Harley Benton Ultimate Drive Reviews

WOWWWW!!!! Beyond Expectation

THIS PEDAL IS SIMPLY WOOOOWWWWWW!!!

Before purchasing this pedal, I made some researches on it and they said that it is a replicate of the famous OCD pedal. But I did not really believe it at that time....till I receive it and played with it.

It offers a warm and very high gain pedal that takes very well with my Fender Deluxe amp.

Casing in metal shows to be very robust.

The features of this pedal are exceptional, offering Hi-Low and Mid range.

Try it!!! You will not be deceived.!!!!

Ivan

Looking for an OCD pedal? check this one

The sound of this pedal is amazing, totally comparable to the original OCD drive. Works good on bass too!

Great thick sound (OCD clone)

This pedal is really great for the money, its well made, solid switches and control pots. I found the pedal looked much better in reality vs photos, looks tacky in photo's but looks much better out the box. Its a little noisey with some psu's and the fade on control is a little erratic but the sound of this pedal is great. If cash is low youu can do worse than this for a lot more money. If you stretch a little more go for the EHX OD glove the best OCD clone or if you have the pokets the OCD itself, but at the price its a bargain great thick fat stack sound.

good cheap version of OCD pedal

I bought this pedal convinced by various reviews on youtube. It is essentially a clone of the famous OCD overdrive pedal.

I cannot compare with the original OCD, as I have never tried it, but it does its job. It can provide a very neutral overdrive, useful if you want to drive a bit more your amp or another pedal after it, but by dialing the gain knob all the way up you can achieve some pretty heavy tones as well.

It's not the most sophisticated overdrive out there, so it might fit in some genres, as it might not in others. for me, I care more about the "push" that gives to my sound, than for the actual tone that it produces.

The switch between the two types of drive is quite nice, I always keep it up, as it gives the most aggressive tone.

The tone is a slightly dark, but the tone knob allows to adjust that to your needs.

It seems quite solid, I don't think it's going to break anytime soon.

PRO:

--great sound for the price, I have listened to horrible cheap pedals before (like digitech, some boss, behringer), but this can give you a really good sound

CONS:

---the AC connector is not really tight, and my cable was getting loose. A bit of tape solved that.

Versatile drive pedal.

I use this pedal to tighten the driven sound of my amplifier.

When setup with low gain and higher tone and volume it thickens the sound and makes it ideal for palm muting and heavier music in general.

When combined with a clean amp it works for anything from blues to rock.

The toggle between high and low peaks gives you a choice between smooth overdrive and more distortion like sounds.

Verry happy with this pedal, as it's a cheaper alternative to the popular OCD pedal and has many possible uses.

A dark horse!

I picked this up because of the good reviews it's been given on youtube and various forums that i use.

Build quality is good and i'd expect the pedal to withstand some knocks no problems.Nice clunk off of the footswitch when depressed so you know it's happening.

This is somewhere in between an overdrive and distortion and i'm using mine for a little bump in distortion.There is a little jump on the knobs when shifting up but i'm only looking for one setting so it doesn't bother me.

I was shocked at the quality of the Ultimate Drive as i bought it out of curiosity.It has now replaced my Boss distortion which cost me twice the price.

This is a rare beast in the fact that it's cheap and it's good!

Get one.

Good cheap versatile pedal

This pedal is straight up good, not just good for the money. It can go from blues to old school metal with minor tweaks.

OH, did I forget the uber cool Oni graphic?

The boosted Clone

Although this is an obvious OCD clone it is has more gain to it more aggressive tone knob (as seen in the comparisons). Works great though and one cannot imagine how can you get something so good at such low price. I pair with my TC Dark Matter and a HB SC-Custome VB active and it is a mean killer. If you want an affordable aggressive overdrive this is it. Don't forget, it can do low gain, it is just at far left. It is very versatile but I like to use it for high gain and it certainly goes more in that direction.

Excellent pedal

This is an excellent clone of a well known pedal which confesses to have certain psychological problems. The sound is incredible for the price. My only quibble is the paintjob. It's irritating, but let's face it - no one listens to a paintjob.

Very nice overdrive

I am using this pedal mostly with monosynths and drum machines. This overdrive pedal feels surprisingly heavy and sturdy.The sound is great and can go from lightly saturated to classic distortion to totally decimated. The tone switch and knob offer extensive sound shaping possibilities also. The pedal feels well built and has a heavy metal body and good quality knobs.

Best budget OCD going

This is an inexpensive 'interpretation' of an OCD pedal, a rather popular overdrive/distortion pedal which is about 4 times the price of this.

Firstly why are OCD pedals so popular?

Well because it's a very versatile pedal that can do a (fairly) clean boost or can reach a great Hard Rock/Metal drive.

In front of a good tube amp you can use it like a souped up tubescreamer (which is a good analogy for the pedal as a whole) to push the tubes into overdrive.

It's fairly transparent (in that no matter how much it's distorting you can still her the notes and chords without it turning to mush).

Also when set right it can be very touch sensitive (especially for bass) in that when you play gently it'll stay clean but hit harder and it'll overdrive.

Another added bonus it that it doesn't really lose any bass frequencies when you use it on bass.

Secondly how does it directly compare to an OCD?

The short answer is very well indeed. It managed to capture all the essential OCD characteristics mentioned above.

No, you are not going to get the same sound from an OCD and the Ultimate Drive with all controls set to 12 o'clock, you will need to tweak the Ultimate Drive's knob a little to get the same tone and on the whole I'd say the Ultimate Drive is a little darker sounding (on both low and high settings).

The artwork on the Ultimate Drive will also divide people, I don't mind it but I can see why many wouldn't be able to get past that. It does feel like a colossal misstep putting such dividing graphics on this pedal.

In summary

It's a great OCD clone for a fraction of the price, providing that you can live with the artwork.

Good

Not bad sounding pedal for the money.

I don't use this unit very often because I don't have a project where it fits right now. I have already used it in a hard-rock context and it sounds great. I have never used it as a boost, only as a drive. The overall construction is really great with the exception of the battery socket, making it hard to change batteries. In terms of sound, The 'high' switch is really bright making it unusable for me. The distortion is very compressed and can really sing. A bit lacking of versatility though

Harley Benton Ultimate Drive

Since this is my first trip to electric guitar/effect world, take my comments as from a newbie, therefore simple but without any past preferences and comparisons.

This effect is very clear and sharp. I could not find any setting in which it would not perform well. It offers variety of possibilities and with right pickup and tone settings on guitar, playing makes me happy. I also need to mention that I'm progressively switching from playing acoustic guitar to electric so sometimes (with this effect) I amaze myself... true rock star for a moment or two!

It is a lovely product. I somehow didn't trust entirely Harley Benton, but now this is changed completely. HB presents to me great price/quality ratio. Going to more esteemed brands would probably mean x2 the money for the same performance or put it otherwise, for the same money you cannot find this much sound and joy.

I'm already looking into other HB effects. It just a question of when and which one.

A cheap yet very good overdrive pedal

I use this unit mainly with a Telecaster replica (Harley Benton) and sometimes with a Les Paul copy and it has a very pleasing sound with the tele. The most important characteristis feature of this pedal for me is that it is very sensitive to the dynamics of my playing, which means that I can achieve quite a soft sound if I play lightly, even if the gain knob is turned up fairly high. This gives me a very flexible sound. On the other hand, when I plug my LP in, and turn up the gain, I can produce a surprisingly heavy sound.

The pedal seems as a very well built unit which will last for a long time.

The gain and the tone knobs give plenty of varieties, the high/low switch has a very subtle effect, thou.

I am very happy that I chose this overdrive pedal, as it perfectly suits my needs. I play various styles from country and rockabilly to stoner rock and even metal, and I can use this pedal in every genre. Great value!

Not great

Sound isn't too bad, but compared to other overdrives in the same category, the noise out of this one in the pedalchain was too much for me unfortunately.

Fantastic

Such a good overdrive sound, for this price. It is amazing, i think. I like it better than the overdrive on my amp (Vox 15 watt nighttrain) sometimes, so i use this as my main overdrive 'channel' now. The sound is ver smooth and bassy, maybe too bass heavy for some, but using the (sensitive!) treble control knob on the pedal you can still cut through the band mix. It does add compression and becomes more compressed with more drive dialed in.

I use this pedal with a Telecaster and single coils, and put a fuzz after it for solos. The only thing i do not like about it is the artwork, but that's subjective.

Have a nice day

Waaah!! won't get rid of this so quickly!!

This is by far the best overdrive pedal i've got for this price range! It'll give your guitar or bass that demon sound you're looking for! get it!

Harley Benton Ultimate Pedal

Great pedal, unbeatable value for money.

Great for the price, does exactly what it says on the box!

I've been using this to put a little oomph into my bass sound! So, I was pleasantly surprised that the pedal has such great drive and tone for the price! If you're looking for a great distortion pedal for guitar or bass then grab this bargain!

I've been using this pedal at gigs as well and been getting great compliments of the bass sound! This is my secret weapon! It's great for people wanting that drive for heavier music or make their sound that little bit more fierce.

It's a sturdy make, although the 9v battery fits a bit too snug for my liking but I power it through a 9v plug so it doesn't affect me!

Great pedal that doesn't break the bank! Definitely worth checking out!