Harley Benton TUBE5 Celestion

Great little amp

The celestian speaker is what makes this amp amazing in my mind. The material is nice, it's sturdy. The tone is great, a real little tube amp. It can also be quite loud if you bump up the volume. The only thing I could say is a con is that it doesn't have much for eq(just a single tone knob) so if you wanted to mess around with the treble and bass you really need some stomp boxes. Other than that it is a perfect practice amp, and it's great for the vets who have additional gear to go along with it. Highly recommend for anyone just looking for a bedroom amp or for just practicing and honing your craft :)

Good amp for this money

I didn't have high expectations for this amp. Can cheap be good? I bought it for quiet practice, mostly for clean or little bit overdrived sound. Surprisingly, the sound is not bad at all, especially considering the price tag. I tested it with a >1K€ Gretsch guitar. The sound is a bit boxy, but you can make it darker or brighter with the tone button. The first impression was how much a separate button for low and high frequencies would change the price. But the tone button also works in the appropriate area. The middle frequencies are dominant, perhaps this combo would actually be suitable with an additional overdrive/distortion pedal. A slightly more unpleasant surprise was with the power button. The difference between 5W and 1W mode is quite small. When I put aside the Vox AC4BL1 (12AU7 tubes in the preamp), the HB 1W was much louder than the Vox with its 4W. The HB amplifier's own drive is quite loud even in 1W mode, if you turn the volume knob past 2PM. But with the clean channel (volume 11AM or so), this amp is absolutely fine, and why not try it even for recording in a home studio.

Awesome "tweed" like sound

This amp does what it's meant to do really well. It's simple but it has depth. It excels in the mid range, although it lacks in bass frequencies (it wouldn't make sense aestheticaly for this amp to have those frequencies anyway). For the price, you won't find a better tube amp.

Surprisingly great amp

I can’t believe how amazing this sounds. Lovely crisp balanced sound, it takes pedals really well and for only a hundred nicker.

top tube amp

I was very surprised by the beautifull sound and how loud it gets. Together with some amp-in-a-box like pedals for example, you can have all the classic amps in one cheap amp for home recording and practicing. 5watt is loud, the 1 watt knob is therefore very good. In comparison to a Katana I tried once : a real tube amp like this is much, much more fun to play. The sound goes deep.

Goes really wel with reverb, overdrive, phaser, ....also fuzz, but...

One downside, thats why I returned it : it has no real gain knob. The volume knob functions for gain also, but its not a great reach. For most People this is no problem because that's why they invented boost and overdrive pedals. But for my fuzzes, I prefer to have a gain knob to dial in the overdriven sound as much as I need . Such a pitty I have to send such a good amp back!

I' ll try the Marshall dsl1.

I am a bit confused and i would like to receive help

Sticked to the end of the cable is a yellow written note, which states “this appliance must be earthed”. It makes me question half an hour of the practice time before i took a notice upon the note. Have i done damage to the amp by not following the instruction? What does it even mean that it should be earthed/grounded? Is the device incomplete?

The look, the feel, and the weight and the sound of it is beyond perfect, though i must say, i have been having issues with humming and constant ticking sound which seems to appear when i don’t lay hands on strings. It seems to wash away as soon as i lay hand on the string and play some notes.

Can someone pour remedy into my problem?

great value!

very nice little amp, super sounb for the price, and enough for your apartment pratice (at least for me...)

Eats the competition alive

Against a Pignose it’s a different beast altogether obviously as it’s a valve amp after all and that is what makes this thing sound so big for it’s size. It can get very loud. Compared to a Fender 600 which has a similar spec, this is better in many ways. The speaker is bigger, and it has a 5Watt or 1Watt setting which is great for getting fat tones at low volume. The biggest bonus also is this amp doesn’t have an excessive hum like the Fender. It’s great for recording, it sounds big and the tone knob is very active so you really shape the sound quickly and simply live. Oh and the price is unbelievably low, it’s a gift.

My first tube amp

Sounds sweet, simple controls and a good enough speaker. If you're on a budget or/and can only play in your small apartment bedroom, this is the one to buy.

Great for the harmonica!

I playing bass and harp in a blues/rock band, and I was looking for an acceptable amp for the former. And this amp more than acceptaple, it's great! It's loud enough - I would say that enough for mid-stage gigs without PA, up to about 50-80 person, even with a drummer. The sound is just what you're looking for: dirty and bluesy. I couldn't stop smiling the first time I tried it. Only 1 star minus for the feature bicouse, there is no gain button on the amp, but in summary: if you play the harp, BUY IT!