Product: Johnson FX-110 Tube Overdrive
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
07/15/2008
at
08:53pm
by
graeme storer
Email: graeme<dot>storer at kogarah<dot>nsw<dot>gov<dot>au
Ease of Use
:
10
Cheapy Ebay jobby - $28 !!!!. Can't hurt to see what it does methinks when bidding. Not expecting much.
Wow!
No manual, but hey, it's an overdrive. But I understand there a lot of people out there that would want specs. Just a box, with the pedal in it.
Three knobs, that look surprisingly sturdy actually. I wasn't expecting such quality or sturdiness from a Chinese cheapy. The usual pots for an overdrive, and a switch that is small enough not to be easily flicked by cables or whatever. It's located below the pots on the unit's upper face - 'Turbo' and 'Hot'.
Sound Quality
:
9
I've never seen this as a review forum where it is basically an excuse to jerk off about your own gear; it's only important to put the user's experience and gear in context to objectively review an item. Very experienced player, great gear both new and vintage. 'Nuff said.
Not any more noisy that any other overdrive. It is larger/longer than your Boss-size pedal, making it all the more distinctive (and able to be seen in the dark). It is the Tubescreamer-green rip-off. That's actually good. Good to have pedals in colours that make sense - all distortions in yellow, delays in purple, tubescreamers green, that sorta thing.
Now, the meat-and-potatoes; the sound. As stated...wow! $28 bucks!! The 'hot' setting' is where the real squeal is, surprisingly, rather than 'turbo'. It gives all the usuals a real run for their money.
It is actually what a tubescreamer should be; fat and warm bottom-end, not that just metallic drive. Winner! Tone control and drive have plenty of headroom. Versatile pedal.
Reliability
:
10
It's made of metal - Boss-type clap-on/off footswitching (Behringer plastic jobbys are cute and work well, but this thing is actually solid).
A worthwhile addition to any overdrive or distortion chain. Maybe not heavy metal, but then again it just may be if pushed. A lot of metal guys seem to like fat bottom-ends too I guess.
I read a couple of snippets of info about it before buying it and thought 'oh no, plastic pot stalks, it's gonna be a toy alright'. Nope, they are good and solid. The knobs don't appear to want to fall off either. Always a good sign with pedals, in terms of their overall quality.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Johnson? Who? They seem, with some considerable effort in the finding, to have a website and claim to be operating 'since 1993'. Maybe they are good, who knows? But the pedals are made where just about most other things are these days; China. However, I would follow them up if I needed to. They may be great. Couldn't say at this point. But jeez, for $28 on Ebay as an experiment?
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I play all kinds of stuff, a lot of which is the usual middleaged guitar homage. This $28 pedal blows away Boss overdrives, and gives the ever-popular Ibanez Tubecreamer a serious run for its money. Did I mention it was $28? Try getting even a Chinese Ibanez Tubey for under about $100 guys.
If it were lost, died or whatever I would definitely chase up trying to source one at twice the price.
