Harley Benton American TrueTone

I do not even know where to start. There is so much to say about this pedal. Forget about its low price, it tells nothing about its quality and usability.

I bought this pedal to give a final touch to my tone. I wanted to tweak and warm my tone a bit. However this pedal delivered much more than that. It definitely simulates that warm and crisp Fender sound but it does not stay there. Crank up the mids then you get a fuller, broader tone. There is endless versatility.

The voice control acts as a mid boost/scoop as well as distortion. But the distortion starts really kicking in only past 2 o'clock. This is the control that gives the most characteristics to your tone. With the combination of all the other knobs, there is almost no sound that you cannot produce.

Since it has its own cab sim, it can be dialed in directly to PA. However I prefer to used it as the last pedal in my signal chain in the effects loop. But it also works well in front of the amp. I keep the drive control pretty low as the gain on my amp is usually cranked up.

I really have nothing negative to say about this pedal. But if one could turn on/off the cab sim, that would have been awesome.

It has a metal housing, it feels strong and durable.

It quickly became my favorite pedal. If I want to vary my tone a bit, I do not bother to play around with all the other pedals on my board. My hand directly reaches to this pedal. Everything else on my setup stays constant including the settings on my amp. Every change I want to make, I do it with this pedal. It almost became a master control of my setup.

I love this pedal. Honestly, it has become my most favourite pedal on my pedalboard. If i'd have to pick one for to-go, this would be it! It can give you an amazing live sound without an amp or other pedals. I use it in church for worship, and it sounds awesome! Construction is solid, knobs are tight which is GREAT when tweaking. If they were lose, it would have felt like a cheap pedal. Now about sound... I can't get enough of this. I also bought a Nux Solid Studio, and many times I feel like I want to remove Nux from the chain and just leave this pedal. Not that Nux is a bad pedal, but this one has that great sound! I use it straight into a mixer (Behringer x32 Producer) and sounds awesome. If you want to connect it to a pc, it sounds awesome if you plug it into an external soundcard like Focusrite Scarlet 2i2, but it doesn't sound great it you plug it straight into pc jack. Just... don't do that. Use a soundcard. I love this peal, and honestly, I want to buy a second one as a backup, before they're extinct! :))))

Frankly, I have been avoiding this brand as something percievably low-end. But a friend of mine who is a professional and much experienced musician has recently recommended this pedal to me as a good versatile overdrive and, even more importantly, a decent amp simulator that does the same job as the legendary Sans Amp.

Well, my first impression with this pedal is very positive. First off, it is built very well. No quality issues here. The body of the box, the connectors, and the pots seem to be very well made.

Second, despite my expectations, the pedal does not add noise to the signal to any noteworthy degree.

Third, given the price of the pedal, it might be one of the best choices currently on the market. This reminds me of Bugera tube amplifiers a few years ago when these were offered at a more than affordable price. Now the price is about twice as high. Shall the same happen to those Harley Benton pedals? I wonder...

So, I'm using this pedal as an amp-simulator/booster/overdrive before feeding the signal into the sound card and further on into Garageband. And I'm pretty much satisfied with the effect. The raw sound that I now get in the DAW is much more warm, full and rich. I'm talking about clean or only slightly "loaded" jazzy-to-bluesy sound, though. Thus, if you are after a high-gain overdriven sound, I cannot provide you with any useful advice.

Overall, this pedal is a highly recommended purchase. And it makes me think of trying out some further products by Harley Benton.

I bought this specifically to act as a pre amp for the Harley Benton tube 5 combo that I got with it
I live in a small flat so I have to be considerate of my neighbours and my previous experience with low watt tube amps is there still very loud and they upset the neighbors so cranking them is a rare occurrence. However I got the craving for some tube tone and I like a bit of fender tone so the American sound seemed like a good way to tame the volume whilst giving me a much wider variety of amp simulation and EQ to play with
They make a great combination and it does more than I expected and it does it well. If you want a variety of fender tones both clean and driven this could be for you. The EQ section does exactly what if supposed to but most of the action is with the bottom row of controls, The voice and drive knobs interact very well and you should be able to find a few fender sounds with these controls. It really does a fantastic cranked tweed but you can also get some of the black face reverb sounds too. It does what it does really well, it sounds very authentic compared to some digital modellers and as an additional pre amp for the tube 5 it's perfect.
The first thing I noticed when I got it out the box was how well built it feels, I don't know how they do it! With a different name in it this could retail at over £100 easily.
I was getting a bit bored and uninspired with my Les Paul, since I got my Harley Benton 62 Tele I've started to enjoy playing again, Thomas are knocking out some fantastic gear at very reasonable prices. It may not be high end gear and the gear snobs can stick their noses up all they like. I'm very impressed with my recent buys the quality of the products is significantly higher than their price point. You can't argue with that. Well done Thomas, keep up the good work

I record some stuff at home by using M-Audio M-Track and laptop beside my pedal board, roland x-cube and Tele. Up to now I ran output on x-cube into M-track but somehow the sound was not enough for me, specially distorted sounds were too weak. After investigating for a solution, buying a preamp would be the best since I would place it into my pedalboard and I could play guitar in anywhere without an amp.

I compare some preamp pedals with different brands, as far as I see (hear), Harley Benton American True Tone is as good as the other shining but too expensive preamp pedals. Considering the price, this pedal is the best one.

Finish / look:
Knobs are not loose, they are a bit tight which makes a good control when you are changing them. If you accidentally hit, probably the value of the knob will change a too little. The feel is very good when you are operating them. The body is very strong. Only battery cover is not fully stick to the body.

Sound:
It has 3 EQ, 1 Level and 1 Drive knobs, like most of the amps have. What I love is the Voice knob: It gives control on mid range that you can get a variety of Fender amp sounds. (Particularly use this pedal if you love Fender amps, otherwise you need to choose the other Harley Benton pedals) By changing level+voice+drive knobs together, you will feel different kind of overdrive effects. I use another overdrive pedal to boost this pedal and the result is very good.

What I don't like about the pedal is a small change on voice drives you to adjust drive or level knobs immediately.

To conclusion, this pedal positively surprised me and the quality of sound is beyond my expectation. If you have a little budget, I highly recommend this one over the other brands; they are expensive than 5 times but will not give you 5 times better quality.

I was hoping to find a cheap pedal-style amp sim for times when my backline amp is not such a practical choice. After coming across this pedal I was initially skeptical about how good it could be so I did my research.

I was very surprised with the number of positive reviews I found and the video reviews online also seemed to be the same. I took a chance and purchased the American pedal to try it out for myself.

I've built a number of pedalboards over the years (both for myself and others) many of them have featured well-known high-end boutique pedals and to be honest, the build quality of this pedal is equal to theirs in many ways.

As far as DI'ing the pedal into the PA system as it was quite noisy. If I could add a noise gate after it then I think that would solve the issue but I don't own one of them yet.

I had recently been unsatisfied with the overdrive sound I was getting at low volumes from my overdrive and distortion pedal with my amp - my trusty old Mesa Boogie DC5. Today I took the American pedal to try out with my amp in band practice. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the sound. I then used this when playing a live set later and just cant get enough of it.

This is now living on my pedal board as my main overdrive pedal. It also responds fantastically if I push the pedal with a transparent overdrive pedal or a Boss DS1 (or both).

This pedal is simply amazing. I can't believe the results this produces, especially for the low price.

The budget price equipment market has caught right up with the more high-end brands and is now an option all players should give serious consideration to adding to their rigs.

The build quality of this pedal is very good. A metal case and sturdy good quality knobs. A great responsive EQ section.A few weeks ago i bought at Thomann's an Orange Terror Stamp B-stock....a wonderfull 20 watts pedal-size guitar amp with a tube in the preamp-section. What the Orange lacks of tonal abilities this HB American modeler pedal totally compliments when used together with the Stamp. The combination is fabulous and lightweight. I used it on a Bogner cab with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker....the sound is amazing....this combination produces loud enough, spicy Fender tube amp sounds (the HB pedal) that will get you trough almost any gig...loud enough for pub or bar size venues but even bigger spaces are possible when miked....or when you use the cab simulation outlet of the HB (or the Terror Stamp).....couldt'nt be happier than with this purchase......try the Harley Benton American TrueTone out (in whatever set-up)....and you will be sold!

As a Blues musician, this pedal for its price really hits home. Both in relation to the infinite possibilities in tone, and as well as how it takes other pedals, and its reactivity to amplifiers.

If you want a Dirty Blues Pedal, this is one which can achieve that easily, with the boost and Gain knobs. It encapsulates the blues spirits of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher, as its built for the creation of overdriven masterpieces, if taken care well. This pedal can offer hours of fun and learning for a beginner, and its build is sturdy and aesthetically gorgeous. With this pedal however, not only a nice bluesy sound can be achieved, but also more clean sounding overdrive can lead to tones similiar to both John Mayers and conversely, if cranked up enough with a good amp, one can achieve some brown distortion, however this should not be the main focus of the purchase.

As basic as this pedal is, it made my training amp sound 5 times better, as through the pedals EQ knobs, dialing in a tone is actually very easy to do. Boost and Gain knobs are also very reactive. A small push to any of these knobs, can affect the entire tone of the guitar, which is a plus for any tone nerd out there, but also an experience for a newer guitarist, who seeks experimentation.

The Price for this pedal is very worth it. For 30 dollars, This Pedal gives the user an immersive experience into Guitar tones, and is definitely one that should be on your bucket list.