Visual Sound JH1 Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive

For an overdrive pedal is does have quite a lot of knobs and switches. This appeals to many people but not to me. They are also quite small and in close company which makes adjusting tiresome

I really like the sound of this pedal. The Jekyll channel produces a lovely sound remicisent of the old ibanez tube screamers. However, I really bought it for the Hyde channel. This channel has a lovely sound that never sounds fake or digital. Also, you can scoop the mid and make it into a lovely creamy distortion. I don't think much of it as a heavy metal pedal, it really is suited more to medium gain settings. Again, you are spoiled for choice with all the knobs. But nevertheless, there is something special and unique about the sound of this pedal that appealled to me.

Quite a heavy pedal. Much heavier than my big muff or trem pedal. Battery connection seem strong. My only quip is the plastic knob seem a little cheap for such a great unit.

nil

Great unit overall, with a unique sound that you won't find elsewhere. Definately a pedal to help you create your own sound on.

I couldn't get a bad sound out of it. I have owned Big Muffs, Rats, multiple Boss distortions and overdrives, and a marshall shredmaster, and this is still the best overdrive/distortion I have ever played. The Jekyll side is a pretty close reissue of the ts-808. I think it is much closer than the ts-9 or ts-7. The Jekyll side has a good metal sound, and the eq control makes it even better. I will never remove this from my pedalboard. I know that they were making a new version when I bought mine, but I don't care because the sound I am getting out of this one couldn't be better. I also like the silver more than the new red version.

The JH-1 works well with my rig. I have also tried it with a strat and with a les paul, and with a vox ac-30 and a marshall half-stack, and the sound was great with those too. The effects are very strong. Very noticeable, and all of the settings sound great. Noise is also NOT a problem. My favorite bands are Radiohead and the Strokes and I get there sounds easily with this pedal. Both Albert and Nick of the Strokes use the JH-1. You could also use this pedal for metal and blues.

I have only had it for a month, but so far I have had no problems. The casing is very durable, so I wouldn't need a backup if I was gigging.

I called them to ask them about info on the H20 chorus/echo, because I am interested in all of their effects now. They were very friendly. I felt like they were trying to help me rather than try to sell me an item. I haven't had any problems and I don't need an upgrade.

I play indy and mellow alternative, and this is the perfect overdrive for me. I run this through two amps, a Sunn 50 watt Sorado head through an unknown speaker cabinet, and a Fender 60 watt 2x12 deville. The only other pedals I use are a guyatone phaser and delay, an mxr micro-amp, a marshall shredmaster, and a boss tu-2. My guitars are a gibson es-333 and an epiphone casino. I have been playing for about 5 years, and have played many other overdrives, distortions, and fuzzes, and this is definitely the best. After playing this, I am going to look into purchasing the Visual Sound Route-66 and the H20.

I plugged this sucker in the second I got it and it instantly transformed my Fender Deville into a screaming heavy half stack. Pretty basic and easy to use, volume, tone, and gain on the Jekyll side, the same plus an EQ for midrange on the Hyde side. Very basic manual, with some starter settings.

Using this with an Ibanez S540fm with EMG's, Strat Plus with a Hot Rails, a 61 SG reissue, and a LP Custom. Sounds good across the board, but you need a good tube amp to really get this thing cooking. A little noisy if you crank the gain on both channels to the max and engage both at the same time, but you don't need to do that. To much gain equals muddy mess equals you're tone sucks equals people don't like you. The Jekyll side is very similiar to a warm tube screamer, the Hyde side packs the extra punch lacking in the tube screamer. Together they sound ok, but a little too noisy if the gains are set too high. At times with the wrong setting it can sound a little nasal, but you can tweek it to change that. The sharp/blunt switch is a very cool feature as well, which can make you're sound mellow and bassy, or trebbly and a little more piercing on the sharp setting.

Built like a tank, looks like home plate. I'd gig with her without a backup. I don't like the screw off battery compartment, though, and the fact that the battery sits between the circuit board, so it's only getting a 7.

Never dealt with them, although I've heard they are excellent.

Overall it's a great overdrive pedal at a good price. Great for many styles ranging from blues to modern rock to metal. If it were lost or stolen, I'd be pissed, and probably by another used or something. In comparison to the tube screamer, the jekyll almost nails it, but it's more of a versatile pedal because of the addition of the hyde channel.

This pedal is fairly straight forward, with a few knobs and a switch. It was farily easy to figure out how to use it properly after a bit of tinkering and following the suggested settings manual. The manual is farily sparse, but sufficient to get you going. for ease of use I would say somewhere in the middle

Here is where I want to weigh in. I have read other reviewers saying their unit is quiet. The Jekyll and Hyde I used, had a very bad hissing white noise when used with both my Stratocaster and Les Paul guitars. I emailed the company and they said to send it in for a check. Living in Europe, I did not find this cost effective, so I declined the offer. I am using a Siegmund MS single ended amp, and a Custom Roccaforte 40 watt 2x12 combo. Some of the sounds, particularly the Blues sounds I found nice, everything else was pretty much a wash out for me. I was a bit skeptical of this pedal before having read about it, and the fact they are not true bypass. I found this to color my tone too much for my liking as well so I am not going to give it hign marks for these reasons.

The pedal looks fairly sturdy itself. The areas of contention for me were the flimsy battery cover, the little rubber feet on the bottom came off rather quickly, which is not a big deal, however I was only using it in my flat, and never gigged so I thought it a bit odd. I also took the pedal apart and found the pre printed circuit board to be housed in too large a container. I think the pedal could have been designed a bit smaller to still acheive the same effect looks wise and saving pedal board space. I understand that in mass produced materials the common sizes will keep cost down, however I found this also to be a design flaw.

I am a bit at odds here. I was not happy with the pedal due to the hissing sounds I was getting out of it, and the way it colored my tone too much. I will give them high marks for offering to take it back and have a look at it. I really wanted to like this pedal, but it is just not the one for me. I also emailed another well known pedal modifier to have it looked at and they indicated they would not touch it. I was stuck with it.

Our band plays 60's-70's rock music and some blues. I was looking forward to this pedal based on an interview with the owner of the company and the following review of the pedal line. I was not happy with the sounds that came out of it and the horrible noise as stated earlier. I would not buy one of these again if it were lost or stolen nor would I recommend them to anyone serious about getting good tone. I read the arguments for not making the pedal true bypass, and they make sense to me. I for one will not buy a non true bypass pedal anymore as I believe them to color the tone of the guitar to much for my liking. I sold this to a friend for what I bought it for, thankfully, and got my money backout of it. I have read the client list and it is impressive. This pedal is not my cup of tea and I think for a modest imcrease in spending, you could get something superior to this pedal for instance, any number of Boss pedals in this category. I compared this pedal to a KOT from analogman, an original Tube screamer, a HAO Rumble Mod, a Foxrox fuzz face, and a modded Boss Metal drive, and a DS-1. I found them to be superior in Tone to the Visual Sound pedal. One could argue that, these pedals cost more than the Visual sound, and I would I would counter with you get what you pay for. I am not going to completely disregard the pedal, I think there is a market for it, sadly I am not in that market anymore.

It's not a rack unit so no problemo! You can get every sound you want by twisting 7 knobs overall, it's quite simple and anyway, I think it's fun to explore a bit any new unit to see his capabilities.

I think you have to run this unit trough a good tube amp in order to achieve a descent tone. My set up goes like this. Fender strat with humbuckers-cry baby-Ibanez ts-10-JH-Digitech digidelay-Fender deville2X12. Simple set-up, awesome tone. I first bought the unit for the hyde side but I enjoy the jeckyll side as well. I owned every distortion on the market and this one's a killer! Jeckyll side is very warm and sweet, great for Eric Johnson sound and blues, it nails the overdrive channel of my Deville wich is to thick, not warm at all. The pedal can be a great clean boost and also great for low drive leads. The hyde side is a kickass gain maniac!!! Lots of drive and sustain without too much loss of clarity and too much noise...hey, it's a distortion so it has to make noise right? Very warm trough the tube amp, great harmonics and pick attack, I love it. However, I'm a bit disappointed about the bass lost you get when you conbine both channels together. This is not happening when I put my ts-10 before the JH, this way, I get a great boost for solos without any bass lost. Maybe this is due to the chain signal of the JH, it's seems like it is configured for the hyde signal to come before the Jeckyll signal in the chain effect. But you still can get great sound from combining both channels.

Got it for 2 months, no problems so far, seems to be built like a tank, but like any other effect, you should use a power supplie, battery sucks!!!

I play rock, blues and metal. It fits all those style very well. I don't play gigs anymore so I bough it for home playing, it souds good at room level, and awesome with the amp cranked. I've been playing for 15 years and I've owned a lot of device over the years. This is the best distortion I ever played trough and the price is fair concidering this is two unit in one. I've never used it with any other amp but I'm sure it's sound great trough any good tube amp.

Pretty simple to use- all the other reviews really explain it well. 2 channels - Tone, overdrive and volume on Jekyll: T, O, V and EQ on Hyde with a Sharp / Blunt switch.

Killer... thats all I can say. I run a 75 Tele dlx through a 74 Twin - pedal board consists of original KIng Vox Wah, Boss CS3, MXR Phase 45, Danelectro Cool Cat and a Boss DD-6 delay. Needless to say, the board is a little noisy... so I was afraid that the Jekyll and Hyde would put the noise a little overborad, but it is VERY quiet. I was shocked especially since I am using SC pickups. The pedal sounds great once you get it tweaked out. The Jekyll chanell took me all of 2 minutes to get my sound. Simple enough - Drive, volume, and a "tone" control that acts as a mid-range boost. The Jekyll chanell took a little more work to get a good tone going.. working with the "sharp / blunt" is the key. But after a few minutes messing with it, I dialed in what I wanted. I play everything from the Police to Govt. Mule, so I was looking for something that would have the range. The Jekyll sounds like an old AC30 - i am getting that great "Mike Campbell" tone. The Hyde sounds like a Marshall stack if you dial it in just right. Perrrrrfect for the Warren Haynes / Santana solos... only caution is running the 2 channels together... too much drive on either channel will cause uncontrollable feedback.

So far so good.....

Never dealt with them....

Trying to find an OD that suits a Fender Twin is difficult if you ask me. I've had everything from Danelectro Daddy O's (gooood pedal) to Maxon OD's... some sounded as good, but this gives me the most versatility. I've only had it for a few weeks, but I feel that I am going to fly with this pedal for a looooong while. Definitley worth the cash...

No problem at all: 2 OD's one with vol/tone/gain the other with vol/tone/eq/gain and a blunt/sharp switch.
extremely simple, no worries about finding a good sound

I play an Epiphone SG (brute, classic rock, and warm cleans) and a Pacifica (more modern sound, with capababilities of wonderful wimpish pop tones) then the J&H, then into a H&H V-S Musician 100 or a Fender Eighty-Five.
Green Light gives a nice overdriven tone that works very well using a Rhythm pickup, and is good for strumming some open chords on. A bit weak if you want to play some scorching leads, which i'm fine with as i am a rhythm player. To get the best tone out of it, you would need to crank your amp up, so dont worry if it sounds a bit wimpy when you're in your room.
Red Light is pretty much for anyone. Tones available are some bluesy stuff, britpop, indie rock, and heavy metal/hardcore punk. Nothing to fault for this, but make sure you dont crank up the treble way too high if you paly live, and use chords, and they kind of dont standout too well, unlike the Green OD.
Both Together is standout my favourite tone, being a Hardcore/noise rock fan. turn the amp up, and it is quite impossible for it to stop feedbacking, unless you cut off your guitar. play it through a Solid State amp (like Black Flag) and you really do get some raging sound that will be suited for DIY/Lo-Fi kinda rock.
This is Pretty much suited to anything and everything, but may need tweaking when moving from your bedroom to a Stage.

All Metal Chassis, indestructible the way i treat it. only quip is that you need to remember to unplug your power pack to let the electricity drain off or else the pedal will lose alot of it's power. haven't tried it with a battery.

I bought Mine 2nd hand, so i dont know anything aobut customer support.

I play in a rock band that basically needs all types of overdrive, from smooth bluesy, to 70's rock, to 80's hardcore to modern indie rock, and i can safely say that it will cater for pretty much everything. The Jekyll and Hyde is my first OD pedal, and i havent had a craving for another pedal (except possibly an extra J&H for my live setup)
seriously, anyone with 120 quid or can find a 2nd hand one, consider this as a companion for any type of rock music

The Jekyll side is real easy to use...3 knobs just like a tubescreames. Hyde took a little tweaking. I messed with it for a few days before finding the right sound for me. It's a very versatile piece of equipment...to the point where at first finding the right sound can be a little overwhelming.

My setup: Fat Strat Texas Special > Analogman Chorus > Phase 90 > Jekyll & Hyde > Twin Reverb '65 RI
Jekyll sounds alot like my old tubescreamer...maybe even a little sweeter. Hyde gives me a decent marshall/mesa type sound.
Using them together is where this thing really shines. I get a nice crunchy lead tone with lots of harmonics.
Jekyll is nice and quiet. Hyde gets a little noisy when you crank the drive up real high, but that's to be expected, and it's not bad.
I'm resisting giving this a 10 because nothing is perfect.

Haven't owned it very long so I couldn't tell you. Maybe if I gig I'll throw my TS-9 in the car just in case. But it sure is built solid...the only possible weak spot may be the switches. Time will tell.

Haven't dealt with them but I hear they're good.

I was using a TS-9 for my overdrive...and as great as it sounded, it's a very tame pedal. I play alot of funk and bluesy rock and it was great for that but I wanted the option of a much heavier overdrive, and I NEEDED more for really smoking leads. I thought of putting a Rat or even a SECOND TS-9 in my chain. Then I started hearing about the Jekyll & Hyde and found this one on ebay for $89.00. I figured TWO overdrives in one pedal means less cables, less signal loss, less batteries or wall warts...etc. The guy said it was new...and it seemed like it was.
It turned out to be just what I was looking for. I still get my tubescreamer sound, PLUS I have my heavier crunch, PLUS I can run them together and get great sustain & harmonics.
If stolen I'd replace it ASAP.

7 knobs 2 footswitches a sharp/blunt switch... 2 pedals in one easy package... love the metal buttons, tight rubber knobs and heavy duty look... wicked!!!

i use my custom made lespaul type copy thru my jeckyll n hyde thru a peavey classic 30 (great affordable tube amp) great sounds with this pedal lots of versatility and most of the settings are very usable... the od sides gain control is usable at all settings and is very warm and transparent, one of the best i've tried... cuts a bit of bass but it still sounds great thru the clean and dirty channels of my amp... it could use a bit more output for that clean boost... the hyde channel is extremely versatile... it can copy the sounds of the ds1, proco rat and metal zone, maybe even slightly better... the sharp/blunt switch along with the powerful eq and tone knob gives this lil monster the edge above the rest... another plus is that its very transparent... from classic rock to scooped metal the guitar sound still comes through, it hardly colors your tone... i dont give effects a 10 rating coz nothing is perfect... this gets a 9.5

2 years spit on stomped on dropped and puked on... no backup no problems... stomp on it!!!

i duuno about the company but i never had to deal with em

i play punk blues classic rock and some metal... black crowes, acdc, razorback, ramones, rancid, zztop, black label society, metallica, ozzy, sabbath etc. this pedal can do it all with great quality... if you can find one of these grab it!!! i guarantee that you will stop buying other overdrive/distortion pedals.... well maybe for a while at least :)

easy to get god sounds out of jeckly side, hyde has more range so was a bit harder to get "my sound"

Flying V with EMG's- crybaby-jeckyl and hyde- fender hot rod deluxe. not too noisy, but with emgs, you get alot of output which equals more noise. it sounds pretty darn good to my ears. i can get just about any tone out of it, from classic to new.

i thought it was pretty solid until it stopped functioning properly, it is currently producing slight distortion while switched off which is a huge problem. i am in process of contacting the company, and with what i have heard, a repair should be quick and cheaply performed by the company.

i hope they are good

good sounds, not too relaiable, hopefully a fluke. well suited for styles fromblues to rock to punk to that new crap if you play that.