52 pedals, week 50—Behringer Vintage Distortion VD1

As I realised I was coming to the end of my search for 52 different pedal manufacturers, I reached out to my Twitter friends for suggestions on potential pedals I’d overlooked. One suggestion was Behringer. I was familiar with the company name and did go through their BOSS-style pedal range when looking for a potential pedal to include in this list. That was too easy though. And to be honest, too ordinary. The Vintage Distortion pedal however … That ticked quite a few boxes for me. Which is handy, because it’s clearly in the list. You can tell because you’re here right now reading about it.

I love the over-sized metal shell of the Vintage Distortion pedal. It looks like something you’d find in Billy Corgan’s guitar pedal collection. And the sounds I’ve heard come from this pedal make me think I could get some similar tones from it too.

The pedal has been around for quite a while and the videos I’ve found probably don’t do it any justice. The reviews I’ve seen however are mostly full of praise for the pedal.

Nice distortion sounds in a metal chassis that should be simple to replicate due to the pedal’s simplistic control panel. All you have—and all you need—are the Volume, Tone and Sustain controls. Sustain is basically the gain level the pedal is providing.

What this pedal does however is provide you with a distortion technique similar to driving your valve amplifier to its upper-most limits. It’s not attempting to replicate the kinds of metal tones you’d expect from a Randall amplifier, but it is providing you with better distortion than you’d otherwise get without a pedal. Natural distortion perhaps. If there is such a thing.

The pedal also ticks the most important feature list items. It’s true-bypass. It’s 9 volt powered. It has an LED indicator to let you know when it’s on/off. Most importantly however is the price. It’s half the price of the majority of pedals I’ve added to this list so far. That’s something Behringer is well known for. Cheap pedals. The pedal does however come with a three year warranty. So if you want to add some distortion to your rig and don’t want to spend hundreds doing so, this could just be your best option.

For under $100 I’d consider it. Who am I kidding? I am considering it. #want

Disclaimer: I’ve not played this guitar pedal. I have not experienced first-hand the sound or effects of this guitar pedal. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.

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