Harley Benton Ultimate Drive

This is an inexpensive 'interpretation' of an OCD pedal, a rather popular overdrive/distortion pedal which is about 4 times the price of this.

Firstly why are OCD pedals so popular?
Well because it's a very versatile pedal that can do a (fairly) clean boost or can reach a great Hard Rock/Metal drive.
In front of a good tube amp you can use it like a souped up tubescreamer (which is a good analogy for the pedal as a whole) to push the tubes into overdrive.
It's fairly transparent (in that no matter how much it's distorting you can still her the notes and chords without it turning to mush).
Also when set right it can be very touch sensitive (especially for bass) in that when you play gently it'll stay clean but hit harder and it'll overdrive.
Another added bonus it that it doesn't really lose any bass frequencies when you use it on bass.

Secondly how does it directly compare to an OCD?
The short answer is very well indeed. It managed to capture all the essential OCD characteristics mentioned above.
No, you are not going to get the same sound from an OCD and the Ultimate Drive with all controls set to 12 o'clock, you will need to tweak the Ultimate Drive's knob a little to get the same tone and on the whole I'd say the Ultimate Drive is a little darker sounding (on both low and high settings).
The artwork on the Ultimate Drive will also divide people, I don't mind it but I can see why many wouldn't be able to get past that. It does feel like a colossal misstep putting such dividing graphics on this pedal.

In summary
It's a great OCD clone for a fraction of the price, providing that you can live with the artwork.

I needed a pedal that could add some sugar in various scenarios. Different Instruments, pickups, pedal chains. And this has been great. For years.
Personally I think the sweet spot is at the lighter end of the low gain.
I have had eye wateringly good tones from a low Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive stacked into a low Harley Benton Ultimate Drive into Harley Benton Tube Combo with Reverb and Delay. I've used it successfully as the main beef on a octave up + 5th Bass split into a guitar amp, set-up.
I do think it could be easier to dial in, I sometimes feel like a safecracker on a shower thermostat, but that is the sacrifice for all the good stuff you are getting for the amazing price.
If and when you get one, I urge you to resist your human programming to instantly see how many wasps you can fit in the jar, (The answer is loads) and try to dial it in at the low end for the beauty. After all, Less is More.

Since this is my first trip to electric guitar/effect world, take my comments as from a newbie, therefore simple but without any past preferences and comparisons.
This effect is very clear and sharp. I could not find any setting in which it would not perform well. It offers variety of possibilities and with right pickup and tone settings on guitar, playing makes me happy. I also need to mention that I'm progressively switching from playing acoustic guitar to electric so sometimes (with this effect) I amaze myself... true rock star for a moment or two!
It is a lovely product. I somehow didn't trust entirely Harley Benton, but now this is changed completely. HB presents to me great price/quality ratio. Going to more esteemed brands would probably mean x2 the money for the same performance or put it otherwise, for the same money you cannot find this much sound and joy.
I'm already looking into other HB effects. It just a question of when and which one.

How can i say anything bad about this OD pedal? its fasntstic, and costs 30 quid?! It bafles me how good it sounds, I use it as a boost infront of the dirty channel to tighten things up, at home with a Idcore 20 from blackstar and at rehersal infront of the orange Crush 120 combo, if youre looking to get that extra sauration and tight tone for metal this thing has you covered, it really colours the tone the way i need it in front of both amps. And even in fron th of the clean channel, with the settings the same Gain at around 1,on the orange amp in particular, it gives you that beautiful blue's breakup on the signal for that really nice spanky sound.
all in all i absolutley love ths pedal

The OCD already has a lot of bass player fans and this copy is great for bass too. Go from clean boost to slight vintage drive to full on distortion. Doesn't suck out all the low end and the Tone control can really control the high end from more smooth to more bright. It's great!

Build isn't amazing. My copy had a DC connector that was a bit off to the side, so I'm returning mine. Thomann typically has very good service, so I'm not expecting any problems there. Battery compartment cover is a bit of a pain... I actually prefer the build of Behringer pedals (because mine sit on the desk and they are made with more precision in my experience). But for the money it's more than you could expect. It feels incredibly sturdy and I bet it lasts ages.

Such a good overdrive sound, for this price. It is amazing, i think. I like it better than the overdrive on my amp (Vox 15 watt nighttrain) sometimes, so i use this as my main overdrive 'channel' now. The sound is ver smooth and bassy, maybe too bass heavy for some, but using the (sensitive!) treble control knob on the pedal you can still cut through the band mix. It does add compression and becomes more compressed with more drive dialed in.

I use this pedal with a Telecaster and single coils, and put a fuzz after it for solos. The only thing i do not like about it is the artwork, but that's subjective.

Have a nice day

This overdrive pedal is really great, especially for the price.

I use it as my main lead sound, in conjunction with lower-gain drives. It really works nice with rolling your volume knob on your guitar.

It has loads of gain even on lower gain settings, at least for my use. It does everything from lower gain Blues, to hard Rock and everything between.

I also run it at 18v, without any issues or signs of being burn. So if you have spare 18v output on your power supply, stick it there and see for yourself. In my opinion it sounds little bit fuller and bigger than on the 9v.