Harley Benton TUBE15 Celestion 5-stars Reviews

Best value on the market

I’ve been playing for 50+ years, and bought this as a cheap backup for my 1960’s Vox AC-15. and I didn’t really expect the online reviewers’ praises to be completely truthful.. But I’d say they are.. And I seriously doubt whether most guitarists would know it’s a cheap amp in a blind test!

The only downsides I’ve found since I bought it are the mirror finish on the facia, which can make the markings difficult to see, the very slightly inferior speaker response in some situations, and the “Budget” quality tolex and cabinet construction… But none of those are serious enough to worry about…

Easily as good to use as many far more expensive amps.. I will be buying another shortly and using both in a stereo setup..

What a beast!

Well that's my first tube amp. I couldn't wait to plug it and make my guitar scream! When it arrived it was in perfect condition and freaking beautiful. When I plugged my guitar in I was very disappointed at first! Man this thing is LOUD! Even with the 1watt setting it's nowhere near bedroom levels at half volume, let alone that as a tube amp it's meant to be cranked to get the sweetness of the tubes... After some research I found that there are ways to tame such a beast and one of them is by plugging an equaliser pedal to the pedal loop and reduce the signal level that gets to the preamp.. Thankfully I own a mutiefect pedal that can play the role of the equaliser and I'm saved! Now I crank it all the way up, and play with its drive or with my true Tone HB pedals, and can keep it to bedroom levels! Absolutely loving it and I heartily recommend it, but you have been warned! If you want to play at home you will have to tame it cause its LOUD!

What a lovely amp!

I bought this amp some years ago because I joined some jam-band and there was some good brand solid-state amplifiers and I did not like the sound.

This beauty has a really nice and warm sound, you can hear the guitar clearly in every air recordings. This amp can put up easy with a drum kit and personally never turn volume more than 6 with the gain in 1 to get a nice head sound, then, if you crank the gain up it can be really loud and with that great tube-fuzz.

All members of the band are really happy with it, we all agree that for that kind of investment it sounds great, and I enjoy it every day a little more.

This is a jewel!

Man, I am so glad I bought this one! I also have a Hughes & Kettner Tube Maister 5 but I pretty much prefer this one! And the fact that it has send & returns... and the reverb! And the price! You can't go wrong with this one!

Great amp at a very competitive price.

This amp is fantastic, especially when you consider its price. The tone is great. I mainly use clean tones, with very little crunch. But the preamp distortion is also very nice. I couldn't test yet the power amp distortion as it requires to turn the the volume knob all the way up with a fair amount of gain. Even in 1 Watt, the amp gets too loud for this application in an apartment (an attenuator would solve this issue). But again, turning the volume knob down and increasing the gain gives a nice distorted sound even at very low volumes.

The amp has also an effects loop, which is very handy. It also got a spring reverb. What can we ask more?

The spectrum of the tone knobs (tone, bass, middle, treble) are a little bit limited, but, given the price, I don't mind.

Overall I am very pleased!

Excellent

Looks and sounds fantastic. Build quality is also spot on. Has that yesteryear vintage look as well. Why spend silly money on other brands. Just get one, you won't be disappointed.

Love it

However, this is my first tube amp.

Still, I love it and I'm far from first to say that about this amp.

The reverb won't do surf rock and the EQ doesn't do much, but the 1W setting (even if it's still hard to make it quiet) and the gnarly sounds coming out of this are, to me, wonderful.

Nice little amp

Nice little amp can be improved by purchasing better tubes. Those shipped are made in China and others that can be purchased are better IMHO

Overall sounds like other small tube amps but half the price. Believe the other reviewers it really is that good. Get one and have fun.

Great sound!

Very great sound! Pleasantly surprised.

It's very convenient to play, the sound is very pleasant. I use another lamp preamplifier. The sound suits me completely. The build quality is very high. Very pleased with the purchase! Much better than a transistor.

Vintage little beast

Not much to say after so many reviews that exist. I did replace the tubes with 3 tung sol preamp and 2 sovtek el 84. The result is awesome. I hope it last for years because I like it a lot

Fantastic Amp

The amp is really well made and feels better than I expected it to, from other reviews I'd read.

The sound is beautiful and I've had no issues with the sound of the stock speaker but I know a lot of people seem to upgrade this. This is one of the best musical purchase I've ever made.

Even the Wife liked it!

I bought this an alternative to my venerable Laney LC30 and it did not disappoint.

The first impression is it is a very attractive and well put together unit. I was surprised when my wife said "that is nice looking", rather than "what have you bought now?"

It has all the features and controls you need and the sound does not disappoint. Nice clean tones and plenty of range using the drive. The 1 watt option sounds just as good as the full fat option which is very impressive.

I can't fault it in any department, and recommend it to anybody who wants to go valve.

I should have bought one of these little tube combos years ago 👍

Every time I went to order one of these after seeing Dave Simpsons YouTube video ages ago They were out of stock.

I eventually received one last week and absolutely love it👍

It sounds great takes pedals really well 👍

I’ve also run it through a few speaker cabinets just to see what it’s like as a head amp and man does it excel brilliantly.👌👍

This is one exceedingly good little tube amp combo ❤️👍

Only downside as many others have commented is the mirrored control facia makes it hard to see the settings but that’s easy enough to sort out with masking tape and a sharpie 👍

I would prefer a separate mains cable but again that’s a easy fix.

I cut the two pin plug off and found the cable has a earth neutral and live so fitted a British 3 pin 13amp fused MK plug .👍

My son has already borrowed it So probably going to buy another one.😡

Make a head version with a 120v option, please

This is hands down the best small tube amp value in the world. However, it does require some additional investment. I must mention that US buyers need to be aware of the 240v power supply and the necessity of a step up transformer that weighs a ton. Also, the cabinet can make any speaker sound bad. The stock speaker is pretty cheesy. That all said, through my 1-12” cabinet loaded with a Jensen 100 watt alnico Blackbird, this amp is wonderful.

Headroom is limited. Robust, detailed cleans aren’t really available, but rolling down the guitar volume produces serviceable rhythm tones. From 10-12 o’clock on the preamp volume gives a tweed Deluxe-like tone reminiscent of Larry Carlton’s Nightfly sounds. That’s where I live. Above that, it is the sound of rock. Pegged, you’re in Angus Young territory.

The global tone control is super useful. Set it to noon and then dial in the 3 band eq. If you change guitars, make your adjustments on the tone knob. Easy. The reverb is not awful. The loop works fine.

I’ve owned a few el84 powered amps, a Dr. Z Maz 18 and Maz 38 Studio Deluxe, a Vox Pacemaker and this hangs with all of them. I actually think I like it more. Kudos to the designer who made an amp using cheap Chinese off-the-shelf components sound this good.

Just buy one 🔥👌👍

I’d read the reviews and decided to buy one. This is also known as Stage Right by monoprice in other parts of the world so there is plenty of information out there. After plugging my Strat into it and then turning it on it came to life. A little bit of playing around with the settings and I now have a great sounding amp. Let’s not forget that it cost me £211.00 so I’m over the moon. Did I mention that it’s loud and that’s even on the 1 watt setting. 15 watts is just at another level and when it’s cranked up it sounds fab… The only thing that I’ve changed is the front logo for another well known brand and it now looks like an old retro amp. I love it and would recommend that you just buy one 👌🔥👍

Awsome!

Arrived today after quite a wait, but absolutle, totally well worth it.

If you are after the roar of a tube amplifier at an amazing price point and something that can really shine as a practice amp and at small to medium gigs... well here it is. Lovely retro / cool looks. Only drawback is the shiney control panel, which makes the black indicators/ levels hard to see, but this is well compensated by an awsome tone, nice EQ and built in reverb.

Do not be decieved by this little amp. It's amazing! Buy one now! : )

Top Small Tube Amp. Harley Benton,Tube 15.

This amp is very versitile in the sounds it produces, very interactive EQ.

Drive is from ,light Crunch, to heavier rock tones, all very good.

Clean is exactly that, Clean. Bright to Thicker tone, using EQ, or guitar knobs.

Very easy to use and to get quality sounds from this amp.

The 1 watt is very handy when its later in the evening, so we dont disturb anyone, and no difference in tone.

All in All, Ten out of Ten for it All.

After 6 months of ownership

I bought this because carrying my Mk IV Boogie to rehearsals was starting to get old. fast. This is much lighter, thankfully, but still feels pretty solidly made.

It is very flexible tonally... capable of chimey, Fender-y cleans, quite mid-focused Vox-ish crunch tones, and some lovely edge-of-breakup bluesy sounds. At first, the speaker seemed a little harsh, but now, after a hundred or so hours, it has opened up nicely and now competes favourably with my band-mate's Supro - high praise indeed.

It's not perfect though... reverb lacks delicacy. The knob seems to go from nothing to extreme in about 1/3 of its rotation. Also, a boost or second channel would be great, but this is a very inexpensive amp so I'm probably being unreasonable.

It responds well to pedals, esp overdrives and boost pedals where it can be pushed from edge-of-breakup to fully overdriven with a single click. Backing off the volume on the guitar can then clean up the sound completely.

Wow

I have had my HB tube 15 over a year now, its the best home amp ever I've had, even used it for a couple of gigs, just love the rich tones and great breakup sound, I play R&B and for that jonra it's brilliant, playes nice clean too, takes pedals well. For the price it's pretty much unbeatable! No complaints from me!

great for the price!

nice sounding amp, it's very loud but it can be setup to sound at bedroom level using the main volume knob or the 15W to 1W switch. I like all the options to control your sound and the fx loop. I didn't like the reverb tank, i was expecting something more "drippy", surf music type of sound. but luckily reverb tanks are quite cheap to replace if you don't like the sound of the stock tank.