Behringer V-Tone Guitar Gdi21 Guitar Amp Modeler / Direct Recording Preamp/Di Box

For the price, this thing is hard to beat. My band had a gig that required us to play on a small stage -- no room for amps because we had to share the space with other performers, and move gear out of the way when we weren't playing. I just plugged the XLR output right into the mixer. The sound guy was happy, because he didn't have standalone amps competing with the house system.I just used the "TWED" emulation with the "CLN" mod. Obviously you are not gonna get a perfect "Fender clean" simulation for 30 dollars, but to my ears, it was definitely good enough for what I needed. I used a Boss DS-1 to dial in a little extra grit. My only complaint there is that turning up the level on the DS-1 only added saturation, instead of additional volume. But on the plus side, it does a nice job responding to picking intensity, and cleans up nicely when I roll off the volume on my guitar. It also sounds great with my Boss tremolo and chorus pedals in front of it.The construction is pretty light, so I wouldn't want to rely on this thing for heavy gigging or for a high-stakes appearance; but for an occasional performance, when I don't want to haul out my heavy gear I would definitely use the GDI21 again.

I should preface this review by saying that I am actually not generally a fan of Behringer guitar and audio products. There's a few gems in their lineup - I gave the bass version of this pedal a 5-star review, and the UCA202/222 RCA-to-USB audio interface is an exceptionally useful recording tool for only $25. But their guitar lineup consist mostly of dodgy BOSS clones housed in a cheap plastic flame with an unreliable bypass switch and questionable durability. To put it another way, the only noteworthy feature of most Behringer products is their affordability, but even that has been significantly undercut by upstart Chinese clones (see Joyo, Donner, Mooer, Caline, et al), many of which are better made and better sounding at roughly the same prices.That being said, the Behringer GDI21, which has been available for around 10 years, remains an intriguing budget option as a more-or-less clone of the Tech21 SansAmp GT2. In many ways, the GDI21 mirrors the strengths and weaknesses of the SansAmp GT2, with the added bonus that the GDI21 includes an XLR out jack that allows you to connect directly to a mixer or recording interface with a microphone cable. In that sense, the GDI21 functions like a "direct box", with the analog GDI21 replacing your guitar amp altogether. I tried both the standard instrument cable output and XLR output into the same mixer. On similar settings the XLR output seemed to be slightly higher output (perhaps because it was a balanced signal?) and perhaps a bit more presence/brightness. But either output seemed to work and the 2-band EQ is powerful enough to make further adjustments.PROS - The GDI21 probably has two main applications as an extremely affordable product (generally around $30). First, it can serve as an emergency backup option that you can throw in a gig bag, and use in the event you have an amp failure or otherwise need to "play direct" into a mixer and PA system. It does run on either a 9V battery or traditional "BOSS" style power adapter, so it's extremely portable. Second, the GDI21 can be used in a home studio for recording directly into an interface (with either instrument cable or XLR), and it does offer a good variety of tonal options with the mod switches and knobs. Some people even run these into the front end of a cheap solid state amp to give it a more "tube amp" feel.There are three different modeling routes on the GDI21, which can be further tweaked for gain range and simulated microphone placement: TWEED (Fender style), BRIT (Marshall), and CALIF (MESA Boogie). I've used a few Tech21 products (including the Tri-A.C. and the Trademark 30 amplifier, which use similar modeling technology), and I generally liked the TWEED setting and not much else. On the GDI21, I did find some bluesy, "tube-like" tones on the TWEED setting, but was actually impressed with the BRIT tones, provided you first turn up the Bass and turn down the treble. Actually, while you can stack other pedals in front of the GDI21, there is a lot of available gain in some of the settings on this pedal. So much so that if I needed to quickly record a guitar track, I could probably just grab a GDI21 with a reverb pedal behind it and be able to approximate most of the guitar tones in my head. Not the ideal versions of those tones by any means, but close.CONS - The build quality of this pedal is a total mixed bag. On the one hand, you open the box and feel the amount of "heft" this product has, and you can't believe that something with this amount of features only costs $30. At the same time, the knobs are plastic and a little awkward to use, and the plastic footswitch really seems like it is designed to fail. The one saving grace for the GDI21 is that a lot of people will use it as an "always on" direct box, rather than a floor unit that they will step on to turn on and off during a song.My tonal complaints about the GDI21 largely line up with my complaints about the $180 SansAmp GT2. Namely, there's so many different variables going on with this pedal that dialing in (and coming back to) a particular tone can be quite difficult. The mic placement settings have a dramatic effect on overall tone (I tended to prefer the CENTER setting when monitoring with headphones into a mixer).But my #1 gripe with the GDI21 (and the primary reason for my 1-star review deduction) is the poor availability of "clean" guitar clones. If you are designing a direct box that needs to replace a guitar amp altogether in your setup, you would expect something with this number of knobs and switches to be capable of purely clean tones (and a variety thereof). Not really. The TWEED setting is the cleanest by far, but only with the Drive turned down quite a bit and the MOD switch set to "CLN". On BRIT or CALIF settings, you have basically overdriven tones all over the knobs. One workaround for this was that I did get some passable clean BRIT tones by turning down the guitar volume on my Strat, but there should be more options for a clean sound even with my guitar on 10. The CALIF setting has the most gain and saturation, but can get a bit muddy. Again, the decent tone you want is probably somewhere in that box, but finding it can be a bit of a chore.SUMMARY - While all my comments in "CONS" above are valid and disappointing, it almost feels unfair to bring them up with a $30 product. The GDI21 remains a very useful product for people who can't afford a $180 Tech21 product, or maybe just want to use that type of thing once in blue moon. The fact that it offers an XLR out is great, and is actually a feature only offered on the higher end Tech21 products. The GDI21 mostly works and, while it won't be confused with a $1,000 tube amp, it can be pretty useful to have around (for about 3/5 the price of a retail BOSS DS-1).

Item worked perfectly upon opening. Using with a battery. I bought this for recording. I use various modelers (Boss, Vox, Digitech, Rockman), but found I really liked the dirty guitar simulations with the Behringer better.My fave is the California which models a Boogie. I own an actual Boogie amp (Rectifier) and mixing the two on a track gives a nice combination. What I do is I'll record two tracks of Behringer and pan them left and right. Then do the same with the Boogie amp.The Marshall sim was good, too. The Fender sim is not as hard rock and I prefer the harder sounding channels. You can get a nice bluesy tone from it.You get good control with the bass, treble, and gain knobs. There's even a noise suppressor.I was pleasantly surprised to learn the clean channel works really well with bass. I mean... REALLY well. I've already recorded two tracks with it and it beats the Digitech bass modeler I own hands down.I don't plan on using this live... just in the studio. I've also ordered the Behringer bass driver as well. Highly recommended to add to your studio arsenal for recording.

I originally purchased this for line-in use with headphones. Just to be clear, this unit functions primarily as a pedal. Even though it has some mic modelling, it is essentially a voiced overdrive pedal that will make a clean amp sound like some of these other amps in overdrive. If you are looking for a line-in/direct/headphone solution for your pedalboard, what you need is a cab sim, or cabinet simulator (aka speaker emulator). That will filter out the fizziness of this and any other overdrive/distortion effect. You could still get this unit to achieve the sounds of various amps, but be sure to pair it with a cab sim if going to a headphone, computer interface, or direct to a soundboard/PA. Any/all guitar or bass amps (tube or SS) should work with this pedal without any cab sim needed. All that said, this pedal has a very decent sound, though it introduced noise into my chain, even when using a decent power supply, and even when switched off. This made it's purpose, even as a DI box, limited for my use. I ended up selling it on reverb.