Visual Sound JH1 Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive

Given the number of choices you have, I found this unit very easy to operate even considering the bass and noise supression controls on the inside. The Tubescreamer side of the pedal was dialed in in a few minutes, but I found I really had to tinker with the Hyde half to get the sound I was looking for--namely Jimmy Page. My tinkering paid off though, and it now sounds great.

I mostly play pre-2002 Godins (LGXT and LG), but I also use a Gretsch Country Classic through a Vox AC30 and a late MusicMan 1065.

This is a very impressive pedal for its price range. The Tubescreamer/Dr, Jekyll side is exactly as advertised. It may not be precisely as transparent as the vintage Tubscreamers, but I actually find it fully and warmer than the many clones and original TS-808s I have owned and played through. I use almost no gain at all, maybe 7 o'clock, and I get a great Hendrix-like over drive with body and a god deal of sustain (but is there ever enough?).

I prefer low gain pedals, but even I need full-blown distortion sometimes, and the Hyde side of the pedal does this nicely. It adds a bit too much bass for my taste, even with the internal pot all the way off. However, this pedal is amazing clear. Even with a good amount of distortion, your tone does not get overly compressed and chords do not get muddy. Very impressive.

As far as the lack of a true-bypass switching system, I have to say that it almost kept me from buying the pedal in the first place. It was only after I was assured that I could bring it back that I took it home. I have to say, the high sound quality of this pedal in the by-pass mode is impressive, and it made me re-think my usual knee-jerk reaction of 'true-by-pass good/buffer bad.' Measured against my other true-bypass pedals, I didn't find that it noticeably changed my sound--or at least not overly so. Some tone is always lost with every pedal or cord between you and your amp, this actually makes up a bit for that loss. And you even get "free" noise reduction (usually a separate pedal) to boot!

After nearly a year of tough on gear travel and performance, it still works perfect.

One word, great.

This pedal is unbeatable in its price range. It is conceivable that a high end 808 clone might sound a tad more like the original 808s, just as a great Marshall might also have better high gain distortion. But this one pedal gets you in a hair's breath of both for a lot less cash. You also get to save a bit of your tone by having one less patch cord. Every little bit helps.

Plug it in and wail.

Excellent overall performance, I bit of a squeal when run through the amp effects loop, that will bear some tweaking.

After a week things are fine.

I have not needed support since I left rehab.

Overdrive channel is fat and sweet. Distortion is dialable from clean sustain to screaming fuzz. Both channels combined wreak havoc.

Easy as using a Tubescreamer (Jekyll "green" side). The Hyde "red" side takes a little more tweaking because there are two interacting EQ controls in addition to the drive and volume, plus a bright/dark switch. No need for a manual. Dial in the Jekyll side first, then experiment with the Hyde since they use the Hyde to push the Jekyll when both are engaged.

This is in the middle of a chain with modded Boss compressor and modded Boss Graphic Equalizer in front, and then after the J&H a modded Boss DS-1, a Behringer EM600 echo, a Danelectro Dan Echo, an Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb, and finally a Demeter Tremulator, which can act as a post- cleanboost in addition to great trem effect.

I liked this pedal stock but put sockets in for the main 8-pin op-amps and wound up liking "hi-fi" burr-brown OPA opamps, but that is totally a matter of personal taste.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Hyde side. I really like clean boosts, use one early in the chain and one at the end of the chain, and on a whim I put a switch on the Hyde side to use or not use the clipping diodes. Without the diodes, it can be set to be nearly clean and that is a very nice combination with the Jekyll if you like violin tones... especially with compressor engaged upfront.

My rating is for the stock J&H - an execellent Tubescreamer PLUS.

Well built, metal can. A bit tedious to tinker with given all the screws and pots and switches that have to be undone to get the circuit board out. But, that's part of what makes it sturdy. No problems with it whatsoever.

Haven't tried asking them anything.

Style - blues, rock, surf rock and some jazz crossover. The J&H, especially as modded kills for blues with a 335, my old Yamaha SG1000 or strats, great violin tones and sustain with a decent tube amp. As modded it has some very nice phattening action for clean tones. Works great with my Princeton and my Fuchs-modded Bandmaster.

Playing decades, semi-pro. Been thru a lot of gear, this is one of the OD pedals I've kept, along with a Bad Monkey.

Love - the sound quality and range. Dislike - takes up a lot of space on the pedal board with a weird shape. this pedal has really become integral to a number of my favorite tones.

ok, the first thing to keep in mind when considering this pedal is what kinda sound are you expecting? if your wanting a metal tone STAY AWAY! i dont care what anyone else says this pedal is not made for shredding. to the blues player that turns the second side up and is suprised at how much of a deep heavy tone he can get, well thats true but this would be a bad buy for a shredder. id suggest either a metal zone. or if your willing to spend the bucks just do it right and get a jacques bat fuzz. or at least listen to it. theres demoes out there. that pedal is in my opinion the holy grail of metal pedals. ok so back to the j&h. this is a very warm sounding pedal. its pretty easy to get a good sound out of it. also pretty easy to get a bad one. the ts808 side is pretty much flawless. youd be an idiot to get an ibanez re-issue. cause this has a bass boost. you can go wherever with the knobs and somehow it always sounds good. now the second side. hmm...well, not so much. it sounds NOTHING like a ds-1. it doesnt really sound like anything to me. maybe a borrowed fender distortion? its very easy to get a bad sound on this side. and sounds pretty lousy in a home studio, very noisy when at full. but this pedal is a different beast altogether in home vs. live situations. you might not even believe its the same pedal. i think this has alot to do with the circuits in it. old school circuitry. alot of older pedals whale on stage and sound like crap at home in a quiet enviroment.

ok so here we go, live versus home

home.
well in a home enviroment the ts808 side is pretty much perfect for what it is, a ts808. great for when you want to add a little kick to your guitar and great for leads. if your blues and you dont own this or a ts808 then what are you using? at low it adds a nice warmth to your guitar, and at high it makes your leads sound like butta.

ok the heavy side. not so good. very noisy at home, your gonna need a noise gate unless you have a 2 grand guitar that super quiet. i have a fender jazzmaster mij reissue. and there known to be quiet guitars well for fender anyways.its almost useless. NOW I OWN A TUBE AMP, SO IF YOUR SOLID STATE YOU WILL HAVE MOST LIKELY COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OUTCOME, SO DONT BE SUPRISED IF YOU DONT AGREE WITH ME IF YOU TURN OUT TO HAVE SOLID STATE. i compare it to using my fender distortion in a quiet room enviroment. which is pretty useless without the amp cranked. tube is pretty useless quiet, unless you have something pushing your tubes at a low volume. this side is incredibly noisy and just plain ugly sounding. i dont see the need for a eq knob cause its supposed to give you the ability for a deep crunchy tone? i dunno. you end up with this ugly noisy crazy cranked out tone.

live.
ok in a live situation the ts808 side is incredible. you can bring your overdrive to a higher level just by playing harder. which is great for sound that build real smoothly. its sound incredible live i havent heard much else for wehat this does that gets that sort of tone live. everything from the strokes to stevie ray to the buzzcocks. the bass boost is a plus. you can get some of the greatest bluesy and velvets rhythm with it.

the heavy side sounds like it becomes another pedal altogether in the live situation. you will get a loud heavy tone. not metal heavy. but it will take you everywhere else you need to go other then there. its very distinctive but still noisy. but the switches are flawless so just kick it when you need it. at low its quite smooth and at full its a beast of warmth.

built quite well.

all boutique pedal companies are great. if they wernt people wouldnt dish out the money like they do. boutique always equals good customer support. these guys build half this stuff by hand. its like there babies.

i do alot. i own a bat fuzz and swear by that pedal. i own the j&h and swear by it too. i hate it at home though. but its not a home pedal. its a live pedal. as far as home goes im considering getting another rat again for home. but will most likely just get a noise gate as i need one anyways. if it were stolen or lost id most likely just get a ts808 cause i have a boost on my board and would use the room to get a rat. but its well worth the money. so its hard to say but right now im not playing live as much as i used to so for me the rat makes more sense. but the price for a ts808 reissue alone is about the same as a jekyll and hyde. and it has no boost so you do the math. live im usually just aching to use the j&h. it makes you want to play loud.

ive been a musician since 15 and im 27. i own and have owned alot of crap i will not list it all. i also play keys and some stuff sounds great with keys and horrible with guitar. so id list stuff that would not be a good reccomendation.

Very easy to use. The boost section tone/eq interaction requires a bit more tweaking, but always with great results.
3 modes at your feet : 1st switch for TS-like crunch, 2nd switch for heavier distortion, or both on for heaven. It is like plugging a TS9 in front of an already distorted amp.

The most polyvalent dist pedal I ever had. All distortion sounds are achievable with this pedal. From light vintage overdrive to scooped mids metal, excepted real fuzz sounds maybe. The sound can get noisy with both switches on and high gain, but not a big issue. Not the even harmonics of a fulltone pedal, but a great gear.

Very sturdy, never had any surprise with it.

Ae you experienced ? No !

A must-have if you a typical blues-rock-hard rock player, often playing live, and if you like simple set-ups. 3 sounds at your feet in one pedal. I own fulltones FD2, DP1, plug into a Blues Junior, and all this sounds great. But for a light set-up, on-the-fly rehearsal, I will just bring the J&H, I do not need anything else. i wish it was square, so it could fit better in a pedalboard, but no big issue !

Very easy to use. The boost section tone/eq interaction requires a bit more tweaking, but always with great results.
3 modes at your feet : 1st switch for TS-like crunch, 2nd switch for heavier distortion, or both on for heaven. It is like plugging a TS9 in front of an already distorted amp.

The most polyvalent dist pedal I ever had. All distortion sounds are achievable with this pedal. From light vintage overdrive to scooped mids metal, excepted real fuzz sounds maybe. The sound can get noisy with both switches on and high gain, but not a big issue. Not the even harmonics of a fulltone pedal, but a great gear.

Very sturdy, never had any surprise with it.

Ae you experienced ? No !

A must-have if you a typical blues-rock-hard rock player, often playing live, and if you like simple set-ups. 3 sounds at your feet in one pedal. I own fulltones FD2, DP1, plug into a Blues Junior, and all this sounds great. But for a light set-up, on-the-fly rehearsal, I will just bring the J&H, I do not need anything else. i wish it was square, so it could fit better in a pedalboard, but no big issue !

Quite easy to get a good sound out of the Jeckyll side for live work right away. Hyde side took me a little experimentation since, at home it always sounded awesome, but live it felt a little mushy on it's own. Nice feature, that "eq" (mid cut) knob.

I have had this pedal for a good 2 years and have gigged all over the south with it, so I have alot of experience with this pedal. My stage signal chain is: Guitar: 1990 PRS Classic 24 w/Gibson '57 classic humbuckers (among others). Pedal board: 1)modded Crybaby, 2)JH1, 3)Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, 4)Boss Dig. Delay, 5)Boss RV-5 reverb, 6)Boss GE-7 EQ, 7)Dunlop HighGain Volume pedal. Amps: Fender '67 Blackface Super Reverb or Peavey Classic 50, 4x10 (clean channel). The Jeckyll side is hailed as a TS808 clone, and as I say: it sounds like the best old TS808 you ever had! VERY tubey and growling with that nice mid hump that is not too pronounced. I set my knobs for bluesy rhythm/fills at the following: Drive-9 oclock, Tone-5 oclock, Volume-"dimed." For killer neck pickup leads, I add the sparkle drive -or- for nice marshall-like bridge humbucker leads (and for Billy Squier impersonations) I add the Hyde channel. The Hyde's knobs are set at the following: Drive-9 or 10 oclock, Tone-11 oclock, Eq-hard left, volume-4 oclock, Switch-Sharp. I love the j & h channels combined at these settings. As you can see, low drive settings on both channels combine for my version of great live rock-n-roll to blues. I have used many pedals in my 24 years of experience: TS9, TS808, Marshall Blues Breakers (BB1, black box, modded), Blues Breaker 2 (yuck), Boss Blues Driver, Guyatone, Rat, DOD 250, IBNZ sonic distortion (SD9), Boss Metal Zone (in the 80's), Fulltone FullDrive 2, ZenDrive, Oh heck, I can't even remember all of 'em now! So, my opinion is very high of this pedal with the right settings.

I've gigged with it in my pedal board since I've had it for a couple of years; no problems at all, which is better than I can say for many pedals I've been through. I depend on it very much.

Never dealt with the company personally, but my good friend and guitarist buddy called Mr. Weil once and asked about any possible mods and the man was very friendly and gave his some ideas about resistor value changes and such, so I feel good about them from that, but that is really not an opinion of any value.

I've been in a large blues/r&b/soul band that does everything from clubs to weddings to festivals for 9 years; has a horn section. I am also in a soul improvisation club band that is a lot of fun. In the 80's, cut my teeth on hard rock, metal. Been at it 24 years. Also own a '67 Gibson es-335 and a couple of Stratocasters, a Flying V, a Fender Mustang, and much, much more. If the JH1 were lost or stolen, I be on Ebay right now looking for another silver-boxed JH1! It compares favorably with everything I've ever used, hence I keep using it. I get compliments on my screaming lead tone all the time, and the inevitable: "what is that OD pedal you keep stepping on?" And I tell 'em straight out: "it's a custom-made, one-of-a-kind, high-end, boutique, experimental pedal made by an electronics genius who used to work for a big effects company, but went on his own." That keeps me from having to explain anything else (ha, ha)!

Its quite a simple 2-in-1 pedal. Its actually a clone pedal. The overdrive side is a ts808 clone with a bass boost option(I love it) and the Distortion side seemed like a ds-1 with an eq and more flexibility. I got a nice sound within about 45 mins of playing at a guitar shop.

What impression do you get when you first read the name ?Jekyll And Hyde? It sounds like one of those 2-in-1 pedals that seem to have the ?best of both worlds? and often do not. This time I really have to credit Bob Weil for creating this. This is really ultimate overdrive and distortion. With the overdrive side (a clone of the ts808) with a bass bosst which solves the problem of the original 808?s and the Distortion side which sounds like a DS-1 to me with expanded range, more gain and a EQ which is similar to the MT-2 one. I plugged it in at the shop and used a nicely crafted MIJ Fender Thinline Tele together with the Visualsound H20 Liquid Chorus and the Visualsound Route 66 American Overdrive. The tones I squeezed out of this medium sized stomp box were absolutely incredible. When you put the drive settings to max, you will get the most awesome in your face metal distortion ever, this 250 SGD(If im not wrong) baby will throw your tubescreamers out of your rig.

There have been reliability issues like footswitches having problems and the leds having probs. But its quite well built in a thick steel housing. I would advise frequent giggers to have a backup. You'll never no what will happen

I dont own it but im going to buy it.

Its seriously VALUE FOR MONEY. Before shortlisting this, i had tried the Proco Deucetone rat and rat 2. But i really prefer this. If after i got mine, and i lost it, i'll buy another one!

Very easy to use, take a few more minutes on a Fender amp (Deville/Twin), but on a Marshall ...just plug it in and it sounds good.

I use a SG thru a Fender Deville, and it sounds very Killers/Strokes, bright good attack, but the sound on a Les Paul thru a Marshall, and wow that sounds full rich, with nice dark tones, nice and round and insane sustain.

75% of time had no problems, I personally would not use anything but a 9 volt battery or the actual visual sound power pack. Why? Well it got weird on me and would not change from Jekyll to Hyde.

Bring a tube screamer if ya have to, I'd rather use Jekyll/Hyde, I have never again had a problem after sticking with a 9 volt battery.

I sent it back twice and they helped both times, and apologized.

Decent value, not for weekend warriors, stick with your onboard distortion or tube screamer, but if you spend any time in a studio, or actually have a good soundman when you play out who mikes you professionally, or if you really care, buy it now.

just as easy as any other straightfoward pedal..only more knobs than an average pedal (due to two differnt channels..), more choices..took me maybe 15 minutes to dial in the sound i wanted on both channels..never even looked at the manual actually.

oh, the sound is EXACTLY what i was looking for! naturally, with both drive knobs turned too high you will get some intence feedback when youre not playing, BUT, when you are playing with both drive knobs up high (and both channels on) you wil get ENDLESS sustain..

the jekyll channel is a real sweet gritty sound the way i use it..nice for some gritty rhythm tracks, but set other ways it can be real rockin'

the hyde channel is nice for some sweet leads, ranging from the "supershread metalhead" overdrive to youre average sweet rock tones.

there is no type of overdrive tone i cant get with this wonderfull pedal..

and, to top it all off, i use this pedal mostly for bass. (yes, up untill now i've been rating its uses for guitar.) i'm mainly a bassist, and this thing does what i need it to do. really it does the same thing on guitar and bass, but think of the jekyll side for bass to give you that low bass overdrive groove kind of sound (think larry graham..) and (as with guitar) like the hyde side for sweet leads.

really a winner for guitar and bass, i was especially amazed at how well it worked on bass..

havent had it for so long yet..but, it does look nice and sturdy. cant immagine having any problems though, i definately would not use a backup.

never talked to them.

i play jazz, funk, blues, (old and new) rock, latin, and i'm sure i'm leaving out a few..but anyway, this thing does do it all. for bass just as well as guitar. great match for (guitar) blues/rock/heavy rock/metal/ANYTHING! i've been playing for 6(ish?) years, and use a '61 gretsch guitar into a fender deville. for bass i use a carvin XB76 into a GK400RB with brickhouse cabinets (www.mcfrost.com for more info on brickhouse cabs)

either way, this thing can cover it all. i wouldent suggest this if youre playing in a metallica cover band or something like that, playing the same style music all the time, cause this thing for me is an easy way to cover it all. if you want one pedal to specialize in youre ONE genre, then look elsewhere (although to my ears this pedal sounds nicer than all other pedals meant for one genre, like a blues driver or metal zone for example..)