Behringer BDI 21 Bass Amp Modeler/ DI Guitar Effects Pedal

This pedal may be based on a sansamp but it's best to get that comparison out of your head immediately. This little thing is it's own beast and is a great product in its own right. Comparisons to the original are unfair considering the work of art of the actual sansamp, but that said only purists and fanboys will find negatives with this pedal. For the vast majority of musicians, this is more than a viable and affordable alternativeFirstly, it's the best pedal of its type you'll find in the price range. You get the obvious durability tradeoff Vs a high end metal enclosed pedal but the unit is still a solid brick and more than capable of handling a stage invader.The sound quality far exceeds the cost and this pedal could easily be repackaged and sold at a much higher price point. They might even find they move more units this way as I'm sure the low price tag puts off many buyers. When listening to an a/b of this Vs the original, it holds up incredibly well and is relatively authentic, but still retains it's own unique characteristics that differentiate it slightly. The drive has a warmth to it and sounds far fuller and more expensive than it has any right to. I avoided behringer for many years but can definitely recommend this pedalIt's worth every bassist owning one even if it's just to keep in your case as an emergency live backup for your actual sansamp. It's cheap enough to bulk buy multiple units. It's great for making a second home rig to save getting the full live one out for practice. It's perfectly at home in a studio setup as a cheap di unit. It's also capable of enhancing other instruments that you wouldn't think of such as keyboards/organs. You can run one line to an amp and another to a set of in ear monitors or a mixer live. It absolutely excels as a standalone headphone practice unit. For beginners to intermediate, up to touring bands, it'll do the job.If you buy one, you are guaranteed to find a use for it. When approached with appropriate expectations, it'll shine

It does exactly what you need it to do at minimal cost.It doesn't colour your tone, sounds great, but boosts and cuts nicely. Tube emulator (blend) is warm and nice. All fairly subtle. Di out is great. It's heavy and sturdy, doesn't feel plasticity at all. I've seen this on expensive pedals board rigs.One negative is the power supply is on the right hand side, not the top. This makes it a touch awkward to mount on a pedal board as it takes up more space.Sansamp v1 clone, buy it.

This is supposed to be a clone of a much more expensive pedal. I haven't used that so can't comment. I bought this on the basis of reviews. For the money it gives you a direct out which is perhaps it's best feature. I've put it at the end of my pedal chain for that reason.If you turn up the presence and gain to try to emulate a tube amp it becomes very noisy (unwanted noise). Therefore, to me this pedal really is only useful with those settings turned down and used to provide an XLR output for PA. For the money this feature alone is worth it.One final thought, this has to be one of the ugliest pedals I've ever seen, and if the settings are set and you done need to change them I would place this under the board with the power supply.

I've been playing with pedals since the start of 2024 and after a bit of research, came across this as a more affordable version of the Tech21 Sansamp.It drastically improved the sound and depth of my bass in the practise room (still yet to use it at a live show but I can see this making a big difference as well).It's definitely the right place to start if you're looking into going down the pedal route and want to start a simple build. Easy to use, plenty of videos online to help determine what sound you're after based on your style. Very impressed

Firstly, a word of caution. You need good quality leads to go with this. Not fantastically expensive but consider the PRO Boston Noiseless ones elsewhere on Amazon, £10-£11 depending on who has the particular length/colour you want. Without them the noise was unbearable. This was whether it was switched in or not. That said, wiring my bass straight into the amp also produced a lot of hum and buzz, which this unit eliminated just by being there, not just when you switch it on. So it's obvious that it has a positive effect on the earthing circuits before you even start.Kicking it on, with carefully chosen settings, I've managed to add a lot of grunt at the deep end, my bass amp, a Warwick Sweet 25.1, seemed to lack a little right at the deep end, now it's there! Due to having soft skin and playing with thumb and fingers, I had to wrap my right thumb in tape to stop it blistering. I've now fitted nylon flatwound bass strings, and this unit lets me compensate by giving the treble a boost, without it the hiss and buzz would have been too much.What was notable was that my bandmates often complained that they couldn't hear me. I'd have plenty of volume coming out, but strangely not very much presence, it was there but just not punchy enough. With this pedal I've now got presence - without overloading the amp.It's hard to describe in words, but this little box has made a huge difference to the sound I'm getting, but as I said, it did some nasty things with what I thought to be adequate leads, so if you're going to invest in this little baby, don't skimp on the connections and you won't regret it.I've yet to find out what it can do as a DI unit, I have an XLR output on the back of my bass amp already, if I get to use it as such I'll add to the review.