JOYOOverdrive Distortion Pedal R Series High Gain OD Clean Boost to Dist for Electric Guitar Effect (Tauren R-01)

I'll be honest, until it was suggested this pedal wasn't even on my radar of overdrives. I was looking for overdrives and this one was suggested. I like what I've heard about the JOYO R-Series, so I decided to take a gamble on it.With a name like "Maximum" you'd think this was thick, chunky, bordering on distortion overdrive. But, you'd be wrong. In actuality, this based on the Fulldrive 2 MOSFET which is based on the original 808 Tube Screamer. It's so close to the Fulldrive that the enclosure is even the same color. But, that's fine because that's a great pedal and this one is too.You have 6 controls; 4 knobs and 2 switches. The knobs are mostly your standard fare settings: Tone, Gain, and Volume, with an inclusion of Boost for the Boost switch. Think of the Boost switch as a second stage overdrive (because it is) and the Boost knob is the Gain for the Boost stage. The Boost knob does nothing if the Boost switch is not engaged.But, the real meat is in the two switches. The left switch toggles between a hard clip, flat response, and what it calls "Smooth." The original Tube Screamer had a bit of a mid range bump, and that's basically what the Smooth setting is. Flat, as you might infer, is a flat EQ response. Hard Clip gives you increased headroom. I initially thought it really boosted the gain, but it doesn't. It's really not a more overdriven sound, but there is a very noticeable output increase.The second switch goes from your rudimentary standard transistors to the MOSFET transistors. The takeaway here is that the MOSFET transistors behave very much like the Hard Clip on the other switch.Now, that the introductions are made, here's my takeaways from it. If you set up the Maximum on the Smooth and Standard settings, you get a very good Tube Screamer tone. The knobs all work along all levels from low to high. Sometimes you'll see pedals where gain at 10 o' clock is not any different than 1 o'clock. But in this pedal, it's pretty smooth across the board on all knobs. It's true for all settings as well. The flat mode will take out that midrange hump. The interesting thing being in standard mode is that if your gain and boost are in the same territory, let's say they're both around 1 o'clock, the boost switch will make little if no impact. No volume difference or increased gain. It's like they're not stacking, but rather a different stage all together. So, I learned that I can turn the Gain knob down to like 9 - 11 o'clock and the Boost to 3 or 5 o'clock and you'll hear a definite switch.Hard Clip on the other hand is a different animal. The volume on stage 1 is greatly amplified over the other two options. Similarly valued Gain and Boost now show increased gain when enabling the Boost stage. It feels like it's stacking now. If you like it loud, this is where you want to be. Maybe.The very odd thing is that the MOSFET mode feels exactly like the Hard Clip. Except, that you can EQ it in the Flat and Smooth settings. It's so close, in fact, that if you are in Hard Clip, you can switch between MOSFET and Standard and hear no difference at all. It's basically the same setting. Meaning, you can't hard clip the MOSFET to get distortion tones. The Boost seems to stack in all MOSFET configurations.That being said there is a lot of tone in this inexpensive box. Kudos to JOYO for bringing tone within reach of everyone.Outside of tonal range, the Maximum is in a metal enclosure and feels pretty sturdy. Not like a tank like a BOSS pedal, but it doesn't feel flimsy like a cheap knockoff pedal or a Danelectro. The R-Series have these cool indicator lights on the front and back that illuminate across the entire pedal instead of just a little LED. Even the Drive and Boost indicator lights are rectangular instead of round. Gives it a bit of a futuristic "TRON" like feel. If that's something you hate, there is a toggle on the bottom of the pedal to turn off the front and back lights (also if you love it, you can also always have them on).I seriously love this pedal. When matched with my Big Muff clone in "Smooth" mode, the mid bump of the Maximum compensates for the mid scoop of the Muff and makes a really killer tone. Alone, it can tackle most overdriven rock, blues, and country tones from the 70's to current day.

This is a solid overdrive. First, the pedal is self is sturdy. Nice metal box with a good finish. All the jacks, switches, pots, all operate smoothly and quietly (no scratchiness or loud pops coming through your speakers). The knobs are standard plastic. No battery here. You will have to run with your 9V power supply of choice. Feet come in the box but, you have to stick them on yourself (placement is marked on the bottom of the pedal). Cool if you're going to put this directly on a board. You won't have to peel the feet off.Main controls are straight forward. You have volume, tone, and gain. Then you have a separate boost knob which is only active when you engage the boost "side" of the pedal. You also have 2 mini switches. One lets you switch between a diode clipping circuit and a MOSFET type. The other switch between 3 mid-frequencies of varying brightness.Now for the sound. I tired this out with a humbucker equipped Les Paul through a Marshall 2x12 combo. The first thing I noticed was there is no hiss or buzz when engaged either standard "on" or with the boost. And that did not change when flipping between circuit types. It's a very quiet pedal. This was surprising, since OD's have a tendency to introduce a little noise.It did alright driving a the clean channel, but, as one would expect, it was great driving an already dirty tone. I tried it out with various levels of dirt on the amp: a bluesy setting, a couple of rock type settings, and a metal setting. I found that it worked well goosing them all. And having the built in boost is nice for lead stuff. You can just kick it on to juice your sound for more sustain and saturation. It's also one of the more transparent OD's I've used.I liked the flat and HD settings of the mid switch most. I thought smooth was a little too dark and muddy, but I'm sure it would differ had I been using single coil pickups or a lighter sounding guitar. On the clean channel, though, I did notice a big volume boost when using the HD mid setting as opposed to the others. I also prefer the MOSFET circuit to the diode. It's a little tighter and had more presence to my ears.One thing I want address is the LEDs. I wish more pedals had LEDs like these. You have your normal on top for each footswitch, but 2 more the run around the front and back of the case. They call it "ambient LED." It's great. I haven't used this live, but I can tell you this would be excellent in that setting. Stages range from dark, to tons of crazy lights and effects, or even lots of direct sunlight. Whatever it may be, it can be a pain trying to get a quick look for a small, dim LED on your board to see if something is on or off. This really will help eliminate that. There is a switch on the bottom to control the LEDs. "Sync" (on when hit the switch), always on, or off. I found this pointless. I don't know why you would want anything other than the "Sync" setting.TL;DR: Overall, this is a good pedal. Other reviews compare it to a Fulltone Fulldrive 2. I've never used one, so I can't attest to that, but it certainly looks similar. This is a good choice for anyone, especially he budget minded. Really quiet and good construction. Lots of choices to dial in tones. Great for driving dirty tones and boosting for lead work. Good transparency. Highly visible LEDs.

Not all pedals sound good with all amplifiers. The Joyo pedals are well worth the money and so far, every one that I have purchased has worked well and they sound good.

It's got a good amount of gain, but it doesn't sound very American, it leans more on the British tone with the boosted mids. It sounds more like a Marshall distortion than a 5150 or Mesa Boogie kind of sound. Not the sound I needed, but a sound that is most welcome.

Ok so unless the review says the name of the pedal, its hard to correlate. Anyway, I tried the Zip Amp, did not like the way the tone controls work the drive sound. The compression setting seemed to make matters worse, yrmv. The Tauren, in spite of being thought of as a dumble, seems to have more compression and a mid gain, its almost tube screamer-ish. So it colors the sound but its a good pedal if thats what you want, especially for around $50. The TaiChi seems a bit more open on the top with low-mid drive growl, due to the tone/voice controls, so it can simulate my $150 BB preamp pretty well. None of these pedals sound as amp-like as my more expensive pedals and they do kill some of the transparency in the process but this will only be noticed when you play solo. In a band setting this will not be noticed and all of them are fine for the money. Notable is that they are not particularly noisy compared to higher end pedals. And you get a cool lighting effect llama to boot.

This is a clone of an outrageously expensive legendary pedal. Does it match up? No idea, cannot afford klon money and have never used one. As an overdrive pedal it sounds great I have had great fun with it. Very transparent and makes a great clean boost. Stacks well with other pedals. I just can't fault it for the money. I also have the Joyo taichi pedal which I prefer but it all comes down to personal taste. You can never have too many drive pedals and this is well worth a go.

Totally briliant. Gives a lovely raspy snarl on lower gain settings but can go full chainsaw if you want it to. Who knew that the sound I was chasing is this pedal?

I read it's a clone of the Friedman but it has nowhere near the same amount of gain. It is good though with enough on tap for most things and a boost in front will get a chug. The bias is a bit like Blackstars ISF so you can eq between mesa and marshall.Overall solid pedal , cool lights and sounds better than any other pedal I love had at this price

Great product

Cómo tal un buen Overdrive ligero, transparente, su iluminación es muy práctica en escenarios obscuros.