Joyo pedals - a gift from above?

Chevolution

The other day I picked up a flanger pedal from the chinese pedal manufacturer "joyo" at first i thought they were to good to be true with metal casing, true bypass and the low price of 30 quid.Then I plugged it into my guitar rig and was absolutely blown away!! Great response, incredible sound and doesn't suck any of your tone! I've never heard of these pedals until last week and it actually hurts to know that I've paid upwards of €100 for pedals in the past. Anybody else got one of these pedals and if so what do you think of them?

Gaspode

Havent tried them, but heard good things. Some mention of them in this thread.

Chevolution

I'd definitely recommend them and would be very hesitant to pay over 70 euro for a pedal now.

groovie

You can argue the pros and cons of 'pedal cloning' till the cows come home.

Their 'US Dream' pedal has to be heard to be believed, it's so similar to the Suhr Riot. I have an Ultimate Drive which is great fun, it's meant to be an OCD knock-off.

+1 for Joyo, and thomann.de sell some of them on as rebranded Harley Benton, even more cheepniz.

martinedwards

I'm terrified at how much I've spent over the years on pedals, both name brands and cheapies.

and usually I'm as happy with the cheapies as with the expensive ones.

I've gone totally over to the darkside of multiFX now though. 80s rack units that cost thousands back in the day are to be had for well under £100 on ebay.....

I got a Roland GP16 with the FC100 pedal boadr for £55 plus post...... 16 boss pedals in a single box..... can't be bad! and a DOD G7 for £20......

Monsieur Folie

I can see myself over indulging on pedals when I'm older and have disposable income (if I have disposable income :P ). In the meantime, I'm happy enough with my Boss ME. I know I'm not going to get the same sound out of it as I would with a row of individual pedals, but it's still fun!

Nice to know that there is affordable and yet decent alternatives to the super expensive pedals on the market though. Definitely work looking into.

MetalDog

Must give these a look, does anywhere in Dublin do them?

zafo

Have my sights on that Flanger myself.

Just be aware that there's a good chance the pedals are made by people in ****ty work conditions to get those prices so low, same as the majority of consumer electronics these days....

Chevolution

MetalDog wrote: »

Must give these a look, does anywhere in Dublin do them?

I haven't seen them in any of the shops in Dublin but I'm sure guitar centre would order them in for you (:

Elysian

I've decided to take a punt on the US Dream pedal, managed to get a new one for €26 from a US Ebay seller. If its anything like the Suhr Riot pedal I'll be a very happy man.

Squidgy Black

Elysian wrote: »

I've decided to take a punt on the US Dream pedal, managed to get a new one for €26 from a US Ebay seller. If its anything like the Suhr Riot pedal I'll be a very happy man.

Any chance you could link me the seller's profile?
I'd been looking at getting the Suhr until I saw gearmanndude's comparison of the two.

-=al=-

Checking out a few vids and they seem decent enough, whether it's morally acceptable to get 'em who knows but i used some behringer tubescreamer rip offs before and they were fine... at least these are metal and have some true bypassin goin on

I'd like to pick up the OCD clone though!


**** me that riot pedal is tight as fck love that... joyo aint as good though!

The Master

The Joyo AC tone is actually pretty decent as an AC30 sim.

By no means a world beater or "close your eyes and there's an AC 30 in the room" type thing but fantastic for the price.

ciaranmac

They have a guitar wireless set as well that uses Bluetooth afaik. I was thinking of getting one a while back but didn't at the time. Does anyone know if it's any good?

zafo

The Master wrote: »

The Joyo AC tone is actually pretty decent as an AC30 sim.

By no means a world beater or "close your eyes and there's an AC 30 in the room" type thing but fantastic for the price.

I'd presume that's a replica of the Tech21 Liverpool Sansamp. I'd buy an Orange/Oxford one as a back up if they (joyo) brought one out.

Demeyes

stetyrrell wrote: »

Any chance you could link me the seller's profile?
I'd been looking at getting the Suhr until I saw gearmanndude's comparison of the two.

Sold! I've been looking for some nice od/dist pedals and that could fit nicely in the pedal setup I'm planning. For <50 quid you can't really go wrong if it's true bypass and sounds good!

Grolschevik

-=al=- wrote: »

**** me that riot pedal is tight as fck love that... joyo aint as good though!

In that vid, I actually preferred the sound of the Joyo, in those few instances where I could discern a difference! Though a millimetre on the tone or gain might make all the difference in terms of comparison. I'll be looking out for these...

seachto7

I was on the look out for a fulltone OCD, but one of these might fill the gap. Where's the best place to buy?

Squidgy Black

Ordered the US Dream earlier, got it for 36 incl. postage on the fleabay http://www.ebay.ie/itm/310397916335?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 just submitted a best offer and he accepted.

Gonna look at getting the Ultimate Drive too eventually.
Definitely thinking about rehousing the US Dream though, it's fairly ugly looking and I might have an enclosure left over from a few proposed projects.

Ravelleman

Yeah, that way it's a Suhr Riot clone and not a Joyo

Squidgy Black

Ravelleman wrote: »

Yeah, that way it's a Suhr Riot clone and not a Joyo

Exactly that and the case doesn't look too sturdy.

-=al=-

Grolschevik wrote: »

In that vid, I actually preferred the sound of the Joyo, in those few instances where I could discern a difference! Though a millimetre on the tone or gain might make all the difference in terms of comparison. I'll be looking out for these...

ah yeah and who the fook is gona notice!

i hate the casing on the us dream though, change the casing and pretend you made it

kinda hard to justify paying an extra 100 blips for the most minute of differences nowadays

but hey i love my fulldrive 2 and keeley ts9 :pac:

The OCD knockoff one is the one id be most interested in i think

darrenw5094

Lol.....i was gassing for the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive last year, before the money tree died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIsGX7obQA0

-=al=-

Really find it hard to pay funds for overdrives when it's such a ridiculous simple piece of electronics yeah ****e different but **** it's not 150 blips of difference

darrenw5094

Just pulled the trigger on a €32 Joyo California Overdrive pedal. I think this and a few other are a clone of the Tech 21 series.

The Sweet Honey clone is a bit more expensive at around €50, but it sounds just like the real deal handwired €300 pedal.

Squidgy Black

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Just pulled the trigger on a €32 Joyo California Overdrive pedal. I think this and a few other are a clone of the Tech 21 series.

The Sweet Honey clone is a bit more expensive at around €50, but it sounds just like the real deal handwired €300 pedal.

According to this, the California's a sim of the Mesa MkII, awesome amps.

darrenw5094

€32 of Rawk.

darrenw5094

Just seen this somewhere else on a forum.
A guess of what the are clones of.

JF-01 Vintage Overdrive = Ibanez TS-808
JF-02 Ultimate Drive = Fulltone OCD (or Rip off Freakish Blues)
JF-03 Crunch Distortion = Mi Audio Crunch box
JF-04 High Gain Distortion = Marshall Shredmaster
JF-05 Classic Chorus = ?
JF-06 Vintage Phase = MXR phase 90
JF-07 Classic Flanger = ?
JF-08 Digital Delay = ?
JF-09 Tremolo = Diaz Tremodillo
JF-10 Dynamic Compressor = MXR Dyna Comp.
JF-11 6 Band EQ - MXR 6 Band EQ
JF-12 Voodoo Octave (Fuzz Ultimate Octave) = Fulltone Ultimate Octave
JF-13 AC Tone = Tech 21 Character, Liverpool
JF-14 American Sound = Tech 21 Character, Blonde
JF-15 California Sound = Tech 21 Character, California
JF-16 British Sound = Tech 21 Character, British
JF-17 Extreme Metal = EHX Metal Muff
JF-31 Noise Gate = ISP Decimator
JF-32 Plexi Drive = Wampler Plexi-drive
JF-33 Analog Delay = MXR Carbon
JF-34 US Dream = Suhr Riot
JF-35 Pocket Metal = ?
JF-36 Sweet Baby = Mad Professor Sweet Honey
JF-37 Analog Chorus = 1980's Boss Chorus
JF-38 Roll Boost = MXR Micro Amp

Ravelleman

Hang on, they're true bypass?!

I might have to take a look at the Crunch Box clone and the trem.

pinksoir

I have had the Vintage Overdrive on my pedalboard for ages. It's a quality pedal. I had an order from Thomann coming so I added the AC Tone and American Sound to it. I'm looking forward to trying them out. They certainly sound pretty sweet on all the vids I watched.

I'm without a decent amp at the minute, so I'm thinking of running these either into my Harley Benton GA15's effects loop (bypassing the preamp) for some tube power amp goodness, or else into a cabinet sim for recording. Though seeings as they have a speaker simulation already, I might see how that sounds using a super short reverb to simulate room ambience...

Either way, I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Anyone compared any of the amp emulator pedals to an amp sim like Amplitube or Guitar Rig? How do they fare?

seachto7

Going to put in an order for some cases on thomann soon and will go for an ultimate drive too.......

Squidgy Black

seachto7 wrote: »

Going to put in an order for some cases on thomann soon and will go for an ultimate drive too.......

Yeah they have the exact same casing and specs as the joyos, just rebranded.

seachto7

I was about to plunge for a full tone OCD but this might get me out of a hole for now...

-=al=-

seachto7 wrote: »

I was about to plunge for a full tone OCD but this might get me out of a hole for now...

Yeah im diggin' that one too, not brad... I'd like to try a few out, anyone know if theres anywhere stockin' em yet?

darrenw5094

-=al=- wrote: »

Yeah im diggin' that one too, not brad... I'd like to try a few out, anyone know if theres anywhere stockin' em yet?

Dude, at €30, just buy and try.

I have the California in the post, so looking forward to that one.

demanufactured

Hmmm
Im terribly broke but am thinking about getting the phaser and flanger...

groovie

I whipped the UD out last night, and for the fun of it I put a compressor before it in the chain and let rip. WOW! It was like harnessing the power of the sun (like a magnifying glass does, but in reverse).
Maybe I should get another UD, before they dry up...

population

The Suhr sounds incredible in fairness. I think if you know your way around a POD HD you could match the JOYO without too many problems. You would never emulate the Suhr though

kevin65

Has anyone opened up one of these pedals? How well are they assembled and whats the component quality like?

Squidgy Black

kevin65 wrote: »

Has anyone opened up one of these pedals? How well are they assembled and whats the component quality like?

I'd be VERY surprised if it wasn't all cheap pcb board with pcb mounted jacks and switches. Cheap components would only be expected as well due to the price.

zafo

stetyrrell wrote: »

I'd be VERY surprised if it wasn't all cheap pcb board with pcb mounted jacks and switches. Cheap components would only be expected as well due to the price.

Same construction method as MXR and Electro Harmonix among countless others. Although the joyo switches aren't mounted to the main PCB which is cool, they also use through hole components which makes my life a lot easier when it comes to repairs. Same 9mm Alpha pots as Zvex use and all. I'm actually surprised it isn't all surface mount.

pinksoir

My Ac Tone and American Sound pedals arrived this morning. Can't wait to give them a try out!

seachto7

Would it be possible to mod these and get better parts put in, or a waste of time?

wild turkey

Just picked up a joyo analog chorus on adverts
should have it in a few days

I've read they had been bulk ordered, repainted & sold on full price by a certain boutique builder!
I really fancy one of the us dreams but recon ill build a Suhr Riot on veroboard. I've a few of the parts already & would probably complete it for around €15 -20

Ps Coda Music have a full range & costs £4 shipping

Squidgy Black

Hoping my US dream comes in the post before next week, ordered it on the 1st, coming from the States though. I'll post clips when I get it.

zafo

seachto7 wrote: »

Would it be possible to mod these and get better parts put in, or a waste of time?

Is there parts that you feel are lacking? I can't see anything worth replacing myself but mods should be fairly straight forward if you're so inclined.

Squidgy Black

zafo wrote: »

seachto7 wrote: »

Would it be possible to mod these and get better parts put in, or a waste of time?

Is there parts that you feel are lacking? I can't see anything worth replacing myself but mods should be fairly straight forward if you're so inclined.

The only mod I personally would think about would be changing the resistor to allow it to be run at 18v as well as 9v. Then you've got a perfect Suhr Riot clone.

seachto7

nope, just if folk thought there were some inferior parts in it, a quick mod could do the job?

kevin65

Sorry lads, but I'm still struggling to see how a €30 chinese made copy of a €200 boutique pedal can compare with the original in terms of sound quality and build quality. I'm not trying to knock them because I have only seen some video demos(some good, some bad), but maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. Is it more a case that for a €30 pedal, they are very good value for money?

seachto7

@Kevin65. Fair point, but the fact a company calls a pedal a "boutique" pedal means they are slapping on a few quid to it.
But longterm, which pedal will hold up more? Will the switch on the cheaper one cave in or not?

Demeyes

kevin65 wrote: »

Sorry lads, but I'm still struggling to see how a €30 chinese made copy of a €200 boutique pedal can compare with the original in terms of sound quality and build quality. I'm not trying to knock them because I have only seen some video demos(some good, some bad), but maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. Is it more a case that for a €30 pedal, they are very good value for money?

Sure the build quality isn't going to be 100% as rugged but I'd imagine the pedals should be able to handle a bit of abuse. The reality is electrical components are pretty damn cheap and most boutique pedals are really expensive for what's gone into them. Often the enclosure can be the most expensive part of a pedal!
I'm hoping to pick up one of these from code next week, my brother is getting a different model. Should be interesting comparing them to the pedals we already have.