Clean alternative to Joyo American?

BunchyMutt

BunchyMutt

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Jul 3, 2014
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#1
My distortion comes from running a guitar distortion pedal in parallel with the Joyo American Sound. There are some things I love about the Joyo and some characteristics that I find difficult.

What I like:
- Price point
- Size (not too large)
- Best of all, it's control of the mid frequencies with the mid control and the voice.
- Not totally transparent. When drive is set to minimum or almost, it adds a subtle warmth/compression

What I dislike:
- Bass control. Just doesn't sit right with me. It's a little loose to me and doesn't seem to add much emphasis on the fundamental, just low end presence
- Lack of headroom. Since I run it mostly clean and the eq is before the drive, it's hard not to clip it. I don't particularly like the od/distortion character either, just a little mushy

So, is there anything out there that has the eq control of the American, that is capable of adding some slight distortion or compression magic, that has a better bass control, and isn't hundreds of dollars (rules out DG stuff)?

EDIT: I've tried the British and it didn't sit as well in the parallel mix + the bass response was sorta weak

I'm also comfortable switching out components in the American if people have experience doing that.
 
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#2
somebody correct me if I'm wrong but fairly sure the Joyo American is a copy of this:

upload_2018-5-29_21-26-40.png


there is also the Throttle Box and the Dr. Boogie not to mention the Wampler Triple Wreck and the R3FX Dual Resistafier...but I have never tried any of them on bass
 
#3
Snakeman1066 said:
somebody correct me if I'm wrong but fairly sure the Joyo American is a copy of this:

View attachment 3033149

there is also the Throttle Box and the Dr. Boogie not to mention the Wampler Triple Wreck and the R3FX Dual Resistafier...but I have never tried any of them on bass
Click to expand...
I think the American is a clone of the Blonde. Fender, from what i understand, not Mesa
 
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#4
I'd think that maybe the VT bass could fit the bill, except for a major problem - the mid control on the Joyo American is set at 1kHz while the VT is at 500Hz. I don't want to lose the mid eq capabilities
 
#6
GentProvocateur said:
My distortion comes from running a guitar distortion pedal in parallel with the Joyo American Sound. There are some things I love about the Joyo and some characteristics that I find difficult.

What I like:
- Price point
- Size (not too large)
- Best of all, it's control of the mid frequencies with the mid control and the voice.
- Not totally transparent. When drive is set to minimum or almost, it adds a subtle warmth/compression

What I dislike:
- Bass control. Just doesn't sit right with me. It's a little loose to me and doesn't seem to add much emphasis on the fundamental, just low end presence
- Lack of headroom. Since I run it mostly clean and the eq is before the drive, it's hard not to clip it. I don't particularly like the od/distortion character either, just a little mushy

So, is there anything out there that has the eq control of the American, that is capable of adding some slight distortion or compression magic, that has a better bass control, and isn't hundreds of dollars (rules out DG stuff)?

EDIT: I've tried the British and it didn't sit as well in the parallel mix + the bass response was sorta weak

I'm also comfortable switching out components in the American if people have experience doing that.
Click to expand...

I took apart my old American Sound a few years ago for an inspection and compared it to a circuit schematic to see what mods were possible. Yes, the Joyo American Sound is a clone. The last stage output buffer has a 1Khz bump of around 6db. This is what gives it that characterised mid push. None of the EQ controls are set to the same frequency, so you can't dial out this colouration on board. The bass control (from memory) is set to a quite high 120hz. This allows for a strong bass boost, but without the usual cone rattling thunder that happens with 50-100hz bass boost. I means you can boost your bass without killing your amp / speakers. this frequency can easily be changed by soldering a resistor of the correct value in parallel to an existing resistor to change it's value, thus shifting the frequency.
So after all that, here's the bad news. Most of the Joyo's circuitry is miniaturised SMD components. It's very unlikely that a domestic user can solder this finely or accurately. Unless you have a serious skills and equipment in this area...you are likely to make a big and unrecoverable mess of your pedal. Which is why my American Sound was left unmodified.
 
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#8
I owned a Joyo American for a while. It has an always-on speaker sim circuit in place, and the circuit board itself was populated with SMT components. There is a mod for bypassing the speaker sim, but it involves soldering jumpers to SMT components, and won't tighten up the low end or shift the center frequency of it.
 
#9
"I know you said you want to keep it fairly inexpensive and that that rules out DG pedals, but I think you should get the AO/U. It's the greatest!" - common TB response....

GentProvocateur said:
I'd think that maybe the VT bass could fit the bill, except for a major problem - the mid control on the Joyo American is set at 1kHz while the VT is at 500Hz. I don't want to lose the mid eq capabilities
Click to expand...
I think the mid control for the VT is 1000hz and the 500hz claim is a typo. Or is it the other way around? Now I don't remember.
 
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#10
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#12
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#16
Axstar said:
I owned a Joyo American for a while. It has an always-on speaker sim circuit in place, and the circuit board itself was populated with SMT components. There is a mod for bypassing the speaker sim, but it involves soldering jumpers to SMT components, and won't tighten up the low end or shift the center frequency of it.
Click to expand...
Any idea if the Tech21 versions of the pedals are easier to mod?
 
#19
I use the American and California sound constantly. I have to use them along with my SansAmp. It tightens up the bottom end significantly. I find the American warmer, but the California slightly punchier. I run the American clean to very mild grit and the California medium to heavy grit. Both are great at those settings.

The only way I found to keep up clean headroom is to keep the voice knob turned below noon. If you go noon or up, with most pickups, it's gonna get gritty.
 
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