Harley Benton British TrueTone 4-stars Reviews

nice crunch/ lead pedal

it’s not a distortion , but it’s very universal for rock/grunge music

great preamp/dirt pedal

I bought this as a preamp pedal into a dead clean channel and for direct recording and this did the trick perfectly. You can get from early jtm sounds up to modern hot rodded marshall tones

Marshall tones on a budget

This pedal does a nice variety of sounds ranging from warm and clean JTM-45 tones, to more punchy 1959 plexi stuff, and all the way up to JCM800 mid-range growl. It's got a decent gain range.

It works OK as an overdrive into a clean amp with a flat EQ, but I would not use this into an amp that already has got a lot of character. It works even better as a pre-amp into the effects loop return of a tube amp.

You can also use this pedal directly into an audio interface for recording or mixing desk and PA for performing, but I found the analog cab simulation on it rather weak. Add a good speaker cabinet impulse response after this pedal and you get a great authentic Marshall tone without even the need for an actual amp.

A good entry level distortion

I doubt this pedal can be used far from home playing and amateur rehearsal. Beside that, it guarantees a good sound and a very good handling in shaping a tipical “hi-gain” “trebling” distortion of UK vibrations. It's definitely up to its price!

OK As A Standalone But Better With Assist

Tones straight from the pedal are OK but I have found it needs an assist from amp/speaker or external speaker/amp sim to sound at its best at which point it does sound really good. So, good but not quite at the level of the American or AC Tone from the same series.

Nice product but similar to the American TrueTone

I bought this pedal since I was excited about the American TrueTone pedal from the same series. As a bedroom guitar player, I use it all the time with my pedalboard to practice and even record.

Pros: You can achieve a nice sound with the proper tweaking of the knobs and with the help of a Tubescreamer pedal and a compressor.

Cons: The sound in indistinguishable from the American TrueTone! There's no point buying both. This one has a bit more highs it seems, but the timbre quality is the same for both.

Overall, don't expect miracles if you just plug and play. Especially for more aggressive styles of music, it needs support by other pedals.

Sturdy pedal only just getting to grips with it

Build quality is excellent. as with all pedals take some time to find 'that sound'. Luckily I stumbled on 1 the other day which when coupled with the HB Delay pedal with all knobs set to 12 o'clock seem to do most of what i need. Works well with my cheapo Chinese Wah Wah in front. either in cocked mode or in full operation.

Very nice pedal

I bought it a couple of days ago, and used it only a few times (so far).

I'm real satisfied with it, but as so many have told it before: this pedal is rather for the effect loop, than before the amp.

Drive and Voice knobs give plenty of possibilities to mix out a good overdrive sound, while you can control the output with the Level knob. Then you still have Low, Mid and High knobs, which I found interesting at the first try: they also modify into the volume level, although - if you ask me - they should not... but this is a feature you can get used to pretty quickly.

Sound?

Sound is - as I've already written before - prety nice. Don't expect a metal sound, this is not that kind of pedal, but I really achieved a pretty nice Mark Knopfler kind of sound with it. Also, this is rather for rock'n'roll or hard-rock. That's what it is.

Look?

Well, it's pink. Pretty rare color, but you can get used to it. :)

You'll be satisfied with it, I tell you. ;)

Nice pedal! but not on the guitar imput of the amp

This is a great sounding pedal for use directly to an fx return or direct on a soundcard. As a od pedal in front of the amp its not working that well.... but i guess it isn't designed for that.

Marshall in a box

This pedal is basically 50 years of British amps in one small pink box! It's a lot more than just a distortion pedal.

You can run it like that; at the end of a pedal chain it did a great job of sounding big into a clean Peavey Bandit. It also worked well as an overdrive with the gain and voice settings lowered. I also tried it into the Peavey's Fx send jack so it worked as a preamp - what a great sound! The British Sound works wonderfully into a powerful solid state poweramp and if anything has even more character. The final method I used to test the British Sound was into a PA - again, great results, largely thanks to the built-in speaker simulator. I would happily use this as a gigging backup in case my main amp went down.

In terms of tone, the British Sound emulates the entire history of Marshall amps, right from the early Bluesbreaker and JMP models with their lower gain and woody sounds through to the JCM800 series and the JCM2000 DSL series of amps - the voice control lets you change the type of amp you are emulating and the rest of the controls work as a normal distortion pedal would.

In summary, the amount of voicings and applications this pedal has is really impressive - whether it's as a backup rig or the centre of your live rock sound, for the price it's definitely worth giving it a shot.

Great British tone, for a great price

I should have rated every part 5 stars at this price, but I want to be realistic too.

Pots and switches could feel a little 'stronger', and there's a little bit of background noise at higher levels, but for the price, this is a fantastic pedal!