  7 out of 10
|
 |
zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us. |
"Honesty and Expectations"
Feature:
And here it shines. It has a built-in seven-band equalizer, footswitchable channels with separate master tone controls and footswitchable subharmonic generator, built-in compressor (though it acts more like a high-powered limiter than a compressor, kind of a nit-pick), FX loop, headphone-out, the works.
The subharmonic generator is neat for play but not particularly serious. The 7-band EQ is incalculably valuable in shaping tone and is quite effective with +/- 12db of sweep. The compressor is great at leveling out volume from inexpensive basses which often have poorly balanced pickups, which is probably a concern if you're buying a Behringer bass amp. Just being honest, people don't buy Behringer seeking top-of-the-line and that says something about the quality of the instrument they will probably be putting through it.
One neat feature of questionable necessity is that the 7-band EQ have LED lights on the end that can, at the touch of a button, be turned into an instant visualizer to show what frequencies are being played when you hit a string. While I find this to be unnecessary, I can only imagine how incredible this would be to a starting player, as it gives you an instant leg-up in trying to EQ the sound you want - just hit the note you're looking to boost and see it played out on the EQ. It fades between them to indicate where the strongest frequencies are present, so a standard A would light up very brightly on the knob closest to 440hz while the others around it would be dimmer as they represent the harmonics. Pretty nifty for beginners, or for a bit of stage effect.
All-in-all, feature city and they're mostly great. The EQ is just awesome.
Quality:
Caveat: It's Behringer. Up-front, quality that makes you wonder why the hell anyone else makes any money; six months to two years later, makes you wonder why you never bothered registering the warranty.
Time will tell. Everything seems fine, but I don't have high hopes for the longevity of this amplifier given my experience with Behringer equipment in the past. If I'm wrong, I'll be delighted; if not, a few years out of an inexpensive practice-space amp (not a practice amp, but an amp that can be heard along with drums and cranked guitar) is fine in my book.
Value:
It only suffers here by the fact that Ashdown makes a similar amp. I got a cosmetic-blemish unit for a substantial discount, so it was a no-brainer, but at the asking price it's only about $50 off of an arguably more reliable/better quality amp. Tonally, this competes well with anything under $600, in my opinion, it's just a question of longevity. Place your bets.
Desirability:
I think it looks pretty classy. Big Behringer logo doesn't add to the stage appeal, but the aluminum cone 15" speaker is kickin' and overall the looks of the unit are solid, if utilitarian.
Sound:
I give it a seven whereas most units in the pricerange would get a four or five at best. It will not compete at all with a $1000+ rig, but Behringer knows that and they're not trying to fill that niche. They receive stiff competition from Ashdown - I'll let you make your own decision there. Suffice it enough to say that Ashdown and Behringer both make excellent low-cost bass amplifiers, and let your nose lead where it will.
Ease of Use:
Gotta rank it high, here, too. The manual is very thorough in explaining the features, and they're all very intuitive. My buddy just started playing bass and I hooked him up through this - he still can't play yet, but he's got a tone he likes thanks to the ease of use of this amp.
Support:
Behringer has terrible customer support. I have had no good experiences and three bad experiences with their CS.
Overall:
I will be satisfied with this product until it breaks, whenever that shall be. I have no illusions of permanence in any piece of musical equipment, especially amps, and among them especially Behringer. But time will tell: perhaps I am being unnecessarily pessimistic and it will keep on tickin' for a good while.
Regardless, in the meantime I have a great practice room amp for the cash with plenty of features and genuine utility, and it didn't break the bank. What more can you ask?
Submitted: 1/30/2007
Style of Music: Depends on my mood, really
|
6 of 6 people (100%) found this review helpful. Did you?
|
