Benson Amps Preamp Pedal Distortion based on tube amp circuit [Sound demo/Review]

An overdrive pedal made by Benson Amps, a tube amp manufacturer that is extremely popular among musicians.

Benson Amps Preamp Pedal

Amp-like distortion based on the circuit of Benson's tube amp, Chimera 30W.

Depending on the settings, you can create sounds ranging from a clean booster, to distortion, to rough drive sounds like fuzz.

This pedal is loved by many musicians, including Takashi Masuzaki and Kyohei Ariga.

Preamp Pedal Preamp Pedal

Benson Amps

49,500 JPY(TAX+) (As of 2026:05 on March 15, 22 | According to Amazon)

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About Benson | About the brand

About Benson Amps

Founded in 2016, Benson Amps is a custom amp manufacturer based in Portland, Oregon, USA. Many of the best amp and effect manufacturers are based in Oregon, and the company is highly regarded by many of its peers. The tube amps that owner Chris Benson hand-wires have captured the hearts of many musicians, and their reputation has spread quickly throughout the United States after being used by famous musicians such as Ryan Adams. The Preamp Pedal that Benson Amps released at last count ranked 2018th in the 6 new product rankings on Reverb.com (USA), among a crowded field of existing super-major manufacturers. It became a hot topic immediately with its sound that made people say "This is great!" after just one note.

Benson Amps Preamp Pedal｜Spec & Info.

Benson Amps Preamp Pedal Basic Information

Although the Preamp Pedal is called a "preamp," it is an effect that falls into the category of a "drive pedal."
Many players love the great tone, and the tube amps made by owner Chris Benson are so popular that they have to be reserved for more than six months.
The Preamp Pedal is a pedal that Chris developed based on the circuit of the Chimera 30W, one of his most popular tube amps.

The Preamp Pedal uses FET transistors instead of vacuum tubes, but the sound is reminiscent of a vacuum tube amplifier, the Chimera.
The name Preamp is simply a name given to it because it is modeled after a preamp circuit, but in reality it has a wide gain range from clean boost to creamy overdrive to thick, fuzz-like distortion.

Another important point is that there is no clipping by diodes.
This means that the dynamic range is wide, and even when the gain is increased, you don't feel any compression that narrows the sound image.
Even when connected in front of a boutique amplifier and turned on, you can fully utilize the amplifier's inherent dynamic range.
Even when you turn down the guitar volume, the gain decreases while still maintaining the range, which is also noteworthy.

[Tone control]
The high-quality drive sound is enhanced by two tone controls, Bass and Treble.
It's an easy-to-use high-pass/low-pass filter that catches the sweet spots in your guitar sound, but digging deeper will reveal its broad range of possibilities for creating a variety of tones.

The BASS control is the key to the character of the sound, and it produces changes similar to those produced by toggling the "American" or "British" switch found on Benson Amps' Monarch and other amplifiers from other companies.

The rich harmonics and response are truly "amp-like". It can be extended where you want it to be and stopped where you want it to be. It's a very controllable tone, and its character is not lost even at high gain settings or crunch tones.

Benson Amps Preamp Pedal｜Sound Demo

I uploaded a video of me playing the Benson Preamp however I like!

Fullhttps://t.co/8ZlDRXJICA pic.twitter.com/zGc9QHLlYe

— Kyohei Ariga (@ari_megane) April 3, 2022

Benson Amps Preamp Pedal | Reviews and Reputation

I tried out the BENSON PREAMP for a while, tweaking the knobs, and it was pretty good. It's hard to choose between it and the Morning Glory.
Morning Glory has a more crisp and resonant sound, while BENSON PREAMP has a rounder and more calm feel to it.

Twitter Than

This looks like it'll sell. It's amazing how much of the low end of the amp remains.

TwitterThan

At low gain it feels transparent, but as you increase the gain it becomes a bit creamier and more fuzzy. It's similar to the feeling of a small 1V amp trying really hard to distort.

TwitterThan

Preamp Pedal Preamp Pedal

Benson Amps

49,500 JPY(TAX+) (As of 2026:05 on March 15, 22 | According to Amazon)

Read Reviews

Amazon

Rakuten

Yahoo

Mercari

Sound House

Amazon

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Pochip