Behringer Ultrabass BX2000H

I bought this to replace an elderly Carlsbro I really liked, but we play a lot of festivals on outside stages and theatres with big stages and I needed something louder. I like 10" speakers so matched it to an Ashdown 8 x 10 cabinet.

I've got lots of behringer kit so when I saw this, I jumped straight in.

A year later, I'm really pleased I got it. It plays LOUD, it sounds good, and the controls are quite gentle and useful. I use two guitars - A Fender Jazz bass that has a higher action that I play hard, and a Peavey that is set up for jazzy bassy stuff, and gets played very gently. The amp copes with both of these perfectly.

I also do NOT look after it. It has a flight case, but has fell off cases in the van from a height, fell off the cab onto a hard floor loads of times and no ill effects.

I use the mute button quite a lot and this works silently. I rarely use it in anything other than clean mode - so the valve like emulations haven't been explored - I often have it very loud though and this doesn't cause any issues at all.

If I lost it - I'd simply buy another. It just does the job I need it to do with no fuss.
Paul

Let's not mince words: This head provides very good value for money. It is however far from perfect. I have mainly been using it as a practice amp and to listen to music through my full-range bass cab.

First: The 2000W figure is pure fantasy and reflects an absolute peak value, actual performance is probably somewhere in the low hundreds of Watts, which is still good though.

Furthermore, I am pleased with the tone shaping capabilities of this head. The parametric bass and mids allow you to single out and modify specific frequencies. The deep and bright switches are not something I typically use but they do work as intended. I have hardly tried and honestly don't care about the shape knob. Compression is basic but also works as intended and is pretty good for a single knob affair. I wish the gain setting could produce a bit more drive instead of just volume.
The knobs generally feel a bit cheap.

Now for the true issue though: The amp is unfortunately quite noisy. There's an audible hiss at elevated volumes, also with no instrument attached. Playing with treble can attenuate it though.

Finally, I wish there was an aux in.