JT Micro

This was my final purchase of 2025. The beat-making adventure continues...

Review quickie: Behringer HM300

If you're not familiar with this series of Behringer pedals, these are plastic stompboxes with a fiddly battery cover which is also the pedal's on-off lever. It is exactly how the BOSS pedal works just that Behringer chooses plastic & this brings the cost significantly down - the HM300 is not even $30.

Likes

• price
• functional
• fairly good tones
• responsive EQ

Dislikes

• fiddly battery cover
• fragile parts
• underwhelming distortion

It's no secret that the HM300 is an attempt to emulate BOSS' Heavy Metal (HM-2). The control features are exactly the same less the colour feature - pink. It even says Heavy Metal on the label & delivers an intense serving of distortion. On matters pertaining to distortion, the range on offer is rather restrained, contradictory to the Heavy Metal promise but come to think of it, that's how the HM-2 is; rather underwhelming till it's maxed out on all fronts. On that note, the HM-300's EQ is, in this standard of offering, is above expectations. It adds to volume & inevitably distortion & offer good sensitivity. You can go from a deep, treble-deficient voicing to that famed semi-hissing chainsaw bark with ease. I find this pedal rather exceptional paired with a boost or a light overdrive unit acting as a push. If you have a high output humbucker pushing the distortion through, that would be a plus.

Re-visiting the factors that plague this series of pedals, the HM300 is light & gets jerked around easily if not secured onto a pedalboard. The battery cover is also fiddly, you need something hard & pointed to click it open; the two button release hinges are not accessible to human fingers - not an issue if you choose to run this on PSU. 

Rating: 70%

Behringer: HM300

• Availability: Swee Lee Co.
• List: $24.90 (online purchase only)

HM

I guess I just have to try this one; it has a 2-band EQ & says Heavy Metal so it must be alluding to...

to be continued...

Purple token

 

Someone sponsored me a pedal - thank you very much! Was gonna choose something else from the list but they were out of stock, this one turned out to be a good consolation. It's something in the likes of BOSS' OS-2. I love the distortion half more than the overdrive half. FYI, Behringer stuff are available at Swee Lee's online store.

Green token

As mentioned previously, no major gear purchases while I'm still clearing my chemo bills. Looking at the figures in hand, it would at least take a couple of months. Behringer pedals are available at Swee Lee in the mean time & you can only purchase them online as none will be brought into the showrooms.  I got myself the TO800 here to prevent me from plunging into deeper depression - it's less than $30. These pedals aren't new, they've been around for a while; at least a decade. I used to own a few Behringer stuff when they were sold at SV Guitars which was then known as Standard Value. 

It's an overdrive & it's green so we now what this is all about. Might do a proper review in time to come but in the mean time, I'm using it as a booster-drive, not as a stand alone drive source.

And yes, I'm running it on battery. 

PS: Thanks for reading my older gear reviews 👍

B & B

Swee Lee is now the official dealer for Bugera.

They are also distributing Behringer stuff. These are not boutique brand names but for those of us with a modest budget to get our music going. They're not new to the industry either. The GDI 21 for instance, was featured here back in 2008: CLICK 

EDIT: Behringer stuff are available through online purchase only. These will not be available in any showrooms.

Shout out to blog reader Nic Burrows for alerting me the good stuff 👍

Pics: Swee Lee / Behringer

Selling: Behringer VT911 Vintage Tube Overdrive

Next to go- my Behringer, tube integrated (yes, there's an actual 12AX7 pre-amp tube in there) overdrive as depicted here. Will not run on battery, only power adapter.

Selling: Behringer VT911

Condition: 9/10, box + adapter included
Asking price: $49.90
Self-collect: Venue to be disclosed upon confirmation
Confirmation via e-mail only: dark1349@hotmail.com
No reservations/ trades




EDIT: Pedal SOLD as at 7.49PM Thanks.

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Still Available: Sound Drive SG-612R (head only)- $349

Selling: Behringer Pre-amp Booster PB100

The clearance continues- this time it's my Behringer PB100, Pre-amp Booster.

A clean booster unit, such as this PB100, can be used as an initial unit, placed at the very start of one's effects chain, to boost the guitar signals before it goes into a drive/ distortion source. It can also be placed at the final position in the chain to supplement any signal losses. I currently own 3 clean booster-type pedals including the PB100 which had been unused for quite some time.

It's going for $29.00 if you are interested. Do note that the housing & chassis for this pedal is entirely plastic.

Still available for sale: Squier Deluxe Hot Rails Strat/ Sound Drive SG-612R head

EDIT: Pedal SOLD to brother DEREK (first in queue), 8.43PM, 5th Feb.

Selling: Behringer GDI21

Selling my Behringer GDI21 @ $49. Superb condition, all queries welcomed.

EDIT: Pedal SOLD at 9.07am 27th Jan. Thanks to all interested parties :-)

GDI revisited

Behringer's GDI21 is one of the better tone tools I own (regardless of how others deem this name disgusting) but as a stout believer of the guitar-amp set up, it gets tucked away. The GDI serves me as a variable tone provider, giving me a quick change in taste but the lack of a middle frequency control continues to annoy me. Nevertheless, it remains useful.

Behringer: VT911

The Behringer VT911 is equipped with a single 12AX7 pre-amp tube. Upon activation, try as you might but you can't see the tube glowing in the pedal's innards. This raises the question; is the tube in there working?

Yes it is, but the tube is wired not to glow as evidence of its operation. Part of the reason I bought this pedal was to hear tonal differences upon a tube swap, this would be a better consolation of functionality than seeing some visual indicators. True enough, there was tonal differences, albeit minor, when this procedure took place (default Chinese tube made way for an EHX 12AX7).

There are other manufacturers out there who equip their tube laden products (Eg: Rocktron for its Silver Dragon distortion pedal, Zoom for their G-series multi-FX units) with a small, rear bulb which would light up upon the pedal's activation, to emulate a tube glow. No, you are not short-changed because the tube is functional. Manufacturers do not want owners to be alarmed with a no-glow situation the reason this arrangement was adopted.

Behringer: GDI21

The Behringer brand name has only itself to blame for conjuring dislike among guitar geeks for being a copy cat. Many of its products are replications of an established FX unit in the market, this GDI21 included. The blue device here is a copy of the SansAmp GT2 at about one third of the original article's list price. I bought it more so for the good tones on board than the attractive price tag. It's good enough for me to forgive the pedal for an absence of a midrange control. The GDI21 also offers a direct XLR hook up to mixing consoles so it comes in handy in that context. Tone-wise, is it really a match against the aforementioned GT2? Well, the pedal is a good employment per se regardless of its inclinations towards a certain tonal expectation. If you are looking for a quick palette of an American high gain, British crunch & Fender-like clean voicings on a budget, this is a good unit to invest in.

Review: http://soft.com.sg/forum/guitar-fx-reviews/14571-behringer-v-tone-guitar-gdi-21-a.html

Cheap & good

I am certainly not trying to propel cheap, obscure brand names to fledglings reading this entry but there are indeed items out there which are affordable and reputable.

The pedals here are my Behringer EQ & Beta Aivin Heavy Metal distortion pedal. The former brand name is rather prominent when it comes to duplicating other established technologies but many cite the manufacturer's plastic housing & fiddly battery latch to be its undoing. My take here is this- if you wish for caviar, be sure to look for sturgeons otherwise be content with cod roe especially if you are shopping with that limited budget. This is no defence for a preferred brand name but Behringer stuff generaly works, people tend to equate its performance with the original item it is duplicating. That's when the endless whining & bashing begins.

Beta Aivin on the other hand is another name in the effects emporium very much ignored for its far eastern origin. Yes, it's not too different from other semi-nameless products out there but it has its refined moments privy to the initiated. The Heavy Metal here gets the idea very much from BOSS' ubuquitous Metal Zone, especially its stacked midrange feature. The pedal sounds great per se because the distortion does not suffer from an implosive ('compressed' to the rest of us) nature at higher level settings. The output we hear is thus a progressive kick rather than sounding choked. A great possession for those on a budget but in preference of plesantries.