Are Joyo guitar pedals good? With a market that’s heavily-saturated with countless stompbox brands, it’s getting more and more difficult to discern which gadgets are reliable. Yet there are lesser-known names like Joyo, that are gaining popularity among guitar players due to its affordable price and availability.
While mass-producing companies are expected to dominate the market by flooding them with cheap equipment, Joyo is starting to garner a legitimate following among guitarists for the value that their pedals can offer.
For some musicians, Joyo guitar pedals may not be as good as their favorite expensive boutique stompboxes. However, Joyo pedals aren’t just typical clones, not only are they aesthetically pleasing, they also have their own unique tonal characteristics to go along with a tougher build.
Joyo: a brief background
Joyo is based in Shenzhen, China and is considered one of the most respected companies in the country. Specializing in guitar amplifiers and effects pedals, Joyo made a name across the United States and Europe for their products’ original sound, as opposed to other Chinese competitors that focused on producing knock-offs.
Instead of relying plainly on building replicas, Joyo took things to the next level by concentrating their efforts on their own research and development. This move established them as a formidable audio company that is capable of competing in the global market.
Today, Joyo boasts an international artist pool that includes Spanish guitar veteran Jose De Castro, Brazilian-born American guitarist Mike Kerr and Chinese wunderkind Yoyo Liu pin Xi, to name a few. Check out the talented musicians listed on their official website and discover their music to see and hear how good Joyo guitar pedals are.
Best-selling Joyo guitar pedals
XVI
For the price of $90, the XVI may not seem like a budget gear. But because it is a powerful polyphonic octave pedal, the price tag is more than justifiable. The capability of the XVI is quite impressive as it can do a lot of blending and modulation while tracking multiple notes.
Aquarius
The Aquarius is a delay/looper that is jam-packed with features. Along with the tap tempo and a spectacular “galaxy” mode (a combination of delay and tremolo LFO with hints of phaser and flanger), the Aquarius can also conjure some awesome tape echo, tube echo and reverse effects.
American
If you are looking for that classic Fender sound that can usually be heard on ‘50s country and rockabilly, as well as ’60s surf rock, the Joyo American Sound will help you achieve that cranked up tweed amp tone.
Aside from letting you imitate the sound of Dick Dale or Eric Clapton through its compact cabinet-emulation capabilities, the American Sound is also a reliable DI box that you can use in place of an amplifier during emergency situations.
Atmosphere
Another steal from the Joyo guitar pedal catalog, the Atmosphere is a superb reverb stompbox that offers subtle effects such as church, plate and spring, as well as wilder options like echo verb, forest pulse and shimmer. It also has a “TRAIL” function which allows you to fade and transition smoothly to another effect without cutting your sound off abruptly.
Aside from being chock-full of features, the Atmosphere is also an awesome-looking pedal especially with its futuristic ambient LED lights.
Nascar Delay
The Nascar Analog Delay BBD pedal is inspired by the “Bucket-Brigade Device” (BBD) circuit that was originally developed by F Sangster and K Teer of the Philips Research Labs in 1969. The BBD circuit was responsible for transferring vintage tape echo technology to smaller chips, allowing them to be incorporated into guitar pedals.
Tauren
The name “Tauren” is directly lifted from the game World of Warcraft’s horned, muscular nomadic warriors of central Kalimdor. Basically, the Tauren is heavily-inspired by the Klon Centaur, an overdrive pedal that recreates the lush distortion of an amplifier, but at louder levels.
Ultimate Drive
At first glance, one would think that the Joyo Ultimate Drive is designed for your death metal incursions. However, the Ultimate Drive actually can bring out some warm, vintage tones that fans of ‘70s overdriven tube amps will surely love.
Uzi
For a box as tiny as most Joyo pedals, the Uzi is a high-gain, British-inspired distortion pedal that draws a lot of its characteristics from overdriven Marshall amps. With the turn of a few knobs on a Joyo Uzi, you can easily dial in the sound of Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Slash or even Nigel Tufnel of the fictional band Spinal Tap.
Once you hear the crunchy sound of the Uzi, you will be instantly convinced that Joyo guitar pedals are really that good and not just all hype.
Vision
Any guitar player will be enthralled by the Joyo Vision Dual-Modulation guitar pedal’s capability to provide 18 modulation effects such as chorus, phase, flanger, ring mod and tremolo. Its dual footswitch allows you to combine two effects at the same time or use them in isolation.
Additionally, both footswitches on the Joyo Vision may also be utilized as a tap tempo switch by holding one of them down. This will let you set the desired tempo for the respective modes of a selected effect.
Are Joyo guitar pedals good?
Joyo guitar pedals are very good in terms of sound, durability and originality. Although they are considered budget gears, Joyo pedals are gradually capturing a bigger fanbase as their quality becomes more and more competitive. Today, Joyo guitar pedals are still among the most affordable in the market, even though they have surpassed the quality of other cheap brands such as Behringer.
The future looks bright for Joyo Audio and their promising guitar pedals, which can be found in a lot of stores across the United States and Europe. What makes Joyo guitar pedals good is that they sound, look and feel better compared to other clones and they will only keep on improving as time goes by.
