I’ve been buying expensive guitar effects pedals for years. Fulltone, Visual Sound, TC Electronics, Voodoo, Boss, DOD – and I’ve always steered away from cheap pedals (like Axion, Yamaha, Danelectro, etc.).
So I’m surfing ebay earlier this year for new pedals, and I come across this pedal company called “Joyo” out of China I’ve never heard of and it caught my eye because it had a JRC4588 chip like the old TS808 Ibanez Tube Screamers (AND I was looking to replace my old Yngwie Overdrive by DOD).
I did some googling, and a half dozen videos and reviews later I had ordered the “Joyo Vintage Overdrive” for a paltry $38 + shipping (new). I figured if it sucks, for that money – I can’t go wrong. In the reviews I liked the tone, it was solid construction, with true bypass – and every review was stellar.
This pedal is every bit as good as any vintage Tubescreamer I’ve ever tried. The construction is every bit as good (if not BETTER) than the old MXR pedals from the 80’s – the thing is just quality. Metal enclosure, quality input jacks, and even true bypass.
So I plug this thing in on my pedalboard, and I use mainly my Visual Sound Route 66 for distortion, and then the Joyo Vintage Overdrive over it for leads. It just sings, and (in my opinion) it’s so much better than the Yngwie preamp overdrive was I’d had for years.
I also use it a LOT on it’s own. Say you want the stones dirty clean sound, run this pedal by itself with the volume rolled back a bit and your Brown Sugar and Honky Tonk Woman all day long!
You can View the Joyo Company website here
Here’s a Video review of the Joyo Vintage Overdrive:
Here’s a video of a Gibson and a Vox:
Best place to find the Joyo Vintage Overdrive is on eBay or Amazon. I prefer Amazon because of the free shipping, and also because it’s so easy to return the pedal (if delivered on Prime) if you have any issues. The cost had gone up on some Joyo’s initially because there was more demand than product. But now with so many clones brands out there, the prices have stabilized a bit more now.
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