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Joyo American Sound overdrive - whoa! it's a bit good!


mcnach
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After 2-3 years hearing good things about it, last week I was alone in front of my computer and I caved in. I ordered one, and it arrived today.

It's not good. It's REALLY good.

Nice range of overdrives, from round and fat to aggressive and gritty, just by turning the "voice" control. No low end loss to speak of, and it's got a 3-band EQ so you can easily adjust the basic sound should you need it. I first used it with my Stratocaster... and I liked it a lot, nothing extraordinary but I got easily some really cool sounds. I've owned a couple of old Fender valve amps and I could recognise some of teh sounds in here, with low gain. So far so good. BUt on bass? Fantastic. I especially liked this lowish gain, fat, creamy compressed type of sound... hmmm. Hard to describe, I should record some clips.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that if you're looking for a nice overdrive that works well on bass and is versatile... you should consider this one. If you also want it to be cheap, then you DEFINITELY should consider this one. :)

 

shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUpbbH5YeIFVKYE9rQ-

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29 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Nice one! Clone of the Tech 21 Blonde with many folk liking the Joyo just as much or even more. Seen comments about lacklustre build quality, but for around £30 not sure anyone can complain! 

 

Yeah, at that price I don't think anyone can complain much. It seems pretty solid, as long as the switch holds, I can't see much going wrong with it, and if it fails I could probably just buy another. For versatility, the SA Aftershock is amazing, but I get easily bored when I have too many options, menus, etc. This one is so good, that if I don't change my mind in a month or so I might just buy another just to have two 'presets' on my board. Although who knows when I'll be needing it... I can't see myself gigging anytime soon :(

 

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15 minutes ago, mcnach said:

For versatility, the SA Aftershock is amazing, but I get easily bored when I have too many options, menus, etc. 

Interesting you say that: I've been mulling over whether I should hold onto my AS, which is effectively a drive multifx, given that I have a whole 'nother set of multi-drive options in my Helix.

What I really do like about the AS is it's ability to retain low end and augment this with blending in clean, as required, with an easy to use dial rather than needing to think about introducing a parallel clean blend (which can be easily done with the Helix) but requires an LS2 or similar for other pedals.

What's the low end suck out like on the Joyo?

 

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I was thinking about this to buy but today I remembered my SansAmp BDDI has templates in the manual for simulating classic amps. I dialled in their suggested "Bassman Style" and it sounds so good that I'll pass on the Joyo now, though I'm sure it's pretty cool too.

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3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Interesting you say that: I've been mulling over whether I should hold onto my AS, which is effectively a drive multifx, given that I have a whole 'nother set of multi-drive options in my Helix.

What I really do like about the AS is it's ability to retain low end and augment this with blending in clean, as required, with an easy to use dial rather than needing to think about introducing a parallel clean blend (which can be easily done with the Helix) but requires an LS2 or similar for other pedals.

What's the low end suck out like on the Joyo?

 

 

My Aftershock has been seen home use only, which is a crime as it's such a great pedal... but I seem to end up gravitating to simpler pedals for live use, even if the Aftershock can do the job of some of them better. Anyway, we're talking smallish nuances that won't come across live. However I don't see myself selling it soon (but then I don't have a Helix).

Low end on the American Sound seems good, but it's early days and I am reluctant to pronounce myself 100% about it until I get a chance to try it at proper volume with a band etc. Having said that, I've had many pedals where the loss of low end was very noticeable at home, and I don't have that impression here. That suggests that if there's some loss, perhaps a tiny bump of the EQ on the pedal would compensate for it. 

I've been using a Caline Orange Burst on my "RATM board" for the lower gain sounds. It is a very nice sounding overdrive but with a marked low end loss. I bump the bass control on the pedal almost to max on that one just to retain the 'oomph'. I love it on guitar, but for bass it's not ideal. The American Sound would be a great substitute where the bass control could be used to adjust the sound to taste, not so much to compensate for its deficiency, if you see what I mean.

 

 

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1 hour ago, ClassicVibes said:

I wish someone did a budget Tech 21 Leeds... or they just put it back into production. :(

Yeah - that Leeds seems to have a big fan club! 

1 hour ago, mcnach said:

I've been using a Caline Orange Burst on my "RATM board" for the lower gain sounds. It is a very nice sounding overdrive but with a marked low end loss. I bump the bass control on the pedal almost to max on that one just to retain the 'oomph'. I love it on guitar, but for bass it's not ideal. The American Sound would be a great substitute where the bass control could be used to adjust the sound to taste, not so much to compensate for its deficiency, if you see what I mean.

RAT drives seem to be both great sounding and the worst for sucking out low end of any of the drives I've come across. I've got a RAT drive effect set up on my Zoom B14-X multi on my little pedal board, but I've put the Zoom in the parallel loop of a Boss LS2, so that I can blend in an equal amount of clean to preserve low end and authentic bass tone, which seems to combine well with the RAT drive. Recommend doing the same with your Caline at some point.

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50 minutes ago, mcnach said:

I've been using a Caline Orange Burst on my "RATM board" for the lower gain sounds. It is a very nice sounding overdrive but with a marked low end loss. I bump the bass control on the pedal almost to max on that one just to retain the 'oomph'. I love it on guitar, but for bass it's not ideal. The American Sound would be a great substitute where the bass control could be used to adjust the sound to taste, not so much to compensate for its deficiency, if you see what I mean.

 

 

I went from the Orange Burst to the TC Spark Booster. Awesome pedal that does the low gain thing so well. No end loss and very transparent on the clean setting. 

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30 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yeah - that Leeds seems to have a big fan club! 

RAT drives seem to be both great sounding and the worst for sucking out low end of any of the drives I've come across. I've got a RAT drive effect set up on my Zoom B14-X multi on my little pedal board, but I've put the Zoom in the parallel of loop of a Boss LS2 so that I can blend in an equal amount of clean to preserve low end and authentic bass tone, which seems to combine well with the RAT drive. Recommend doing the same with your Caline at some point.

 

Ha! Indeed. I have a couple of Rat derivatives but they've never seen live action on bass for that reason. 

I used to have a couple of LS-2 back when I really needed a lot of effects, and one was there simply to provide a clean blend/volume to a couple of pedals. I can't remember what it was, but I had a beautiful distortion pedal whose output was not in phase with the clean signal, and there was no way to blend it with the LS-2. I then found there are other pedals that allow you to switch phase too, but it started getting silly.

The LS-2 is such a versatile pedal. It would indeed 'fix' the Orange Burst for bass if it bothered me enough. It's one of those pedals that seem not to do much (I mean, it doesn't give you any funky sounds or anything) but it's a great tool to have.

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33 minutes ago, ClassicVibes said:

I went from the Orange Burst to the TC Spark Booster. Awesome pedal that does the low gain thing so well. No end loss and very transparent on the clean setting. 

 

I have a Spark Booster too :) 

I start to think I may have a problem :D 

I like it a lot and, like in your case, it was destined to replace the Orange Burst (are we related??? ; )) but I was using the board with two different bands at the time and while I only really liked the Spark Booster for low gain, while the Orange Burst was a bit more versatile, so I put up with the slight low end loss (after boosting its bass control!) just so that I could have some grittier sounds too from a single pedal.

I need to get all those overdrive/distortion pedals out one day and choose a handful to keep and sell the rest! :D

 

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8 hours ago, ClassicVibes said:

If I remember correctly, the Orange Burst has a weird control layout. Volume and gain work has normal but bass is cut only and treble is boost only. I didn't experience that much low end loss for it to annoy me. These are the settings I used: 

image.thumb.jpeg.fc2e56929028ee68bc5be3f9143b81d2.jpeg

 

Bass is cut only??? That will explain why I max it. I thought it was based on the Xotic BB preamp. I used to have one and the EQ worked as you'd expect (boost and cut) so I assumed this one was the same. I seem to remember I cut the treble a fair amount too. It makes sense now, thank you.

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On 28/04/2020 at 17:24, Al Krow said:

What's the low end suck out like on the Joyo?

I put mine straight into the power amp stage of my Veyron at a gig, effectively making the American Sound the preamp. I absolutely did not want for bass that night. 

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On 28/04/2020 at 20:56, ClassicVibes said:

I wish someone did a budget Tech 21 Leeds... or they just put it back into production. :(

This ^, and I have a Leeds in my possession.  It is seriously good, it curbed my gas for owning a Hiwatt 200 again..  I wish they did a Leeds Deluxe (i.e Leeds version of VT Deluxe).

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