Joyo

There was some Buzz around a handful of Joyo pedals where they were aped to be clones of top brands, so I took a look. Initially, what I heard and saw didn't move me greatly as I had gear in those camps already, but the DF 39 Deluxe crunch caught my attention. It is suggested this is actually a Fulltone Plimsol and I cannot confirm or deny that, but what I can say is that this pedal has some otherwise useful benefits. It has two gain stages that cascade, so you have two levels of gain on hand - a big boosted Pre amp Drive and post Gain. It isn't subtle, so you need to dial carefully, but what transpires is a 'Big Square Wave Form' that not only stacks well but in addition, thickens your guitar signal without a typical mid hump. With El34s and a Les Paul you actually get the sound of not just some loud Marshalls (aka 200w 'Pig) but a typical tone of Orange and HiWatt 100watters where the gain is loud and very OPEN. Is not harsh, just very Square edged. I have reviewed the EHX ERD here to and these two work well together to give great boost tones that are usually found only on the privileged boards of high end boutiquers! As an aside: for someone who only likes *very specific* fuzz, (Bearfoot Pink Purple for instance), I am able to get a nice fuzz-like vintage drive texture from this too... Extra + point A great find and addition for just a few $£ Oh, am also a little intrigued at the choice of aesthetic... another possible clue to its design maybe???

I bought it on eBay, straight from China or Hong-Kong – I can’t remember. I got it for a very decent price, and everything would have been perfect had the seller not forgotten to send me – as promised – a box containing a European power supply instead of the US version. In the end, after a few mails and a partial refund, I’m very happy with this purchase. :-D I’ve installed the stompbox very early in my fx chain on a pedalboard that I use for rehearsal and live, which is most often composed of my Relay G30 wireless receiver => a buffer/booster => this tuner/supply => 2 or 3 drive stompboxes => a buffer/booster => a hard-bypassed small EQ. All these are true-bypass, except for the two buffers/boosters. I mentioned that I’m using this setup both for rehearsal and live because the electrical supply is often an issue – what I mean is that in many places the electrics is rather poorly done, sometimes inducing hum because of phase and/or ground issues. That was my problem with my previous setup which involved a mini Polytune 2 tuner and a supply based on a Visual Sound 1-Spot with an 8-out daisy chain from the same brand – not a real hum actually, yet a little something that could be heard on distorted sounds. And I only ever play using distorted sounds. :-D So, i’ve replaced the mini Polytune 2 with the Joyo and taken the daisy chain away to supply each pedal (including the G30 receiver) through one of the Joyo’s power supply outputs – with the Joyo’s power provided by the 1-Spot. Great result with no hum – not in the place where my band rehearses at least as I haven’t used it live yet, but this seems to announce great things. The sound is not the cleanest you’ll get either, but this is inherent to all high gain circuits such as ODs, not to the supply. Yet, the wiring of my pedalboard looks a bit more messy now than when I used the daisy chain, but the efficiency of the isolated outputs – one per pedal – is here! :bravo: As to its role as a tuner, it is less accurate than the Polytune 2’s strobe mode (which is the more efficient, +/-0.1 cent )... which by the way I never used as it was, precisely, too accurate for me! :8O: Using it, I never managed to get 100% in tune and being a little maniac I couldn’t resort to play like that so I preferred the classic, +/-0.5 cent mode, which was largely good enough to my ears and allowed me to get in tune quicker. Whether in rehearsal or on stage, you have to be quick! :-D For this use, the Joyo is as accurate as the mini Polytune 2. The display is easy to read, at least when you play indoor – I don’t know what it would look like outdoor in a sunny place but IMO the LEDs seem powerful enough to be seen in such a situation. :) I couldn’t tell if it works well with alternative tunings or not as I don’t use any of these. In the end, this pedal is perfect as to the basic use of the tuner part which i make of it, and i’m very pleased with the advantages brought by the isolated supply outs to supply my other pedals, especially considering my pedalboard is too small to put a supply brick such as a Fuel Tank or DC Brick... ;)

This is a preamp/DI pedal, not your typical overdrive pedal. Its designed to be a substitute for the front end of a guitar amp or used as a DI box. It can be used live through a guitar amp or through a PA or for direct recording. The key to making it work well involves gain staging. If your guitar amp has an effects loop, that's the best place for it with any reverb or echo after. If your amp doesn't have an effects loop and you need to run it before the amp then running the amp clean and having the pedal last in your effect chain (or before your reverb/echo pedals) is best. If you use switchable channels and channel gain, this pedal probably wont work well. This pedals takes the place of a clean or gain channel (or adds that gain channel. For recording direct it can do OK. It has speaker emulation which sounds pretty good but it can sound allot better if you have some time based effects like echo or reverb after and an additional gain before. Again, this pedal acts like the front end of an amp without a power amp. If you place reverb/echo after you can create the sounds of the amp playing in a room and it wont sound so dry. you can dial up a tight sound you'd expect to get playing directly into an amp then use any of your favorite drive/compression pedals before it. This pedal does a fair job overall. I own many others that do similar jobs including many rack preamps and various gear for recording direct. Recording is about having a variety or sounds/tones. If this was the only box I had - I could do some things well and not so well for others. I can dial up a few good Fender tones which is all I expect to get from it. If I need other tones I use other boxes for that purpose. What this box does it does well but its not a solution to all needs, (no one unit ever is) It works well with the other AC tone I have. I may eventually complete the suite with the California and British but I already have those sounds well covered, including the actual amps. In fact I do own a couple of vintage fender tube amps so my main purpose wasn't to clone those sounds, just make it easier to capture those tones recording or make it easier to get a Fender sound from a Marshall, Sunn, Ampeg etc.

1/ How long have you been using it? A few months. I waited until I had tried it several concerts before posting a review... 2/ Did you try any other models before buying it? No. Portable UHF VHF are very expensive. I only started to follow what came out after hearing about new technologies with the LINE6 PhRelay (expensive as well). Moreover, it isn't easy to find the Joyo JW-01... I made up my mind because its price is reasonable, and I told myself that if it didn't really suit my needs I could always resell it without losing too much money. 3/ What's the sound quality like? Its sound isn't flawless. It doesn't have much noise, but it does have some crackles that, evidently, can be heard proportionally to the amp's gain. I tested it with two very different setups: 3A/ With a VOX tonelab, all digital that is, even if a preamp tube gives the impression of it being analog :), it's unusable even with a clean sound. But to be totally honest, the Tonelab's clean sound is full of effects. I think that having two very average digital stages, one after the other, is unforgiving. The signal-to-noise ratio explodes and the dynamics are very affected! So forget it for this setup. I think you could get the same results with a POD. 3B/ With an ENGL savage head and a rocktron repliflex in loop (in series): (Do note that this head doesn't have a noise gate, but the repliflex features a well-made HUSH.) The problem is gone. The clean sound is well reproduced and the dynamics fairly respected. To be really convinced I did several comparisons JACK/JW-01 (at home so I had to do it at very low volume levels). For live, it's more than enough, unless you expect a pro level, but in that case I don't think your are reading the right review here... True, you must avoid leaving a lead channel with too much gain on when you are not playing, but I think that's acceptable, even without HF. No problems four times live and half a dozen rehearsals under "real" live conditions 4/ Battery life It takes one hour to charge via USB. Important: only one 220V charger is included (it must also be said that the chargers are standard) but you need to charge the transmitter and receiver. Duration, approximately 2h30. Beyond that it still works, but the noise starts to rise... so we need to go back to the jack (or buy two transmitters!) I'd say it's more than enough in 95% of cases. I can't however be more precise regarding battery life in the long term. In theory it's one of those "memoryless" batteries, that said... it's up to you to trust it or not. 5/ How would you rate its value for money? Very good, because there aren't any cheaper ones, and it works fine. 6/ Based on your experience, would you buy this product again? Yes, because it's enough for me. But if I only had a VOX tonlelab, I would've probably rated it 1/10 stating that it's useless. 7/ Other comments: - Non "standard" connections, it connects directly to the guitar's jack. I suspect that it won't fit a guitar with a strat-like connector (where the jack is a bit recessed). Although you can certainly use a 1.5ft extension and attach it to your belt. Personally, I think it makes the product more fragile and when it comes to aesthetics, it isn't very appealing. - There's a mini-jack on the transmitter to connect a mic. I didn't test it. - Browsing on the Internet, you can find it much cheaper that on a brick and mortar store. - (I repeat myself, but it's crucial). You need good gear behind it to be able to use it: a good HUSH (or an ISP decimator, I also tested it and it works), and preferably a NON DIGITAL amplification chain.</div>

This overdrive pedal is quite remarkable for its price. It offers great flexibility with a range of sounds from a slight crunch to a more pronounced overdrive, which is handy for various playing styles. The sound is generally good, with nice definition and a pleasant dynamic range. The tone controls are fairly precise and allow for detailed sound shaping. However, I noticed that the differences between the switching modes are really noticeable, especially when using headphones. On an amp, the variations are more subtle, which can be a bit frustrating if you’re looking for immediate audible changes. The pedal excels at adding bite to an amp that's already naturally overdriven.

I use the JF-02 with Fender tube combos, Silvertone tube head and a Marshall 18 watt combo. Battery is easy to change. I have tried this pedal with my 1962 Strat and Epi-Dot. I don't know how power hungry it is yet. I do intend to try it at 18 volts. I expect that it will increase headroom even though it already does the clean boost thing superbly. At 9 volts and the drive control at minimum, clean tones and the guitar's character really comes through. At about 9 o'clock a little dirt starts showing up. (with Texas Special single coils at about 6.25 K ohms). Between 9 and 12 o'clock you get slight to medium overdrive. The touch sensitivity is on par with more expensive boutique ODs. Still the guitar's true character is heard. Past 12 o'clock is dominated by moderate distortion. Throughout the range of the drive control you can clean up your tone by rolling back the guitar's volume a little bit. The tone and level controls are musical and effective. Bottom line- this thing is outstanding regardless of price! I love to modify amps and effects but will be leaving this one alone.