The cat's meow ...

Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015 -- I plan to blog a bit before I go play guitar with one of the neatest pieces of audio hardware I've ever owned -- the Behringer V-Amp 3.

I have been playing guitar for nearly 40 years, both acoustic and electric, as well as bass, and the one thing I've never really messed with were effects pedals. My old VOX Buckhingham had several "effects" -- distortion, vibrato and a killer reverb. But that was it. One of my roommates who played a  killer Gibson SG -- a 1966 -- had a fuzz pedal he gave to me when he moved out ... it was nothing more really than an amp that pushed into regulated distortion. I tried changing some resister values in it, but there wasn't much more it could do that distort. I played with it some, including playing my bass thru it -- but it disappeared during a later move.

I've long wanted some sort of effects, and have been looking for a long time at modeling amps, which have been able to offer a variety of effects built into a single amp -- no need for separate pedals. And modeling amps are surprisingly afford able.

While looking at modeling amps, I ran across the Behringer V-Amp 3, a solid state device that takes the term "modeling" to a whole new level.

The V-Amp 3 offers 32 different type of simulated amps which can be paired with any one of 15 different speaker cabinets -- simulated speaker cabinets.

I may wind up with this Surf Green Telecaster clone.
I'm still debating if I should pull the trigger
(and if my wife would have a cow if I did).

ABOUT THOSE EFFECTS. The V-Amp 3 includes top-quality effects, including reverb, chorus, flanger, phaser, rotary, auto wah, echo, delay, compressor and a variety of combinations of these effects. There are also 125 presets -- which combine one or more effects with an amp/speaker cabinet combination. It's a surprising array of combinations that give the user a bunch of sounds to start with.

Each preset can be modified -- you can change effects as well as a full range of volume, gain and equalizer adjustments. Its a dizzying array of combinations, really, and a great deal of fun to simply play with.

Right now I have computer audio going into the V-Amp 3's auxiliary input thru an included USB interface ... I monitor the combined mix through the V-Amp's headphone output. I have also run the ouput mix out of the V-Amp 3 via the line  out and run that into my 15 watt practice amp. It sounded really, really good, too.

In some reviews of the V-Amp 3, users complained about the abundance of settings and how difficult it is to find the sound you are looking for. The instruction manual also includes a chart that describes each preset and the sound it offers. It isn't rocket science to determine what sound you seek.

This is an odd shaped body, but very
similar to the Jazzmaster in overall
form and function. It is available as
a hard tail, with this Jazzmaster-style
tremelo, or a trapeze tailpiece.

Once you use the V-Amp 3 a while, you can flip thru the presets and watch the indicators (i.e., the quadrants that describe the general style -- rock, blues, metal, etc. ) you quickly can determine by which LEDs are lit to get a general idea of what the preset does and the sound it offers.

And perhaps I'm easily impressed and easily entertained. I've had a ball using the V-Amp 3. Oddly enough, when you look for YouTube reviews about the V-Amp 3, nearly all of them are foreign language videos! I've wondered if I shouldn't do one in English just to sing the V-Amp's praises.

It isn't something new, of course, it was preceded by the V-Amp and the V-Amp 2.

WHAT ELSE DOES THE V-AMP 3 DO? The unit comes with a four or five generic cable setups ... using it to jam with a PC, using it to record to a PC, running the unit through a guitar amp and running the unit through a house PA/sound system.

Right now I am running Spotify audio from my PC through the special USB interface to the V-Amp. The same USB interface allows you to send your signal from the V-Amp to the PC for recording. The V-Amp came with some multitrack recording software that I have installed but haven't tried.

There are accessory pedals you can use with the V-Amp 3 to gig with it ... it a very versatile unit ... its easy to select the preset number (say, 13) then you chose A, B, C, D or E as far as the individual subpresets. It would be easy to add the presets to the set list, and you would have so many at your fingertips.

Enough babbling for tonight. More tomorrow!