NPD : The search is over... Benson Preamp

AlexO

I've been drooling over Benson Amps since seeing them pop up on instagram a couple of years back whilst also being a big fan of Portland after visiting on my Honeymoon in 2015, I knew at some point I would have something off them.

With the amps being well out of my budget as soon as I clocked the Preamp pedal on one of Andy's reverb demo videos and straight away thought that sounds right up my street.  I was waiting for one of the UK dealers to get them in and I actually saw a few had them on pre order. 

But then I saw a custom colour black finish on Instagram for Guitar Pedal Shoppe in Massachusetts I couldn't resist any longer. It came today with a £52 customs charge. So all in all the pedal has cost me £271 which is a lot so I was nervously waiting to play it in hope it was worth the expenditure . 

I've been playing it for a few hours now, through my Fender Princeton with a Gibson 330, 335 and White Falcon and it's literally the best drive , boost, distortion pedal I've ever played.  I run quite a small board and I know straight away if I like something and this will be a mainstay.

It's such a rich and warm sounding pedal and seems like it can do everything. I usually run a Xotic RC which has been a mainstay as my always on pedal and the Benson with the drive rolled off just beats it hands down, turning the drive up takes you from a gritty sparkle to a Bluesbreaker smooth drive all the way through to tweedy fuzz tones but all sound unique to this pedal.

I really think this is going to be the next pedal everyone loses their shit over and I'm glad I managed to get one in this Ltd casing. My only criticism is that I wish it would be a duel footstomp so the variety of sounds it offers could be used together.

https://i.imgur.com/pKxzzHR.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lX37okx.jpg

smigeon

Interesting - I have an ES330/Princeton setup as well, as was looking at those Benson preamps online just the other day. I'm looking for something with that indefinable "juice" that I kind of get with a EHX English Muff'n 2 x ECC83 preamp on my main "classic rock" gigging board. But I was gassing for a similar thing for the nano-sized "jazz/blues" Princeton board that was more convenient to power (the Muff'n needs 12VAC at 1amp!) and smaller and (ideally) without valves. 

As well as the Benson, the other thing I've been drooling over has been a Nocturne Barnyard - another infuriatingly obscure and expensive item that might or might not do the job. I hate that there's such a risk taking a punt on these things :-).

Glad it's worked out for you!

AlexO

As well as the Benson, the other thing I've been drooling over has been a Nocturne Barnyard - another infuriatingly obscure and expensive item that might or might not do the job. I hate that there's such a risk taking a punt on these things :-).

Glad it's worked out for you!

Haha we must have similar tastes as my plan is to get rid of my other pedals and run a board consisting of a tuner, Benson and then a Nocturne Mystery Brain 

Winny_Pooh

Nice score