I bought this amp emulator, along with a V-Amp 2 for my guitar, because I’d been missing my old Rockman X-100. I’d missed being able to just go wherever, plug in my guitar, put on some headphones and rock out.
What I wasn’t expecting was just how good the sounds are. I’ve heard a lot of people through the years rant about how great their Line-6 Pods were, but I always thought they sounded like what they are. The Bass V-Amp blows a Line-6 Pod out of the water.
I bought my Bass V-Amp expecting to use it only as a practice amp, but when I heard how good it sounded, I briefly considered using it to record with and skipping everything else. It sounds that good.
Now, are we going to get into semantic arguments about how it compares to real tube amps? Well, I’m not. I don’t see how it’s worth arguing about. It’s all a matter of taste. I’m always amazed by the people who rant “Nothing compares to tubes” and then when you hear their recorded music it sounds like it was recorded in somebody’s bathroom.
Look, if you’re going to record soft jazz or music that has a lot of nuance, where the delicate tone of your rare 1961 Fender Precision bass needs to be preserved, you’re not going to want to record with a Behringer Bass V-Amp.
For the rest of us, it’ll do the trick. No, it probably won’t sound as good as the hot-rodded old Ampeg that you bought from your cousin when you were sixteen. But nless you’re recording in a multi-million dollar studio and have Mutt Lange as your producer, most people won’t be able to tell the difference between that Ampeg and a Behringer Bass V-Amp when they hear your CD.
In fact, I’d be willing to wager that the V-Amp might actually make it easier to get a good, solid sound. You won’t have to be tweaking microphones and dampening room noise. Just plug in and go. What could be easier? And for someone like me, who doesn’t put mics on bass cabinets in the studio anyway, what’s the point in dragging out that 60 pound bass amp?
“The basic quality of the sounds a Bass V-Amp
can produce, and their variety, is impressive.”
– Phil Ward
Sound on Sound
Purchased: 2005
Condition: Functional
Manufacturer: Behringer
Seller: Musician’s Friend
Price: $100
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