Am I crazy? (Joyo American Sound context)

[NoiseNinja]

Just today I thought I'd try out replacing my EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, and ART Tube MP Project Series tube preamp, at the end of the pedal setup that makes up my "ampless" setup, with the Joyo American Sound that I got, just for the case of trying it out, and to see if it could really possibly allow for me to run all my pedals on my multi power outlet with individual isolated power outputs.

And to my surprise I actually preferred the tone of my Joyo American Sound, on a clean setting (that is the gain dialed up to just where it ever so slightly breaks up when I dig in the hardest, with a [Mid] boost of about +3dB at 400Hz in a wide curve, and a Voice (pre gain stage EQ) about +2dB boost in a wide curve around 800Hz), over my real tube pedals (well the Art preamp utilized a starved tube plate, but I actually really like what it does to my tone, but the Black Finger run it's 2 preamp tubes at proper high 300V voltage).


So this is how my always on basic "clean" tone part of my "ampless" setup looked previous to the change, just to give you a better idea of the context:

4 string 28,6" scale Ibanez GSRM20 neck + GSRM20B body Mikro Bass (equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, wired directly to the output jack socket, and strung with gauge .090 - .072 - .054 - .040 D'Addario XL nickle plated steel core roundwound strings, tuned in F# standard tuning, 2 half steps above regular 4 string bass E standard tuning) ->>

TC Electronic SpectraComp (always on 3 band compressor, adding extra punch, snap and bite, but without really affecting my playing dynamics) ->> TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini (always on digital polyphonic octaver, used as an 1 octave up effect mixed with clean bass signal, giving an effect similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (always on, parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on low gain overdrive, really primarily used to enhance harmonic content, [Tone] set at about 11 o'clock, [Voice] set to boost a wide curve around a 800Hz center frequency about +3dB pre gain stage, always mixed with clean {bass+octave up} signal from parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> (empty effects loop for clean {bass+octave up} signal blend with Orange Juice in effects [Loop A]) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an about 50/50 ratio) }=>> Artec SE-EQ8 (always on 8 band graphic equalizer, settings as follows: [Freq=100Hz [I]LoShlv Boost=+1dB ; Freq=170Hz Q=wide Boost=+1dB ; Freq=280Hz Q=narrow Boost=+3dB ; Freq=500Hz Q=narrow Boost=+1dB ; Freq=800Hz Q=narrow Boost=+1dB ; Freq=1.4kHzHz Q=narrow Boost=+2dB ; Freq=2.3kHz Q=wide Boost=+3dB ; Freq=5kHz HiShlv Cut=-10dB]) ->> Zoom MS-70CDR (always on 2 x 2 band parametric EQ : [Freq=63Hz Q=4 Boost=+1dB ; [I]Freq=200Hz Q=4 Boost=+1dB ; Freq=400Hz Q=2 Boost=+1dB ; Freq=1kHz Q=4 Boost=+1dB[/I][/I]], subtle plate reverb, and faux, EQ based, cab sim, consisting of a 2 band parametric EQ set as follows: [Freq=12kHz Q=1 Cut=-18dB ; [I]Freq=20kHz Q=0.5 Cut=-20dB], plus a lush Church reverb model that can be switched on/off[/I])

->> EHX Black Finger (always on tube driven optical compressor, dialed in to a quite subtle compression, primarily functioning as a tube preamp stage) ->> Art Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp, with HPF at 40Hz)


For those who might not know the Joyo American Sound is a cheap budget clone of the Tech 21 Blonde, which again is an analog emulation of Fender type amps.

 

[GMC]

The Joyo American Sound has a baked in EQ that you either love or hate. It's designed to sound like a Fender guitar amp and it seems to do that quite well. If you set all the EQ dials to zero, there's a -10db cut at about 450hz that's a wide Q value. There's a +5db boost at about 3.5Khz that also has a wide Q value and there's a low pass filter roll off at about 5Khz.
If you turn the Voice knob to about 40% (11 o'clock) you can dial out a lot of the mid cut at 450Hz. If you max out the Voice knob, you have a +20db Boost at about 800Hz

 

[NoiseNinja]

The Joyo American Sound has a baked in EQ that you either love or hate. It's designed to sound like a Fender guitar amp and it seems to do that quite well. If you set all the EQ dials to zero, there's a -10db cut at about 450hz that's a wide Q value. There's a +5db boost at about 3.5Khz that also has a wide Q value and there's a low pass filter roll off at about 5Khz.
If you turn the Voice knob to about 40% (11 o'clock) you can dial out a lot of the mid cut at 450Hz. If you max out the Voice knob, you have a +20db Boost at about 800Hz

That might very well be how Fender amps work in general, but unless this guy made it all up and didn't use a spectrum analyzer but instead drew the graphs himself based on free imagination it's not what I get from looking at this thread, comparing a Joyo American Sound to a Tech 21 Blonde :
Joyo American vs Tech21 Blonde comparison (many graphs)

Your information does however explain why those frequencies (more or less exact) were chosen for respectively the Mid, Voice/Character and High controls of those pedals (though in that light the slightly different EQ points Joyo chose for those controls on their American Sound clone version compared to the original Tech 21 Blonde seems to make most sense, perhaps why some people who own both actually prefer the Joyo clone).


Also it should of course had said "content" and not "context" in the headline, even if I guess it still sort of makes sense.

 

[bassbrad]

The Tech 21 Sound series and the Joyo clones deliver the goods. The Joyo American Sound covers the range of Fender amps from Champ, Bassman, Twin, Deluxe to Showman that the Alembic F2B is based on so of course the saturation and tone stacks work well. I use a California Sound based on Mesa Boogie quite often.

 

[NoiseNinja]

The Tech 21 Sound series and the Joyo clones deliver the goods. The Joyo American Sound covers the range of Fender amps from Champ, Bassman, Twin, Deluxe to Showman that the Alembic F2B is based on so of course the saturation and tone stacks work well. I use a California Sound based on Mesa Boogie quite often.

I'd wish Joyo would make a clone of the now discontinued Leeds, Hiwatt emulation, Tech 21 pedal, and a full sized clone of the Oxford, Orange amp emulation, which is also discontinued, since I heard a lot of great things about the former and I love the Joyo Orange Juice, which is seriously sized down close of the Oxford with simplified EQ section.

 

[bassbrad]

@NoiseNinja You might check out the Joyo Preamp House pedal it does include Fender, Vox, Marshall, Boogie & Orange preamps plus an EVH. I play w a guitar player who gets good tones w that pedal but cannot attest to it on bass.


Joyo Preamp House 18 Guitar Amp Simulators in 1