Official Joyo Club Part 2: Beyond Thunderclone

[BeyondFiredUp]

Bump. Hoping to wake up this thread...and BTW, I also have ordered the American, to go with my UD that I've had a couple weeks and loving! Looking eagerly to using the American first in the chain with it's vast sound-shaping capabilities, then into the UD for the great mild to tubey (intentionally) grit tones I get digging in. Number please ;-) !

 

[SunnBass]

@BeyondFiredUp, I'll get you a number this evening.

 

[BeyondFiredUp]

Cool! Thanks, mate!

 

[SunnBass]

@BeyondFiredUp you will be #168

 

[TMFoodBass]

I'm new to Joyo pedals, and I'm kida excited about having a cheaper alternative to the higher priced, mass produced pedal brands (MXR, Boss, etc.) Here's my question: Is there a place where the Joyo pedals are compared to their more expensive counterparts and graded out against them? If so, which Joyo pedals stack up the best?
Thanks!

 

[SunnBass]

Here's my question: Is there a place where the Joyo pedals are compared to their more expensive counterparts and graded out against them? If so, which Joyo pedals stack up the best?
Thanks!

Not officially, but there is this:
Official Joyo Club: Attack of the Clones
and this:
Official Joyo Club Part 2: Beyond Thunderclone

Seriously though, these threads are probably your best resource for the information you seek.

 

[BassikLee]

Not to mention youtube. Tons of stuff there.

 

[schenknasty]

Just copped the Dr. J Sparrow (Joyo subsidiary). It's great. I'm really digging my Joyo compression and Quattro delay. I immediately disregarded any concerns about price compromising quality as soon as I plugged in the Quattro. Great stuff... you'll see more and more on pedalboards.

 

[GMC]

Bump. Hoping to wake up this thread...and BTW, I also have ordered the American, to go with my UD that I've had a couple weeks and loving! Looking eagerly to using the American first in the chain with it's vast sound-shaping capabilities, then into the UD for the great mild to tubey (intentionally) grit tones I get digging in. Number please ;-) !

The American is a lot easier to dial in a light overdrive sound than the UD. But the UD messes with the tone a lot less, the American has a really nice baked in tone that can't be dialed out because it's simulating a fender valve amp. One thing to notice with the American...the volume and gain (grit) controls need to be worked opposing each other. If you increase the gain, then decrease the volume by the same amount. If you decrease the gain, increase the volume but the same amount. The Bass , mid and treble controls are fairly intuitive, but the voicing control takes a little getting used to and it's pre-grain so it effects the grit, where as the BMT controls are post grit. The voicing control is very nice and it won't take you long to dial in a sweet tone that you like. One other great feature of the pedal is that it can be run cleanly too...but it always has that Fender amp sound baked in. It's not a transparent sound, but it's a very nice sound.

 

[GMC]

So I returned my Ultimate Drive. It had a great sound but I had no practical use for a full on distortion. I am down to just a Joyo Ultimate Octave that I use for fuzz at home just goofing around. I found a setting on it with mid cut engaged and tone all the way off or close to that sounds pretty muffy to me.

But I'm interested in getting some sort of preamp pedal to run into an amps effects return. Just ordered a Rumble 100 and it will have my clean and vintage sound but I'm also wanting an overdriven svt type of sound at times. Just for versatility and more at home goofing mainly.

My question is will it be redundant to get an American Sound since I will have the fender tone already? And I'm also considering the AC Tone since it was mentioned by @BassikLee that it can get pseudo svt sounds. AND will either of these work as preamps? As in direct into the power amp(effects return) on my amp?

I'm just thinking if I had a preamp with a different voicing, I would essentially be getting multiple amps using the same combo.

The UD can be coaxed into quite light overdrive sounds but it's very tricky to dial those settings in and to be honest there are other pedals that do that thing better. The UD is more of a heavy shredder fuzz than a light subtle overdrive.

 

[Rob22315]

The UD can be coaxed into quite light overdrive sounds but it's very tricky to dial those settings in and to be honest there are other pedals that do that thing better. The UD is more of a heavy shredder fuzz than a light subtle overdrive.

The Joyo Sweet Baby Overdrive is great for a light overdrive.

 

[GMC]

The Joyo Sweet Baby Overdrive is great for a light overdrive.

But it needs a capacitor or resistor swap out because the stock circuit has a High pass filter on the output path which cuts all bass frequencies below 150Hz...which is a major bass tone suck.

 

[Rob22315]

But it needs a capacitor or resistor swap out because the stock circuit has a High pass filter on the output path which cuts all bass frequencies below 150Hz...which is a major bass tone suck.

I never noticed, I only use mine with guitar. Is there a documented mod for this?

 

[KingT]

Can I get a number please?

Here's my test on Squier VM70 JB, I was after Nirvana's Krist Novoselic sound here (although it needs a bit of compressing effect too which I don't have at the moment).

Loving this pedal, nice EQ and OD effects

Sorry for crappy playing, I'm a noob

 

[cheechi]

What does the 'voice' do on the American, California, etc? Is it just a gain control like the voice is pre & gain is post?

I like it, I just don't fully understand what it means.

Also I got my California today and my American is on the way. Just goofed around with the knobs and man I really like the sound coming from this California. I'm not well versed enough to say 'sounds like this' 'sounds like that' but from my PJ > Compressore > California > BX250 (EQ section flatish, full scoop, no drive or comp) and BRX10.4. Well it has a nice vintagey thump whether P or J or blended. Hard to describe but it sounds Jamerson esque even with the J.

 

[kleinenenten]

What does the 'voice' do on the American, California, etc? Is it just a gain control like the voice is pre & gain is post?

I like it, I just don't fully understand what it means.

Also I got my California today and my American is on the way. Just goofed around with the knobs and man I really like the sound coming from this California. I'm not well versed enough to say 'sounds like this' 'sounds like that' but from my PJ > Compressore > California > BX250 (EQ section flatish, full scoop, no drive or comp) and BRX10.4. Well it has a nice vintagey thump whether P or J or blended. Hard to describe but it sounds Jamerson esque even with the J.

On the American at least, it seemed to me to be a mid frequency selector. Could be wrong though.

 

[MGR]

Can I get a number please?

Here's my test on Squier VM70 JB, I was after Nirvana's Krist Novoselic sound here (although it needs a bit of compressing effect too which I don't have at the moment).

Loving this pedal, nice EQ and OD effects

Sorry for crappy playing, I'm a noob

Wow. This pedal made your tone amazing. Very impressed, especially for a 35 dollar pedal. Was thinking about a Catalinbread 5F6, but this one seems to do the same thing for much less. Thanks for posting.

 

[SunnBass]

On the American at least, it seemed to me to be a mid frequency selector. Could be wrong though.

Correct.

Can I get a number please?

@KingT #169
Welcome.

 

[ticol07]

What does the 'voice' do on the American, California, etc? Is it just a gain control like the voice is pre & gain is post?

I like it, I just don't fully understand what it means.

Also I got my California today and my American is on the way. Just goofed around with the knobs and man I really like the sound coming from this California. I'm not well versed enough to say 'sounds like this' 'sounds like that' but from my PJ > Compressore > California > BX250 (EQ section flatish, full scoop, no drive or comp) and BRX10.4. Well it has a nice vintagey thump whether P or J or blended. Hard to describe but it sounds Jamerson esque even with the J.

The Voice is a pre gain mid boost/cut. So it gives different flavors to the overdriven tone depending on its setting. Simple but very effective. It's copied on the tech 21 character knob.
The 3 other eq knobs are post gain.

 

[cheechi]

I read over the Tech 21 descriptions of their pedals and it makes a bit more sense now along with your explanation. One thing that I'd be interested in knowing more about;

The Level and Drive controls work like a traditional, well-equipped amp. Low, Mid and High, however, are active, providing a wider array of tonal possibilities.

Does this mean that on a typical 'well equipped' amp (whether of the vintage these emulate, or generally) the eq options are not active? Or are they comparing an amp's EQ section to other effects pedals with just a single tone knob, or comparing to other pedals with lo/mid/hi knobs being passive? Or is it marketing speak and means nothing?

I have a Peavey Combo 300 that everyone I play with seems to be an expert until I ask them a followup question. I hear things like 'its active eq thats the same as 10 volume knobs' or 'thats active eq leave it flat or it will sound like crap' and similar things. I have been curious about how the two compare and haven't really known what's the right question to ask, but you have pointed me more in the right direction so far than I knew.

Generally a pedal that has one tone knob is a passive and those that have two or in this case three are active, is that a valid statement?

Generally, are the tone knob (for those with single) or the EQ section like this one typically after the gain stage/knob?

Any other things I don't know to ask that might be useful?