Harley Benton Dynamic Compressor Reviews

Surprisingly brilliant

Build - The metal housing of the product seems pretty solid. The knobs are chunky and bright, leaving nothing to the imagination. The only slight issue is the plastic bottom, which is unevenly seated to one side (I have removed the rubberised bottom to accommodate attachment to a pedal board) - no particularly a deal breaker though.

Use - I've only used this at home so far through a Peavey Bass combo, using several different basses (5 string & fretless). I foresee that it will be used continually in my new wave/glam/pop band.

Sound - I have spent a while finding the sweet spot and the results are very good. The bass is given a definite overall lift, the sound is tight and punchy, the slap sound produced is sound funky. When turning the unit off I realise quite how much it affects the sound and how much life it breaths in to my bass sound.

For around £25 I doubt that this can be beat in terms of sound and build.

EDIT 2019 not happy at all

This pedal is extremely subtle to the point of not being sure if it even adds anything to the sound. Maybe my sound gets slightly more Hi-fi with it but it sure does not change the guitar sound. This is not a compressor pedal. Its not even a sustain pedal. Even the attack is so subtle Im not sure what to call it. Maybe can be used as a clean boost pedal because one can crank the Level on this thing.

EDIT 2019; since then I have got myself a Ross style Compressor pedal and this HB Dyna Comp went out of the window!!! The Ross style comp is an actual comp pedal and you CAN HEAR all you do with the knobs, especially the Mix knob where I can blend in dry signal as much as I want to (or not at all). This Harley Benton Dyna Comp is a waste of money as you cant hear any difference no matter what you do with the knobs (except the Level knob). Save that cash and get an actual compressor that works.

Astonishing Pedal for the Money

Great little compressor for very cheap! It is all analogue, gives a transparent sound to my ears. It is not the most aggressive comp but quite natural and at higher settings you can get that nice compressor pop on the string attack, I love it for clean chords on the neck P90 pickup on my yamaha pacifica 311.

Recommended.

Pleasantly surprised

I bought this pedal along with 2 others after seeing some YouTube reviews, thinking at the price, there wasn't much to loose.

The pedal appears well made, very sturdy & the switch & pots feel good quality.

It does exactly what a good compressor should, though more subtly than more expensive pedals, still produces great sustain.

For the money, I simply cant fault it!

Surprisingly subtle and transparent compressor

I bought this out of curiosity more than anything. I've tried the Baby Boom compressor, and expected this to be a similar affair. I was wrong!

Whilst technically still a dyna-comp style compressor, this really isn't the funky squash and chickin' pickin' kind. Your tone still really shines through, well into the higher levels of compression. Low levels cut the volume considerably, to the point that with compression set below 9 o clock, you'll struggle to retain unity gain, but due to the subtle nature of the effect you probably won't find yourself needing it set at this level. There's a noticeable slight rolloff to the high end, which may or may not be desirable depending on what you're after. The attack control is very subtle, but a welcome addition on any comp pedal.

Works absolutely great as an always on pedal to even out your signal a little bit, but if you're after a 'funk' button, you might want to try something a bit more in your face.

I bought this hoping to get a good squash on my clean Fender guitar sound however it is a very subtle compression. My bass playing friend tried it after having bought an alternative compressor which squashed too much and he loved it so we swapped.

My overall feeling is that this is probably better for Bass guitar unless you want a very soft compression. For the money it is a great pedal though.

Brilliant little pedal

This fit my really limited budget when I was looking for a compressor, and it does the job beautifully. I use it for bass, and it's one that I leave on all the time, really miss it when I don't happen have it. It's lovely and subtle, though it can do some weird things if you need it to, and I find it's pretty much silent. The volume pot is extremely responsive, so you can tweak it exactly to fit your needs.

Definitely recommend it, for the price you'd be silly not to.

Very Impressive

Of all of the Harley Benton Pedals that I've had time to play, this is probably the most impressive. This is a very impressive compressor. It handled the vintage pickups in my American Tele and the super high output hot-rails in my strat very well.

The sound is the classic sustainer type compression, the variable attack time being very useful to help shape picking dynamics. It's not the cleanest compression I've heard, but any colouration I could hear seemed warm and very complimentary to my single coil guitars. I've yet to try this pedal with my bass rig.

Build quality is very impressive, and not just for the price point. The enclosure is high quality die-cast aluminium and is well finished (though the graphics are a little cheesy). Having had a snoop inside I was pleased to find a quality 3PDT footswitch in a true bypass configuration. The pots are pretty decent too, as is the quality of the off board wiring. The construction quality of this pedal is easily the match of some boutique manufacturers.

Doesn't make a difference...

Harley Benton pedals are great, in general. But the compressing effect on this one is too mild. You can barely hear the difference between using it and not using it. I'll try other compressors, because this one didn't make much of a difference in my sound.

nice sound

good sound for the value.

only thing is if you want to stick it to your pedalboard you have to tear off the kind of a rubber foam under the pedal.

best compressor

a joy to use love it

Compressor

Makes your tone more good and less bad.

I use it for a slight volume boost for lead (non-solo) parts and it makes the tone really cut through the mix nice.

I don't really know what sort of voodoo goes on but it supplies a nice signal into my valve amp and makes stuff sound real nice.

A must have

It's a rather soft compressor. It softens your sound and allows for an increase in sustain, instead of giving your tone an extra "plucky" or "punchy" sound.

Keeping that in mind you will indeed enjoy this pedal. Chances are you will leave it always on as I do.

For that extra "pluckyness" this might not be the one you are after, but at this price... seriously, why not have one?

Great little compressor

So as I'm sure many of you know this is a rebadged joyo - which in turn is a copy of a dynacomp. While it doesn't provide the same amount of squish the dynacomp does, and the attack is a little slower, it's WAY quieter. I've A/B'd both and this comes out on top.

If you're playing ultra clean country and need that really spanky attack and compression you'd probably be a bit let down by this, but if you want to smooth out your tone and particularly with drive, this pedal is absolutely phenomenal. It's quiet, unobtrusive, and transparent. Fantastic!

Really fattens up the sound!

Im using this pedal as part of my effects chain along with a Korg Ax1500g multieffects and some time based effects pedals. This compression pedal really helped improve and shape the tone of my strat,without any loss of the original sound of the guitar. I am really liking the harley benton stompbox pedals, excellent value for money!

this a great little pedal, so easy to use and the sound is amazing for the price! the versatility is a bit limited due to only having three controls but all in all i would highly recommend this pedal

Dynamic Compressor - Does exactly what its supposed to do

This pedal does exactly what its supposed to do, it compresses the volume/increases the sustain of the guitar.

It's got a true bypass which is a great feature, but in my opinion it's useless because I always have this pedal turned on. It's made of some sort of metal so you dont have to worry about it getting damaged. Another thing I really like about this pedal is that there's a nice little opening (with a little door-like thingy that I dont know the name of) on the back of it for the 9V battery so you dont need to get the screwdriver if you wanna change the battery. You can also just use a 9V power supply (negative center) if thats what you prefer.

Some people say that when this pedal is turned on it changes the tone a little but I can't hear any difference.

Overall: This is a good compressor pedal, I recommend it!

good value.

For the very low price this is a really useful compressor pedal. Great build quality. I don't use compression a lot so spending heaps on an expensive unit would be a waste. This does the job at a great price.

Had not the time to go in this one real deep, but it sure does the job, and does it well. The box is again made of sturdy metal ; with the knobs you should be a bit more carefull, but if you don't wear boots and go dancing on it, there should be no problem, I guess. Price/Quality I recommend it. Some other compressors like MXR cost 3 or 4 times as much ; If you have the money for it, you should compare them, but in my opinion the differences or not that big, so it depends from person to person I guess, and from wallet to wallet, which one to choose. No complaints from me about this one though !

Verasatile compressor

This green compressor works good. Noise level is low. It doesn't affect the sound/tone very much when in use. The true bypass is a Good Thing.

You can get all sorts of interesting compressions if you take the time to experiment with the three controls. From country'n'western style single note playing to complex chord playing: this compressor can make all the six, seven, twelve or more strings on your guitar stand out evenly. You can even use it as a boost/overdrive for your tube/valve amplifier.

It's a great pedal for a great price.