Harley Benton Mini Looper

I bought this pedal as myfirst ever looper because i didn't want to spend much on a looper.

A little bit worried about the quality (because there aren't that many reviews or videos online) i decided to just buy it. Delivery was quick and correct, as always, and when i first plugged it in, it did what I expected.

PRO'S:
It's a simple looper and it works, the sound is good, the footswitch is sturdy which is important for a looper because you use the footswitch a LOT and the looping mechanism is easy.

And now the DOWNSIDE to the pedal:

First of all, the sound. When i record a loop there is a small difference between the direct sound to the amp and the looped sound from the pedal. The difference isn't that big, but it is noticable if you know the sound of your gear.

Second, the volume knob works fine between completely off and noon (wich is about the same volume as the signal from the guitar) but the second half of the volume-sweep doesn't effect the volume very much. But since it's a looper, I don't think it's that big of a problem.

I also compared this to the TC Electronic Ditto my friend uses, and the difference in quality isn't worth double the price.

TLDR; Need a looper, don't need perfection, buy this one!

I bought this for a home set-up, I was looking for something that is simple just to make some rhythm loops for playing over. You can add to and overdub just a single loop. The pedal remembers the last recorded loop when unplugged. Obviously this could be a very complicated loop with multiple overdubs, once you've recorded an overdub onto the loop, the overdubbed loop is then the loop. You can't go back a step, or strip away overdubs. It's very basic. I'm probably over explaining it.

Its really simple to use and apart from overdubbing has no real features barring of course volume control (it plays back slightly muted even at full volume).

I'm very happy with it. There are some very good youtube reviews out there that explain it.

I've really enjoyed it for the last few months.

It's value for the money. Very solidly constructed.

You need an unsupplied power supply (a/c adapter), and if in the UK or Ireland better off getting one with the correct UK plug anyway. So buy it from a UK or Irish website.

Well, on the paper everything looks great, especially those "unlimited overdubs".

But unfortunately, overdubs don't work for me at all. They always start with some delay, some latency. Surely, I thought I am to blame here first as maybe I was playing out of tempo and/or using the pedal wrongly, but I tried to record metronome and compared the results which were the same. Basically, all overdubs start later than the actual main (first) loop. Then after a second or so they "catch up" to the rhythm/tempo. No matter if you start overdubbing in tempo of the first loop right at the start of the main loop, at its end, or even before (as overdub works perfectly fine that way too) - the result is always the same. So, unfortunately, unusable for me.

I've read somewhere that I should try to update the firmware, but unfortunately, there is no app to do so, and, most importantly, the pedal has no USB connection, so there is no way for me to do that.

I was looking for a looser to use as a practice tool at home, a basic looped pedal is what I decided on and when I seen the price of this one I thought it had to be worth a go.

First impression was how lovely the packaging was, something you don't usually get on cheaper I items. Second, I couldn't believe how small it was, it takes up virtually no room on my pedal board. It's of solid metal construction, has 2 Jack sockets, one button and a volume control. It's about as simple as you can get, but for my needs it was everything I wanted it to be. If you wanted to use it in a live situation it'd be difficult with just one multi function button but this is the same for any longer with one button, and let's be honest you'd buy a bigger until for live use.

Used at the end of my pedal board this pedal is really impressive, I can't spot any loss of tone in the looped signal, even when effects on top of the signal. The volume control on mine works well right throughout its sweep.

The pedal only runs off a power supply, there's no battery option (it's physically too small to house one) but I was aware of this before I ordered and isn't an issue.

For your first looper this is a great choice, or for a home use pedal you won't need anything more.

I use this for recording a loop and building up and playing over. You can practice scales over certain chords etc.

Trouble for me is when I play quietly I use a Behringer GDI-21, which is a noisy amp sim, and this pedal somehow takes the noise from that and turns it into crackling as soon as you record over it, even though that isn't the noise that goes into it.

It works with my amplifier's distortion though. However if I turn the volume way down for night time, it skips part of the playing, as if it is doing a noise gate.

I'd give this 4/5 if it worked with GDI-21

Pros
- Inexpensive
- Simple to use
- Feels sturdy

Cons
- Seems to have a noise gate at very low levels
- Crackles when you use with a noisy pedal
- Due to the crackling it doesn't seem to truly record the signal going through it

Despite the issue I intend to keep this pedal and could probably put it in front of the GDI-21 and buy a pedal for distortion which would be a helpful compromise.

Edit: after spending more using it I realise it delays the overdubs. Was never an issue with my ditto. Will have to save for ditto instead.

A tiny cute yet well built pedal from Harley Benton. It is my first looping pedal and it has been a lot of fun to jam with it in the bed room. It does not have any fancy features, but it can record up to 10 minutes of play time and allows you to transfer your loops as .wav into a windows PC. I do not notice any lost on sound quality when recording. I haven't had any problems yet and the price is just unbeatable. Stop wondering and just go for it.

** UPDATE **
My pedal started to show some problems after few days of use. Instead of playback, I would get only noise. I sent a video to Thomann and they efficiently replaced my pedal for a new one within few days. I reduced my quality rating to 2 stars, but thanks to Thomann's 30-day money back guarantee and 3 year warranty I can still highly recommend this product.

The build of this looper pedal is very sturdy and the price is great. The sound could be a bit better, but for this price I don't expect a premium sound anyway. However, what is making this completely unusable for me (and the reason I sold it soon after buying it) is that you have to HOLD down the pedal for ~2 second for the looping to stop! This makes it impossible to use in a live or jam setting because if the section of the song changes (eg. goes from verse to chorus), you need to be able to switch off instantly. Only buy it if you want to practice at home alone (but if you only plan to do that, a DAW might work better).