Benson Preamp: How does it work?

[oregomike]

So, after some peer feedback and many video reviews, I bought the Benson Preamp. What I've heard was just so amazing, coming from that pedal. There's just one thing, I have no idea yet how to use it properly to get that edge of break up, and figured I'm just not using it correctly.

1.Wondering where you have it in your signal chain? Currently, I have it as Magnatone Twilighter combo > Boss TU-3w > Greer Lamplighter Comp. > Benson Preamp > OCD > Belle Epoch Deluxe. When I switch it on, I'm getting my tone, only louder, cool, but my compressor does that too.

2. How should I tweak the settings so I can get some edge of break up to it? As in, where should my amp be set vs the preamp? The Mag has a lot of head room so, it definitely doesn't break up at bedroom levels.

Any tricks y'all might have would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[naveed211]

Well, If you’re using pedals for gain, it shouldn’t matter if your amp is breaking up on its own. I don’t own this pedal (and don’t see any manuals for it), but judging from some demos, looks like setting the treble pretty high and the bass pretty low gave some bite which could assist in a breakup sound.

May need to use more gain than on some of your other pedals.

Failing that, I really don’t know. Are you using low output pickups? Seems from demos that guys are getting some healthy gain out of it, but if it’s got too much headroom for your situation that you have it barely on, that might not work for you.

 

[telemnemonics]

With the drive knob up all the way it stays clean?

 

[Peegoo]

Here's how the pros use a boost/overdrive:

Depending on your guitar, set the guitar's volume control to somewhere around 5 to 7. Now adjust the amp's volume to gig level. You want loud, and you want the amp to just begin to start breaking up when you really dig into the strings or bang out a chord. If you play softly, the notes and chords should be relatively clean and sparkly.

When you roll up on the guitar's volume, the amp should start to sing (plenty of hair around single notes). Roll the guitar vol back to 5-7. Turn on the preamp/boost/overdrive and adjust the gain and level so the amp is singing the same way and same volume as it did when the guitar vol was on 10.

That's pretty much the trick. You now can

1. Play cleanly with the guitar vol rolled back about half way
2. Get plenty of amp growl by rolling up the guitar vol or stepping on the pedal
3. Get 'more' of your amp with the guitar vol on 10 and the pedal switched on

 

[pi]

Benson preamp duplicates an amp circuit, but using jfets rather than tubes. In that sense, it can be used similarly to an amp in your pedal chain--where you would run other pedals before it like you're running into an amp, and after it run the kind pedals you'd put in an effects loop (delays, reverbs).

This is the same concept as Catalinbread uses in their "foundation pedals". link: Foundation Overdrive Series – Catalinbread Effects. I don't know if your Benson came with a manual, but read one of the manuals on the Catalinbread site (for example the one for the Dirty Little Secret)--their manuals are pretty informative and give you a good idea how to use them.

Of course, there's no right or wrong answer for pedal order, ultimately you should experiment and find what works with your rig.

 

[mjcyates]

Did you buy it new or used? If you bought it used it is possible that the internal trimpots have been moved. There are internal trimpots used to bias the transistors. That could effect the amount of drive you are getting.

 

[mexicanyella]

You have listed your signal path components starting with the amp and now I don’t know what day it is and can’t remember my name. Now that I’ve established my credibility...

Is there a particular routing or muting reason why you have your tuner that late in the signal path?

Is there a particular tone or gain reason why you have the compressor between the Benson and the amp?

There are a couple of ways to look at the compressor placement decision. The two that occur to me right now are

1) placed before gain increasers/tone shapers, you have the option of playing with compression parameters and compressor makeup gain to affect how your instrument hits the preamp. You can boost the signal and hit the preamp harder, or you can impose a “dirtiness ceiling” on how hot a signal can make it through to a preamp that wants to distort. Depending on how you work your playing dynamics, either of those things can be useful.

One potential disadvantage is, if it’s a noisy compressor, the preamp stages being after it will exacerbate the noise problem.

2) placed after the preamp, your guitar output-to-preamp gain settings will have a more linear relationship, but certain compression settings can still introduce a non-linearity that sort of feels like squishy tube power stage compression, but more independent of preamp distortion. And the compressor may noise problem, if any, will be amplified less later in the chain.

Depending on what you’re doing with that compressor, that could be a factor here. I’m an always-on compressor guy, if I use one: I look at it as additional amp controls or something, managing the gain, not an on/off effect. As a result I may tend to select more conservative settings than “on/off effect” users.

 

[Old Smokey]

You have listed your signal path components starting with the amp and now I don’t know what day it is and can’t remember my name. Now that I’ve established my credibility...

Possible copy/paste error? I think the signal chain is probably correct the way he wrote it, but change combo to guitar. Tuner first, then comp, etc.

Anyway, IME, edge of breakup is more about technique and how hard you dig in rather than pedal order or every gain stage knob being within 3 degrees of optimal positioning. That being said, I would start with guitar volume all the way up, the Benson on, and the OCD and the Lamplighter off. Set the Benson volume at noon and use only the drive knob to dial it in.

 

[beanluc]

edge of breakup is more about technique and how hard you dig in rather than pedal order or every gain stage knob being within 3 degrees of optimal positioning.

I think this can only be true if something somewhere in the chain is already near the edge of breakup. "Tone is in the fingers" but I don't think anybody gets very much hair from acoustics - or a clean signal chain.

 

[JesterR]

It's just an overdrive pedal. Do not overthink that marketing mumbo jumbo.
So, you use it in a place you want to have your dirt.
Personally, I love to have a bit of grit on my delays, then I put it after. Other day, I put it in the same place, as other drives: post fuzz, pre delay.

As for breakup sound, I found, that all controls on 11 o'clock gives me very natural slightly gritty tone.
I have a clone of original pedal, though.

 

[emisilly]

It's just an overdrive pedal. Do not overthink that marketing mumbo jumbo.
So, you use it in a place you want to have your dirt.
Personally, I love to have a bit of grit on my delays, then I put it after. Other day, I put it in the same place, as other drives: post fuzz, pre delay.

As for breakup sound, I found, that all controls on 11 o'clock gives me very natural slightly gritty tone.
I have a clone of original pedal, though.

Yeah I own, and LOVE, a Benson Preamp. I use it just like any other drive pedal.

 

[blowtorch]

Yeah, it really is something special. I got interested when I saw the relationship to the milkman amp

 

[Sumkallmetim]

Any thoughts on how good the Benson Preamp is at lower living room volume? Thanks!

 

[cousinpaul]

I'd turn off your other pedals and focus on the Benson for a while. Find some tones you like and use the pedal's volume control to reduce them to bedroom level. Maybe try the same with your others As far as pedal order goes, I'd break it down in terms of jobs. IMO, you don't need all on all the time. For example:

Clean amp for clean tones (duh)
Comp for country and funk rhythm
Benson for light OD, edge of breakup
OCD for heavy OD, classic rock, etc

A clean boost after your dirt section would be good for solos and would double your options.

 

[Wildeman]

Just ordered me one, can't wait! My friend has one and it's awesome. I'm happy to see people say it works great with a Twin, it's hard finding good dirt devices for that amp.