Harley Benton American TrueTone 5-stars Reviews

Texan Blues and Irish Blues Masterpiece

As a Blues musician, this pedal for its price really hits home. Both in relation to the infinite possibilities in tone, and as well as how it takes other pedals, and its reactivity to amplifiers. If you want a Dirty Blues Pedal, this is one which can achieve that easily, with the boost and Gain knobs. It encapsulates the blues spirits of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher, as its built for the creation of overdriven masterpieces, if taken care well. This pedal can offer hours of fun and learning for a beginner, and its build is sturdy and aesthetically gorgeous. With this pedal however, not only a nice bluesy sound can be achieved, but also more clean sounding overdrive can lead to tones similiar to both John Mayers and conversely, if cranked up enough with a good amp, one can achieve some brown distortion, however this should not be the main focus of the purchase. As basic as this pedal is, it made my training amp sound 5 times better, as through the pedals EQ knobs, dialing in a tone is actually very easy to do. Boost and Gain knobs are also very reactive. A small push to any of these knobs, can affect the entire tone of the guitar, which is a plus for any tone nerd out there, but also an experience for a newer guitarist, who seeks experimentation. The Price for this pedal is very worth it. For 30 dollars, This Pedal gives the user an immersive experience into Guitar tones, and is definitely one that should be on your bucket list.

Perfect voor mondharmonica

Als je geen versterker kan of wil meenemen is dit een goede backup.

really cleans up my tone

So i use this on my pedal board into my amp as more of an eq and tone shaper than a full on amp sim but i find it works really well for me. I think I'm waiting for something to go wrong with it as it was so cheap but it's really holding up well and it's incredibly versatile. Slight changes to the dial positions and you have a whole new tone. very impressive for the cost. It's made me want to give the vox version a go

what a good deal

For me, this pedal range (truetone series) opened a new world. It is possible to get different amp sounds on one amp with a cheap analog pedal. You can record in convincing way direct into the interface... wich is the main purpose. Now I want more. I noticed that putting it in the beginning of the chain works well too, but .... not in case of fuzz. If you want to have a good starting point in this ampsim world, this pedal is really a bargain. Use it with a compressor in front of it and it is already top ! I am looking now for this type of pedal without the ampcab thing for recording, but only to influence the amp and go well with pedals.

Amp in a box, OD, always on option, with or without amp

Mad how good this is. Incredible sound and so versatile. I have used with or without an amp. Spend some time dialling it in and mark your settings.

Is it true bypass? I am not sure. I have it at the end of my pedal chain. Off if I use my amp and on if going direct to the mixer (via a DI).

Can't fault this

A full amp in a box. Great variation in sounds but difficult to switch between sounds easily. Small tweaks make big sound changes and you are spoiled by the amount of choice. You might need 2 or 3 of these to switch between they're that useful. I use this and the Actone on a pedal board. Can't fault it at the price.

Turns a cheap amp into a Fender amp

This pedal turns a cheap practice amp into Fender Blackface or Tweed amp. Killer vintage tones that can only be beat by spending hundreds more. However when you plug into an actual Fender blackface amp it must live in the Tweed territory as you cannot stack blackface tone which is understandable. I can get over driven amp tones without having to upset the entire neighborhood. It turns my blackface into a tweed and that's what I love about it. For this price you can't go wrong.

Hey, this is cool and at a good price

I am not a real pedals guy but if you want to change your guitar sound from a basic amp this will do it and it was very well priced at the time.

STRONG construction, it will handle stage use.

Great drive, sounds nice on a passive bass as well

Bought this alongside my kid's shortscale strat, that's a really neat pedal, works and sounds great, even with my JB.

Great amp sim/OD for the price

They sell it as overdrive pedal, but it actually as speaker sim built in. Great for clean/crunch tones, not realy usefull for higher gain sounds.

Mimics Fender

This pedal mimics a Fender amp beautifully

Great things about it:

1. Cheap in price

2. Very sturdy, built like a tank

3. Do not produce any voice, humm, buzz whatsoever. Cool.

Considering the price, it is impossible to go wrong with this pedal. Recommend it.

Cheap Harmonica Pedal with a punch!

I use this one to get a better crunch out of my HB Tube 15 amp. It does a remarkable job! I get full control of tone and I can adjust how much overdrive I want. For harmonica players I recommend this one with the HB Tube 15 amp!

Great sounding but of kit

Love this peddle defiantly gives me the super sounds of the 70s

Excelent produkt!

Awesome pedal for it's price! Makes unexpensive amps sound much more alive, fenderish..!

Nice Amp Simulation.

Great box I love the sounds I'm getting from it. Right now, I am working on this pedal along with two others that I that bought with this one, I like what I'm hearing. Thank you for your quick delivery.

Great pedal

That's the third HB "true Tone" pedal I own (I also have the British and the AC) and it's as good as the others. For 30 euros you can give your amp a fenderish character, or a nice drive to spice your Tone. With experimentation you can find that this petals have many possibilities. I like them all and I am having much fun with them.

How is it this good?

I was hoping to find a cheap pedal-style amp sim for times when my backline amp is not such a practical choice. After coming across this pedal I was initially skeptical about how good it could be so I did my research.

I was very surprised with the number of positive reviews I found and the video reviews online also seemed to be the same. I took a chance and purchased the American pedal to try it out for myself.

I've built a number of pedalboards over the years (both for myself and others) many of them have featured well-known high-end boutique pedals and to be honest, the build quality of this pedal is equal to theirs in many ways.

As far as DI'ing the pedal into the PA system as it was quite noisy. If I could add a noise gate after it then I think that would solve the issue but I don't own one of them yet.

I had recently been unsatisfied with the overdrive sound I was getting at low volumes from my overdrive and distortion pedal with my amp - my trusty old Mesa Boogie DC5. Today I took the American pedal to try out with my amp in band practice. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the sound. I then used this when playing a live set later and just cant get enough of it.

This is now living on my pedal board as my main overdrive pedal. It also responds fantastically if I push the pedal with a transparent overdrive pedal or a Boss DS1 (or both).

This pedal is simply amazing. I can't believe the results this produces, especially for the low price.

The budget price equipment market has caught right up with the more high-end brands and is now an option all players should give serious consideration to adding to their rigs.

Like a real Fender amp

I may never stick a mic in front of my Gender amp again. This thing is so close to the real thing that I don’t think I could tell the difference once recorded. And incredibly cheap too.

Full of tone

Im amazed by this pedal it's full of tone. You can tweak the knobs to your liking. So much fun and its affordable. Also the build quality is amazing.

Cheap pedals like these are very difficult to regret buying

I use this pedal directly into a mixer. Normally I keep the drive control only very slightly above minimum and use an overdrive before it (KMA Logan), and it sounds lovely. Compared to the cab/amp sims on my Zoom MS-50G (which admittedly aren't state-of-the-art), I much prefer the sound of this pedal. It sounds clearer and fuller, with a bit wider bandwidth, and seems to cover a broader range of tones too.

As far as I know this is the same, or very similar, circuit as the Joyo American Sound, which is a clone of the Tech 21 SansAmp Character Blonde, an analogue amp and cabinet simulator. I'm sure if you compare it to a real amp and cabinet, or a modern digital IR convolver, you can tell the difference. I just don't care. I don't have the space nor the inclination for a real cabinet anyway. I have more of a keyboard/synth background than a guitar background, and for me, a sound is a sound, and with this pedal, I really like the sound. It makes my guitar sing. The metal construction and ridiculously low price are bonuses. It's just a pity it looks so ugly, and that's coming from someone who actually likes the look of the Behringer pedals.