Ultimate Drive

[DetroitBlues]

So through our latest member, Pedaltrader, I purchased a Joyo Ultimate drive which is supposed to be a clone of the Fulltone OCD and the basis of the Freekish Blues Alpha Drive.

 

To start, pedal construction: The pedal housing is solid metal, control pots are smooth, switch is solid, and I don't think I could break this pedal if I wanted to.

 

First up was my new Classic Player Strat. I had the toggle on the Ultimate Drive switch set to low, which keeps the pedal in an overdrive like mode. Tone at about 1 o'clock, gain set to about 2 o'clock, and the level to about 1 o'clock. Plugged into the Peavey Deltablues on the clean channel. I had some real nice SRV Texas Flood and Jimi Hendrix Red House tone going for me. The pedal gives me a lot of bite and bluesy/rock tone. Much better than a tube screamer. I turned the gain up, but it gets a little too much on the strat.

 

Second up, I pulled out the H140, kept the gain and level about the same, changed the tone back a little. Kept the toggle switch in the OD mode and I had that amp sounding a lot like Gary Moore playing Walking By Myself. The pedal sounded great no matter what I did. Turn the gain up and you're into a much harder rock tone without getting muddy.

 

I'd recommend this pedal to everyone if they are so inclined.

 

Two highlights, I didn't mention... The pedal is true hardwire bypass. Second highlight... it was $38 brand new...

 

Can't wait to try out a couple more of them.

[tulk1]

Cool beans! Been thinking of trying the compressor, myself. Don't remember if they had a tremolo or not.

[RhoadsScholar]

was thinking about there delay. Any experience with that pedal

[DetroitBlues]

I do not have experience with those pedals... yet... They have a digital and analog delay... My experiences with delay have me wanting a digital, which is only $40. Their tremolo is the same price.... Go to Bill's website, pedaltrader.com. You'll see all he has to offer.

[Bonefish]

If you open a Joyo up, the soldering is a mess and the bypass is not true (contrary to their claims). However, they do tend to sound good and so who cares if the soldering is sloppy and the bypass is quite as advertised.

[koula901]

I LOVE my Freekish Blues Alpha Drive - great bluesy tone out of that thing.

[DetroitBlues]

I played mine tonight at practice. Really love the tones I got out of it. Redhouse never sounded better. True bypass or not, I took mine apart to peak inside, I found nothing sloppy and its a DPDT switch, so I believe its true bypass. Maybe not all of them are?

[Bonefish]

I played mine tonight at practice. Really love the tones I got out of it. Redhouse never sounded better. True bypass or not, I took mine apart to peak inside, I found nothing sloppy and its a DPDT switch, so I believe its true bypass. Maybe not all of them are?

 

Very well may be true that some are true-bypass and some aren't. The pcb used on the joyo pedal I had was cheap, had lots of over solder and poor connection between switches and board. I liked tone though.

 

Joyo has an awesome price point for a reason. The quality just isn't the same as you'd get from some of the more established brands (looked at some modding forums and this was the general impression from most). However, they do make some solid sounding peels and the outside is built like a tank, so the quality of work on the inside may not matter.

[koula901]

Yeah, Bonefish I think you're right. The quality with the FB pedals (of course, FB pedals are modded Joyo) is dicey. I remember having to send the Alpha Drive back because sometimes after stepping on the switch, it wouldn't engage right away, the guy fixed it and sent it back and now it's fine.

[tulk1]

What kinda sorta bothers me about the Joyos is the obvious Chinese to English translation on all the websites. P-Traders, as well.

 

Crunch Distortion

• Producing the tone of a British classic rock distortion it has a very good sense of touch and delay. With a built-in impromptu adjusting design which makes it achive the tone prescisely.

 

 

High Gain Distortion

• The High Gain Distortion is a adjusting distortion pedal. From the AC/DC crunch to metallic tone you could easily get the tone whatever effects you want through the Tone and EQ knobs

 

This is my favorite:

 

Classic Chorus

• The best choice for embellishment not suitable for exaggerative timbre.

 

Ok, so maybe I'm being a bit overly sensitive to the wording, as the "meaning" for most of these comes thru. Not saying it has anything to do with the quality of the pedals or their sound. It just bugs me to see the descriptions like that. What would it take for the web developer to have corrected the wording when the product was put up? Not much.

[DetroitBlues]

Sounds like there is a little loss in translation from Chinese to English... I've seen that many times in Korea and Japan.

[DetroitBlues]

Oh, and to follow up with the pedal with the band.

 

I used it last night and it gave me all the dirt I was looking for. I ended up using my Bad Monkey after the Joyo with the level turned up and gain turned down. Also turned the highs up a little on it. I've found that pedal is great for use as a boost. Last night was the best I ever like my tone. I still think I should sell off the pickups in my strat in favor of hot noiseless...

[koula901]

My FB Alpha Drive does very nicely as a boost, just turn the gain all the way down, and it gives a nice, sort of fatter sound, clear. It's certainly not a transparent boost, has it's own voice.

[DetroitBlues]

I didn't use the UD for a boost. I wanted the dirt since I was using the clean channel on the DeltaBlues. I wanted a clean boost of the Bad Monkey to punch through the mix for soloing. Worked great as long as I remember to turn it off when I was done.

[pedaltrader]

So glad you are digging the pedal ... I have sold a ton of JOYO's and I have had 1 return... thats 1 return out of hundreds and hundreds of pedals. Incredible.

 

Working on the the descriptions today(Tulk1)... yes it has been on the radar for a while, just too busy putting items in boxes, shipping product and re-ordering product... yes it is that busy.

 

I can speak to every Joyo ... I have played them all love about 90% of them. Favorites right now (and it changes from week to week) but right now.

1- Tremolo

2- US Dream

3- Phaser

4- Hot plexi

5- Vintage overdrive

 

Toltally in love with the MojohandFX as well, seriously some of the nicest stuff I have heard in a while (rook with the collosus) is mean just plain mean... and the Nebula IV, holy crap.

[DetroitBlues]

I've been looking for Joyo pedals for awhile... You are the only US distributor I could find. That's got to help keep you busy!

[smokedtires]

Congrats on your new pedal Detroit. Always great to get new equipment that does what we hope!

[DetroitBlues]

If this pedal holds up, I think I'll buy another one or two.