Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI21 5-stars Reviews

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.

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!

Bass friend

I take this everywhere I go with me. Best bass DI box out there with the extra features! You cannot go wrong with it. Just don't use cheap batteries with it ha ha ha. It uses more batt power than most DI boxes out there so keep a few spare if you are playing a long gig. I learnt the hard way!

Much better than expected

I have been using the BDI21 as a DI box and bass amp replacement, since I have a small PA system but no bass amp.

I was pleasantly surprised by the BDI21. The photos make it look rather flimsy (particularly the footswitch), but in reality the plastic casing feels very solid, and the controls, while not indestructible, seem OK.

Feature-wise, there is nothing else at this price range with these features, most usefully combining amp simulation with an XLR out.

The sound is very good. Compared to a `dry' DI signal, it makes it rounder and smoother. I used to think the dry signal was quite good (well, good enough), but using the BDI21 improves it greatly.

In summary, the BDI21 works perfectly as an always-on bass amp replacement, so I would recommend it.

Best Sans Amp Bass DI Alternative

If like you me you tend to work on a budget and be a fan of good deals (and are also a bassist) then the behringer v-tone bass DI pedal is a great alternative to more expensive pedals of its kind.

The sound is just as good as it's sans amp counterpart but at far less cost. The features include drive, blend, treble, bass and presence eq controls and also a built in ground lift switch for when playing live.

Added to my current set up (which includes an eq, compressor, tube overdrive and a tone pedal) it sounds far fuller and louder than it ever has before.

Although it has a plastic casing it has been quite hard wearing so far and I've had no problems with it up until now, the only reservation I'd had when buying it was that a metal shell would be preferred.

Running on 1 9v battery or off a power bank/power supply it's been a great pedal and is a good addition to a better, controllable bass tone which packs a hell of a lot of volume into such a small pedal.

Really useful thing

I bought this because I wanted my own dedicated DI out on my pedal board, as the one on my amp is terrible. It soon became clear that it was a bit more than just that. The tone shaping functions are awesome, allowing my ancient precision bass to do passable impressions of modern active basses if i like, or I can just dial in a bit of tube amp style grit without lugging an ampeg around. It's obviously simulated, but once the rest of the band kick in, even you won't notice, let alone the audience.

It seems fairly robust, but it is only plastic, and repeated stomping on it may eventually knacker the switch, but for what i want it to do, it will suffice.

Get one in your gig bag, even just as a back up in case your amp fails and you need to go straight into the PA. You get your tone control back from the sound guy.

Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI21

This is a great little bit of kit! And at a great price too! The sounds that you can get from this are surprisingly good for the price. Great for gigging and recording. The DI Output is also another great feature.

Good solution for home playing

Just what you would expect it to be. For this price, no quarrels. I don't have a long history with the product so I don't know how long it will last and how durable it is, though.

Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI21

a great little unit i use mine for recording purposes every bass player needs a unit like this in there arsenal can be very handy if you ever have an amp failure and need a DI box,has very usable tones quite subtle but everything you need i have had many bass effects and in a real world scenario you dont need much, as too much of anything in my mind ruins the essence of the bass tone i used to just use a compressor maybe a mild use of bass chorus this behringer can add a bit of grit and sparkle to my recording seems reasonably sturdy and its a useable unit nothing gimmicky i like it.

Great bass pedal

Very solidly constructed unit. Works great to set the bass tone required, very handy for plugging into the mixer when rehearsing without amp.

Extremely pleased with this pedal for the price

Behringer BDI21

Wow! Probably the best value bit of kit i have ever bought. I have some pretty good gear ( Genz and GK MB Fusion amps and Barefaced cabs) that i thought sounded great anyway but this little thing has transformed them up to another level.

In a phrase, i now have a pocket sized Ampeg SVT rig! It adds a lovely zingy, bell like, fat element to my sound. Its an always on pedal for me. If you hear people saying it scoops the mids too much in a live situation just back off the bass and treble and increase the level - this puts the mids back. Also, start with everything at 12 rather than follow the sample settings and tweak from there if youre using it at gig levels.

Fantastic piece of kit for very little money. Various suggested settings in the instructions but fun to dial in your own. Amaising difference made to my practice amp. Warm louder tone on full blend.

It's a Behringer. It's ugly. It's plastic and feels the "foot switch" (mad out of plastic, of course) feels like it will break if you gently rest your foot on it. So why such a good rating? Well, the price on this effects pedal/pre-amp/DI box is crazy. Most products with similar features and sound will cost well over double as much as this.

Even though it's made out of plastic the only part that feels low quality to me is the switch, which I don't even use since I use the Behringer as a pre-amp, not as an effects pedal. You can easily get a really nice and soft tone with the Behringer and with some drive you can get a decent aggressive tone as well.

Overall I can really recommend this for any bassist on a budget, it's a very versatile little box that most people will get some use for and considering the ridiculously low price the plastic casing really isn't that bad.

Great Di and Stomp Box

Very solid build quality with anti slip base make this behringer v tone bass pedal a proper gigging device. Capable of producing very convincing vintage tones it is a must have accessory on stage, and in the studio it is perfect as a top quality Di box. Well recommended, I have used this for years with no problems.

Great Tool for the bass player

The BDI 21 from Behringer is a great tool box for bass players. Besides its great tone shaping capabilities it offers a DI-Box which can be used live or for recording. It also has a ground lift switch to avoid humming.

In the instruction manual you can find some usable presets for the BDI. I prefer the "SVT-Setting" to give my Sound a little more tube like warmth and drive.

The only thing I don't like about the Behringer are plastic-made the footswitch and the plastic-made knobs which don't make a very sturdy expression. The housing is also made from plastic but it makes a little studier expression than footswitch or knobs.

All in all the BDI-21 is a great bang for the buck!

Not sounding cheap

I bought the Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI shortly after its release in 2005. At this time I was looking for cheap bass preamps because my SWR amp sounded much too clean for my liking. To get the Ampeg-like sound I wanted the SansAmp BDI was (and still is) the affordable alternative if you already had an non-Ampeg amplifier, but for me as a student still to expensive. So I ordered the Behringer BDI, because everybody told that it should get close to the SansAmp BDI. And it really gets to it. Though the Behringer BDI just has a plastic housing it is built quite solid. I still use the Behringer BDI as DI-Box for smaller gigs I don't want to carry my whole halfstack to. It sounds more expensive than it really was, but you should not expect a warm tube-tone (because there are no tubes :)).

Hi D I, Ho de ho....

Thought it would be useful to have a DI and compared with the price of basic DI's this offers quite a bit more.

Really simple to use with no menus to scroll through, you can add some Tube attack to your tone. All the dials are nicely weighted and really the only minus is the plastic stomp switch which although doubtless tested 10,000 times looks like a weakness. Oh and the casing is plastic as well, it gets its weight from a metal plate underneath.

Controls are presence, drive, treble, bass, level and blend but it operates as a true by-pass when used just as a DI. Battery life is not brilliant so I use with a PS. The drive control is the one you need to tweak to affect the gain, rather like on a tube preamp, the rest of the controls are self explanatory and easy to do on the fly.

Did I mention the ground lift switch and red led when the pedal is switched on? A great pedal to carry in your gig box , just in case!

A GOOD FRIEND FOR BASSISTS

One of my best buys.Plug your bass in it and get your sound through your amp and then press the pedal and you will be amazed at the 'Oomph' it gives you.I particularly like the SVT setting.It has a D.I. XLR out which our sound guy uses on live gigs and I use it when recording D.I.Make sure you get a mains transformer for it as best not to rely on the battery.