Joyo Extreme Metal Bass Drum Pedal (JF-17)

The Joyo Extreme metal is clone of the “EHX Metal Muff” which is a very famous high gain pedal. This clone clocks in at about half the price of the EHX and sounds about the same and similar but not as great build quality. To make this review short im going to section it off in two categories: Build and SoundBuild: 9This pedal for $40 is absolutely amazing as far as the sturdiness. The switches and knobs on this pedal feel better than my MXR Prime Distortion (A pedal that costs $10 more and is worse than this pedal in every way). The tension on the knobs it tight enough so it won't move super easily, however is loose enough to quickly adjust with your feet. Every component on this pedal feels smooth and high quality. The only tiny downside of this pedal is the look, it is a very barebones looking pedal, just flat black with faded white knobs and bland looking labels. Not a bad looking design, just nothing eye catchingFunctionality and Sound: 9This pedal has great functionality. Every EQ knob has major versatility, every EQ section going from a full scoop all the way to a boost. The gain knob is no exception to this giant sweep, with the gain going from slight dirt with a clean pickup all the way to nearly unusable amounts of sustain and saturation. The boost function is a bit of a secret weapon of this pedal, is can be used as a “cutting through the mix” switch, but is actually used best with it on at around 12 o’clock and the treble knob being on zero, this will give you a very satisfying smooth distortion tone.This pedal easily has some of the most mixed reviews when it comes to the sound, some people call it an “awful fizz box” and some people call it a super versatile high gain pedal. The reason for this mix is because this pedal is very much a “Tweaker”. The worst way to coax a sound out of this pedal is to put any knob on 0 or 10, this pedal works best with each section of EQ blended. It is best to simply experiment with this pedal, if done right this pedal can get tones from AC/DC to Cannibal Corpse to Burzum to Slayer to Pantera. Using the boost and EQ appropriately will render this pedal to be one of the most versatile pedals on the market.Overall: 9This pedal is one of the best budget distortion pedals on the market, its versatility and great sound leave me using it more than the actual gain channels on my amps, you will have a hard time finding any pedal at this price that will be as well made, versatile, and just overall as usable as this Joyo Extreme Metal Pedal.

There seems to be a lot of love/hate relationships with high gain pedals like the boss metal zone, metal muff and also the Joyo Extreme Metal. I'm not a fan of the first 2 I mentioned but the Joyo? Let me tell you this: if this is used properly this pedal is truly an amazing piece of high gain glory with decent eq options. This has a lot of gain and is comparable to the modern drive channel of my Mesa Boogie Rectoverb 50, however most people will say that this 'distortion pedal' is 'fizzy', 'makes too much noise' and 'it's unusable, especially the boost feature' well that's the problem. I don't think this was ever intended as a distortion pedal, but instead meant to be used as an amp sim going through the fx loop of your amp and when used that way, it sounds AMAZING. I remember hearing a couple of vids that sounded terrible and then hearing one or 2 youtube vids thar sounded great and I thought to myself 'ok that definitely has potential, ordering one right now' and lo and behold all the crappy sounding videos were people using it in front of the amp, instead of through the fx loop. This pedal has a very aggressive but usable and tweakable sound, I primarily use it on my pedal board as a '4th channel' for my bugera 333 when I need just a tad more distortion than the 3rd lead channel on this amp. I also use it as an alternative to the modern channel (because engaging the modern switch causes a huge volume boost) of the Mesa rectoverb 50 so I can use the clean and vintage channel and use that third higher gain setting with the pedal and maintain equal volume throughout. It is well balanced, it sound great and would definitely cut through the mix. Is this better than a Wampler Triple Wreck? Nope but it costs about 1/8th of the Wampler and sounds pretty great. For quite less than a meal for 2, do yourself a favor if you're a metal head and get yourself this amazing pedal.P.S as for the boost it is marvelous but it CAN b functional. I find it operates best when used around 9 o clock otherwise it gets way too trashy.

I'm not really using it as intended. I have the gain cut all the way off, the bass almost maxed out, and the treble cut all the way out. I have it placed just before a Keely ultra modded DS-1. This way, I'm adding just a little gain and distortion to the signal before it hits the DS-1. A lot of people do this with overdrive, but for me that ends up with a classic heavy rock sound, and I wanted something just a little more modern sounding. I'm super happy with the tone I'm getting this way. (I'm going into a tube amp with 12 inch speaker.)If I had to use the Joyo by itself, I don't think I would like it. That said, I don't really play metal. I don't think there are many pedals that get a great tone all by itself. In combination with other pedals is where I think the joyo is useful. I'm very happy with this pedal in my set up.

After about two weeks of waiting for this pedal to come in, it arrived defective. At a $30 price tag, I figured that the pedal may be rather cheaply made and without precision. However, I also expected it to at least be functioning. Here are the problems that I faced:-The pedal stays on constantly (no way to turn it off)-The red light indicating that the pedal was on was not working.-There was VERY little volume coming from my amplifier when the pedal was plugged in.I tried to run the pedal through a power supply as well as hooking up a 9V battery to it and still the results stayed the same. I also tested it on three of my amplifiers to rule out the possibility of any of my gear being defective.Hopefully not a lot of other people have had the same problem. I'm sure it is a great pedal when functioning, but my experience has been terrible/frustrating. Take a wager in purchasing one of these pedals for ~$30 or spend a little bit more on something that is more reliable.