In the two weeks since I got this pedal, I’ve either briefly owned or borrowed an Ibanez TS10 and one of the older Addrock Ol’ Yellers.

This pedal beat the TS10 hands down, and the only difference I heard between this and the Addrock was that the Addrock is voiced brighter, which doesn’t really agree with my silverface Deluxe Reverb. They’re gone, the Joyo is still here.

But anyway, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the typical gripes about Tube Screamers, the main issues are generally along the lines of…
1. They completely kill your bass response.
2. They have a raging mid-hump.
3. They aren’t true bypass, and the switches aren’t all that sturdy.
4. Their components are fairly low quality (it’s debatable how much this actually impacts anything, but some people complain).

The Joyo, on the other hand…
1. Retains most of your bass. I think I can hear a bit of a roll-off, but you’ll still get a good thump if you hit the low strings.
2. Doesn’t have anywhere near the mid-hump that the typical TS has.
3. Is true bypass.
4. Still doesn’t have ultra-boutique quality stuff on the inside, but it’s got film caps, which (if you care about that stuff) is an improvement over the ceramic/electrolytic caps in the Ibanez.

And I mean this isn’t even taking into consideration that you could buy 4 of these for the cost of a new TS808.

So seriously, just get one. The only thing that an Ibanez has over this is the sexy green box.

This is a lot of overdrive goodness for not a lot of money. Mine has the older paintjob with the monkey on it, which makes it sound infinitely better IMHO lol. This is intended to be used with a tube amp to achieve breakup and it does that job very nicely. Those seeking brutalzz should look elsewhere. You can’t blame a chicken for not quacking properly. It plays nicely with other pedals and can be used to boost another dirtbox for when you’ve reached the part of Freebird that we’ve all been waiting for. The build quality is decent for the price and it claims true bypass thought I haven’t looked under the hood. Regardless of whether it’s ‘TRUE’ or ‘buffered’, it doesn’t color my sound when it’s off. Truth be told, I kind of prefer my Behringer TO800 tonewise- more of a personal preferance in the way I prefer Pepsi to Coke but still drink both – but the TO800 pedal isn’t true bypass and the build is much more flimsy on that one. I think that if you are addicted to OD/FUZZ boxes like I am you should grab one of these for your toolbox. If you aren’t a hoarder of dirtboxes but you are just looking for a very nice tubescreamer on the cheap you can’t go wrong with this one. You can handpaint the cover with an owl or whatnot and tell your cork-sniffer bandmates that you spent an arm and a leg on it. They will be none the wiser. I think enough of this pedal/company that I just ordered the JF-02 OCD clone and will probably grab the Octive Fuzz when my wife isn’t looking – though if one more pedal comes into the house this month I may be strangled in my sleep !

If you need an 808 Clone on the Cheap this is your pedal. Don’t be fooled though, it does not school the classic Tube Screamer but it holds its own. This was a main staple on my pedalboard until I found a great deal on a Bad Monkey and then sadly it came off. I was not looking to replace it at the time, it just happened the Bad Money did what I needed it to do better.

I recommend this pedal to everyone and anyone who needs an 808 but has the budget of your average gigging musician :).

Maxon 808 0.00
Ibanez TS9 0
Joyo Vintage OD