even with the lead unplugged i get a nasty hissing, which incidently, stops when you give it a firm whack on the top.....(I know where the dodgy wiring is) But used as a slave amp, no problems at all. One thing thats kinda strange is when using the slave LEFT RIGHT inputs, the amp cannot dictate the volume at all, its all controlled by the FX unit. Not a major problem, but I was kinda surprised by that.

Dunno, but have a feeling ill be calling soon

I like this amp, a lot, i have a POD XT with 2 twelve inch speakers basically. The amp doesnt interfere with the sound, it just pumps it out. Its solid enough, rocks the walls in here when pushed, what more could you ask for. Used as a stand alone amp, id really really think twice. The lead tones are impressive at first, but then you realise they are unuseable. The clean tones are so damn quiet, and you have to physically change the amp setting if you want more than two sounds. Its loud, its dirty however, so depending on your style this might be right up your street.

(manufactured april 2004)

The amp has 2 channels, each identical so you can set both on distortion or clean, which is very useful in some cases.

Also it has loads of very useful effects such as reverb, delay, chorus, phaser, to cabinet modelling etc, all stored in the 99 presets. For each preset you can change the degree at which the effect affects your sound but you need a seperate midi pedal or a software if you want to edit the presets, but i find the presets to be varied enough. Also the effects are channel specific so you can give your clean some delay and set your distortion on reverb for an example.

BUT there is a one major problem with using the effects. If you set different effects for each channel, there's this VERY ANNOYING DOUBLE PAUSE when changing channels. Basically the amp changes the effects right after changing the channel, not simultaneously, and there's a slight pause in each of those changes. So when you change a channel, there will be a slight pause, some sound, effect change, which introduces another pause, and then sound again. It is a major flaw that must be addressed. I get around it by setting the same effect for both channels which solves the problem, but the channel switching still seems slower than average.

Other than that, the IO features are impressive, effect loop, cabinet out, line out, line in with level control, tape in/out, headphone out etc.

Also there's an included foot pedal that lets you switch channels and turn the effects or the built in tuner on/off.

I'm using an ibanez RG with dimarzio tonezone and airnorton at the bridge and neck respectivly, with nothing in between the amp and the guitar.

The distortion is amazing on this thing! Unlike many solid state amps with harsh distortion, this one sounds like a tube amp! Also the amp can go really loud with distortion. For heavy distortion you can set your amp on either british or california amp model, with british sounding like marshall and the other mesa. You can change the cabinet type too from flat, UK, and US. Flat doesn't sound so good to me so i never use it. UK has more highs while US has darker, bassier sound. The distortion settings can be changed from clean, high-gain to hot. There isn't much difference between high-gain and hot and you can't get great cleans with brit and calf amp models but the clean setting on Tweed amp model more than makes up for it.

Tweed amp model provides very nice clean sound. However, it can?t go very loud if you want to be crystal clean in which case, you?ll need to set ur clean level at max and distortion level at around 2 or 3, greatly decreasing the overall volume you can get out of the amp. However, even with that hit it can go against a loud drummer when jamming. When tweed model is used with high-gain or hot, you can get this slightly distorted sound which sounds VERY nice. It reacts well with your picking so it distorts more when played hard, like a real tube amp.

The amp is versatile and seems to suit many styles, i myself play alternative, punk, indie and some metal which the amp does very well in. I?ve had other people play on this amp who?s music style range from blues to older rock, and they all thought it sounded great.

One minor problem is that the amp is noisier than average when lots of gain is used. But the advantages far outweighs this small problem.

I haven't had it for a long time but the amp seems to be built solidly, although the knobs seem a bit flimsy. The included foot pedal is made of plastic and seems cheap but that can be replaced easily.

Haven't had the chance to deal with them yet. And i sure hope i won't

I'm a beginner who's been playing for 2 years. I've been using vox tonelab for practicing at home and when jamming used a fender 50watt amp (solid state) or a mesa boogie dual recto.

I just love the sound and the price. One major fault would be the effects affecting the channel switching but since i'm not a heavy user of effects it's fine with me, and i'm used to switching slightly earlier than usual now.

I was thinking of buying a marshall avt series amp but after playing with one in a gig, i changed my mind. Being a high school student stuck with a small budget who can't afford tube amps, i've looked into the line6 spider series but i don't really like the sound my friend's pod xt can produce (plus i can't get one locally here) so i just bought this behringer and i'm really glad i have.

It's a steal for the price and i'd definitely buy it again if it broke. And i'd actually pay more for this amp if behringer fixes the channel switching problem. If they do that, it'd be the perfect amp and i'd give it a 10.

I like the fact that it dosen't have a clean channel and a distortion channel. You get everything on both channels which is sweet. The effects are 'ok'. The power this thing has is amazing. LOUD!

I don't like how the amp switches channels! It has a very un-natural delay and strange things happen to the guitar signal when changing channel. You can't be playing a song and at the next beat switch to a distorted sound or even just a different effect. That REALLY sucks and that is the ONLY thing that I don't like about this amp hence the low rating on features. THAT NEEDS FIXED BEHRINGER!!!

I use an Epiphone Les Paul with standard humbuckers. I am running a POD xt Live into the slave input which bypasses the Behringer preamp. The Jensen speakers they chose have very little flavor to them (which is a good thing). I can run the POD xt Live with the "Direct" setting and it sounds awesome. I play blusey rock so haveing a twin rocks. I tryed the internal distortions on the amp though and they are VERY usable. The amp models sound good and the same with the speaker models.

Haven't used it a whole lot. Still messing around with it. It is very sturdy. Very heavy too. I am going to mount some casters on it.

Never had to use it

I would buy it again if something happened to it. I think that you can't get anything better for that kind of money. Tell everybody about this amp.

A versatile amp but there is a drawback.

A versatile amp but there is a drawback.

Here is the drawback.

I am on my 3rd GMX110 and my 4th GMX212. They have all failed. The GMX110 had problems with no or low outputs in the tape/rec out and the GMX212 fails to switch channels and produces incredibly large amounts of hum when I use my telecaster.

My dealer is so racked off with these Behringer amps he has now stopped stocking them due to the returns he is getting. We both agree it is a crying shame because these amps do sound so good.

I tried 7 !!!! Behringer amps and none worked, I think it is time I threw the towel in :(

Throughout my problems and those of many others, the key word was always swapout. It would have been good if Behringer looked at why these amps fail so much and modifed the product to work.

Poor

Lots of features, previously listed. Hang onto the User's Manual.

Lots and lots of different sounds. Some I like and some I don't

This is a follow-up to my review of 12/29/04.

On 12/29, my GMX-212 stopped switching between channels after less than 4 months of use in my apartment. (No gigging.) The amplifier became useless!

I took it promptly to the place I bought it, Guitar Center, got a repair order, etc. After the normal GC delay, the amp was sent to a good, experienced local musical electronics repair shop that had just become the local Behringer repair site. The repair shop had the amp for several weeks, trying this and that with no luck.

Finally, Behringer decided to replace my amp with a new one. I got the new one on February 18, 2005. So, I was without a GMX212 for about six weeks. Luckily, I have another amp.

The up-side is Behringer did the right thing and replaced my original amp when no one was able to fix it.

The down-side is it puts its reliability in question. Will I get, at least, 1 year out of the new one before a failure? If it fails, will it be repairable?

The failure of my first amp has spooked me. Was it a random infant mortality failure or am I only one of many? Will the new amp fail?

I wish the schematics for this amplifier was part of the User's Manual or available on-line.

i purchased this one from muscians friend in july 2004. free shipping.i really like this amp.i still can't believe the feature's on this modeling amp..99 yes 99 preset's,sure there's redundency but the echo's are really goog,the chorus beautiful,the overdrive really amazing..

you can tweak any sound your looking for out of this amp.2 seperate channels with a foot switch included,3 distinct setting's for each channel..amp,mode and speaker.there's alot here,amazing for the money.i do think the tweed setting a little weak,but it still is plenty loud enough.you can get around this by setting to tweed-higain-flat...awesome.

i have had no problems at all,i know i can depend on this amp without a backup.and i've put this amp thru a heck of a test,still even smell's new.

i have not had to contact them for any service but i know there web site is very informative and user friendly.

i have been playing for well over 20 year's now,i love this amp for blue's playing .you can get that beautiful woman tone crunch very easy and at any volume out of this amp.one thing i wish it had was 3 channel's,i bet that's coming next..i am really impressed with this analog modeling amp and am looking forward too behringer's new product's. i am now a devoted fan...thank's for makeing a quality product we can actually aford and use...

2004 Made in China (what isn't these days?)The GMX212 has such a versatile tone shaping section, (two of them actually), that you can simulate the sound of many popular amps.
Two channels, INCLUDED footswitch, and the most flexible in/out section I've ever seen on an amp. 99 built-in 24 bit digital effects. A midi foot controler can be used for effects changes, wah and chanel switching. The Dynamizer circuitry allows the amp to "breathe" like a tube amp pushed hard.
2-12" Jensen/Bugerra speakers well-suited to the flexibility of the amp.
Between the ANALOG amp modeling and the effects, you can come up with
anything from raw, scooped mid aggressive to polished "heard it on the CD" types of sounds fairly easily.

I use a Gibson SG, an Ibanez Steve Lukather with coil taps and an Ibanez SZ series with the ability to do coil tapping. In adition, I've used my daughter's Behringer Strat copy through the amp with great results.
I play blues, rock, metal, and worship and praise with an edge. The amp is well suited to any of these styles.
Like most amps, If you get up close with single coil pickups, you'll get hum, especially if you have the gain up fairly high. A bit of distance is the best cure for that.
The absolute clean setting is a bit weak, but since I like a little grit in my clean sound, it has never been an issue. Try Tweed/High/UK setting with the gain set fairly low, so it breaks up when you push it hard. you can get really loud this way, and still get a touch sensitive clean sound.
The high gain sounds will melt your face. You can get wild with this amp, yet it still sounds musical.

The amp seems pretty sturdy. Knobs are surface mount to the PC board, (like 99% of the gear out there), but as long as you don't drop it on the control panel, you'll be OK.
I would use this without a backup, but I still throw my Pandora PX4 in the gig bag, just in case.
Behringer gear sometimes gets a bad rep, but I think that is due to the sheer number of units sold. If you have sold 100 amps and 1% has troubles, its not a big problem. Now sell a hundred thousand or a million amps, and that 1% is a huge number relative to the smaller production amp.

Emailed questions have been quickly returned. If I need to return it for service, Beringer says to take it back to the dealer. In this case, its Sluggo Music in Tacoma. They get 10 out of 10 points!
If it needs to go back, there are several repair centers in Washington state.
The unit is covered by a one-year warranty.
Check out http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/v-tone/ for an on-line user's group. Setting suggestions, tips and tricks are available there.

I have been playing for 40 years, and have used Fender, Marshall and othe high, (and not so high), quality gear. This is the best-sounding, most flexible amp I have used for the price, or even 3 times the price.
If lost or stolen, I would definately replace it as soon as possible.
I love the sound this thing puts out. I end up with a smile on my face every time I play through it.