Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive 5-stars Reviews

Great sounding HB Vintage Overdrive pedal

Great pedal. It loads with a lot of sustain. It can be used for boosting the overdriven sound or just for tiny drive over the clean sound. It really comes true with a stratocaster. Best buy for this price. I just wanted some day to compare it with original Ibanez TS808. It is also build like a tank. You can jump on it and you won't hurt it. Maybe one mistake is led light. In bright day you hardly see if pedal is turn on or turn off. That maybe is one mistake on pedal. I really recommend the pedal to pros and to begginers. That will be all, thanks.

For the price...

its amazing. The sound quality is very good. The built quality in the other hand is not that good as the sound but still, this haven't yet broken under my feet.

I would definitely suggest this to everyone who looks for a warm vintage OD sound.

Also Harley Benton has done lots of other awesome things. Since this pedal, I've been looking more into Harley Benton pedals.

A Tubescreamer

If your buying this pedal you probably want a tube-screamer but can't justify the money to buy an Ibanez or other expensive equivalent.

You're probably thinking; what's the catch?

Let me put your mind at ease..... There is no catch for the following reasons:

- It sounds extremely similar to a TS9

- It's genuinely rugged and well-built

- The Jack Ins/Outs are stable

- It's true-bypass

- The power supply housing is not flimsy

- The knobs and action do not feel cheap

Genuinely, the only problem with this pedal is that the price raises doubts. It's a great product and won't let you down

Great pedal!

I was looking for a pretty soft OD. This made me happy. Sounds great, it's built great and the price is unbeatable.

Small price for big sound

A versatile overdrive that also works well as a volume boost, the Tube Screamer is one of those pedals that have made history, and every electric guitarist should have at least a clone in his or her collection. The Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive is a valid alternative at a completely reasonable price: sound quality is good, construction is robust, operation is immediate, and true bypass is a nice deviation from the original design. It seemed to me that the pedal becomes noisier when connected to a power adapter; on the other hand, working with a rechargeable battery is flawless.

Update 2015-04-02: for some reason, I had given four stars for "sound" and "total". But if one considers the Vintage Overdrive's price, these easily reach five stars! So let them be five.

Vintage Overdrive pedal

I bought this pedal principally as a tightening overdrive, in the manner that many metal guitar players use it, gain to 0, volume all the way up and tone to taste, it tightens the amp up. As a cheap alternative to a Tube Screamer or Maxon it surprisingly excells.

I bought this as a cheap solution to the need to highten my Blackstar HT-5, the dials all work smoothly and well, alongside the switch button. The pedal is quiet when switched off (well, it's noisy as much as any overdrive pedal is, no extra unexpected noise). And from what I hear has no audible tone sucking when off.

The pedal overall sounds quality and is worth buying if you need an overdrive!

On bass !

I use this one on a Warwick corvette bass, and its really nice ! I just put it at 9 o'clock, treble almost down, and it gives a nice, fat, agressive but not over the top, growl. Would have liked seperate high and low control, but other then that, great for the money !

Screaming Tubes

"Screaming tubes, but without the tubes"

Could be the motto of this little green stompbox.

Ok, little is not entirely accurate. This pedal is a little bit bigger than the standard MXR-type pedals. I'd say more similar sizewise to the boss family of pedals.

Of course what the green case promises gets delivered soundwise as well. This pedal is definitely a respectful nod in the Tubescreamer direction (Ibanez, Maxon).

And it masters this duty gracefully. Even the old 12-12-12 o clock formula of the Tubescreamer family works quite well here. Smooth, creamy, vintage overdrive.

Also turning Drive down and Volume up lets you use the HB Vintage Overdrive as a Booster.

Plus, compared to it's brethren that use Buffers in the signal path, this little gem has True Bypass in it's quiver as well.

So to sum things up, this is a great pedal, with beautiful tones in its portfolio.

Even more so with the low pricetag it comes with.

Great price for a great pedal

What to say. This pedal sounds just great. The price is unbeatable and with your eyes closed I would say that you cannot differentiate between a classic TS-808 and this pedal.

Setup 1:

Overdrive before clean tubeamp.

-> For me it sounds best with tone and gain at around 2 o'clock. Sounds very clear with nice harmonics. By increasing the gain some white noise occurs but is acceptable in this price segment.

Setup 2:

Overdrive to boost dirty tube amp.

-> by setting gain to 2 o'clock you achieve a very nice rythm tone for harder rock chops. going up to around 4 o'clock reaches a nice lead tone for faster solo chops.

Conclusion:

I feel no need to buy a much more expensive ibanez pedal.

The overdrive pedal that does everything it should

Hello,

I've bought this overdrive pedal, because i didn't see the point in spending more than 100 pound in another well known vintage distortion pedal that doesnt even have a true bypass. I compared one of these "boutique" pedals with the Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive and i've come to the conclusion that the Harley Benton does everything you could possibly want. everything is really high quality and will last for a long time. the sound difference to the more expensive pedal is barely noticable at all. The pedal does a great job in boosting tube amps and sounds very natural.

If you plan on buying a expensive pedal then first try out one of these and then make your decision.

Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive vs Ibanez TS9

Hi!

At first excuse my insufficient English skills, please.

I'm from germany, but i'll try my best :-)

Harley benton vintage overdrive vs ibanez ts9.

The difference between this two is more than 100 bucks.

But is the Ibanez Ts9 worth the money ?

At first i used my clean amp, turned of the drive to 12 o'clock and volume + Tone neutral (12 o'clock, too).

Then i used the units as a booster ( gain lowed down, tone neutral and volume cranked) and the result was awesome.

Both units help to get the best out of your amp, especially for high gain.

I invited a few of my friends and told them to should there eyes.

I played both, and they couldn't hear a difference.

That shows, how close the HB vintage overdrive is.

The workmanship on the ibanez is a tiny bit better, but for poor musicans like me, the hb is a great way to get the tube screamer sound for less money :)

does a good job!

the case is very solid and the knobs feel good as well. for me the sound is really good. a nice overdrive for a superb price. i just got it as a side order because i was interested what it would sound like and i think it gives a good transperent overdrive. love the monkeys!

This pedal rocks!

This pedal rocks! I bought it as a replacement for an Ibanez TS7.

Sound:

I use it mainly as a booster pedal in front of the amp or other distortion pedals.

Used alone it has a very smooth overdrive ideal for jazzy/bluesy tones. I compared

it once with an original 808 pedal, and the difference is extremely small. In fact i tend to like the vintage overdrive more then the original 808. Used before an other distortion pedal, it kind of boosts and cleans the sound up at the same time. When engaged, the low and high frequencies are slightly rolled off. The ranges of the distortion/treble knobs are as expected for a tubescreamer-like pedal. The noise level is very low, and when bypassed it does not color the sound at all.

Build quality:

The chassis is very sturdy, all knobs and the switch have a decent quality.

Conclusion:

This is a very nice and affordable pedal, give it a try!

Look no further

This is the ultimate Tubescreamer. For 29€ you just can't go wrong. It's solid and good sounding. It's also a good modder pedal, since you can just open the whole thing up if something goes wrong or you get tired of it in it's standard form.

I've tested this against several other tubescreamers including an original TS9, Maxon OD808, Mooer Green Mile and others, it easily stands its ground. No TS ever sounds the exact same but if you don't mind that, this pedal is definitely for anyone who wants a TS tone for dirt cheap.

I absolutely recommend you to buy this even if you don't need it. I rarely do but it's just useful to have around for any situation that might call for it. Get this now!

Why four monkeys?

Today almost every metal guitarist have an overdrive pedal to boost their amps. I was among those who didn't... till today. My first overdrive pedal was built in usa and made by expensive brand, but I didn't like how it sounded. I felt los? of lowend and it changed the sound so much that my amp was loosing it's own tone. I sold it and haven't tryed any other pedal. But once I decided to buy a Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive just for fun and try because of it's low price. And it suprised me very much! Maybe it looks funny, yes - its cheap, yes - it's a copy of tubescreamer kind pedals. But it sounds like expencive high quality effect pedals. I'm wondering how they did it, but it lets the amp breath with it's own sound. The pedal adds more bite, tight and without any lowend loss. To my opinion, only one minus of the pedal is that the lower part of pedal's housing made of plastic. The second - the placement for the battery isn't done very well. But, this two facts means nothing, when you hear the sound and see the price.

Thumbs up!

Never had a true old Tubescreamer, so I don't know how it sounds compared to TS but I don't care - I love this OD! I use it both for regular and slide playing - it's my first choice on my pedalboard when I need a little bit of overdrive.

Harley benton vintage overdrive

The harley benton vintage overdrive pedal is basically a tube screamer pedal at an affordable price. It sounds great so don't be fooled by its price. It retains bass and does not have a raging mid-hump like some pedals out there. I would recommend this pedal to anyone who wants a ts808 pedal but is restricted budget-wise. I use it in front of my bugera 333xl amp, i use it more like a booster, with the drive knob around 3, volume level know around 7 and tone knob around 5. This works great for me. And gives me the sound ive been after. The pedal itself is sturdy with a nice green finish. It can be used with a 9volt battery or power supply. Well worth it!

Great TS9 clone

Sounds great, great price!