Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI21 Reviews

As a Signal Booster and for Metal

Just the perfect combination.

Works as a DI, it does offer Drive and a nice boost to your Bass.

If you want to use it for metal, let me tell you that it will make it CHUG.

There is a point in which it make your sound so tight that you will not believe its your bass.

Pedal its very versatile as it also offer some funky sounds, but as for metal, I cannot stress enough that it has been the best purchase i have done so far, and for this price?

You will not believe it either.

Trust me

Good pedal for a beginner

This is my first pedal and i wanted something cheap yet nice to overdrive and basically distort my bass. This worked perfectly. I'm not sure what the cons would be for such a cheap pedal. I'm getting results that i wanted, and i'm enjoying mean and gritty sounds. Would recommend!

Good enough bass preamp for the price of a pack of strings

I was not expecting much for the price but this box exceeds expectations. Ok, its plastic enclosure looks cheap and not durable. Ok, I'm not sure how long pots and switches will last. Ok, it may not have that "perfect sound"... But it sounds good enough, it adds some versatility to the tone control, it can do drive or try to add some compression, it's a DI box... it does the job for me. It will stay with my bass for a while.

no more carrying an amp

Most gigs have a PA set. if you want to colour your bass a bit this is a great pedal to give that amp feeling.

Can't get anything better for this money

If you're playing anything but rock music live, chances are the sound tech is going to run your bass straight into the PA. Since you're left to the mercy of the equipment available at the venue, sometimes it's best to have your own DI just in case. I stumbled upon this thing and thought: It's just what I've been looking for!

It did fulfil the one expectation I had: being a device that converts unbalanced into balanced signal. The rest of the knobs seemed like an extra and after fiddling with them for a bit I realised they don't actually do much. The EQ is OK, the rest is meh.

The build quality is okay to bad. The 6.3mm jack doesn't lock the cable in and the XLR sticks out just a little bit. It's a bit annoying, but at this price point you can't expect much.

If you just need a DI, get this. If you need a pre-amp, look for something more expensive.

Happy with the product

Overall I'm happy with the BDI21. The sounds are good although - on my 6-string- less versatile than the sound demo's suggest. The treble and presence settings could have been boosted a bit in my opinion. Of course this will vary from bass to bass.

Overall though the sound is much better than expected from such a cheap product. It's clean with no undesired noise added in both DI mode as well as with jack cables. I have used both batteries and adapter but I haven't had need for the grounding feature yet. It's quiet as the proverbial grave between playing.

There are 2 minor things about the product, although neither was much of an issue for me:

First, the included instructions were for the GDI21. Bit sloppy, but the Behringer website has the right one available for download so it's no big deal.

Second, the knobs quite hard to turn. Perhaps that'll change with usage.

For the price of this preamp you may expect some corners cut along the manufacturing line but if this is all, I'm ok with that.

A huge variety of sounds in a 20 EUR box

As a gigging bass player I do hate transporting my 4x10 cabinet and 15+ kilo amp for smaller clubs since it only takes space and no one from the audience actually cares about your gear. Especially if you don't have too much space in your car, having a proper DI / bass preamp to substitute the amp is a must. Then I bought the ultimate classic MXR M80 - did the job well and I am actually still happy with the purchase.

However, recently I started thinking of changing the type of sound a bit - into something more overdriven than distorted. The well-known Sansamp DI is too expensive for simple testing, and friends have already told me good things about the Behringer, so I decided to give it a go.

The best piece of gear you can buy for this money, really.

I'd say this one is even more versatile than the MXR, and it can easily evolve from a nice bright sound to quite a serious growl, making the bass sound like a guitar if you play with the Treble knob. And without sacrificing the low end! Tested it both home and on stage.

The only bad thing is the unit is made out of plastic and stomping might result in breaking it. So I am simply not switching back to clean channel while playing. Oh yeah - and if it breaks, I can just buy another one. Or two...

Amazing

For the price its unbeateble. Very durable. Balanced output. Takes a 9v battery. all the pots feel great. It seems like it will last. I use it straight into my Audio Interface.

Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI21

Unfortunately I had to return this, was not abel to get puncy sound I wanted.

For the money, why not?

I've not actually gigged this... used it for rehearsal once. THE PRICE THOUGH! It's ideal to chuck in the bag though, then if the amp goes down, the show can go on.

Great Pedal

Great bass effect

Really good settings across the spectrum

Everything from that original bass sound to noisy punk

Highly recommend

Great price

You cant go wrong

Nice effect at a very reasonable price.

I use this pedal for a little overdrive on my bass. I don't use it in very many songs but it does the job fine when I ask it to. It took a while to set up the way I wanted it. As with all pedals everything turned up to full is not going to sound good! It's well worth twiddling around to find the sound that you want- and so it can be switched in and out without a massive change in volume (unless that is what you want, of course).

I think it's great value and it feels solid- I use it with a power supply. The button seems absolutely fine but it is plastic. It has never shown any signs of being anything less than happy with my "stomping" on it but a metal button would be better. That said- the thing is really solidly built with a good rubber padding underneath. It feels well made and solidly constructed and is extremely good value. I have "enhanced" the dials with white dots and marks on the case so I can quickly see that everything is set the way I like it. It lives on my pedal board and is a keeper.

Very handy bass gear

What I like:

--Very good signal-to-noise ratio. I was expecting such a low-priced item to be hiss prone.

--An excellent active DI and very good preamp for clean to warm sounds. Don't increase the gain too much to get distortion. It doesn't sound good distorted.

Not so great:

--Limited EQ controls, bass and treble only. A parametric Mid Frequency control would be great, and its perfectly doable even at this price point. Witness the acoustic guitar version of this preamp also made by Behringer: lower price with the Mid control.

--Harsh distorted sound when gain is pushed past 2 o'clock or thereabouts. You'll need a separate pedal for useable distortion. But I never heard distortion pedal that sounded good on bass.

I recommend it, a preamp is necessary for decent sound with electric guitars when not going through an actual amp that's being mic'ed. The price is right. I'm using it with both my basses and my electric guitars. Works great with both kinds of instruments at low- to mid-level gain settings.

Amazing little pre amp!

For around 20 bucks you can go wrong; easily worth 3 times that amount. Cant fault it! A tenth of the price of the unit it is cloning and sounds pretty damn similar.

Useful to have if you have a spare 20 quid lying about. Just keep it in your gig bag, never know when you might need a DI/Preamp in a pickle!

Unexpectedly excellent!

This Behringer pedal sounds brilliant. I have a lot of very expensive pedals from mainstream manufacturers, but this one is a little gem! I've had it for 3 years and it's still going strong.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to test this Behringer pedal on a friends rig at a gig before I bought it. It is clearly a direct copy of the Tech21 SansAmp but it is only a fraction of the price. So I was surprised at the sound quality it produced.

I have used the pedal as a DI and also as a tone shaping unit before my Ashdown Mag rig. It performs very well in both situations. I use it to add depth, tone and warmth to my sound.

I have since A/B tested this pedal alongside the Tech21 SansAmp and its remarkable how good the Behringer is for the price (check out YouTube reviews to see for yourself!)

The B Word

This is a great DI box for fattening up the bass either recording or in front of an amp.

A nice amount of gain is available too for a slightly driven bass sound if required.

It's good, it does the job and costwise it represents incredible value for money!

Useful recording aid..

I bought this a good few years ago(09) to enhance a DeArmond Starfire bass used for demo recording and found it worked very nicely for this...the short scale DeArmond is a peach to play but needs a little help to achieve a big enough sound..

Since then I've not used it at all but have stored it with the battery out.....its such a useful little box I have no intention of passing it on or selling it!

Downside.,...it really best as a desktop home studio unit,I wouldn't fancy it for live use..the switch seems fragile,the control knobs are tiny and its a plastic unit(though with a decent enough metal base)

Verdict?...good sounding for home/studio use,might not survive live...

Started as a begginer pedal, still a great one

I bought this pedal (along with so many other Behringer pedals. Ha.) for my first band when we started playing. I remember that we wanted to sound a little bit better, but we couldn't afford better amplifiers or intruments at the time so we started to search in stores/internet for cheap ways to make us sound more like a band instead of a bunch of kids making noise. Fun Times.

I highly recomend you to read the review some user made saying that this pedal would "make a 20w bulb shine like a 100w one". That's true - I had a Squier Jazz Bass and wasn't satisfied with the lack of "warmth" in the sound, it felt that I was playing through a skinny instrument without any mids. This pedal just helped us out.

Well, I must say that in this price range (the pedal is like 29¤) it's a great product that really does a lot for your sound.

It kinda combines a Dual Band EQ, a Driver/Presence, a DI/Pre Amp in a pedal with analog modelation and under 30 bucks.The footswitch is made of plastic, and well, if you plan to use it on a daily basis, i doubt it will resist to the impact. No problems 'till now though.

You can use the XLR Output to direct record, as it "prepares" the sound right out of the pedal. You can use it to warm your sound with tube amp simulation. You can even use it just to backup in case something fails. It's that versatile.

handy box

I like the range of tones, pretty quiet noise-wise so good enough for recording. My main use is as a 'remote pre-amp',something I can use if I just wanna plug straight into the PA ? only complaint is the output is not sufficient to drive a "raw" power amp. Still, very handy ;)

Don't underestimate behringer!

This bass pedal is quite simple for the tone. You could get a tiny crunch or "way-too-much-buzz"-distortion and pretty much anywhere in between. Still, I wouldn't say the pedal was very versatile for there is a certain sweet spot for your taste but not much else. My friend thought this is good for high gain distortion, to me not so much but I like the less-distortion -crunch I can dial from it. Sort of a one-trick-pony for one user...

The XLR-output helps for recording and on stage playing for it functions as a signal splitter as well.

The footswitch seems durable as for mechanics but because the chassis and pots are plastic I'm just a bit concerned on how this would last on the road. In studio/home/rehearsal no problem.

This is a VERY good pedal for sounds and features and the price is super low. Sometimes behringer makes things even better than the one they're mimicing. For your ears this is deffinately one of those.

Highly recommended!!