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Joyo JF-14 American Sound Review

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It seems Joyo Pedals are causing a bit of a stir, and I have already reviewed the Joyo Tremolo and Ultimate Drive, so it is the time of the American Sound now. I know there is some controversy about the Joyo range of pedals, and how they are basically rip offs (copies) of existing pedals, in this case the Tech 21 Blonde, and I know we should be looking into the economics and politics of this, but it is difficult to know where to start.

Should you buy something which is basically stolen from someone else IP (intellectual property?), or if I took one a part and brought the same components for pennies from Maplin and rebuilt it, is that the same thing?

The fact that the economics of scale and the Chinese economy mean that they are then able to sell these back to us for incredibly cheap prices, particularly when compared to the Tech 21 original. But for me, curiosity got the better of me, I wanted a pedal which could be used as a DI incase of my amp going down, and what better pedal to have than an amp model of than a clean Fender and then drive it with distortion pedals. So I gave it a whirl.

The Joyo JF14 is supposed to emulate a Fender 57 deluxe amplifier, which (according to Fender) is their most popular Tweed Amp, and it is a lovely amp I must say!

How easy is it to use?

The pedal is dead easy to use it has a 3 band EQ section and controls for level, gain and voice. The voice control is perhaps the only one which isn't immediately clear as to what it does, but it is basically a mid-shaping pre-amp controlThe pedal also has built-in amp simulation, (this is a simple EQ profile to make it sound like the output is running through a 1 x12 cab, in this instance) which make it sound "Fender-ish".

This is great because you can use this as an emergency amp, or strapped to a pedal board you could create your own amp simulator board, without the need of something like a Line-6 amp simulator. To me this is probably the best feature of this pedal. I have been using it to do direct recording too and it sounds fantastic. In conjunction with something like a traditional pedalboard, you could have a amp modelling system.

There is 9V input and it runs from a battery.

Are there any nice touches?

Pretty bog standard really! Nicest touch...it costs less than £30!!! (Ethics aside)

So most importantly what does it SOUND like?

For a pedal which costs less than £30, it is simply amazing! It would be impossible to have any real complaints at all. It works fantastically as a DI amp modelling box in the studio, and I would happily use it instead of micing up an amp. It also works fantastically well as a DI box in a live situation, I am using it now as my valve amp back up, and it is just stuck on my pedal board.

I would say I am not completely convinced by the drive setting, but actually in conjunction with the voice setting you can get some nice break up tones, but I found using it with a separate drive pedal suits me more (personally).

I will say that the pedal is very dynamic and does respond well to your playing, it does cleans up well using the guitar's volume.It is well worth every penny. I would suggest putting it on your shortlists.All guitars were tracked direct with this pedal (using a Fender Telecaster with Dimazio Tone Zone in the neck), straight into DP8 with a touch of ambience from the Live room plug-in.The pedal is also true bypass.

Will it fall apart?

The case is made of pretty robust Aluminium, built like most pedals, but whilst I am sure it could take a complete hammering, I probably would treat it with some care, I also worry about the battery cover which seems a bit flimsy. I use a PSU, so this isn't really an issue for me.

Pros

1)The cost!

2)The cost!

3)It sounds GREAT as a clean amp and as a direct box.

Cons

1)Not 100% convinced about the construction if used under pressure

2)Personally the dirty gain sounds aren't awesome, seems to work better in conjunction with an OD pedal.

3)The ethics of 'stealing' IP and cheap labour economics?

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Neil