Benson Preamp

The Benson Preamp is a preamp pedal from Benson Amps that reproduces the behavior of a Benson tube amplifier in a floor unit. Instead of tubes, the pedal substitutes FET transistors, which Chris Benson has said are all JFETs¹². Benson Amps lists it at $249³.

Guitar.com described the pedal at launch as a versatile box that yields "amp-like" boost, overdrive, fuzz, EQ and buffer functions³. In practice that means it can sit at the front of a rig as a tone-shaping preamp, push an amp into breakup as an overdrive, or run as a fuzz at higher gain settings, all from the same four-knob control set.

A JFET preamp with amp-like tones

The core idea of the pedal is the FET substitution. Benson Amps says the circuit is based on the Chimera 30 watt guitar amplifier, "but substitutes FET transistors for the vacuum tubes"¹. FETs (field-effect transistors) are often chosen for amp-in-a-box designs because their transfer characteristics resemble those of a tube gain stage more closely than ordinary bipolar transistors do, and the Benson Preamp uses them throughout. On That Pedal Show in May 2024, Chris Benson confirmed that the pedal is "all JFET transistors"².

The design itself came quickly. Benson said on the same show that "designing it took about 45 minutes of my time," and that he expected to make 200 of them and never expected the pedal to take off². The pedal instead became the company's flagship effect, the basis for several later variants.

What it sounds like is a matter for the people who have played it on record. On That Pedal Show, Dan described the pedal as "lovely, honest is the word that comes to mind"².

Controls

Benson Amps lists the pedal's controls as Gain, Volume, Treble and Bass¹. Guitar.com's launch report named the same four knobs but labeled the gain control "Drive" rather than "Gain"³. The two sources disagree only on the knob's name, not on what the pedal offers: one gain control, one volume control, and a two-band EQ.

Is it an overdrive or a preamp?

It is both, and the pedal sits in a category where several makers blur the same line. Guitar.com's launch coverage described the Benson Preamp as delivering boost, overdrive, fuzz, EQ and buffer functions in one unit³, so a player can treat it as a preamp pedal that shapes the whole rig, or dial in gain and use it as an overdrive. Other makers make the same dual claim for their own boxes: Wilson Effects describes its OD/Pre-Amp as usable "as a pre-amp or as an overdrive"⁴⁵, and Mosky lists its BB Preamp as "Preamp/ Overdrive"⁴⁵. The Benson covers similar ground but is specifically a version of one company's guitar amplifier rather than a generic drive circuit.

Origins, versions and variants

The pedal's lineage runs from the Chimera amplifier through the original Preamp and into several later Benson designs¹⁶³.

• Benson Preamp (2018): the original gray pedal, based on the Chimera 30 watt amp, launched May 22, 2018 at $249¹³.
• Mint green version (2024): a mint green finish released about a month or two before the May 2024 That Pedal Show episode, joining the gray original².
• TomatoTone collaboration version: a version built on the Benson preamp circuit with the TomatoTone name on the back, confirmed by Chris Benson on That Pedal Show².
• Germanium Preamp: a variant in which the first FET transistor of the Preamp pedal is replaced with a germanium gain stage taken from Benson's servo-biased Germanium Boost pedal. Benson describes it as "an alternate universe take on our flagship pedal that marries the incomparable feel of the germanium with the careful equalization and tone controls of the preamp pedal." Its controls are Volume, Treble (a low pass filter) and Bass (a high pass filter)⁷.

The circuit has also spread beyond Benson's own lineup in clone form. PedalPCB sells a "Son of Ben Preamp" PCB described as a compare-to for the Benson Preamp, with a disclaimer that the product is not manufactured or distributed by Benson Amps⁸.

Where it sits among FET preamps

The Benson is one of a wider family of JFET-based preamp pedals. AMT Electronics builds its Preamp S1 on JFET circuit design for tight, responsive distortion, and Anasounds describes its Tape Preamp as "a JFET preamp which is designed to color the sound, even on the most subtle settings"⁹¹⁰. What distinguishes the Benson within that group is its origin: rather than modeling a generic amp voicing, it is a direct FET translation of one specific amplifier, Benson's own Chimera¹³.

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