Joyo overdrive - not bad at all!!!

[mcnach]

I bought the Ultimate Overdrive a while ago. I like it more on guitar than bass, but it can sound pretty good on bass. My "problem" with it was that the gain knob is very sensitive. A little adjustment means a big change in sound, and the level goes up a lotg as you turn the gain up... so great once you find the sound you want, but not great to make adjustments on the spot.
Still, pretty good moderate to high gain sounds. Low gain is available and sounds good, but it's fiddly.

Then I bought the Sweet Baby overdrive. This is purely low gain. It works very nicely! Turn the focus control lowish to keep it from getting harsh, and you get a nice low gain just starting to distort sound. The whole range deals with low gain sounds, so it's easy to get the sounds you are after, and turning gain up or down does not affect the volume that much. It's very useful to get a slightly overdriven sound that actually feels pretty clean in the mix, but sounds a bit fatter and with a nice midrange bump.

Now, I was curious about the Vintage overdrive... I heard some lovely clips on guitar, so I got it too. For guitar is REALLY nice. This pedal is a jewel. And, on bass? Beautiful. This one has a lot more gain than the Sweet Baby, but it's more controlable than the Ultimate Overdrive. Changing the gain affects the volume only slightly, making adjustments on the spot easy. It can do the low gain barely distorted sound, but what it does better is adding just a bit of grit... the low gain sounds are great. There is only a slight low end loss, it's perfectly useable as it is, without blending clean signal. I have to say, this pedal is the better sounding of the three, and versatile too because although it does not do really high gain, it can get quite hairy if you want it to, but it's still controllable and you don't need to juggle between gain and level knobs to get the right balance.
I think I may buy another, one for each pedalboard, and remove the Ultimate Overdrive, keeping it loose just for guitar!

Cheap overdrive no longer needs to be nasty!

[hamfist]

Good info mcnach. Any chance of clips at all ?

Wow, just looked at the price. That's CHEAP ! Whats the noise like on it? IME that's the usual failing of cheaper pedals .

Edited February 21, 2013 by hamfist

[fretmeister]

Joyo's are clones

The Vintage Overdrive is a Tube Screamer
The Ultimate Drive is an OCD
The Hot Plexi is a Carl Martin PlexiTone
The US Dream is a clone of the Suhr Riot

etc
etc

The Joyo's are very good indeed.

[mcnach]

I'll see if I have time this weekend to record some clips.
Liking that Vintage Overdrive pedal a lot... and £30??? I'll buy two and chain them if I want more gain!