NPD: Joyo AC Tone

UlricvonCatalyst · Post by **UlricvonCatalyst** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:53 pm

Arrived very quickly from Hong Kong and seems well worth the Â£28.88 it cost me.

It's supposed to emulate an AC-30 tone a la the Catalinbread CB30 and Tech21 Liverpool (which it's largely ripped off from according to thee interwebz).

What it seems to be, in essence, is a clean boost which becomes an overdrive pedal at higher (Voice) settings with 3-band Eq. I believe there's some amp modelling involved, but I'm not clued-up enough electronically to know which components do what.

Does it sound like an AC30, though? Well I sold mine in 1990 or so - and, yes, I'm still kicking myself about that - so I can't do a direct comparison, but it does deliver some nice guitar tones ranging from sparkly cleans on the edge of breaking up through to a very nasal-sounding overdrive. There's probably a lot more in there - I obviously just quickly set it up for my own tastes and haven't fully explored it just yet.

I can see myself getting plenty of use out of it. I think it could be good with my Ric, after the Janglebox. I liked it a lot with my Jazzmaster through my Epi Valve Jr. for sure. Can't help but wonder how it would sound into an AC30. Would they cancel each other out or would it be like having a threesome with hot twins?

In summary: Â£28.88, people! It's a no-brainer, even if you just want a clean boost, an overdrive or some Eq in your chain.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:46 am

Keep hearing good things about these. Their trem pedal is apperantly a clone of the Diaz tremelo.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:51 am

are these the same as the Harley Benton ones? I think a few on here have used them and Mike might of done a demo of the blonde one, not quite sure

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:04 am

A friend was showing off two Joyo pedals on his board the other day, the trem and vintage overdrive I think. They sounded pretty great (although he was running them through an ENGL, so...). I have my eye on the octave fuzz, which to me sounds much like the Dano French Toast, but with the advantage of an extra control and an LED, not that I've ever had much trouble being able to tell if it was on. I might grab it this weekend actually and use the French Toast on bass.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:29 am

lorez wrote:are these the same as the Harley Benton ones? I think a few on here have used them and Mike might of done a demo of the blonde one, not quite sure

Yup same thing.

I have the "American Sound"/Fender one and it's bloody fantastic. Half the time I'm playing guitar it's using pedals into one of these. I have one for with the band and another for testing MBM builds.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:31 am

Welp, that's about all the endorsement I need.

Anybody remember the whole "Freekish Blues" debacle and how they were just respraying Joyo pedals and selling them to blooz lawyers on TGP as boutique pedals? Amazing.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:46 am

ekwatts wrote:Welp, that's about all the endorsement I need.

Anybody remember the whole "Freekish Blues" debacle and how they were just respraying Joyo pedals and selling them to blooz lawyers on TGP as boutique pedals? Amazing.

Yeah, but really that's only like paying to have your ride pimped, innit?

I believe they were replacing a couple of components. And of course, a lot of time and effort went into obliterating the "Joyo" markings and applying gloop.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:53 am

NickS wrote:
ekwatts wrote:Welp, that's about all the endorsement I need.

Anybody remember the whole "Freekish Blues" debacle and how they were just respraying Joyo pedals and selling them to blooz lawyers on TGP as boutique pedals? Amazing.
Yeah, but really that's only like paying to have your ride pimped, innit?
I believe they were replacing a couple of components. And of course, a lot of time and effort went into obliterating the "Joyo" markings and applying gloop.

By all accounts it was pretty cack-handed. I thought the modification went as far as a new paint job, knobs, scratching the brand markings from the circuit and then smothering it in brown shit and then selling them to SRV fans for Â£160.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 12:23 pm

ekwatts wrote:
NickS wrote:
ekwatts wrote:Welp, that's about all the endorsement I need.

Anybody remember the whole "Freekish Blues" debacle and how they were just respraying Joyo pedals and selling them to blooz lawyers on TGP as boutique pedals? Amazing.
Yeah, but really that's only like paying to have your ride pimped, innit?
I believe they were replacing a couple of components. And of course, a lot of time and effort went into obliterating the "Joyo" markings and applying gloop.
By all accounts it was pretty cack-handed. I thought the modification went as far as a new paint job, knobs, scratching the brand markings from the circuit and then smothering it in brown shit and then selling them to SRV fans for Â£160.

It depends there were different versions, a newer one actually had a freakish audio circuit board made for them (although that too was made by joyo). They altered the clipping stage and took the gain down a little.

But the mods are easy to find on the pedal building forums, and it looks like there are only a couple of component swaps.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:00 pm

I have the Harley Benton American Sound one too. It sounds pretty good, I could get it to sound pretty similar to my Bassman, but now that I have a Crate Power Block I don't have a use for it so it's up on ebay.