Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive Reviews

Jo

Got this by mistake but glad I fid as it has real nice vintage fuzz Brian Gregory/Poison Ivy sound.

Great

Excellent overdrive, in no way inferior to its closest competitors. It showed excellent performance on both tube and transistor combo amplifiers in conjunction with the HB ja 60.

Great Pedal!

Identical to the more expensive tube screamers. Works great as a boost or to add some overdrive.

Cannot believe this pedal!

I have run this against similar pedals but with more than triple the price and the sound difference is at best negligible, most of the times, not even audible. Kudos HB.

Good for hardrock

overall good pedal which i recommend to buy, but some problems i'd mention here. pedal has a slightly whistling noise when volume knob is in 10.

solid od pedal

keep in mind all scores are based on "for the price" not just overall. for the price this is probably impossible to beat in terms of OD pedal. Got it pretty quick and didnt have any issues besides the back battery cover is a bit hard to get on with a battery inside. other than that this thing rocks.

Great pedal for anyone on a budget

I bought this pedal to use with the Harley Benton Tube 5, and I'm really happy with it. It sounds really nice to me, even though I'm not at all experienced with pedals.

It is well made and looks solid. I expect it to last a long time with the way I use it. I only play at home and don't expect to be stomping on it too much.

Having said this, I don't think this pedal would be out of place on a more accomplished guitarist's pedal board.

TS9 as its glory!

Same sweetness, and feel as the Ibanez TS9.

Very well built.

To pair with the HB tube5 celestion

It works well with the very affordable little 5w Harley benton celestion tube amp.

Just to give some extra kick for that green box or tube screamer (ish), or blusey feel. You can dual in some great sounds even with the tube amp at lower power or volume.

It warms up the Amos sound which is a bit raw if that makes any sense. And you can if course set everything high and dial in some screaming tones.

I've had it for a year and only used it with that combination but with a reverb pedal too sometimes.

It's been kicked about a bit but works as it did new.

It's fun, and it is very much worth the money.

It's nice it comes with the option if battery or power cable. I can't remember but I doubt it came with a cable but sure!!!

I reckon you could gig with it. I mean yeh of course you could.

K

Great budget tubescreamer

Along with the Behringer TO-800, this is the definitive budget tubescreamer clone for beginner guitarists. The build is solid, the sound is faithful. Whether you like monkeys and yellow knobs or not is another question.

Great

Does exactly what I want it to do

Cheap and cheerful

I’m a beginner just learning the ropes and playing with sound, finding out what I like. So I’m not really ready to invest in expensive pedals at this point. So this was right up my street, a good sound at a no risk price.

Seems pretty solid, I think it would be gigable. Construction of mine wasn’t perfect - one knob doesn’t sit flush with the others, but it’ll do for the money.

I’ll buy others in the range, and would recommend to those on a budget.

Great sounding pedal for the money.Very well built.

It's a budget Tube Screamer

Let's not beat around the bush... This was designed to be as close a representation of the classic Tube Screamer circuit but affordable at the same time. Did they pull off both? Well it's certainly very affordable, far less than even the least desirable versions of the TS, and massively cheaper than a TS9 or an actual TS808 (The version this is a clone of).

As for the sound, it's pretty close in my opinion. The build quality is very good for the price, but far inferior to an actual TS. So you may be sacrificing durability for the price unfortunately. Saying that the pedal is pretty tough, mines been thrown around and dropped and obviously stamped on, and the sound quality is just the same as when it was brand new.

Bare in mind that you may be more likely to find increased variability in the tone from unit to unit. If you must have the full, unadulterated tone of an original TS808 and nothing else, then you may get a unit of this pedal which is 100% like for like, but you may get a unit with very slightly different components inside it, the effect of which may or may not subtly affect the tone to a noticeable degree. This company trys to use 100% like for like components in their circuits where ever possible, and from what I've read most of these pedals should be identical to the circuits used in the TS808. However they are producing these pedals ridiculously cheaply, and therefore at times if they can't aquire the EXACT components they usually put in it you may end up with a unit that is very slightly different in its sound. Things like using 1/8w resistors in place of the 1/4w or higher components used in the TS808, different value capacitors (albeit very close to the original circuit) and so on. How much these variations will affect the pedals tone, that is hard to say. But chances are for most players, especially those who lack the resources to purchase an actual TS808, you'll likely not be able to tell the difference and neither will those listening to you play.

So in summary, unless your a professional, gigging musician who is at the level where such subtle effects on their guitar tone is important enough to justify the much bigger cost of buying an original TS808, this pedal will do the exact same job and do it very well.

If you want a Tube Screamer but can't afford the cost, buy this and you'll be just as impressed with the results... and even more impressed with the amount of money left in your bank account after the purchase.

Light Over Drive

Wanted an overdrive for classic light distortion.

I have to say, it is a lighter distortion than I expected but still works well.

Good pedal for the price.

Love it!

I've been using it with my Marshall DSL1 and i really like the sound!

Impressive!

I am very happy with this purchase. That little guy is well build. Very solid housing and the knobs work perfectly well! The sound is very vintagy. I use this to drive another petal (the British true Tone or the AC true Tone, also from Harley Benton) and the result is pretty damn impressive! For the price is absolutely unbeatable.

Great

Looks nice, feels well build and sounds good.

Can be used as a little coloration or as the main part of your sound. Love it!

Sounds different

Sounds different from what it’s copying but by no means in a bad way.

Weather you want to tame the gain, dime the level and send your tube amp into hell! Or just add some dirty sauce to a clean amp this will do it

Tube Screamer

This pedal is just awesome. Pedals come and go in my pedalboard, but this seems to just stay and stay. As a stand alone pedal or as a boost to other OD pedals this pedal just does its job spectacularily.