Behringer GMX212

by Marko
(Serbia)

This thing has a ton of features. It had more features than any amp in the store, actually.

Chorus, Reverb, Flanger, Echo, those type of things. But the awesome ones are the wah (effect 72), the "wawawawawawawawa" type of vibrating wah (effect 74), and my personal favorite is effect number 96.

Want more distortion than anything you can imagine? Turn the low to 10, mid to 1, high to 10. Put it on California, Hot, and US for the 3 channel effects. Put the master volume down to 3, turn the level on your channel to 7 if you want gain, 8 if you're gutsy, 9 if you've got balls, and 10 if you're insane. Turn the effect level to 99. Turn the effect on.

You'll probably jump at first cause it's insanely loud, but at a level of 9 or 10 you can't even hear your notes because it's just fuzz. Think about the level of distortion on The Velvet Underground's "I Heard Her Call My Name". It also has a footswitch - one button to switch channels, one to turn the effects on or off, and if you hold the effect down for a few seconds it shuts off and goes into tuner mode (which I don't recommend. The tuner sucks. But it is a nice feature, and a way to quiet down inbetween songs during a show). Another nice feature are some big metal fins on the back to prevent it from heating up, which is definitely something I need.

My last amp (a 15 watt solid-state practice amp) blew because it got too hot. This thing has never gotten really hot. I've played it very very loud for 30-40 minutes and it's not even really that warm. One thing it doesn't have though is a reverb dial. Instead, that is an effect. Hell, my old Peavey 15 watt practice amp had a reverb dial. This thing is a gig amp! It should have a reverb dial. Even a little amount of reverb is always healthy.

It seems very reliable. I would definitely use it at a show, because it's loud and more than enough power to get a good sound. It's really big and bulky, too. This thing is 2 1/2 feet wide, about a 1 1/2 feet high and 53 pounds. 53 pounds doesn't seem like a lot, but it's pretty damn wide and it has one measley rubber handle on the top to hold it (which I sometimes thing might just rip off because it's so flimsy) so it is kind of difficult to move around. As I said in features, it takes a long while for it to get real hot and overloaded. It can do shows no sweat. I bought mine very very slightly used and taken to no shows, so when I got it, it had no warranty. So I sure as hell hope it's reliable and durable