JOYO Overdrive Pedal R Series OD Pedal Rock Compression Tone with Gain COMP for Electric Guitar Effect (ZIP AMP R-04)

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.

In the mid-2010's, I purchased a bunch of cheap Joyo drive pedals - sort of a gateway drug into later buying more expensive and higher-quality gear. I sold most of them later on, but the Baatsin is a uniquely high-value opportunity to get 8 of those circuits in a single pedal for around $50.And it sounds really good...for the most part. To me, the Joyo "clones" were never really that close to the original source material, other than maybe the Tubescreamer. What I appreciated about the Joyo pedals is that a lot of them did EXTREME things that the name-brand version would do. So it's best to think of the Baatsin as a collection of 8 different soft- and hard-clipping drive circuits that are actually quite different from one another and cover a ton of sonic territory.For reference, I'll give a very brief impression of the different mods (from actual use, not comparison to what they claim to be "cloning"):T. OD - If it's a "Timmy", the EQ is kind of broken. It's a very warm, rounded, soft-clipping low/medium gain overdrive with good output, but it's tough to open up the high end.SWEETY - I believe this was the Joyo Sweet Baby. Much brighter, and not very compressed. More gain/saturation on tap than I remembered.B. BOOST - A lot of people assumed this was an Xotic BB Preamp clone, but it's actually a very thick clean boost. Excellent with single coils.T.808 - A Tubescreamer circuit, similar to the Vintage Overdrive. Smooth upper end with a mid-range focus, used best to boost your signal while adding a little bit of gain/sustain.OVERDRIVE - I believe this was supposed to be a BOSS OD-1 or SD-1. I'm not fan of this one, as it has low output and absolutely no low end, but I could see it being okay with a darker setup.CRUNCHY - Based off a MI Audio Crunch Box, but tons of output. It's like British/Marshall type of distortion with medium gain and it cuts through nicely.RIOTER - Based off the Suhr Riot (I had the U.S. Dream briefly, but hated the enclosure of that run of Joyo pedals). Compared to the CRUNCHY setting, it has more gain and low-end presence.O.C. DRIVE - Joyo basically comes out and says this is the Ultimate Drive, which was their Fulltone OCD clone that sort of put Joyo on the map a decade ago. It does sound bad, but it has so much low end you can't dial out that its tough to use effectively. But it makes cheap/weak amps sound big, which I think was a lot of the original appeal.In terms of the pedal itself, it looks huge in pictures, but it's actually only slightly bigger than a BOSS compact pedal oriented sideways. The knobs actually had firm resistance to them, though some of the text on the selector knob did not line up exactly with the settings. The foot switch is the hard click kind - it's just okay, but probably isn't made to last 20 years. In addition to the indicator light, there is a dim LED orange glow around the frame of the pedal. It's kind of cool, but also largely pointless. There's a switch on the back to link that to the bypass switch or have it on all the time, I think.Even though it's a cheap, there's a ton of value here, and it's worth a look - especially if it goes on sale. I might even throw the Baatsin on my board for a bit, just because it can cover so many different tasks, and I only have room for one drive pedal.