BehringerUltraBass BXD3000H 300-watt 2-channel Bass Head

I tested my new BXD3000H with all my go-to basses: An upright with a piezo Fishman Full Circle, a passive 1965 Fender Precision, and a new electric with active pickups. The BXD3000H simply accommodated all of them with excellent sound. I'm amazed! I've never seen an amp accommodate so many different input requirements so easily before.Here's what else amazed me. I brought in our front of the house soundman to work on the EQ. He loved the FBQ function, he'd never seen it before but he instantly grasped what it was for -- similar to the post-EQ meters he has on his mixing board. He left happy because in a venue where he needs my stage sound to be "his way," he can set it quickly and visually. Then I set the EQ to flat, put my bass cabinet up off the floor to eliminate the room's floor coupling, and found that my upright bass -- the piezo high impedance input that I was most worried about -- sounds perfect! No adjustments needed. This means I can use the EQ just for fixing problems in rooms that need it.Then I plugged in my Fender wireless system and the electric basses -- again, perfect sound with no EQ. The wireless system has its own light compression, well tuned to an electric bass's signal, and I'm quite used to it. In venues where I can't use the wireless's compression, the BXD3000H has a variable compressor.This is the best all-around, no-hassles, multi-bass amp I've ever seen.If you're concerned about output power, remember that your cabinet has at least as much to say about perceived loudness as the amp does. To my Trace Elliot 2x10" cabinet, this amp powers it cleanly at any loudness that I'm interested in onstage, even for a loud classic rock gig. When we play large venues or outdoors we always have a PA to suit and the front of the house prefers a DI from me anyway, which is built into this BXD3000H.One reviewer mentioned the fan sound might be annoying in a really quiet place. I'm not sure where a bass would be quiet, but I could hear the fan in my studio when I wasn't playing so I just dropped a cloth over it. It didn't overheat because the fan blows warm air out despite the cloth's sound dampening.Put a couple cables in the gig bag, load up a great cabinet, and this lightweight amp is all I need -- or want -- for all our venues ranging from intimate hotel bars to outdoor festivals, rehearsals to recording sessions.

This head sounds amazing! It has everything a bassist needs with two gain channels, an eq, a compressor and even a sub bass effect for your funk or metal wants/needs. Super lightweight, it can be mounted in a rack, great value. Small cons: slides around because it has no “feet” easy to fix with rubber pads, a towel, or if you have an extra “feet” laying around to adhere to the bottom of the unit. I have maybe awesome tube and classic solid state bass heads and this thing is equally if not more impressive than any other bass amp gear that I currently own.

First of all, let me say that the service by Amazon was incredible. I ordered the amp, and it was here within 48 hours, with no shipping charge. Can't beat that! As for the amp itself, it is an incredible buy. There is nothing on the market that can touch it in terms of features and price. It works well, sounds good, has lots of tone-modifying features, a clean and a dirty channel, and even an octave synthesizer. It is actually similar in features and look to their now-obsolete 180 amp model, but much lighter in weight. It is a joy to carry around. All that said, however, I think the 300-watt rating is exaggerated. That is a problem with PA amps, and has actually always been a problem with amps in general, that power output is exaggerated. That silliness has reached its peak now with PA amps being rated at thousands of watts when they probably don't put out much over 100 watts RMS. Behringer does not say 300 of what kind of watts, so it is probably not RMS; more likely some ethereal "peak power" or some other nonsense. The power seems very similar to the old 180 watt amp I mentioned above. We have a country band, so not some ear-splitting metal group, and I operate this amp at full bore - maximum output, and it is barely loud enough at rehearsal. I could never gig with it. My little G-K 2-pound 200-watt amp is louder. However, the Behringer has more features, and costs only half what the G-K did. So, bottom line is that the Behringer is a great little amp with lots of features normally found on only much more expensive heads, lightweight, and very convenient. For small venues or jazz groups or acoustic or similar type gigs it would probably suffice. However, for most bands more power will be required, and I would suggest moving up to the Behringer 450 watt unit, which probably is more realistically rated (I have one of those, too). It is actually only another $100, although it weighs a ton.I have to add a sad note to this review. The amp performed very well, albeit was not nearly as loud as it should have been for its rated power, for exactly two rehearsals. At the end of the second rehearsal it suddenly stopped working, and we smelled a burning electric smell. Turned out it not only self-destructed but it also burned out the voice coil in my speaker cabinet. You can draw whatever conclusions you may like about the amp; this is the only bad experience I have had with Behringer, and perhaps this was just a lemon. I did not give them another chance, however, and Amazon was super in the way they refunded my money immediately. One thing you learn if you play professionally or semi-professionally is that you never go to a gig without backup equipment. The old saying that anything that can go wrong, will, is often the case. So no matter what amp you choose to buy, make sure you have a backup plan, even if that means using the PA.