User review-JOYO JF-36 Sweet Baby Overdrive

As a working musician on a limited budget, I am always seeking bargains. When it comes to achieving the sounds I am looking for, I like to keep things simple and effective. There is nothing wrong with using a multi-effects unit or a modeling amp with tons of built in effects if the end result gets you the sounds you need and you can operate it with a minimum of hassle. I'm not that guy.

Dialing in multi-effects units and amp simulation algorithms on digital amps to save each setting for recall and balancing the volume between each is a slow and tedious process. I also find that all the time invested seldom gets me exactly the sound I am looking for. On the flip side, having an amp-whether one or more channel dialed in with a usable base tone and putting a few pedals in front of it works great for me. There's just a few knobs to tweak and I can quickly dial my tone in effortlessly.

I'm a "vintage" sound kind of guy. I'm not a purist, or a gear snob because my budget doesn't allow me the luxury. For my Strats and Teles I like the clean sound of an American (Class A/B) tube amp-specifically the mid sixties era "Blackface" amps and their various clones. For blues and blues-rock there is nothing better. The recipe is simple-dial in the clean amp with reverb to taste and use a handful of pedals to get the various sounds you are looking for. For dirty sounds I prefer the British (Class A) amps.

I've been hearing for some time about the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive. This is a boutique pedal with a $300 price tag that can also be picked up used on sites such as www.reverb.com.This is a low to medium gain overdrive that was billed as offering killer sounds for blues, jazz and country. It seemed as though it would be very useful on my pedalboard. Alas, paying $300 for a hand wired boutique pedal was not in my future. There is also a PCB version-but $150 wasn't happening any time soon either.

I went looking for a clone at www.cheaperpedals.com which is my go to site for bargain effects pedals. Sure enough, JOYO offers a SHO clone called the Sweet Baby Overdrive for a mere $39.00! Before I could order it, fate intervened in the form of a "for sale" listing on the Chattanooga, Cleveland and North Georgia Gear Trader Facebook page. A local musician was offering a slightly used Sweet Baby OD for sale for $10! Needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity!

Upon arriving home, I removed the four screws from the bottom, popped in a fresh 9 volt battery, buttoned it all back up and began to put the pedal through its paces with my vintage style Strat. The controls are very simple. "Volume" and "Drive" are self explanatory. The third knob labeled "Focus" is what sets this pedal apart-and where the real magic happens.

When the "Focus" knob is turned completely counterclockwise, the overdrive is extremely sensitive to your touch. Picking harder results in more overdriven tone. The overall tone is also "softer" with that tube "sag." This couldn't be more perfect for blues and jazz. You can literally "set and forget" this pedal and use your guitar volume knob and pick attack for various levels of overdriven tone the way it used to be done!

As you turn the "Focus" knob clockwise the sound becomes "tighter" and the overdrive effect occurs more readily with less pick attack needed. The tone is noticably "sharper" and and I could see this being very usable for mildly overdriven twangy country sounds. The "Focus" knob also impacts the EQ slightly with a noticeable increase in treble response as the knob is rotated clockwise.

The real beauty of this pedal for me is its transparency. It literally sounds good in front of every kind of amp. There is a bit of a midrange "bump" when the pedal is engaged, but not enough to require readjusting the amp settings. I tweaked the knobs every conceivable way-but I literally could not adjust this pedal to sound bad no matter how hard I tried! I ended up finding lots of usable tones for all sorts of styles.

The bottom line with this one is that you absolutely can't go wrong at $39 for such a versatile pedal! Buy it and love it. If you're worried about the build quality and durability....buy two!

Product Review-SX VTG Series Ursa 1 P-Bass Copy

As a working musician with a perpetually limited budget, I am always on the hunt for bargains. I had been hearing for some time about Rondo Music (www.rondomusic.com) SX and Douglas brand basses on the Talk Bass internet forum (www.talkbass.com)-especially the P-Bass, Tele-Bass, and J-Bass copies. I am once again working as a bassist, so I was looking for an inexpensive axe that would be good enough out of the box to start working, but also a good platform for modifications.

As those of you following the blog know, I get a great deal of satisfaction from modifying budget gear to be usable for a working musician. If you do not believe that budget gear can ever be modified to work just as well as gear that is professional grade right off the shelf, then this blog is not for you. My experiences are unlikely to change your mind.

I surfed on over to http://www.rondomusic.com/bassguitars4.html to look at four string basses, and settled on the Ursa 1-which is a P-Bass copy with a Maple neck and fingerboard. http://www.rondomusic.com/ursabkmn.html. The price of $115.00 for a P-Bass clone with an alder body including a gig bag and instructional DVD made me think there was absolutely no way I could lose. Ground shipping to Chattanooga added another $17.28 which brought the total to $132.28. Rondo takes PayPal, which makes ordering a snap.

SX VTG Series Ursa 1 Bass

Upon arrival of the bass, I was struck by the clean, classic P-Bass look. The paint on the body was surprisingly good, with no runs or obvious flaws. The neck was straight with a vintage tone finish and the action not bad for a "new out of box" imported bass. The frets were par for the course -they'll need a little touching up with a file. With any new instrument, you should plan on having a professional set up done with your preferred strings. 

Upon initial inspection, I have to say that the headstock look on these basses is industrial strength ugly IMHO. Perhaps it can be cut to a more pleasing shape. That's definitely a modification I'm going to consider. 

The hideous SX headstoc

The tuners are your typical open gear imported bass tuners. They do the job adequately. I will probably replace these with some vintage style tuners. The nut was the standard plastic variety. It will definitely need to be replaced for maximum tuning stability. The bridge appears to be adequate. As expected, I had to do some subtle intonation adjustments. 

Upon plugging this bass in, I was absolutely stunned. This thing sounds exactly like a P-Bass is supposed to sound. It has a sweet tone and the balance between the strings is surprisingly good. The noise level is exactly what you would expect from an unshielded single coil bass guitar.  I will very likely put a set of flat wound strings on to complete the vintage tone and flavor of this instrument. 

At a price that is nearly 40% below the price of the cheapest Squier P-Bass, I am impressed. The body wood is the best thing about this bass. It is genuine alder. The electronics are decent for this type of bass, but I will probably upgrade them. I think modifications to the tuners, nut, electronics and bridge would result in a supremely excellent sounding instrument for a shockingly small amount of cash. Having the frets properly dressed and a professional setup is also a good idea for the best action and playability. Upon completion of these mods, you will have an instrument that plays and sounds on par with instruments costing twice what you will have invested. 

If you are considering an inexpensive bass for a beginner or an axe that is a good starting point to modify-you might want to give an SX bass a shot. I can't believe the amount of tonal bang for the buck this bass offers. 

1997 Squier Project-New Gold Tremolo, Jack, "Football" and Strap Buttons

As those of you following this blog know, A year ago I installed a pickguard loaded with the Vintage Noiseless pickups and electronics from a Fender Player's Strat into a 1997 Squier Standard Strat made by Saehan in Korea. This pickguard had gold screws holding the pickups because the original guitar had gold hardware. Initially, I purchased some gold pickguard screws so they would match, but I left the stock tremolo, football and strap buttons in place. It was always my intention to upgrade the tremolo and tuners in gold and also order the jackplate "football," jack and strap buttons to match. I finally placed that order with Guitar Fetish (http://www.guitarfetish.com) on February 13th.

Here are the original blog post links for reference:
 http://squierman.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-first-project-1997-squier.html
http://squierman.blogspot.com/2013/04/97-squier-with-05-player-strat.html
http://squierman.blogspot.com/2014/02/getting-ready-to-finish-my-custom.html

Yesterday evening I received my package of items I ordered from Guitar Fetish for my Squier Strat project in the mail. It contained my new gold Strat jackplate "football," my gold tremolo with a brass block and Import OEM spec 10.5mm screw spacing and also a pair of gold strap buttons with screws. Here's how the cost of the items from guitar fetish broke down:

Gold Jackplate w/ Jack $  7.95

Gold MIM Tremolo      $44.95

Gold Strap Buttons       $  5.95

Shipping                       $10.85

Total                            $69.70

This morning I installed these items on the guitar and the results are simply stunning. See for yourself:

                                   Before                                                                             After

               Stock Tremolo, "Football" and strap buttons.

Upgraded Gold Tremolo,"Football" & Strap Buttons

                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Here are two close ups for a little more detail:

Upgraded Tremolo and "Football."

New Gold Strap Button

After installing everything, I strung the guitar and did a quick and dirty setup so I could ascertain how my modifications felt and sounded. Everything of course looks great. I did forget to order some more gold screws for my "football" and back plate-so those are still temporarily sporting the stock screws. The biggest difference tone-wise was that large brass block on the upgraded tremolo noticeably improved the sustain of this guitar.

I had to leave for a job site at noon, but before I left I noticed my gold Kluson Style Tuners had arrived from Dragonfire/TNT Guitars. (www.dragonfireguitars.com or www.guitarpartsonline.com) I will get those installed in the next couple of days and post some new pictures. The "trapezoid" tuners that come on OEM import guitars are complete junk and are easily one of the most useful modifications you can make to your axe.

The Kluson style tuners from Dragonfire/TNT were $19.95 plus a $6 upcharge for gold. The shipping was $10.95 which brought my total invoice to $36.90.

Here's how my total costs break down so far:

Loaded Pickguard from Fender Player's Strat: $  50.00 (Craigslist)
1993 Squier Standard Strat                             $100.00 (Craigslist)
Gold Pickguard Screws                                   $    3.50 (eBay-imported from China)
Football, Tremolo & Strap Buttons                  $ 69.70  (www.guitarfetish.com)
Kluson Vintage Style Tuners                            $ 36.90  (www.dragonfireguitars.com)
Total investment in this guitar:                    $257.10

The "cork sniffers" out there will never acknowledge what I know to be true-I've made an inexpensive custom guitar that compares favorably in playability and tone to a guitar with a Fender logo costing $1000. Feel free to turn up your nose at the Squier nameplate. I judge every guitar on its own merit. This guitar was a particularly nice '93 Squier Standard-with a decent body and a very nice maple neck and fingerboard. With my modifications, I now have a guitar that I can use night after night for gigs without worrying about what might happen to it. Sure, I haven't significantly increased the resale value. That wasn't my goal-I won't be selling this guitar. My goal was a sharp looking and functional axe to play night after night that wouldn't break the bank. I believe I have achieved that.

Product Review-JOYO JF-01 Vintage Overdrive

Since I am constantly on the lookout for bargain gear, I happen across all sorts of things that you won't find at your local chain music store. I've been hearing a lot about JOYO brand pedals lately. The word on the street is that they were making shockingly good clones of classic pedals for around $40! With a rep like that I had to give one a try for myself. I did some research and discovered the most popular JOYO  pedal is a Maxon/Ibanez Tube Screamer clone. This suits me just fine-as a gigging blues and classic rock player I love the sound of a Fender Stratocaster through a Tube Screamer pushing a clean tube amp.  I ordered the JF-01 Vintage Overdrive and risked a whopping $35. 

The pedal itself is essentially a TS-808/OD-808 clone. The circuit is accurate down to the period correct JRC4588 chip used in the original.  The JF-01 has the standard Tube Screamer format knobs for Tone, Volume and Drive. Input and output jacks, 9V power supply jack and the classic "latch" style pedal switch complete the feature set. The pedal itself is wrapped in the expected seasick green paint with contrasting yellow knobs so there is no mistaking that this is a Tube Screamer clone. 

The housing of the unit feels pretty substantial. The switch and the jacks felt substantial as well. The plastic knobs felt a bit cheap to me-but they are attached firmly-and those can always be easily replaced if need be. I've put this thing to the test at a gig and I've used it extensively in rehearsals. The foot switch engages with no issues-and this thing just works.  

All right folks...this is where the boutique pedal "cork sniffer" types need to turn away. If you're the type that won't look at a pedal because it isn't a certain brand you are officially in the wrong place. The JF-01 sounds great. I don't mean "great for $40..." I mean actually great. You can A/B this thing against a genuine TS-808 and it produces nearly identical tone with only slight variations in the knob settings. You read that right. It took almost no work to get this thing making a nearly identical sound to the venerable TS-808. 

I rolled off the tone knob and it got creamier. I cranked the tone knob and got that "bite" I was expecting. I turned the drive down and tried it as a clean boost for extra volume. I dialed in more grit for an SRV approved tone. In all cases it worked exactly as I expected. The sound is smooth at all levels. I did find this unit to have slightly less bass response at the same tone settings as a TS-808, but this can be dialed in closer with a subtle knob tweak. I actually prefer the slightly less bassy tone in this pedal as it makes my guitar cut in the mix better. 

What can I say folks. I'm wholeheartedly endorsing a $40 Chinese Tube Screamer clone. Get one while they're still cheap. You can check out the whole JOYO line at www.cheaperpedals.com  I'm planning on trying some other JOYO pedals as well-so stay tuned! 

Product Review-Danelectro Fab Distortion (Model D-1)

Checking the display cases at my favorite pawn shop I happened across a Danelectro D-1 "FAB" Distortion Pedal. It was in good working order and priced at ten bucks-so I figured it was a near zero risk purchase. 

Turns out these things are insanely cheap new as well at around $16 bucks from Musician's Friend.

It doesn't get any simpler than this pedal. It is a small footprint pedal with three basic knobs mounted on the side-"Level" is volume, "Tone" is self explanatory and "Dist" is the amount of dirt desired. The overall build quality is about what you'd expect from a cheap pedal. The case is heavy gauge plastic and the graphics are stickers-which immediately raised some questions in my mind about durability in a live situation. 

 I plugged my vintage reissue Fender Strat into this bad boy and fired up the old Vox tube amp. Upon stepping on the pedal, I was rewarded with some very recognizable hard rock tones-warm, rich and chewy. Nothing fancy here-just surprisingly organic sounding tonal goodness.

 Tweaking the Distortion knob drives home how versatile this pedal is. The higher settings are over the top enough to be unusable for my taste but the low range setting on the dial yielded a nice overdriven tone. As I tweaked the knob steadily higher I was rewarded with steadily heavier and very useful distorted tone with ample sustain that was perfect for Hard Rock and Classic Metal solos. This is not an overly "fuzzy" distortion-which to me is a good thing. If you are into AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and early Metallica this pedal will work nicely for you. This is the tonal equivalent of macaroni and cheese-comforting and more or less exactly what you'd expect. 

For sixteen bucks I was blown away. I've played distortion pedals that cost me a C-note that weren't this versatile! I did notice that this pedal has significantly more bass than many distortion pedals I've used regardless of where you set the tone control.  Around 12 o' clock seemed to give me the most usable all around tone for my particular setup. 

Now the negatives. Obviously durability being stomped on night after night in a live rig is a big question mark. At $16 a piece, you could certainly carry three of these and have a backup for your backup-but changing pedals out mid gig is an unnecessary pain. The pedal is somewhat noisy with noticeable hiss-although this can be mitigated somewhat with the level control-since this pedal has a pretty hot output.  It also helps to place it properly in your signal chain so the noise isn't exacerbated by its placement with other pedals. This pedal also isn't true bypass. Of course at $16 new in box I can't complain too loud about any of these things. 

This pedal is ideal for the beginner wanting to start using pedal by virtue of the ridiculously cheap price. It is also ideal for the practice room. While it will never replace a high quality distortion pedal, it is a highly versatile pedal that does exactly what you expect out of a distortion pedal. What other piece of gear are you going to buy for $16 that does that? 

Product Review: Vox AC4TV Class A Tube Amplifier

I'm always looking for gear that satisfies my tonal itch at a price my limited budget can afford. About a year ago, I found a Vox AC4TV amplifier on Craigslist for $150. It was owned by a student at Lee University who was looking for some cash to trade up to an AC15 to get started gigging. I happily snapped this up and have been very happy with my choice. New you can expect to pay $250 for one of these little beauties. Vox originally introduced this amp in 1961. Fifty plus years later its modern descendant is still with us. 

The Vox AC4TV is a 4 tube watt class A tube amp with a 12AX7 preamp tube and an EL84 output tube driving an honest-to-god Celestion 10" speaker. The controls are simple and self explanatory-volume, tone and output level. The volume control of course controls volume and the amount of power tube saturation. The tone control gives you everything from a darker rhythm tone when turned down to that bright fizzy tone you expect from a Vox amp when the tone is turned all the way clockwise. The output level control knob allows you to select an attenuated 1 watt or 1/4 watt output level so you can crank that volume and saturate the tubes at an even lower output volume level. At home I often use the 1/4 watt setting for practicing with the volume knob dimed for that killer overdriven amp sound. I use the 4 watt setting and a lower volume to set up a chiming clean sound and put my pedalboard in front of it for a wide range of tonality. 

The sound is your classic British tube amp-with relatively clean sounds up until 11 or 12 o'clock on the volume knob and vintage overdriven power tube grit as you crank the volume further. At 4 tube watts, it is surprisingly loud but sufficiently small to allow you to crank up the amp for great overdriven grit without the volume getting excessive. Like all British amplifiers the overdriven sounds are where this amp truly shines. If loud shimmering clean with lots of headroom is your bag then you will definitely want to look at an American tube amplifier for that. That said, you can get a range of usable clean tones out of this amplifier if you are willing to work with your guitar volume knob in the way an old school blues man would. 

This amplifier is ideal for practicing or recording-and in fact was designed for that. However, this amp has proven surprisingly capable in a club gig setting. I discovered this at Acoustic Cafe in the summer of 2013 when Nigel Newberry of the Hillbilly Sins suffered an amplifier breakdown just prior to showtime. He didn't have the luxury of the time to go back to Cleveland to get a replacement. Fortunately, my home and this trusty Vox tube amp was nearby. We dialed in a spanky clean tone on the 4 watt setting and mic'ed it up with a Shure SM-57. After that he plugged in his usual pedal board and played the show. Fortunately veteran musician and sound guru Anthony Sims was running the PA and once he tweaked the sound out, Nigel's guitar sat perfectly in the monitor and mains mix for the entire show. I would not have conceived of a 4 Watt tube amp working at that volume level-but I was pleasantly surprised. 

This amplifier does lack on board reverb-which is not surprising at this price point. I use a reverb pedal and that works fine for me. The amp does have a 16 ohm output for a speaker cab-which is surprisingly handy if you want to move some air with a 2X12 speaker cab for recording. 

If vintage overdriven sounds are your bag and you want an honest to goodness class A tone monster for short dough-this very well could be your amp. If clean headroom or death metal is your thing-look elsewhere! 

Watch this YouTube video to see what this little tone monster can do:  Vox AC4TV Demo Video

My Latest Acquisition-A vintage Fender-esque tone machine!

I regularly visit pawn shops. Even in this internet age where people have the ability to instantly ascertain an items value you can still find a bargain on a unique item that works. You never quite know what you are going to find...and sometimes a bargain comes along!

Yesterday, I found a unique Strat with a cool vintage vibe at the US Money Shops store in Fort Oglethorpe, GA. I believe it is supposed to be Daphne Blue-although to my eye it does closely resemble surf green. It has vintage reissue electronics and pickups that could be from a Squier CV50 or perhaps a 50's reissue Strat. The pickguard is the modern 11 screw style. The neck appears to be from a Squier or perhaps another aftermarket maple neck. It is equipped with jumbo frets and Kluson vintage style tuners. The tremolo bridge is the standard import model used on Squiers and cheaper Fenders. My operating theory at this point is that the body is one of the Daphne Blue Squier Bullet guitars. Its definitely a Franken-caster. I played this through a Fender tube amp at the shop and really dug the vintage vibe of the way it sounded. The price was reasonable too at $129.

This thing actually sounds fantastic. It has that edgy, gritty, vintage Fender Stratocaster tone that you would expect from a vintage reissue Strat. It seems to stay in tune and the intonation is decent right off the pawn shop wall.  I can easily see myself playing this guitar on stage. Check out the pictures-with vintage grime and fly specks still intact from the previous owner!

Getting ready to finish my custom Squier Strat

So, as those of you that have been following this blog know, in early 2013 I purchased a black early 90's vintage Squier Strat with a maple fingerboard from Craigslist for $100. This particular Strat was manufactured by Saehan and has a beautiful maple neck with the meaty vintage fretboard radius I love so much. I purchased this guitar specifically to modify with the loaded pickguard I acquired from local Chattanooga musician Terry Parker for $50. The pickguard came out of a Player's Strat and was complete with Vintage Noiseless pickups and a switch that engages the bridge pickup when any combination of the neck and middle pickups are selected-which is a very useful "tele-esque" sound. My goal was a guitar suitable for gigging on a budget.

Last year, I retrofitted the pickguard into the guitar and obtained some gold pickguard screws to match the gold screws holding the pickups and switch. My plan all along was to obtain some gold vintage Kluson tuners to replace the abysmal imported "trapezoid" tuners, a gold tremolo bridge, gold strap buttons and a gold "football" jack so everything would match. I am pleased to report that those items have now been ordered from Guitar Fetish and should arrive in the next few days! I look forward to getting everything installed and showing off my fully customized and killer sounding bargain guitar!

At this point I have $155 in the guitar and it looks as pictured below. The gold hardware items I ordered will add another $100-leaving me with a total price tag of $250 and a still killer sounding Strat with looks to match! Stay tuned for the updates!!!!

Korean Squier Strat with loaded pickguard fitted. 

Current "trapezoid" tuners. These are junk.