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.
