Harley Benton Custom Line Thunder 99

This little amp is quite a wonder. It has 2x50 watt (by 4 ohm) independent stereo channels and gives enough clean volume for a club gig at 8 ohms too. The sound is excellent and in comparison to my Pearce Gr2 the sound of the thunder 99 is a bit thicker. I had a problem running it in stereo over a 2x10 (16 ohm speakers) cab that was wired for stereo and mono use. Solution is to use a breakjack on both the (-) and the (+) of the cab, when using it in stereo. A cab wired for stereo and mono, uses a breakjack on one of the speaker (+) inputs to allow for stereo use when a second jack is inserted and mono use when this second jack is removed. On standard stereo/mono cabs like Marshall both the (-) of the speakers are connected together. This gave the problem that the Thunder 99 stuttered and gave no signal when using my tremolo/panning effect which threw the signal back and forth from left to right. I don't know why this problem only happened with the stereo tremolo/panning effect and not with any other stereo effects from the same pedal. So this problem can be solved by using a breakjack connection not only for the (+) but also a breakjack connection on the (-). I discovered this problem because it didn't occur when I used 2 separate cabs. So it's a brilliant and loud power amp with a great sound. I think a lot of Kemper users will be happy with the Thunder 99.

I got excited about this product early on in 2019, and ordered it for arrival in July. Product arrived ok, and worked a charm with Mooer compact preamps meaning I had a HUGE amount of tonal and volume choices from a very compact pedal board. The Thunder was loud enough in to 2 x 12 to keep up with drummers in bands (match that impedance, though!!) and was "clean" and uncolouring. Even the size of the volume meant I could gently ride my level when the band got excited. BUT....
After 1 month of use I found I was getting electric shocks from the unit. I isolated it from the rest of my gear and so ONLY the pedal and PSU were in use, and sure enough 5-8V were measured. I could "solve this" by plugging in to an earthed product but that isn't right. Unit is being returned and I'll update you when I have news...

Bought this for use with a NU-X MG-30 mostly as I am trying to downsize the shear weight of my live rig. Have used it with a custom wired 4x12 and a home made 2x12 and so far it works exactly as it should. No issues with being shocked as mentioned in other reviews. I am in the USA and I had to supply my own plug for the power supply and I have no problems. This little thing works great it is plenty loud in the 2 configurations I mentioned that I am using it in and it doesn't seem to color the tone of my patches very much at all. I do wish it had some built in tonal adjustments on the pedal but not really necessary.

Both cabs I am using (though not at the same time) are wired for 4 ohms per side stereo and neither the Thunder nor the PSU gets hot at all.

So far so good - If the GPA 100 could use USA 120volts directly I'd buy one or two of those as well. This is the first Harley Benton gear I have purchased that wasn't a guitar. All 3 of my HB guitars are amazing so I took a chance on the Thunder 99 and I am glad I did.
Thanks.

I read too many negative reviews of this product yet I decided to trust a Thomann product due to it's Thomann in house brand and usually I am fine with their stuff and I end up buying it attracted by the promoted features . But ho boy how this product disappointed(I don't even want to call it an amplifier) reached a level of rarity that I encountered not so often.

Pro: it's small. period.

Cons: One con to rule 'em all => It is not properly electrically isolated (log story short) and it makes and heck of a noise that you can cover only if you are playing or can be attenuated if you just touch the strings of the guitar. not what i want to have to deal with or to do . it's happening just with this device, with other amplifiers I do not have and never had such kind of problem.

I still have trust in Thomann products. And I will try to have it replaced despite I received it just a little bit over than a month ago.

Have a nice day!

I was fairly impressed with what this poweramp pedal brought to my setup. for it's price it does exactly what you'ld expect.

No more lifting heavy amps for gigs.

Nice feature: you can even use this pedal with 2 instruments together. When both inputs and outputs are used, the Left will only output to de Left and the Right input will only output to the Right, zo this pedal saves the weight of 2 heavy amps for gigs.

One of my best purchases i've done on Thomann

Con : the adaptor is to large (it's larger then the pedal itself)

I bought this pedal/power amp to boost my overall guitar volume and run 2 speaker cabinets at the same time (2x50W out is LOUD!). I play in a hardcore punk band with minimal effects. I have 2 stacked distortion pedals running into an Orange Terror Stamp which is being used as a preamp. I then connect the line out of the Orange to the input on the Thunder 99. It does not color the tone at all and just provides more volume to the speakers. This is exactly what I was looking for.

1 issue:

- The headphone jack has a problem where audio is clipping no matter what I use for headphones or inputs to the pedal.

Since my Orange Terror Stamp has a headphone out this isn't super important to me but it would have been nice to have the unit fully functional out of the box as it is not a used pedal and I did pay full price for it plus international shipping to the US.