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Not
too long ago, amp modelers took the music world by storm and
the controversy of whether they sound like the real thing
rages on to this day. I was very curious when Behringer released
their new line of modeling amps and especially intrigued with
their 15-watt amp. How much modeling technology could they
stick in a amp with a street price of only $60.00?
Well,
I’m happy to say that they packed a whole lot of amp
modeling into this tiny little box!
 When
it comes to amp modeling with lower end devices, I no longer
measure them by how well they emulate the amp they are supposed
to sound like. Now, I gauge them by the tones they produce
and how well they sound and the GM108 sounds fantastic!
BASIC
FEATURES
This is really a one-channel amp, just the way I like them.
It has a three band EQ, master volume, and a drive or gain
control. It also has a CD input and headphone jack with speaker
emulation and three amp models, three gain levels, and three
speaker modes.
It
comes in a very small package with an 8” speaker. All
controls are located up front, where it easy to get to everything.
 AMP
MODELS
As far as the modeling section, the choices are a bit vague.
Your three choices are Californian, British, and Tweed. Rather
than emulate an exact amp, it emulates a type of sound.
I
found that all the amp models sound really good. Tweed in
the clean mode will give you a nice clean sound and the Californian
and British amps sound great also. All of them sound fantastic
in all of the gain modes, as well as the speaker emulations.
GAIN
LEVELS
It also has three different levels of gain: Clean, Hi Gain,
and Hot. Basically, it shifts you into another gain level
and the drive knob is still active within that gain range.
It still works like a gain knob on a regular single channel
amp. This way you can really fine-tune the overdrive level.
SPEAKER
EMULATION
It also has three different speaker emulations: Flat, UK,
and US. Flat is supposed to be Behringer’s own emulation,
UK emulates a 4x12 closed back cabinet, and the US mode emulates
a 2x12 open back cabinet. The Flat mode sounds pretty good
and the UK mode is very crisp. The US mode, of course, is
a bit muted, but all of them sound really good.
 CD
INPUT
The CD input works very well. I used a small cheap CD player
and hooked it in. One thing I can never understand is why
they still use ¼” jacks when the world has converted
to 1/8” inputs for both CD inputs and headphone outputs.
It
can be either a good thing or a bad thing but the CD input
is not affected by the tone, gain, or volume controls. That
means that the tone and volume of the CD player is dependant
on the CD player itself. That way you can play with the tone
of your guitar without changing the tone of the CD player.
A down side is that you can’t get the CD player to play
very loud because it’s dependant on how loud the CD
player can go and typically that’s not very high.
 HEADPHONES
So far, I have not found a small amp that sounds up to par
in the headphone area. None of them sound that good and unfortunately
the GM108 is no different. They say it features speaker emulation
through the headphone output, but no matter what setting I
used, it sounded only passable. It will fill the bill for
late night playing, but it sounds SO much better through the
speaker.
CONCLUSION
I love this little amp. It’s about the most fun you
can have with an amp with a street price of only $60. I can
spend hours playing with the different amp, gain, and speaker
emulations. It comes in such a small package that you can
take it almost anywhere and it sounds good enough that you
can be an instant guitar hero.
Also…This
little thing is loud!
You can rock the house with it. The only thing that would
improve it is adding some reverb. I would even do small gigs
with this amp if it had reverb. If you don’t need reverb,
you could easily gig with it.
The
only problem that I had was that this amp produces so much
bass, that the back panel rattled like crazy. It was easy
to fix by insulating the panel with a bit of foam.
This
is one little amp I’ll be keeping! Check one out and
I think you will love it too. What do you have to lose at
this price?
For
More Information on this product go to Behringers website
at:
www.behringer.com
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