Cheap.
Behringer stomp boxes
Rip-offs and poor experiences aside, they are dirt cheap. Has anyone tried them yet? Comments?
(Please don’t make this a Berry bashing session. I have no allegiance; I just want to hear about these pedals. Ta).
Mark
I’ve got the berry GDI-21, the sansamp ripoff. Sounds ok to me, but I plan to try it with the ultraGI after it. I did have a sample of it up, but deleted it when I shifted the website over. We sell bucketloads of them - for 40 bucks AU, who cares if it’s a bit dodgey?
You also have to remember, that for the price, you’re getting a metric assload of tonal variation in some of them, such as the distortion modeller and the hellbabe wah (we can’t get enough of them in, they sell straight away).
Willy.
I have (gig with) the EQ pedal.
Does the job, ridiculously cheap (I paid about 13 quid brand new!).
Bit plasticky, but not as bad as some on the market (eg Rocktek).
Obviously its not a Boss or an Ibanez, but then its about a quarter of the price!
I don’t have a pedal, so a bit off topic, a bought a Behringer DI box, the thing is built like a tank, quality seems fine.
EDIT: and look at the plethora of colors they offer?
Why not an all in one multi effects package instead?
They have some samples posted at their site (with a very creative interface), but I wasn’t all that impressed the recorded tones. They might be a lot better in person.
Click here and then click “Stompboxes” for their interactive Flash module
If you’re wanting an inexpensive alternative to a DS-1 or Tubescreamer, the price is definitely right. I think most of these pedals retail for around $20. I’m interested in the DM100, but only if it’s fully analog (which isn’t obvious, even with all the literature that’s available online). And of course, it’s not among the stombox lineup, so they don’t have any samples posted.
I use the Behringer BDI-21 for bass guitar. I can play sooo smooth now… - like it. Definitely worth every penny. 
I am no big Berry fan, either, but, loathing aside, they do occasionally have some great stuff to offer…
regards, Nils
The sample of the acoustic modeller sounds quite good I think. Certainly good enough for an electric at a gig.
I got the Hellbabe HB01 Wah Wah … it works well enough and has decent sweep controls … but don’t engage that boost button … the hiss! The atrocious hiss! 
But that’s a non issue in my case, as a straight Wah Wah pedal it’s pretty good, gets the job done.
Thanks guys. Seems that these things get a thumbs-up in terms of value for money.
I have developed an addiction on them. I first bough an overdrive pedal (sorry don’t remember the type), it’s a good basic overdrive pedal, no complaints.
The I bought a bass enchanger for my bro, nothing wrong with that. It does the trick of a bass compressor like it should.
I got a vintage phaser which is very cool. The pot is a bit loose, but the sound is really good, very 70’s.
| Quote (Captainstrat @ May 16 2006,23:09) |
| I got the Hellbabe HB01 Wah Wah ... it works well enough and has decent sweep controls ... but don't engage that boost button ... the hiss! The atrocious hiss! But that's a non issue in my case, as a straight Wah Wah pedal it's pretty good, gets the job done. |
I got it as well, and I've got the same comment on the boost.
The rest is fine, very good value for money
It is a little 'fragile' tho'. I've let a little too much of my 135 KG's rest on it Sunday night and the little thing just kinda gave in...
Luckily it was just the little shaft that slipped out the one side...
I'm still gonna test drive some of the other boxes...
W
Do you have to “click” the wah to turn it on, or is it an auto like the morely bad horsie (which I have, and is awesome)?
I’ve got one of the Vamp-2 modeler/effects boxes. To my ear, there is so much interaction between stomp boxes and guitar, that you have to talk about DI and live-thru-the-amp separately.
Used as a direct input to my mixer for recording, I’ve been pretty happy with it. I also have a Korg Pandora, and the Vamp-2 compares well with it when used for DI. I couldn’t say that one is better than the other, as each does some things better than the other. For example I can get a better warm blues overdrive on the Korg, but the Vamp does better at rectifier-type overdrive. The Vamp has a stereo output that really adds a dimension to chorus and reverb that is missing from the mono output. Some of the sounds you can get are excellent.
I think that how well you would like the Vamp playing live or recording by mic-ing a guitar amp will depend a lot on the guitar and amps that you are using. As with most stomp boxes, there is a huge amount of effect on the sound. I have a couple of original Fender blackface all tube amps (Tremolux and Princeton) that I use. The V-amp/amplifier interaction does something to the low frequency output that I haven’t gotten used to yet. No matter what I do to adjust the V-amp, there just isn’t any low frequency punch. I don’t know how to describe it except to say that the sound is a little mushy. Played through solid state amps, this seems to be less of an issue, but I haven’t had a chance to work with it much on a solid state setup. I just know there was a huge difference in the sound.
I like the user interface on the Vamp-2. Like a lot of the other Berry stuff, plugs feel fragile, and I handle it fairly carefully. All in all, it is definitely worth the money if you want to use it as a part of your aresenal for DI recording.
Personally, if I’m buying any effect device for through-guitar-amp playing, I prefer to try it with my own guitars and amps before I put my money down. There is just too much difference in the sound I get at the store using their guitars and amps from what I hear when I get stuff home.
| Quote (Willy @ May 17 2006,09:58) |
| Do you have to "click" the wah to turn it on, or is it an auto like the morely bad horsie (which I have, and is awesome)? |
Hi Willy !
It's 'auto on'. The moment it feels it's being moved it starts doing its thing.
The auto off is controled by a small screw at the bottom where you can set how long it must wait before it switches off again.
Sweet. The Morely’s the same, but there’s a screw inside the thing you have to get too to adjust “time off”
You might wonder if you can get a really fat sound out of the Behringer stuff, given that it is so inexpensive. I’ve posted a clip that has some slide guitar played through the Vamp-2
Here.
Go to the music page and play ‘Fragment’ - which is a small piece clipped out of a song that we are working on. To give a little context, there is a short lead-in section with vocals and clean guitar (highly modified Charvel played through a Boss GT-6, DI) and then a very fat slide guitar solo (Gretch Tennessean through the Vamp-2). What you hear on the slide part is the direct input just as it came from the Vamp-2 (no post processing; i.e. no EQ, no compression, etc.). Sounds pretty good to me.