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Review
Another offering by the Chinese guitar company Joyo.
This is a modern distortion pedal that is really versatile. Firstly, it just has some great tones, seriously killer!
The 3 band EQ is pretty powerful with enough range to accommodate any guitar; there is absolutely loads of gain, and also a Fat Boost switch to get just a bit more push to your amp, and tighten up that rhythm chug.
As with any distortion pedal, it can get a bit noisy - but no fear! - there's a built in noise gate, which is such a sensible and clever addition.
The best thing about this though is the way Joyo have incorporated 3 different Output Modes - Pre Amp, Power Amp and Cab Sim.
When in Pre Amp Mode, just use it as a normal distortion pedal - straight into your amp. When in Power Amp Mode, go straight into a power amp. So this would be most likely into the effects loop of your amp, or into a dedicated power amp as I do in the video below.
The advantage of going into the return of your effect loop rather than into the standard input, is that this by-passes the actual preamp of your amp. This takes advantage of the fact that some amps just don't have the character in the preamp for the type of sound you may be looking for when using a distortion pedal like this.
For example, if you're going into a Fender Hot Rod it's never going to have the tight sound of a Peavey 5150, it's just not voiced the same. However, if we go straight into the effects return we can by-pass a lot of the character imparted by the Hot Rod, and just use the volume provided by the power amp, whilst using the pedal as the actual pre-amp.
The 3rd Output Mode is really clever as it allows us to go straight into an interface or front of house mixing desk as it has a 4 x 12 cab sim baked in! So cool!
Also we can change the character of the cab sim by continuing to turn the Output Mode knob to the right and back again. It feels like moving the mic on a real guitar cabinet so we get different tones from the speaker. Such a clever idea!
Overall a very decent pedal with great sounds and versatility. It may remind the initiated of the Horizon Devices Apex Preamp. A clone of it I wonder?
The Horizon Drive costs around £289 mind you while the Joyo I've seen from £50 - £60.
Check it Out Here:
Check out the full demo here: