Harley Benton Vintage Overdrive

I didn't plan on buying this pedal, truthfully, I was hoping to one day get some kind of overdrive pedal (maybe a Maxon OD808) as a booster for my amp to record hard rock/metal guitar tracks for my own music.

I was shopping for some stuff on thomann and I came across this pedal, looked like a clone of the Maxon OD808 (sounded pretty close to one too), it was nice & cheap, and after looking at some reviews and demos of this pedal on YouTube and so on, I liked what I heard, and decided to throw it into the shopping cart. It seemed like an absolute steal considering how it sounded and how much it costs, and even if it didn't sound all that great, it wouldn't have been much of a loss.

After unboxing it and sticking in a 9v battery I tested this thing out on my valve amp, on a high gain setting of course |m| and I must say, I was really impressed with the sound of this pedal, it gave my amp a more tight and articulated sound, much better than how my amp sounds with no overdrive pedal to assist the tone. It does give a good 'tube-like' sound to your amp whether you're using it on a clean or a distorted setting, and you can use it for a light crunch or a full on overdrive.

In terms of build quality it feels pretty solid, all contained in a little green metal box, the knobs feel nice and sturdy, don't feel like they're gonna just fall off or anything. Could probably take a good stomping before it starts wearing down. I don't know how it'll fair in a live scenario, I've only been using this pedal for recording purposes, if you do takes this pedal out to gigs, do so at your own risk.

It's easy to work the controls on this pedal too, nothing complicated about it at all. Pretty much has the controls you'd expect from your average overdrive pedal. Similar to the OD808 it has a drive, tone and volume function, doesn't take a genius to figure out what those do.

Now, there are other pedals that are 'technically' better than this one, and may be more favourable than this one, but that does not mean it's no good, this pedal does hold it's ground against it's more expensive competitors. And for the price you absolutely cannot go wrong with this, for a £/?20-something pedal, it's pretty damn impressive.

If you have a little money to spend on a cheap but great sounding overdrive pedal, take a serious look into one of these.

It is nicely done, looks quality made and all the pots smoothly running. I bought that in order to boost my tube amp and it does the job nicely. As i use that with high gain only i can only tell that it works fine to give an extra punch to the amp but did not explore that with clean channel too much. My settings are: Drive - 9 o'clock, volume - maximum, tone - 12 o'clock (slightly vary on the guitar i use)

In regards of what is inside it is pretty much the clone of TS808/TS9. It is based on RC4558P chip, two c1815 gr 331 transistors, and pot knobs are 500K drive, 100K volume, 20K tone. There is a name "joyo jf-01" on the electronic board inside e.g. i guess it is Joyo who makes this pedal for Harley Benton/Thomann.

So, it is good clone of TS808/TS9 and definitely value for money!

I have used it on various amps (solid state, tube/valve, modelling) and it always sounded perfect to my ears !
I mostly play rock (from 70's to 90's). My usual settings are drive at 10:00, volume at 12:00 (or less on tube amp if playing home) and tone at 1:00 with a HSS Strat and a SH Tele.
I often use it with a Fender Mustang modelling amp and it is much better (warmer, more dynamic) that the Fender greenbox emulation.
Construction is good and knobs feel nice. I've been using it for a couple of months with the thomann recommended AC adaptor whithout any buzz issue.
Considering the price and the quality, I am seriously considering purchasing other Harley Benton pedals... next one might be the digital delay...

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.