Joyo Vintage Overdrive review

  • £29
By Trevor Curwen
( Guitarist )
published
The Joyo Vintage Overdrive may not sound the most original - but at just £29, who cares?

MusicRadar Verdict

There are Tube Screamer clones everywhere you look. This one has the advantage of taking care of the overdrive and amp-driving duties for under 30 quid, even if the design is highly derivative.

Pros

  • +

    Natural-sounding overdrive; rather cool colour scheme.

Cons

  • -

    Nothing.

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Joyo says that the Vintage Overdrive, a slightly larger pedal than some of the units in the range and definitely the cutest looking of the lot with its yellow knobs and green finish, is a representation of the classic Tube Screamer, with a JFC4588 chip.

The Vintage Overdrive delivers plenty of variation on a nice smooth overdrive, not a million miles removed from one of Ibanez's finest, and has a tone knob that covers a very useful range so you can zero in on just how much upper mid-range presence you need.

Trevor Curwen

Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.