Harley Benton Ultimate Drive 4-stars Reviews

Good Pedal, small problem

I ordered this pedal to add some heaviness to my rig, but I found one problem the power supply wouldn't stay, it would cut out randomly and I'd have to push it into my amp.

What i expected for the price.

I was looking for a good but cheap distortion pedal for bass that also worked for guitar and this is what i found. Gives a quite good sound on its own (with good metal bass strings) and works on guitar. The foot switch feels kinda cheap but what can i expect, its cheap.

Absolutely lovely tone but needs either a battery or a good PSU

Bought this as a simple OD for my bass (PJ 4 string) and it is beastly, anything below A1 gets affected less but still cuts through and above it it's a powerful motorheady distortion.

For me it works best with the knobs set between 9 and 12, higher settings might fit a guitar better or just a different style.

Only issues i have is that the volume boost is very potent so if you're switching between clean and dirt you have to really balance out a sweetspot, and more importantly if you're using a cheap PSU it's far too noisy, but isn't an issue with either a battery or a dedicated wall nugget. Have yet to try a more expensive PSU (I'm buying a 30€ pedal if i had money for a good PSU I'd buy different pedals)

Surpisingly good on bass

But I only use it for lower-gain stuff

Great OD for the price.

Bought this pedal as I was looking for a OD pedal with a little more bite. Most reviews make comparisons between this pedal and the famous OCD pedal. It's hard to disagree with the comparison. This pedal has a huge amount of gain on tap. I usually play blues/ rock and I have way more gain available than I'll need. But with the drive turned back it has that lovely, crisp that I like. If you're looking for another pallette of colour on you pedal board, it's hard to beat at this price.

Great starter pedal

I wanted something cheap to test out with my practice amp and I found this to be a great pedal without breaking the bank. Minimal settings but does the job nicely. We’ll made too!

it is better than most of the boss pedals and it's a lot cheaper just give it a try

No complaints.

A standard overdrive pedal. Nothing unusual. HB pedals in this line don't last as long as boss stuff in my experience. Cheaper tho.

Chunky, dark, thick.

A nice overdrive for those preferring a darker kind of tone than the more mid rangy "green" ones out there.

Very responsive tone knob, and quite the range on the gain knob as well. This pedal can deliver anything from the standard clean boosts, to chunking up your solo tones or just being used to get glassier cleans or just straight up heavy overdrive by itself.

Better than I hoped it would be

This pedal is cheap, but that doesn’t mean the sound is. I’ve used this pedal just to tighten up my sound and add a small amount of break up with the Gain right down low. Also, I’ve used it to give a thick distortion with gain cranked up. I don’t find the high/low gain switch makes too much difference. The Tone sweep is wide. The pedal can be very bass-y, but adjusting the Tone can sort that out.

Is it the best pedal I’ve ever bought? Definitely not, but some pedals on my board cost nearly 10 times more. I’d recommend that everyone should try one of these.

Good for bright pickups

Summary: It adds a lot of low-end (bass tones) to your guitar signal, and it can get really noisy. However, it seems to go well with single-coil pickups (at least much better than humbuckers).

I wanted to have a pedal in front of my amp that has overdrive/distortion characteristics, specifically to use with humbucker pickups. Since this is a cheap option, and it has relatively good reviews, I wanted to give it a try.

First of all, Low/High switch doesn't change too much if you are connected to a cranked amp.

The pedal is quite noisy (both with clean and cranked amps), especially if the gain and level knobs are beyond 12 o'clock.

The worst part for me is that it adds a lot of low frequencies to your guitar signal i.e., it adds lots of bass tones.

When I tried it with humbucker pickups into a Marshall DSL, due to the nature of humbuckers, the bass response was awful such that I couldn't even tune it with the EQ of my amp.

Then, I tried it with my telecaster (single-coil pickups) into my Fender Twin. I liked that sound since it added a bass response on top of the brightness of my tele. However, I didn't plan to add a pedal to my 'clean' rig. So I returned the item.

Mixed feelings

I think this is a fairly sound and useful product with a few flaws that kind of serve to limit its versatility.

Starting with the pros: sturdy metal casing with a good weight, all switches and dials are smooth and function properly. It is an effective boost/drive that on selected instruments and used in selective ways (very low gain settings, bright sounding guitars) can be most effective.

Cons: It has just one pretty major issue in that the tone gets overpoweringly

bassy as the gain is increased. This can only to some extent be sorted with basic eq controls. You can turn the pedal tone right up to compensate but it sounds horrible. Basically for giving the amp a boost and a tiny bit of gain it sounds pretty good, anything else is a matter of carefully chosing instrument and dialling away until you get a usable tone!

Can't be beated at this price

For the price, this is an awesome overdrive pedal. Regardless of the price, it is still a great overdrive pedal.

The build quality (exterior) is as good as any other brand or pedals that cost 3x as much.

You can get some great sounding drive tones from this pedal. There are a lot of unusable tones too, mainly because of the vast tone knob range.

Here is my full review: https://youtu.be/bnItThijA5c

Big sound, small price

Great sounding pedal! Provides surprisingly huge amounts of gain.

Tone control could be a little less dark according to my taste. Only after turning it beyond 12 o'clock the sounds start to be useable. Other than that the pedal performs way above my expectations.

Best OCD clone out there

I use this pedal with my Vox AC 30 ,Gibson Les Paul and Fender US Stratocaster. The tone is incredible. Great transparency when rolling gain somewhat down. Works well with my Strat and LP but with different settings ofcourse. The pedal is kind of bass heavy so you have to deal with that. I like to push this pedal with a Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive for soloing. I really love that tone but a noise gate may come in handy.

Unbeattable clone for the price. It's a no-brainer. If you have any doubts, I highly recommend the various Youtube reviews of this pedal (or the joyo ones).

Good product

I bought this effect pedal for use with electric-accoustic steel-string guitar. Even in this configuration, it works quite nice. Sound is good, handling is smooth, features as expected. Overal quality is satisfying.

Great Pedal

So I mostly use this as a boost or as a light overdrive with a Jazzmaster into an orange amp. Seems to have plenty of volume and is quite versatile. The build is solid and the sound is pretty decent, not mind blowing but quite good and usable.

Very useful for making yourself heard during band practices.

Rock Solid

For the price you pay for this OCD Clone you can't do anything wrong. This pedal can easily compete with the big guys. I'd say even more: this one stays on my pedalboard. Of all the OD's & Distortions there are this is definitely one the better one's.

Fat saturated overdrive sounds

Yea I don't think you can get a better sounding overdrive for this great price. You can use it to boost and tighten your signal or get some light drive up to saturated almost distortion or fuzz type sounds.

Good starter OD pedal

I bought this as my first pedal to go with my tube amp, and for the price it does what it's supposed to do, it drives the amp harder. You can adjust the tone, and it has a low/high switch, as well as the gain knob which is obvious, just crank that.

The skull on the front of the pedal might not be for everyone, but most of the times you're not really looking at it.

Great pedal for great price, would recommend for starters/intermediate pedal folks.