Review quickie: JOYO US Dream

Pic: Amazon

This distortion pedal is an affordable effect unit you can add to your pedal board. JOYO's US Dream is less than $70 (Amazon) & looks like a winner. 

Likes

• simple layout
• sturdy built
• overall distortion range
• price

Dislikes

• distortion at higher settings
• footswitch

If you wish for a simple pedal that works, then this is it. The US Dream is not to be likened to a certain orange BOSS pedal because its distortion gets a little raunchy past 2 o'clock. It kicks harder than the orange counterpart & on that note, the overall distortion sweep is a little more dynamic. After spending more than an hour fiddling the controls, I noticed the VOLUME control cuts / adds to distortion intensity in addition to, well, controlling volume. However, the distortion at higher settings get muffled up pretty quickly so pushing the tone control to sharpen the overall voicing is necessary. 

My beef with the US Dream in terms of tonal performance is that it lacks warmth for lower distortion settings; crunchy blues tones sound like a tamed hard rock performance more than anything else. On that note, it makes single coils sound extra prickly. Do note that the foot switch is a little dodgy out of the box, please stomp with care. 

Overall rating: 70%

JOYO: US Dream

Availability: Amazon ($64.50)

Dreaming

This was my final guitar-related purchase for 2022 but it only arrived yesterday. If you are new to all things guitar-related, please be informed that the Joyo brand name is Chinese & nothing costly. The US Dream is a distortion unit which is not in heavy metal territory when it comes to intensity. I was trawling the 'net for an under-the-radar product to match the established brand names out there & Joyo is a deserving contender. Will be giving this one a performance appraisal so watch this space.

Vocal push

In my line of work, vocal projection is everything. However, as one approaches the sunset years, one's vocal chord endurance deteriorates very quickly. I would be down with a severe sore throat (bleeding on occasions) if subjected to prolonged, unassisted loud talking. These days, I'd be arming myself with a mic to reduce this strain but maintain volume projection. However, some PA systems have no gain feature to push things through when it comes to amplification. The solution - external boosting. The JOYO Roll Boost you see here works well with a mic as it would with an electric guitar. It's a non-discriminant; it doesn't choose to boost guitar signals better than vocal signals. It just boosts anything that's plugged into it. 👍

Joyo's MAs

Things are looking good in the mini amp camp. We have Blackstar to set the standard & a close following by Laney with other manufacturers trickling into the game. We now have Joyo with their trio of acoustic (orange), electric guitar (black) & bass (cream). These are the MA10 models, do check them out (once available here, of course)

The good seed

A relatively new one by Joyo, a digital delay unit called the D-Seed II. So it has a loop function for all you song-writing people to mess with. More importantly, after conversion (sans shipping charges), it's less than SGD100. That's a serious proposition right there, based on price alone. Can't convince you much on performance but this video clip can: 

Good shot

Might be one of the best releases this year listing for less than USD50- unbelievable! For fans of hard distortion.

1 x 8 (3)

Next pair up; Joyo Zombie + VOX BC108 👍

This had been a good combo, reasons being:

• There was a healthy serving of bass despite the BC108's driver being small. The implication- good EQ coming from the Zombie
• Clarity in both clean & OD channels. Managed to add chorus to clean settings & it sounded good. Unexpected.
• Can hear how volume contributed to gain, not that dynamic (because the power section is not tube based) but the difference was there

As the Zombie was bluetooth ready, I managed to stream over some songs but it was clear that guitar amps & cabs are meant more for instrument signals rather than general applications. 

The living dead

This is the Joyo Bantamp series amp head that went home with me, specifically it's the ZOMBIE version. Since I'm quite the high gain devotee when it comes to drive, the Zombie was a simple decision. This is how it measures up against a 1x12 Marshall cab (so sorry for the cropped manifestation) & despite not seeing the entire picture, its small built is emphasized here. I'm not doing an appraisal in the mean time so I won't get into details, just saying that the tone at higher volume settings is immense. While this picture was being taken, I had some Take That songs streamed into the Zombie via bluetooth to test its volume performance. Specifically, there was an intention to crank it up so the song choices were in view of impending domestic resistance. More to come since I've not tested the clean channel performance with pedals. 

Have a good week ahead, it's the final days of November. 😙

Give away (2)

Good Sunday evening my friends. This is my next give away, kindly sponsored by SV Guitars in conjunction with my 10th blog-versary come 2018 (Thanks, Mike & co!). I have a feeling that the noise gate is one pedal that has lower priorities in everybody's to-get list. We have our drive, distortion & delay being major distractions in our effects line up. So here it is, a spanking new Joyo JF-31 Noise Gate pedal:

• E-mail me with the tittle: Bring the noise (gate)! to stand a chance in acquiring the JF-31 depicted above (box included). No contents please, just a blank entry will do
• Do not disclose any personal details until you receive a reply mail stating you as the winner. Winner will self-collect this pedal
• No time limit this time, come try your luck 😁

Little Joy(o)

We're in the midst of unboxing this- will get back to you in due time 👌

Selling: Joyo Mjolnir

To go- my Joyo Mjolnir amp head.

• Joyo Mjolnir 15W high gain amp head (power cable/ foot switch included)
• No trades/ reservations
• Strictly self-collect: CCK or Yew Tee mrt station
• Queries/ confirmation: subversion.sg@gmail.com
• Price: $275 (final)

Joyo: AT Drive

I'm not a pedal geek but I do own some for days when I'm bored. This little ditty here is a new member in my over drive line up; JOYO's AT Drive, from the Iron Man series.

I have a positive account with JOYO's Blue Rain over drive so naturally, I was out hunting for something of similar performance which can double up as a booster if the need arises. The AT isn't too far off its Blue Rain sibling in terms of drive intensity but it has a wee bit more gristle and not inclined to manifest an overtly smooth voicing. Imagine a VOX amp's preamp section that turns a little ferocious once you turn up the volume & drive.

The AT works equally well with humbuckers & single coils. For the latter, things are a little less woolly in the neck position compared to a humbucker but it's something your amp's EQ can address. As a stand alone unit, the AT is your typical over drive pedal albeit crossing over the mild-mannered limits at times, especially with active pickups. If you choose to cascade another drive or distortion unit into this one, you might want to be wary of fuzzy tendencies especially when that preceding pedal is of a stronger gain/ drive manifestation. 

Warning to those of us with limited handling patience; that flip-up cover might get to you if you wish for quick adjustments especially during live performances. Also, many of us aren't quite receptive when dealing with minute tone controls. 

Confession- I've been ignoring JOYO products until these Iron Man pedals came round. Despite being a novelty acquisition in terms of size, the manufacturer has something going tone-wise. At $99 each, they are worth considering if you are in for a compact pedal board that you can lug around on the fly. All these distractions aside, do remember that they actually sound above average & a definite vlaue-for-money in this sense. 

PS: Thanks to all at SV Guitars (Penin Branch) for their hospitality while testing was in progress.

Power tuning

Absolutely looking forward to this- a power supply that doubles up as a tuner (Joyo JF-18). Or is that a tuner doubling as a power supply? Whatever it is, it's a practical inclusion on one's pedal board for sure. I don't own any pedal board but this might trigger something.

Positive rain

Revisited some of my pedals this morning, Joyo's Blue Rain is definitely on my hit list. It's one of the smoothest I've ever come across, putting it in the same turf as my Ogre & Plush pedals. The only pain here is that cover there which needed to be lifted once you need to make tonal adjustments. That aside, this one's an absolute value for money.

Driven thunder

I'm still putting Thor's hammer through its paces. This time, there's a need to hear its adaptability with pedals. It wasn't an ambitious intention, just my SD 805. I'm not interested in hearing the Mjolnir being pushed by the 805, instead, I wanted to hear the amps tone with it through the FX loop. TBC...

Thunder, unboxed

The new amp in the house is a Joyo Mjolnir all tube head. It comes with a power plug & this little foot switch here to toggle between 2 channels. More tone details coming up but in the mean time, I'd sum it up by saying that it's a very American sounding amp despite the very European monicker.

Thunderous!

Got mine!!

Joyo: Ironman Blue Rain

I've tested the Joyo Ironman mini pedals at SV Guitars (Marsiling branch) & according to Mike, I'm the first to acquire one so that achievement would somehow rub some mojo into the Blue Rain I've bought, yes? Silly, unfounded, feel-good mambo jumbo aside, I went with the Blue Rain for personal reasons. I'm beyond looking at intense, metal-type distortion units & deem them to be 'better' then the meek ones. To me, the best aggressive type distortion are still the ones coming from the amp, not pedals. The polite drive units have lots in store in terms of signal saturation & pick sensitivity. They are also more accommodating when it comes to cascading one unit into another & pushing an amp's dirt channel  into oblivion for aggressive stuff. I love them for that.

I'm not gonna appraise the Blue Rain here just yet because it needs some chemistry time with single coil pickups, I'm done pushing it with humbuckers at the store & it was what it wanted to hear. There is a high chance I'd return to SV Guitars to re-listen to the Ironman Amp Simulator range. I thought I heard something pleasant yesterday but I cut the session short to rush home.

Joyo: Ironman

Told you- minis are in. Joyo has the Ironman series & the ones above are the standard models.

The other members in the series are the amp simulators, made simple & functional. Ironman pedals are available at SV Guitars listing for $99 each. Maybe I'm the first geek to have been there & tried them all. Did I purchase any? Hmm... :-)

Thanks Mike @SV Guitars for the invitation.

Selling: Joyo JP-02 (SOLD)

If you've been following my posts, you'd know this is spanking new, it's barely a week old but I've since bought a secret weapon :-) This JP-02 will bow out for a good price to a deserving owner.

• Selling: JOYO power supply JP-02. Box & all accessories included (Dimensions in cm: 15 x 5 x 3.5)
• Condition: 9/10 (less than a week old as at date of posting)
• No reservations/ No trades
• Self-collect: CCK mrt station
• Queries/ Confirmation: subversion.sg@gmail.com
• Price: $80 (final)