Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI21 4-stars Reviews

Good pedal

Was really impressed with this pedal for the price. Can get pretty much any tone you want as a begginer bassist.

Good preamp

I’m using it all the time and it’s really a great product for a good price.

The only thing I don’t like is the build quality, but for that price…

I just love that the preamp makes my bass guitar so much more clear and nice, and the ground lift feature inside is a life saver sometimes.

Great DI

Perfect DI for getting started.

A great preamp for bass guitar

This is a great unit for augmenting your bass amp rig. Good tones and clarity are provided at a very inexpensive price.

Not very stompable, but a great DI for the price

Don't forget it works as a neutral DI box too!

For the rest, if you set it to Ampeg mode it kind of flattens out the character of your bass - it loves my Precision and tries to make everything else sound like it, but that's fine: it's worth the money and more for just how good the Precision sounds with it.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

Behringer V-Tone Bass BD121

I bought the Behringer V-Tone Bass BD121 to try and get more tone options from my solid state bass amp. I have been impressed with Behringer's products in the past, especially for the prices they are sold at, so this again was a good buy. The tone and EQ controls on this foot pedal are really responsive and the actual control knobs are very smooth and easy to use. The difference to my bass tone was very noticeable straight away and the variations in sounds I can get get have opened up my bass to lots of new frequencies. I have used it for both live and recording with my pub/bar band and the signal is very clean and clear.

The only downside of this product is it is made of plastic. Being a stomp box, I was slightly worried that the build quality would not stand being stood on over and over again at gigs. So far it has been very good and showed no signs of structural deterioration. My other pedals are made of metal and feel slightly more robust, but for the price, the V-Tone BD121 seems to be pretty tough.

I would say this is a good purchase for anyone looking for more tone options on a budget.

BDI 21

I bought the Behringer BDI-21 as a backup for live bass playing, and it performs really well. Obviously it's a Sansamp clone, and in a head-to-head comparison this unit has a little more background noise, but not by much.

It's a plastic case with a heavy, sheet metal baseplate, so feels weighty enough. How well it would stand up against a long tour I'm not sure, but for the money these are unbeatable units, and there's really no excuse for not having one in your gig bag.

It won't run on phantom power, unlike all of the other bass DI press (Hartke, Sansamp, EBS, MXR etc?) but what you save by buying this, as opposed to a much more expensive unit, you can spend on a decent PSU (or a tower of batteries).

Great value for money.

This pedal is well made and allows greater control over my bass sound. I use whatever bass amp is in the practice space we rent so this helps me to get a consistent sound regardless of the amp I use. The footswitch would cause me some concern if I were using it regularly but I leave the pedal on top of my amp and switched on at all times. The DI output is a little low but this shouldn't be a problem provided the PA is powerful enough.

A lifesaver

This Behringer V-Tone Bass pedal is marketed as an amp modelling pedal. It can do this but also a great little DI pedal. I have found it really handy to have as backup in case there is any technical issue with my amplifier as I have the option of going straight into the PA desk from the DI.

The casing for the pedal is quite lightweight and plastic so I wouldn't recommend using as a stomp box as I can imagine that it wouldn't withstand too much heavy stomping. I tend to keep mine on top of my amp.

You can dial in a really nice low end drive with this pedal and really does add a nice warmth to your sound.

This is an amazing value pedal and I would recommend it for the value alone but it really had a lovely sound and could save your life sometime.

Best bang for the buck

The Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI 21 is a cheap alternative to the much higher priced Tech 21 Sans Amp Bass Driver. I use it with a Squier Matt Freeman Precision Bass that has been modded with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder, plugged into a Kustom DE 300H sitting on an Ampeg SVT 810 cab. It does a nice job, adding just a little bit of dirt treble, using the presence control. Thus, it lets the bass cut through the mix much easier, if you have to compete with two rather fat sounding, overdriven guitars in a "loud" genre such as punk, hardcore, etc.

Compared to the Tech 21 pedal, the Behringer gets pretty harsh, if you use high amounts of gain, so I don't like it for heavily distorted bass sounds. If you don't need that - go for it!