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Official Joyo Club Part 2: Beyond Thunderclone

#344
GMC said:
Guys, I'm loving the American Sound pedal...it's overdrive is just SO nice. It's easily my most favorite Overdrive pedal I've used or played. I can't rave about this pedal enough! I don't think much of the Ultimate Drive, it's OK but pales next to the American Sound
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How do they differ? I have the UD, quite pleased with it, but i've seen a lot of praise for the american
 
#345
boristhespider7 said:
How do they differ? I have the UD, quite pleased with it, but I've seen a lot of praise for the american
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The UD seems to be an OD which blends the original source signal. The tone says quite bright and a little sterile. If you max the blend but minimize the drive, the grit is still there and regardless of how dynamically one plays, it's amount of grit is determined by the drive knob and not my playing. Which is fine if that's what one is looking for, but really it's just an OD sounding blended distortion. Any OD can do harsh, what separates the good from the bad (imho) is what it does in the lightest of settings. A true overdrive mimics a valve amp, which implies dynamic breakup. My Blacksheep Outlaw is also in this category but a lot nicer to use and a better range of sounds available. The American is very warm sounding, the OD is very dynamic and responsive. It's got a great 3 band EQ which helps tailor some variety, especially in the mids. The Voice dial really expands to tonal pallet too. It's a seriously nice sounding pedal and one I keep playing with for hours. Every time I use it, it leaves the biggest smile on my face!
 
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#347
johnk_10 said:
just an FYI, the UD doesn't blend any of the original signal in. the input signal goes thru the entire circuit so it's effected all the way thru to the output jack.
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Yep your right...I've been playing so many OD's recently they are all blending in to one pedal in my mind....I still didn't like it much. It's ok, but not amazing, maybe I'll warm to it over time.
 
#351
I'm so close to pulling the trigger on a British sound. I want a clean eq/amp sim on my 2nd board. I ran the American like this for a while and really liked it. Which ever of the American and British I like better as an od I will run like that, and the other as a clean tone shaper. Unless I get a 2nd American and just run it clean?
 
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#352
Rocksolid said:
I'm so close to pulling the trigger on a British sound. I want a clean eq/amp sim on my 2nd board. I ran the American like this for a while and really liked it. Which ever of the American and British I like better as an od I will run like that, and the other as a clean tone shaper. Unless I get a 2nd American and just run it clean?
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I have a British and i love it. haven't used an American so i can't compare, but there is very little to lose getting a british
 
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#353
johnk_10 said:
just an FYI, the UD doesn't blend any of the original signal in. the input signal goes thru the entire circuit so it's effected all the way thru to the output jack.
Click to expand...

johnk_10, you're the man when it comes to OD's. I've read your mini review of the American which sounded really positive. How did you find the Joyo American and UD compare in tone (3 band eq aside)?
Personally like my OD quite gnarley and mid focussed (eg. JJ Burnel like). Which one would be best?
 
#354
I've been chasing a tone I can't quite seem to find, and I'm wondering if Joyo holds the key. Specifically:

I love the sounds of my pedalboard going into my Vox Amplug, then into headphones; I'm not using the "effect" of the Amplug, and I'm keeping the gain as low as practical. I currently have a Tone Hammer at the end of my chain, but with very little coloration. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get anything even close to the Amplug sound when going into my amp (Markbass 12" combo), whether going through the amp's pre, or direct to the power amp.

Is getting the AC Tone, putting it at the end of my chain and going direct to the power amp, going to get me close to the Amplug (if anyone is familiar with both)? The Amplug is apparently modeled after the AC100.
 
#356
I've just unboxed my UD again and gave it another go. I swear it's got better by just siting on my shelf. Maybe I was more open to hear what it could do this time around, as opposed to wanting it to do a specific thing.
So, plugged in and again I wasn't too thrilled with the tone straight out of the pedal. It seems to loose a lot of bass and the tone control is quite noisy if it's turned fully to the right, lots of buzz generated. It's quite bright sounding which makes the Overdriven sound very bright too. But the quality of the Overdrive wasn't actually that bad. I think i was initially put off by the over all tone. So what did I do about the tone? Because it's base sound / EQ I don't care for much and it's very bright and looses bottom end, it makes sense to EQ it after. So I fed this pedal into my American Sound (Min gain and Max level) using it just as an amp sim / 3 band EQ and I was able to dial in some really nice usable sounds going from subtle to full on apocalypse. So I think the moral of this pedal for me is to sick with stuff and bit longer and try and pull out some sounds I like....and to use a post EQ for this pedal. I think if Joyo were to release a version of this pedal with a 3 band...I'd be all over it. One thing I did like out of this pedal stock...was the gain fully up...what a great grungy sound! Although not my sound...still, a great sound.
This time around, I noticed that when the gain knob is fully down, the output was completely clean. My previous input into this pedal was quite hot (a pair of Kent Armstrong Jazz pickups and a Bartolini 9v preamp), this time I was using a low output passive bass (Music Man pickup) and I found that I could dial out the grit completely. So I think my high output active was feeding the gain initially. It's quite nice to have an OD which can go completely clean, especially for such a cheap pedal. I means I can dial in quite subtle break up. I also noticed the dynamic response on this pedal is actually very good. It's not as dynamic as I'd like, I'd like to be able to have a nearly clean and dig in for more grit than I'm getting from this pedal. But it's a lot more dynamic than a lot of overdrives and it does respond very well to harder playing. I'm wondering if with a little more time, I could find a sweet spot of input gain to pedal gain and hopefully find a better ratio.
So after my second look, still not a perfect OD pedal. But I'm far more impressed than my first look. It seems to work best with careful input and post EQ. Do that and I think it can rock with the best of em. That said...my American Sound is a one box solution and I can coax very similar tones from it, so I wonder if the drive/gain section is pretty much the same circuitry.
 
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#357
millahh said:
I've been chasing a tone I can't quite seem to find, and I'm wondering if Joyo holds the key. Specifically:

I love the sounds of my pedalboard going into my Vox Amplug, then into headphones; I'm not using the "effect" of the Amplug, and I'm keeping the gain as low as practical. I currently have a Tone Hammer at the end of my chain, but with very little coloration. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get anything even close to the Amplug sound when going into my amp (Markbass 12" combo), whether going through the amp's pre, or direct to the power amp.

Is getting the AC Tone, putting it at the end of my chain and going direct to the power amp, going to get me close to the Amplug (if anyone is familiar with both)? The Amplug is apparently modeled after the AC100.
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm going to answer my own question...just pulled the trigger on one!

I'll deal with the line-level output by putting my Xotic EP booster after it, then to the poweramp pf the Markbass.

Cheap enough experiment, especially since I used Amazon gift card money to do it!
 
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#358
a few days ago I ordered the UD off eBay, it'll take awhile as its coming from China. In the meantime, i am seriously considering making a mostly joyo pedalboard for outdoor gigs, I'm definitely sold on the American from demos off johnk's site, the British was also mentioned there and here, but I haven't heard any demo's of it though its highly regarded, I know its a Marshall sim, but I wonder how it compares to the American??

has anyone tried the "sweet honey"? Its a clone of the "honey bee"/"sweet honey"pedals both mentioned on johnk's site, I searched here and elsewhere, only guitarist's seem to use them, for $30-40 I guess its not too risky!

anyways, I'm definitely getting the American, the dyna comp, chorus, delay, maybe sweet honey or another UD, and maybe the British (I do like having two very different tones), what a cool company!!! I never would've known about them if it wasn't for TB and johnk's site!!
 
#359
Okay, so I finally got a chance to try out the JF-03 Crunch Distortion thru my rig this weekend.
I had initially hoped it would be usable with my clean blend situation, but there is such substantial low-end loss, that even with the nice thick clean tone under it the sound was brittle and thin. I did like the type of distortion, and there is a lot of gain on tap. Even rolling the tone knob back fully CCW didn't thicken it up. I let my guitar player use it and it does sound pretty good thru his rig, but still a tiny bit of low end loss. Sad really, because if it had a little more bass on tap, it would actually be able to keep up with the Wampler pedal he just paid waaay to much for. Oh well. All in all a pleasant experiment.
Next up: the US Dream JF-34.
 

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