Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive Reviews

For that price is a very good choice of cheap tubescreamer. Solid box with nice tube overdrive sound. But there is a hum if drive is too high, and if its on zero is just a little crunchy its not cristal clear and knobs are (flippery). Anyway I gave 5 stars.

Excellent overdrive pedal!

Good price/performance/quality ratio. I'm using it for pop and light-rock songs.

Nah sounds like a demo OD pedal

Was very disappointed when it seemed to have positive reviews. Only way I can describe it is, it sounded like a demo pedal for 16yo kids as their first OD pedal. Maybe mine was defective but it sounded distant and needed the tone full blast to sound anything like a OD guitar. Sent it back quick smart!

My favourite

Actually, this description can be the most authentic from me, thanks to a blind test with which I tricked my friends :)

The story is about the Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive and about the Maxon O808 pedals. I hooked up both and asked them to guess which one's which. It was funny to see experienced musicians (who actually just play and don't examine) to fall out of the game :D

The conclusion is that You hardly tell the difference between this and other pedals. And for the price it was a good decision to give a shot. I basically use it for recording guitars (with mics), and although it deos its job, it also can be stated that it is very subtle. It cleans up the mess, so You can turn down the gain on the amp, and still You have the power required.

I've just got a Marshall amp you I plugged out this pedal, but it's only a pride issue which will be over.

No negatives can be mentioned.

Decent, but not very useable.

I bought this pedal because I heard that it sounded a lot like the Ibanez Tubescreamer. However, when I started using the pedal, I found it to be not so versatile. The tone knob does pretty much nothing, the volume doesn't do a lot either. The drive knob is kind of useable, but still not very impressive.

I use this unit as a clean boost or overdrive. As a clean boost it really boosts the signal emphazising the Mids so you can stand out of the mix without adding too much distortion. As an overdrive it really gives you that warm 'green pedal' sound. Plus it works with batteries and it's really rock solid. Ah! And it is really cheap!

Good quality

Excellent sound and very sturdy l

Great Cheap OD alternative

I play Metal/Metalcore - think Killswitch Engage basically.

I've recently got back into playing guitar after playing drums in bands for a number of years so i'm building my amp/pedal collection up.

I wanted to try out an Overdrive infront of a high gain amp, but didn't want to fork out £100 for a maxon 808 - which i'm sure is better than this pedal.

If you're looking these up for metal/metalcore you probably already know the score, set the drive to around 0, tone to your liking (but probably around 12/1 oclock and the volume pretty much dimed and it works as an overdrive.

For the price of this pedal, it does the job - chugs are clearer and i get way more sustain for solo's especially using a neck pickup.

I have tried it on the clean channel as a normal over drive with 'drive' actually set, and the drive is ok - but there's probably better pedals out there for this.

If you want to try out an overdrive pedal for boosting an amp, it's defintely worth the money.

Build quality is ok, the jack inputs are a bit stiff but the casing feels strong so i'd say itself is strong/metal so it's giggable not like the behringer pedals.

The foot switch is a bit stiff and not smooth, but then again what more to expect from a cheap pedal?

I'll probably upgrade to a maxon 808 in the future, but for now as part of a cheap home practice rig it's doing the job well!

Incredible Sounding Booster and Overdrive

I bought this to boost my Peavey Triple X Ultra channel for a tight and responsive low end and screaming sustain. This pedal performs this job absolutely great. Put simply on a drive channel with the boost settings its a "Make my tone better" switch for high gain metal/hard rock sounds. It also works great to push a clean channel into slight crunch or overdrive, it sounds much better this way than using the Crunch channel on my amplifier. When switched off it doesnt colour or suck any tone like many cheap pedals can do. Build quality is stellar and it feels very robust and the knobs and switch have a very reassuring resistance to them and feel satisfying and of high quality.

Only complaint and it is purely in the interests fo full disclosure since I could not be happier with the pedal for the price truthfully, is the fact that the cover and it's clipping mechanism for the battery compartment is quite a flimsy plastic. However the chassis of the pedal itself is solid metal. At this price point though the battery cover is really a non issue.

Super Sound for an small price!!!

This pedal simply rules! It's built like an tank, easy to use and the sound is super! And that for an small price!

You don't need to pay extra

I use it with my Blues Jr at home, and i am glad i bought it instead of original tubescreamer. Of course it's not the best in terms of sound and quality, but regarding the price, it cannot be beaten.

Excellent Overdrive

For its incredible price, it is the perfect pedal to get for an overdrive or a slight boost. It even takes a 9V battery. It sounds almost as good as the TS9, it does however gets a bit muddy in high volumes and drive. It has a solid metal case with a slightly scratchy footswitch.

Other than that, you are getting 90% of a TS9 for 10-20% of the price.

Perfect for people on a budget.

Mediocre but ok for the money

The build is good quality for the cost. The sound is a little too dirty for me but its not bad.

Well worth it!

sound good. looks good. great price

Great

Yes it's a clone but is in fact very good, was worried that it might not take a hammering but loads of use and still works fine. Tone is good and I have this first in the chain followed by a rat so we go from warm and tasteful to in your face

Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive

Well the pedal on my lamp 15 W of Laney sounds. Assignment from boost to blues. Very cool sounds together with Harley Benton Crunch Distortion - from soft overdrve to fuzz passing to an edge pure solo as far as you will unscrew gain.

The casing is strong, regulators the smooth, color at the high level. A supply from the battery and power supply unit.

I recommend to use on the tube amplifier, the most real warm live sound there, transistor kills him. A worthy choice for the beginning guitarists and for house occupations, especially for minimum price.

Gives a nice 60s type distortion, vol knob a little temperamental

I'm not quite old enough to remember what this type of distortion is supposed to sound like, although we fortunately have recordings to help us.

This sounds pretty cool through my valve amp and has a tearing yet slightly rounded tone.

The volume know seems a little temperamental and has been known to randomly switch to a lower volume, which is annoying, but I think it's dependent on the volume setting and so far hasn't let me down on stage.

Great TS clone

What can't be said about these pedals that hasn't already been said. They are affordable and are a descent TS clone.

I've been using this for some time and originally bought it to just test one out but have put in on my pedal board and I'm happy with it.

It seems to be built very well and quite sturdy. The addition of the tone control gives you a nice range of sound options and the overdrive is fairly transparent. You won't get heavy distortion sounds from this, it's an overdrive and more for classic rock and blues.

If you want a simple, well built, affordable and nice sounding overdrive this ones for you.

Good for the price

The pedal delivers for its price.

If you play in a loud noisy band this will be fine.

If you play more clean jazz, funk, etc. like me, it won't work well. There was a small noise in the chain even when bypasses, so I had to remove it so it doesn't ruin my tone.

Bang for your buck

Great sound and power. Harley Benton have done it again. Prices are to die for, great quality.