Behringer Ultrabass BX4500H 450-watt Bass Amplifier Head

I fancied a Marshall VBA 400 but my budget wouldn't stretch to even a 2nd hand one at the time and I wanted something big and powerful and cheap.(dont we all) It does the job I bought it for so I'm pleased with it and would buy another one and its less than a quarter of the price of the Marshall. The only fault as I said is the mains hum.I can live with it. Best comment came from another bass player who I was speaking to before our gig and who didn't rate Behringer saying "you only get what you pay for".I spoke to him again between sets and he said"F**k!I spent nearly a Grand on my Ashdown gear and it sounds s***e compared to that" - Expensive is not always better

Features: Plenty of power and easy to use controls.5 band EQ - deep and bright buttons - Ultrabass button and footswitch included.Balanced DI output and built in limiter.Ample power for our 3 piece, playing Mod/Punk/Rock type stuff in pubs and clubs.Never need to go through our PA to be right upfront in the mix.

Sound: Play a Rickenbacker 4001 through it most of the time and have a Marshall 7152 cab(1 15"speaker and two 10,s) so it has plenty of guts. The main drawback is mains hum.Sometimes its really loud when the amp is cranked up.A common fault apparently.Not noticable when playing though so have gotten used to it.

Durability: Have gigged with it at least once per week, sometimes more since buying it 18 months ago.Its been slung in and out of cars and vans with only a dust cover for protection and its still going strong with no bits missing.Never needed repairing yet(fingers crossed)

Very good unit when you consider the price. I would buy again without question.

Features: Great overall for the money. Has a good clean sound with plenty of range. Should meet any needs. Able to operate from practice level up to large venue. Very solid.

Sound: Sound is good. Has a lowered bass feature that seems to play well with standard EADG tuning. also bright and deep functions for clean highs and lows. Sound seems to hold up well through complete volume range levels.

Durability: Well made, seems tough enough. Carpet like covering and corner protectors. Metal front plate, plastic knobs, metal jacks. Cooling fan. Speakon jack.

This unit is great for a back up if you're used to playing higher end units or as you intro out of bass combos

Features: First off I'm basing this review on price paid for unit 250 if it were 750 I would fell a bit different. the features are exellent it has a bright, deep, shape, and ultra bass features that really are practical to use

Sound: It's not an ampeg, but sure as H%$# isn't a rogue

Durability: What one would expect for the money. but so far I've had no problems to mention

The main purpose of this amp is to have a solid state back up for when the power gets funky and my Mesa Boogie M-Pulse 600 acts funky. I have heard positive things about the Behringer bass gear but honestly never paid it any attention I mean after all my Mesa will never fail me right!? Anyway it earned my purchasing money Through features, and value. I probably would have gone another direction if I were looking for a full time bass head but the BX4500H has so far earned my respect. I put it through its paces on full shows and it did not let me down. It's nice to know when called upon to get me through a tight situation I won't feel like I've compromised my band, audience or tone by using it.

Features: This single channel 450 watt into 4 ohms solid state head made my jaw hit the floor. It has plenty of power and really let my Mesa Boogie Power house cabinets sing. Behringer has done a 1st rate job of bring some respectability to the somewhat dismal low end bass market. I believe it's based off of the Ashdown Mag 300 bass head being very similar in layout and control placing EQ knobs in between the standard Bass, Middle and Treble controls of 140 Hz and 1.5 Khz respectively. A feature I 1st noticed on the Ashdown's. Preset "Deep" and "Bright" pushbutton switches allow you to and a little more flavor to your sound. The unit also comes with an "Ultrabass" sub harmonic processor and a "Shape" filter both control by a included footswitch that really makes this unit a top notch bang for the buck purchase. Throw in a "Tuner out, Send/Return, Line Out with 1/4 inch and Speakon Outputs" and you have a versatile low end monster on your hands.

Sound: I play in a wedding band, open mike band, blues band, and original rock band which means I'm often called to use different basses and styles. I use a '77 Musicman Stingray, (my favorite) Fender P-bass special edition, Yamaha BBN-5, Ibanez ErgoDyne EDA-905 and a few other fun objects of art LOL. I waited a while to write this review because I wanted to road test this piece. I got a little hiss at high volumes but a tweak on the horns attenuator took care of that. The bottoms were fat and full and the amp is fairly transparent to my basses. Simple controls made the necessary tweaks quick and painless. The Bx4500H handled all I threw at it very well and even made my neighbor complain that he couldn't hear his TV across the driveway. Did I mention I was running a Mesa Boogie Powerhouse 4x10 and 1x15 stack in my drive way on my wireless system? Brickhouse with the master volume set at about 4 did him in. Like I said my jaw hit the floor and what this amp put out.

Durability: This is the true question isn't it? I haven't had it long enough to say but the price made me willing to take a chance. It seems build solid enough but I think the knobs turn too easily. They should have a bit more resistance to them. I wouldn't count on them being where I left them after moving the amp from one location to another. I'll have to rate it as average until I've spent more time with it and as more players start to user it and we can compare notes.