stewblack Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Initial impressions are hugely favourable. Don't know if this recording does it much justice but in a mix gives a beautiful warm edge of breaking sound and can I'm sure get pretty nasty if you like that sort of thing. Plays really nicely with other pedals too. think you can get this with Joyo and Harley Benton logos on too - I just grabbed a cheapy to try. Anyhow first go out of the box 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr4stringz Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 I have a Joyo branded one. Sounded very decent to my ears. Found mine to be a little on the noisy side, lots of hiss. Guitarist in my band at the time used it for a while and it sounded really good for him too. Been sat in the box since as I changed bands and board! I should give it another whirl, now you’ve mentioned it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted July 26, 2019 Author Share Posted July 26, 2019 6 hours ago, mr4stringz said: I have a Joyo branded one. Sounded very decent to my ears. Found mine to be a little on the noisy side, lots of hiss. Guitarist in my band at the time used it for a while and it sounded really good for him too. Been sat in the box since as I changed bands and board! I should give it another whirl, now you’ve mentioned it... I've not used it at any kind of volume yet nor noticed excessive hiss, but I don't tend to push the top end too much for my sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben4343 Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Yep, I have the HB version and rate it as a low gain, always on overdrive. There have been a few threads saying similar things if you do a search for American Sound - all generally positive, especially considering the price. This guy rates it too - https://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/JoyoJF14.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinB Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 It's a useful bit of kit! EQ, pre-amp, overdrive... or all of them at once. Great on guitar too. The "cab sim" (really just fixed low- and high-pass filters) helps to tame rumble and fizz. When I'm using it for overdrive, I like to keep a compressor in front to prevent it getting farty - but that's the case for pretty much any bass OD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 You soxy beast, you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 Used it on Sunday. Played with my semi (stop sniggering at the back) which I've never quite taken to. The output has always seemed to me to be somewhat bland and gutless. This pedal was a wonder. Remained on throughout the gig, lending the bass a warm almost valve like richness. The OD was neither fizzy nor farty, the tone controls responsive. Suddenly an old bass had new life breathed into it. Oh and sustain? I think one high B is still ringing out in the pub now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulbuzz Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 This pedal is a clone of the Tech21 Character Series 'Blonde' pedal, and thus a close relative of their VT Bass pedal which is of course widely known and well-loved around here. As a guitar pedal it's almost miraculously good for the dirt-cheap price. I can imagine it would work perfectly well as a bass pedal, though I haven't tried it myself. I think it gets a little noisy only if the character/'voice' knob is cranked very high; though this gives much higher gain too, so is perhaps inevitable. I do feel a bit guilty about the sales that Tech21 lose to these clone products after their work in developing the excellent originals, but there's really no point in rehashing the 'ethics-of-cloning' arguments yet again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted August 1, 2019 Author Share Posted August 1, 2019 2 minutes ago, paulbuzz said: This pedal is a clone of the Tech21 Character Series 'Blonde' pedal, and thus a close relative of their VT Bass pedal which is of course widely known and well-loved around here. As a guitar pedal it's almost miraculously good for the dirt-cheap price. I can imagine it would work perfectly well as a bass pedal, though I haven't tried it myself. I think it gets a little noisy only if the character/'voice' knob is cranked very high; though this gives much higher gain too, so is perhaps inevitable. I do feel a bit guilty about the sales that Tech21 lose to these clone products after their work in developing the excellent originals, but there's really no point in rehashing the 'ethics-of-cloning' arguments yet again... Sorry, but I didn't know any of the history of the pedal when I bought it, and I certainly could not afford the originals so they didn't lose a sale where I am concerned.. I managed to make it a bit hissy by cranking the drive, middle, and treble simultaneously - but I don't use it as a drive or volume boost, I use it to add a character to my basic sound. Quite simply it takes an average sound and makes it special. What it does to a good bass is magical. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted August 4, 2019 Author Share Posted August 4, 2019 Gigged at the weekend and discovered that actually if I'm using an all valve amp then this pedal is entirely superfluous. 🤦🏼♂️ A valvish sounding pedal into an actual valve amp, silly me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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