V-Amp 2 - How Bad Could It Be? 

If you enjoyed this I'd LOVE it if you took a listen to the new Ragdoll single - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WlZymAoNWVs.html

Years ago, I had the V-Ampire 120 head. At the time, it was the best $200 spent. Played hundreds of gigs with it. Got laughed at by the dudes in Theory Of A Deadman when we opened up for them, until they heard it lol...Damn thing went end-over-end down the stairs at my old house and still worked!! 🤘✌️

When I was a Sales Manager at Guitar Center I was asked by a Behringer rep. in WA. State (back in the day) to do a promotional clinic for the V-Amp, and I was so impressed with it I actually bought one. After the clinic they compted' me with a matching FCB1010 Midi Foot Controller. I still use it today for daily shred practice, which saves putting wear and tear on my big tube amps. Over the years I have collected all three versions, V-Amp 1, 2, and 3, and yet I still play the first version. In addition, I recently (yesterday - lol) picked-up a "Behringer LX1200 V-Ampire Guitar Amplifier Head (2x60 Watts)," which features the same tech, for only $100. The V-Amp 1 gets the job done for me, and my practice routine benefits from sitting down, flipping a single power switch with no messing about, and using a consistent sound as a "standard candle" to gauge my technique and progress. Cheers~

I had one of these about 20 years ago. It was one of the best pieces of gear that you could buy without selling your house. The alternatives were like zoom 505, 606, 707 etc. which all sounded more or less like f@rt. A childhood friend of mine from my hometown still uses his v-amp to this very day!

Had both and sold the Pod. The V amp just sounded better for half the price. Still sounds better than some modellers 10x the price 😂

All my leads on the two first Anubis Gate album were done on that unit. That was in 2004 and 2005, and i still get people asking what awesome amp I used 😂

Lol, Leon Todd does for the Behringer V-Amp- 2 what Josh Scott did for the Bad Monkey... pre-video: $60... post-video... $600! That sounds fantastic, especially that first factory preset floored me at how good it was out of the box.

It's funny how, like in real life, your cab makes such a gigantic difference. These and the POD are usable even today with good IR's.

shocked at how great this actually sounds haha tons of usable fun tones!

I have a friend from Louisiana that has played with Steppenwolf for many years and he used one of these on tour, especially in Europe. The band would carry empty Marshall cabs for show but the V-Amp was plugged into the desk. Seems to have worked for him.

It's a trip how good it sounds for being so old

Honestly i have been more than pleased with every Behringer product i have purchased. Dont know why i always expect them to suck because they never do, they are just cheap.

Dark Tranquillity used to use the Vamp live and just plug them into the effects loop of back line amps. I remember it came up in an interview they did and them being like, "We're going to get so much shit for this, but this is what we use."

Sounds surprisingly good actually

that opening marshall style hi gain crunch tone blew my mind. this is too good for the price and its age wow

David Brewster uses a V-ampire on his Late Night Lessons YT channel. He always has great tone and he's a killer player too.

The secret to these old modelers is to shut off the cab, and use your own impulse responses. Totally changes the game.

it could literally be anything, any piece of gear on the right side of the video and it would still sound amazing. That's the mark of a truly killer guitarist, any piece of gear sounds great in their stead.

I still own & use this unit to this day !! It does exactly what i need it to & sounds good !! Best piece of gear for the money i've ever bought!!

Very underrated unit, I still have the rack version I bought back in 2004 and after having and trying many other units over the years including those of Line 6, Digitech, Zoom, Mooer, Yamaha etc I revisited this one recently and I have to say it sounded better than ever to me.

I had one of these. Someone gave it to me for free. The marshall tone was great. The rotary was particularly good as well. I left it on a grass verge by accident. It rained all night. I found it and dried it out very slowly over a week. It still worked.

I own the Bass version of this device and there's a lot to love about some of the sounds. When you run synthesizers through it though, you can begin to craft some sounds that are unique and gigantic. Thanks for putting this video together to show off the standard unit. Good luck with the job John!

Hi Leon, The Pod, the Johnson J-station, and this......if you were around then, you know how revolutionary they were. Owned the J-Station since ~2000, turn off the cab sims, plow it into any guitar power amp -still good now!

Per Nillson recorded the first 2 albums of Scar Symetry with this ! Tone is in hands !

I switched from a Vamp Pro to a Fractal FM3. The main reason was I could tell the gate was better on the Fractal. The Fractal is a lot better in versatility but tone wise the Vamp was very solid. I was a poor kid so I loved Behringer gear!

I had one of these years ago. I had lots of fun with it. I could get some decent sounds on the bass too. Good inexpensive fun!

I just got the V Amp 3 myself last year. It's a really good product for it's price, I just paid 35€. I use it everyday, you can get really fast good tones. All important effects are build in and there is just one knob to set them up. So there is nothing confusing, I think this probably one of the best options for a beginner or someone with a small budget. Also this device is not huge and at least the V-Amp 1 and 2 came with a bag back then, so it's perfect for traveling. Personally I use it for fast demo recordings at my desk and I prefer playing over it at night, because you can connect it via cable with everything like a bluetooth speaker. My Boss Katana 100 is way too loud even at the 0.5w option. I just can't recommend Behringer products enough, they got a lot of good sounding pedals and amps for it's value.

How many of you had a POD or V-Amp?

What I love about these old modelers is they’re just fun. Sure it’s “a toy” by most modern standards but what is a toy if not a fun piece of kit that sparks creativity? I don’t think that’s a bad thing. And it’s kinda like getting really good at using GarageBand or a hardware four track - sometimes you can crank out actual gold with it.

Used one for years, still have it. You can get really, really good sounds from it with a little tweaking.

''Let's see how greasy and 80s we can get." All the 80s, by the sound of it. That first preset tone could have been on any record in the 80s.

Hi Leon, great video! I found one of these in a cupboard and have been using it live in a theatre every night. It does the job!

Grabbed one of these right when they came out, I didn't want to dive into a Pod at that time. I had a lot of fun with it. Great review as always!

Wow, this sounds great!

This video verifies something that many of us who have been using modelers/profilers since the early days when they first started being released in the 1980s know; todays units (Fractal, Line 6, Kemper, etc.) are working on the last 20% of the potential of modelers because the first 80% has been available for a long-time. This last 20% comes at a huge cost (the 80/20 rule) relative to the benefit! Certainly my Axe Fx III Mk II Turbo s cable of producing tones that this sub-$100 u it can not…but my Fractal unit coat 25 times as much than the V-Amp! So, for many people, a much less costly unit, such as an Eleven Rack which are currently available used for less than $300, would provide as much utility as a much more expensive current-day modeler.

Wow... besides your playing, which was excellent...I am blown away by that little box... Way to go Uli

Thank you John.

I'm eagerly awaiting your video tutorial on all things digital. Really needed!

Thanks John!

nice review! impressive unit for sure.

That sounds excellent!

Holy smokes, this thing sounds pretty good!

With an impulse response and a pedal in front, you get something decent. It was my first guitar gear actually in 2006. After it, I got other modelers. 2 years ago, just for nostalgia, I tried it again with a precision drive and a mooer radar into an frfr speaker, and it brought a smile on my face.

i have the V Amp 3. Used it a few years ago for live shows. Sounds great. I would run it through a power amp to a cabinet. Awesome playing Sir!

I don't have this particular unit but I do have the (older?) VAmp Pro rackmount. I played in a regional metal band in the 90's and 2000's. Like most guitar players, I spent years and years and thousands of dollars trying to find "my tone". Everything from Digitech, ART, Mosvalve, Marshall, on-and-on. It wasn't until around 2004 when I tried the VAmp Pro that I was actually satisfied with my sound. Coincidentally, I had actually gotten and ADA MP-1 around the same time and these two units are what I still have. I don't play as much as I used to but when I do it's the VAmp Pro into a Rocktron power amp and Marshall 4x12. Nearly 20 years running this setup and I haven't felt the need to move onto anything else.

That sounds great.

You can tell how good it is by the level of "Stank-face."

I had one when they came out - nice piece of gear especially at the price. Love the Closer To The Heart reference on the 80’s chorus test 🤩

i used V-amp 1, 2 and pro models professionally direct to mixer from 2001 to 2007. Through a PA they sounded great. I had to stay on one amp model that could go from cleanish to high gain because changing amp models on different presets would cause a short blackout of sound. When I got more money I tried Line6 Pod xt, Boss GT-8, Roland VG 88, H&K Tubeman, but ended going back to the V-Amp. A great feature were the knobs with lights wich made editing presets really easy. The worst thing about model 1 and 2 is that they broke down on me at gigs. The Pro model was more reliable.

I owned one of these when it first came out. I put mine in the fx loop of my Marshall stack and used an impulse response for the cab sim and it was amazing actually 🔊🔊

THANK YOU JOHN FOR LETTING LEON BORROW THIS SIR.... I love this channel! It sounds great already and I'm just at the point you're doing the cleans with chorus and compression and funk. I'm really surprised. I think Behringer owns TC Electronic or the other way around isn't it? TC has some great effects.. I wonder if the two are shared ? Great stuff so far brother. Sounds great.. This would be the perfect tool to practice with! I think it sounds great thru my headphones! Of course, that killer guitar and your playing make all the difference sir! I think we as guitarists always think new gear will make us sound better when as you know it's the time and effort and hard work that pay off in the end. Gear helps, and get all the gear you can afford if you want, but the hard work has to come as well I think you would agree sir! I thought it sounded really good especially with the external IR's.. I actually thought it sounded good without the external IR's.. I've played worse for sure in front of people when I was young. We didn't have anything this good without buying a huge Fender Tube amp and a Distortion pedal. ( The come to jesus pedal was the best.. 🙂 RAT! ) if you wanted distortion from a clean amp back in the day IMHO. 🙂 😛 Be well and safe sir. I'm on my 2nd cup of coffee.. Woke up early. Like 2 am, but went to bed early after working my nuts off in the summer heat in the yard! 😛 Tim

still have one of these , served me all these years. working good to this day

Thanks for the video! I've had three of these units.I bought my first one in the early 2000s and it was my first modeller unit ever. I sold it and bought another one soon afterwards because I missed its straightforward simplicity and usability. I bought my last one during the lockdown for €45 but this time out of nostalgia. In the past I used the PC editor via MIDI and I got some pretty usable sounds out of it. Cheers!

I bought one of these last year to experiment with the sounds. I really enjoy it! Sounds even better being pushed through high gain in my Marshall amp and Steve Vai cabinet :)

I have a rack mount V Amp Pro in storage somewhere. Thanks Leon! Now I'm going to have to dig it out and put it in one of my studio racks. I used to love that rack unit.. I used it on 2 albums 15+ yrs ago

Thanks for remembering I have one too! Someone gave it to me and I totally forgot about it until now. Gonna try it out soon.

*THIS THING WAS REALLY GOOD!*

I had the V-amp Pro rack mount for a long time and loved it! I should look into getting one again just for the hell of it.

*OMG I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THIS...! IT ROCKS*

Thx for the video!! I am beginning to learn about the possibilities of the device... Its got a lot of options and I am still a bit puzzled. But I try with alittle help of such vids😊

I had one of these and I couldn’t make sound anywhere near like that. This only proves you need talent and skills to make sound good any piece of gear.

Bro you’re such a great player. You play with such great intonation

Love mine. Get's those massive 80-2000's tones easily.

Setting one blew me away! wow!

I had one a long time ago! I should have kept it!

My first FX unit. I didn’t realise it was an amp modeller at the time and it took me ages to work out how to switch cab models etc off. Some GREAT tones in the box.

Had one of those back in the day, it was a great unit. I used the clean sounds on one track on an album and people said they thought it was beautiful. No one ever said "Sounds like a cheap guitar processor". Sadly one day, the unit died and that was the end of it.

My favorite high gain model on this was the custom high gain and the engl savage. There are some extra functions to access the other amps

I think that the Behringer Ultra amp, the Soldano modern and the Roland Jc120 are very usable. With a modern IR it might be even more so. The editing program is there and a heck of a lot better to tweak these with. Then again the presets made by Ian Chrichton of SAGA was a nice feature. 😊

I was so pleasantly surprised I made a face of surprised approval looking at this video. Dang that's fun.

Cara você é muito louco e toca muito!!!

I know that many guitarists preferred the V-amp Pro to the Pod Pro. The cabs in the V-amp sound so much better! And it was like half the price of the Pod, iirc.

Wow that sounds a world away from the Pod. I went down the Pod rabbit hole at the time and it promised a lot but I sold it and reverted back to my JMP1 rack etc. I wish I had tried one of these back then. A great device for its time.

I have a Vamp 1 (with pedals and softcase) I bought for $5 at the local musicstore (5 years ago), Its great for sitting and noodling!

Ive owned Fractal, now own tube amps and tonex, and will say this sounds good. Like an album.

Sounds good ! I have the v amp pro had it for years got good sound out of it till I got the GT PRO . I have not used any of them need to go back and have fun with them . Thanks for the flash back .

I bought the rack pro version of this for $69 recently. Turning of the cab simulation and using modern IR's in my DAW....sounds very damn good for modern metal stuff. Planning to use it for tones on my bands first upcoming release.

I've used the V-Amp Pro (the rack one, with AES/EBU and balanced outs, for years to record demos and in some concerts (with an actual classical orchestra and band) and along with the FCB1010 pedalboard it has always saved the day. At the time I had also a Pod 2 (and next the Pod X3 Pro), but I had some presets built in this machine that I continued to use for years, before building my studio rack with rack tube preamps, fx etc.

Sounds Awesome, I used one for a CD in 2008. They kind of sound like how they would sound on an album. Great piece of kit and more organic than the pod at the time. Plus the Behringer midi board operated it. Massive scope

Finally someone that can really shows how powerful this old unit is. I bought my Vamp 2 in 2003 and years latter I’m also bought a rack unit and I never will sold these units that stills in use in 2023.

A buddy of mine had one of these, it was my first exposure to Amp Modeling - Been ages since I’ve heard it, this is Wild

I’m shocked how good it sounds. You should’ve done a battle of the pod vs this ! 🤘🏼

😂😂😂 I can’t count the times that I gigged this little unit 😅 always was surprised about the sounds I got out of it 😂

I have the LX-112 and the V-Amp Pro. I use it as a living room headphone solution to jam around with. Upfront I use the Harley Benton American Sound. A low budget killer combination.

Thumbs up for the V-ampire head. Been a great bedroom practice amp through headphones and a worthy backup when I've needed to plug it into a 4x12 or 2x12 for a rehearsal. There are 2 or 3 legitimately great tones to be found in those things and a bunch of good ones (ok, and a half dozen stinkers, but still).

I had this when I was a teenager still living with my parents. It was the sickest thing ever at the time for me :D I used it straight into a clean Marshall Valvestate 8080 combo.

I have a v-amp modeller with this built in and great amp love it.

Honestly a super solid unit at the time. Sounded as good as the pod. I had a buddy who had the rackmount version, and programmed his entire show, including a pretty elaborate light show, and all his guitar patch changes, and a laptop with his drum tracks (they were a duo), all slaved to MIDI and honestly I was blown away. He was the guy who went in to every preset and spent a decade dialing in the tones for all his material, from green day to CCR to you name it. Like programmed a V amp the way some people get into model trains or working on cars. Just stunning. I think there might even be video of them on YT now that I think about it. TuTone Jack was their name.

I find it shocking that Behringer hasn't dominated the industry. Every product they released has been amazing. From mixers to effects to amps and speakers. Yeah alot of their stuff are clones or at least reasonable facsimiles of other brands stuff but they did it so well and at a fraction of the price. I'll be a Behringer fan for life.

I have one and it fits my goal of finding the tone I have been looking for. It also allows you to tune to different frequencies.

I still have one of these i got when i was a kid, the echo feedback effect is incredible! It's not the useful thing, but it's a lot of fun to mess around with.

If you had manipulated the video showing Fractal or Kemper or whatever high-end modellers, no one would have guessed.

I still have 2 of the V amps there a great back up and for studio they still work great. I use an 11 rack for live shows

25 years ago this was my bread and butter leading worship at church because it was so much easier to carry than my Mesa Mark 3 hahaha. For what it was I actually loved the little sucker back in the day and still have mine though I haven't plugged it up in years

I had this and thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the time.

Sounds fine to me. I gig with a powered pa speaker sometimes and this would do the job just fine pushing some air on stage. The Behringer midi foot controller would go great with it too.

Wow! Man this thing sounds killer. That #1 pre-set with variations is sikk!! This little unit has held up pretty well over the years. I dig it. I had the original Pod, and I liked it. Dig this even more I think. Unless... it's just your killer playing that's fooling me. LOL You are a player! Anyway - I dig this. Gunna see if I can find a cheap used one. And subbing you! Rock on!!

I had one of these and later the rack version. Wish I still did. Not to replace my current Kemper-based rig, but just because it had some really nice tones in it and would work just fine as a back-up.

Wow this thing! I had a Pod 2.0 back in my college days and my good friend had that blue V-Amp. We were both death metal fanatics (I still am) and one night he brought the V-Amp over. I started out kinda laughing at it because of the obvious Pod ripoff look and I started messing around with it and I ended up very impressed by it. I thought it did everything that the Pod could do except the Pod had better reverbs. We were using 7-string Ibanez guitars and they sounded great through the V-Amp into my old Fostex VF-160 based studio lol! Good times. Great video and thank you!

At a small local gig 2013, Brian Canham used a X V-amp LX1-X with the integrated expression pedal, sounded awesome.