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Behringer BLE 100 Limiter $9 on Musicians Friend

Tempting. The last Behringer pedal I bought lasted 6 months before falling apart.
Yeah, it's pretty incredible. I got a BDI21, which is considered one of their more useful products, and somehow the circuit went bad just sitting there. I've bought a bunch of their stomps when Amazon was selling them for $8-$11, just out of morbid curiosity. When they work, they are generally not bad stuff -- and a few are really stellar -- but the defect rate is just depressing. I ordered one of these just out of curiosity. It's notionally a Boss LMB-3.
 
I just received mine a few days ago. Compression is good but when the pedal is engaged it introduces a vary large amount of hiss into the signal chain. Is this typical of the pedal or did I get a lemon?
I'd guess yes. Noise floors vary *radically* with Behringer gear, as they do with most low-end stuff. The one I got wasn't conspicuously noisy, but the dubious "Enhance" effect occurs at frequencies substantially higher than the average bass driver can reproduce (>~5kHz)...which also would be where hissy noise lives. Plugged into one of the small Ampeg tweeterless amps that was handy at the moment, with my head stuck directly into the cone I could hear absolutely zero (0) effect from the "Enhance" knob, but when I plugged the headphones, it very clearly was working -- just in too high a frequency range to be audibly reproduced by the amp's 12" driver. It's also possible that the amp's "Contour" setting additionally dampened some highs, but in any case, it's way up there.

Enhance notionally gooses the bass end as well, but I certainly didn't hear it. [shrug]

How well the compressor/limiter works, I dunno. Trying to evaluate that category of gear by ear with bass seems like a good way to drive yourself crazy. For the life of me I'm never sure whether I'm imagining differences or if they're really there. With guitar, it's much easier -- and I think their CL9 compressor/limiter for guitar is incredible in bringing out the real life from Stratocaster/Telecaster single coils...really beautiful sound with the right amp. I've never heard one as good. It's supposed to be more or less of a clone of the old Ibanez CP9...but, being a Behringer product, I went through three of them with bad wafers in the Sustain pots at exactly the same spots. Finally gave up and kept the last one. [sigh!]
 
Can you really consider a $9 pedal a lemon?
It's not a $9 pedal. It's a remaindered $47.99 pedal, which is an awful lot for what it actually is...but analog stomps have become outrageously overpriced these days (an interesting subject for a different discussion), and Behringer apparently decided to get a bite of some of that action, too. ;)
 
The BDI21 I have from Behringer still works like a charm.
I had to physically repair mine before I could use it back when, but then it was fine -- unfortunately the circuit went haywire for no reason and the DRIVE control puts an ear-splitting screamy noise into the signal now. Ah, Behringer! :rolleyes:

I don't know why I keep buying this stompy crap and complaining about it when I do. I should be ashamed of myself. Since nearly destroying my fretting hand and having subsequent neurosurgery prove unsuccessful a few years ago, I can no longer even think of reliably playing out again -- so now it's studio-only for me where a few takes will hide the worst flubs and sound like I can still play. On principle, I no longer use outboard equipment for anything except primary transduction and find life infinitely less trouble-prone with VST effects in the box rather than physical gear on the floor tangled up around my ankles, or on the shelf having their guts eaten by gremlins who never sleep. :rollno:
 
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Since nearly destroying my fretting hand and having subsequent neurosurgery prove unsuccessful a few years ago, I can no longer even think of reliably playing out again -- so now it's studio-only for me where a few takes will hide the worst flubs and sound like I can still play. :rollno:

Sorry for this hijack but wanted to say how sorry I am to hear this kind of news
Prayers and good vibes headed your way