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Published on 09/09/11 at 10:57The JOYO Ultimate Drive is a pedal made in China, with all the standard amenities. It can be run with a 9v battery or an external AC adaptor. The housing and metal stompswitch seems rugged, although the devil/demon/Darth Maul graphic might scare off potential customers (it's pretty cheesy too). I thought that the LED placement, off to the side of the stompswitch instead of directly noon of it was a neat creative touch.
As far as this review goes on the JOYO Ultimate Drive pedal is concerned, my rating of a 10 is relative to the price - these can be found for $35 brand new from various websites. The pedal is certainly no Klon or Ethos, but it does the outboard gain trick very nicely for a mere pittance in comparison. It can goose up an amp's signal to provide gritty breakup or smooth saturation. If this pedal was in the $200 range like most boutiques start, I'd still give it a 7 or 8 rating overall in its stock configuration.
Circuit-wise, the Ultimate Drive is of a similar topology to a Fulltone OCD circuit. The controls are volume, gain, tone, and a low-boost switch. It saturates very nicely, giving a round, even bloom to the notes. With a Fender Stratocaster plugged into it, I could get somewhat convincing Tubescreamer-type sounds, and even into D-style territory. With a Les Paul, the sustain was seemingly infinite, allowing notes to bloom into perfectly controllable feedback - very cool! It can get a bit hairy, with a hint of harshness, but that is easily dialed out with the tone control.
The tone is not as detailed as the more expensive pedals I mentioned, but for the budget-minded and wallet-conscious, it is fantastic. And for the technically inclined, very simple and cheap modifications can be made for less than $5 to make this unit compete with the uber-expensive boutique pedals out there, giving the pedal even more value. 10 out of 10.
As far as this review goes on the JOYO Ultimate Drive pedal is concerned, my rating of a 10 is relative to the price - these can be found for $35 brand new from various websites. The pedal is certainly no Klon or Ethos, but it does the outboard gain trick very nicely for a mere pittance in comparison. It can goose up an amp's signal to provide gritty breakup or smooth saturation. If this pedal was in the $200 range like most boutiques start, I'd still give it a 7 or 8 rating overall in its stock configuration.
Circuit-wise, the Ultimate Drive is of a similar topology to a Fulltone OCD circuit. The controls are volume, gain, tone, and a low-boost switch. It saturates very nicely, giving a round, even bloom to the notes. With a Fender Stratocaster plugged into it, I could get somewhat convincing Tubescreamer-type sounds, and even into D-style territory. With a Les Paul, the sustain was seemingly infinite, allowing notes to bloom into perfectly controllable feedback - very cool! It can get a bit hairy, with a hint of harshness, but that is easily dialed out with the tone control.
The tone is not as detailed as the more expensive pedals I mentioned, but for the budget-minded and wallet-conscious, it is fantastic. And for the technically inclined, very simple and cheap modifications can be made for less than $5 to make this unit compete with the uber-expensive boutique pedals out there, giving the pedal even more value. 10 out of 10.