Joyo JF-02 Ultimate Overdrive Pedal, featuring true Bypass Wiring, Tone Switch and Quality components

Let's get a few things straight from the start - I love effects pedals. I love the idea of a handcrafted boutique pedal (and have owned a few), and I'll also play the mass-produced BOSS and Ibanez stuff. And if you put foreign/no-name brand in front of me, but the pedal is made well and sounds GOOD, I'll play that too. All you need to know is that this pedal is well-constructed and sounds darn good for 40 dollars. Joyo is a Chinese company that essentially has makes their own form factor (a heavy-duty metal box with an MXR-like button switcher), and then clones/mimics/copies circuitry of popular boutique pedals that cost anywhere from $100 to $250. And they've figured out how to ship them to the U.S. and sell them for $40 to $60 each. I've recently discovered these pedals, and if money/pedalboard space were no issue, there's probably 8 to 12 of them I'd like to own. The "star" of the Joyo lineup, however, is arguably the JF-02 Ultimate Drive. This pedal got some notoriety a few years back when an American company bought them in bulk, repainted them, and tried to sell them for almost $200. The fact that they thought they could get that much for it tells you something about the quality. The pedal this is supposedly clone off of is the Fulltone OCD Overdrive, a boutique pedal that came out several years ago, and usually sells from around $150. I own that pedal, and I've done a side by side comparison on my pedal board. And while tone is EXTREMELY subjective, I'm not sure that I wouldn't go with the Joyo Ultimate Drive in a blind test. While the 3-knob, Lo/Hi switch are clearly inspired by the Fulltone OCD, the pedals actually sound quite different. With the exact same settings, the Fulltone will actually sound much brighter. That's really saying something because the Fulltone is known as having a very well-rounded tone with a defined base. Well, the Ultimate Drive offers even more bass and mids, yet the Tone knob can brighten it up quite a bit without losing that bottom end. It's actually extremely versatile. I'm not sure that it would do low-gain "crunch" sounds very well, but if that's what you want, consider the Joyo Vintage Overdrive, the Joyo Crunch Distortion, or a Tubescreamer. Right now, I have three pedals that are fairly similar and offer a great "overdriven Marshall" tone: The Fulltone, the Ultimate Drive, and the Marshall GV-2 Guv'nor. While they are all great pedals, the Joyo really hits the sweet spot on my Vox Combo amp (using a Gibson Les Paul). As for soloing/lead play, I'm noticing all types of pick attack/harmonic response with the Joyo that I don't get with other stompboxes. It really does act and feel like an onboard overdrive channel. If you point all the knobs at 12 o' clock, some people may think it is muddy, but that Tone knob really does change the character quite a bit. Sorry for the long rant, but I want people to know that just because you can't afford $150+ on a single pedal doesn't mean you can't enjoy a great overdrive stomp box. Check the JF-02 out - it just might be your "gateway drug" to other Joyo pedals!

The only bad thing about the Ultimate Drive is the graphic depiction of the Japanese Oni demon on the top of it. On the other hand, I am told that in Japan, if you are considered a total bada$$, you are referred to as "oni-ni-kanabo," translating to "Demon with an Iron Club." If you get this little monster, you will indeed be in possession of a demon with an iron club, with which you can slam the front end of any amp with enough juice to make it melt down like Fukushima. OK, enough Japanese (besides, this is a Chinese pedal). The construction is excellent, the switch is good and tight, and there are a LOT of possibilities hidden in the knobs. You can get everything from a slight boost to a wild, Jeff Beck era Yardbirds-like howl. There is plenty of power here and lots of tone. Let me put it to you straight. This is a professional level pedal. It is not junk. You can't classify it with the other inexpensive Chinese pedals out there, at all. This is an outstanding overdrive/distortion pedal, and the fact that it can be bought for this low price is nearly criminal. This little beast has muscled an American-made distortion/overdrive pedal off my pedal board. I won't name names, but you can find the story online. One of the so-called "boutique" pedal companies bought a ton of these, repainted and re-branded them, and sold them for FOUR TIMES what you are going to pay here. And people were coughing up the cash - until some insider revealed that this "special boutique custom" pedal was actually a Joyo Ultimate Drive with a paint job. It was a minor scandal. I thoroughly recommend this pedal without hesitation. It is as good as people say it is. I recommend that you use it with a tube amp, because that is where its qualities truly shine. It will turn your guitar into a demon-with-an-iron club. I suggest you get one now before Joyo pushes the price up.

It's a good OD pedal. I set it up with OD at zero and level at 9. The boost certainly did an excellent job of pushing my amp into some thick overdrive. It doesn't take much from the OD knob to get the breakup you want. Using it past 6 or 7 would suit some, but it gets a little fuzzy for anything I'll need. Pushing the level knob up to 9 did create some noise when the pedal was engaged, but it was less than I expected. Bringing it back down to 6 negated much of that anyway. Pulling back on the level to 6 and increasing the OD to 3 seems like the right spot...for me. It gives me just enough boost and added overdrive to get the hard rock that I like. Of course, we all want something different, and your settings will be different. But the pedal has a wide enough range in each knob that you should be able to get what you want. It's not a distortion pedal, but it does get pretty aggressive. Not sure how it will sound as a standalone gain tool for a solid state amp, but it certainly does an excellent job of driving tubes. The paint job...that's my one dislike. Not that it matters to me all that much, but I think it can affect expectations of people considering it. It LOOKS like a heavy distortion pedal. But it's not. As for hints...I've seen a review from three years ago where the switch wasn't activating, and the red light was staying on. I bought mine "used" through Amazon. When I got it, it was doing the same thing. Maybe it's the same pedal, but I doubt it. All that needed to be done was to tighten the nut on the switch. It was a little loose and was allowing the switch to sag into the pedal. Tightened it up and all was well. As for other complaints about definition and clarity in chords...I can't speak for them, and they may have different ears than mine. For me, everything sounded very clear and defined. It's always possible that tweaking settings between the guitar, amp and pedal can make some difference there. It's also possible that this pedal is being compared to a considerably higher end option. I don't know other than to say that all situations are different. Bottom line is that there seems to be widespread love for this pedal, and the price point is amazing. I'd take this easily over the Boss Super Overdrive, Bad Monkey, Screamin' Blues and many others in its price range. To be honest, for me personally and what I like to hear...ill take it over a TubeScreamer too.

Reviews are difficult to write or decipher the scoop from when hyperbole is so prevalent and the 5 star system has no room for error. If a rating is a 5 it's perfect and if it's below 5 it must be flawed...it sucks is what the mind immediately thinks, "3 stars?! This must be s***!!" There's no room for a product to have pros and cons in a lot of respects, it either is or isn't worth buying. The Joyo JF-02 Ultimate OverDrive pedal has had a big rep the last few years for being a top rate Fulltone OCD clone. I've never owned an OCD but have played them quite a bit in guitar stores that demo it...long enough to tell it was great and made the Squier Strat/Solid State amp demo rig sound totally happening. The JF-02 absolutely captures the sound of the OCD, the tubey character and very cool dynamics it allows the amps tone to display. I don't have an A-B test experience except on YouTube, not in person, but it sounds just as good as other overdrive pedals that are found in most boards (TubeScreamer, BOSS, etc). I love how this thing sounds through my Strat single coils, keeping a decent bedroom/apartment level is no problem with a nice amp on its nicest clean setting and the JF-02's level on no more than 3-ish. It's a full bodied, inspiring tone perfect for practice and with some level tweaks and mic placement it can be a great recording tone too. I'm still discovering the different tones and uses the pedal can provide, so I'll play it more and put some other comments up if any huge revelation takes place. But in the instance of this pedal, the hype and "worst kept secret" status is deserved... something this cool was bound to attract attention, "cheap perfect clone"or not. This thing, on first impressions, is a total bargain and a well deserved 5 star pedal. It is very much like the Pyle "SM-57" mic clone that is also on Amazon for an unbelievable price for the quality it possesses. The JF-02 is even better in quality ratio and sheer brilliance than the Pyle mic. If you need further clarification, these reviews on Amazon and the tons of YouTube videos and guitar forum threads all give this pedal unbelievable praise, and it's absolutely deserved. Excellent.

I like this pedal. It is totally solid and well built and has a wide range of tones available. One thing that is misleading is that it is not true-bypass wiring. I also have the Joyo compressor which is true bypass. This one only says "bypass" on it, and it doesn't function unless powered up in bypass mode while the compressor passes the signal no problem when not powered. The description here is misleading. One question I have to enjoy the pedal more is preferred settings - I have found the sound from this pedal a bit messy and unfocused compared to other pedals (overdrive and distortion) that I have, but I am thinking I have not dialed in the hi-lo + gain / level / tone to get the sound. The pedal sounds good but a bit muddy and inarticulate. Any comments on settings would be appreciated in the comment/reply section to this review.

When it comes to my pedalboard, my overdrive is always on. Always. I love the tight rhythm sound an overdrive gives an already-distorted channel as the amp is pushed to it’s sweet spot. As far as overdrives go, I’ve always been a Tube Screamer guy and the Joyo JF-02 Ultimate Drive is a completely different beast. I’d heard a lot of good things about the Joyo and the Fulltone OCD it’s based on, but I’ve always been a Tube Screamer guy so when I wasn’t getting that signature mid-range hump it was a little disorienting. Now that I’ve been playing around with it for a while I can really see why people dig this kind of overdrive. There’s a lot of fullness and character to the JF-02 and a ton of gain on tap. There’s so much it can basically be used as a distortion pedal with the gain knob turned high enough. This makes it exceptionally good at pushing clean channel and with the tone cranked past 2 or 3 o’clock it adds a good deal of body to a dirty channel as well. On the downside, the Ultimate Drive gets real muddy, real fast. It’s not as easy to plug-and-play as the Joyo JF-01 Vintage Overdrive, for example. This pedal is almost completely unusable on a dirty channel if the tone knob isn’t past 2 o’clock, and the JF-02 cannot be used as a clean boost because even the level control adds to the break up. Fans of clean tones be warned. The switch meant to cut the mid-frequencies also really doesn’t change the tone all that much to my ears so I’m not really sure why it’s there besides to fully imitate the control layout of the OCD. The build quality on this thing is typical Joyo. Solid aluminum-alloy casing, and this one comes with a nice black powdered finish and a cool red tribal-ish design on the front. Compared to the other pedals in the Joyo line-up, this is certainly one of the more extravagantly-designed. The knobs have a nice turn resistance and while I have read horror stories about the Ultimate Drive and other Joyos, the one I personally received I would have no issues taking to a gig. The Joyo JF-02 Ultimate Drive is a great little pedal for the price; a bridge between overdrive and distortion pedal. For me, it was also a kind of gateway drug into overdrives outside of those based on the Tube Screamer. For only $30, it’s definitely worth your time to check out. Pros: - Sounds like a that should cost over twice as much as the $30 Joyo wants for it. - Great black-powdered finish and cool tribal graphic make it one of the more interesting-looking pedals in the Joyo lineup. - Adds fullness and character with a ton of gain on tap making it great for driving clean channels or beefing up a distorted channel. Cons: - Can get very muddy and isn't as easy to dial-in an amazing tone as other overdrives like the Joyo JF-01. - The pedal is almost completely unusable on a distorted channel with the tone below 2 o'clock.

Solid feeling pedal. Worked great for the first two days I had it... hooked it up this evening for a little strumming session, and... nothing. Tried multiple guitar cables, different 9v batteries, ac adaptors. Nothing. Bypass doesn’t let signal through and no drive channel either. When drives selected the led shines, but no ones home I guess. I’ll see how the replacement they send me fairs and adjust my review accordingly. I think this is the first time I’ve ever gotten a dud of anything on amazon. Update: got my replacement pedal and I just had the exact same experience. Two days of working fine. Go to use it again, and absolute garbage... I can’t recommend these pedals to anyone and am now stuck sending two back. I had thrown the box for the first away, so we will see how Joyo will handle the return. I’ve had good luck with my Donner Chorus pedal so far. Guess I’ll try a drive pedal from them now. Further update 8/13/19. It’s been three weeks since I have sent both pedals back. The company has not shown they have received them, and I have not gotten credit for the first pedal I ordered from them. So now I’m going to be charged twice, and have nothing to show for it. So not only are these a terrible product, the company is trash as well. First time I’ve had this kind of problem with amazon...

We all know this is supposedly a Fulltone OCD clone, but I'm not going to review it on that comparison - it deserves better than that. First, it's not true bypass, and it's not the OCD. Now that I've said that... This is a GREAT overdrive pedal. I wish I could put "GREAT" in bold and double the font size just to get the point across. I don't care if it costs $30 or $300, the sound you get out of it is unique and absolutely tremendous. I play it through the clean channel on a Peavey Special 112 (the Scorpion speaker), on an ESP I put Tesla humbuckers in, and it sounds tubey-warm and dark and aggressive through that rig. The tone is incredible, this is like kind of Slash-when-he-plays-bluesrock JCM800-with-the-tone-rolled-down sound. Not edgy or harsh at all. It sounds really good with the gain rolled down too, as more of a clean boost with some bottom end and fullness. But I don't use it for that so probably other pedals out there better for that sound. I'd recommend this to everyone. And I'd especially recommend it to the people that are rocking budget guitars and amps and haven't had a lot of experience with pedals, because this beast will totally make a significant difference in your sound, and then you'll want to play more, and you'll have more fun, because your tone is rad. It's super inexpensive, it sounds awesome, and you can tweak it quite a bit. Quit looking at reviews and youtube videos and buy it.

Great quality! Its wonderfull this pedal love this, really have that 70s sound, overdrive and distorition! If you look to play indie or progresive this pedal will fit like a glove

El pedal no funciona. Lo he probado con dos amplificadores distintos y no suena. Es increíble que Amazon envíe un producto defectuoso sin ningún control de calidad previo.

Ottimo overdrive, buona la risposta a qualsiasi volume, boostato con un Ibanez s7 é impareggiabile nei soli. Ottimo acquisto.

この価格でこの音が出せるのはありがたい。 好みの問題ではあるがツマミか軽すぎるのと赤い鬼？みたいなデザインがダサいのが残念。

Bought as a gift. I'm told it is a superb pedal, especially for the money. Arrived very quickly from Joyo.