Visual Sound JH1 Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive

This thing is two pedals in one and it is set up like two pedals sitting next to each other. Easy... yes. The controlls are very basic and effective. One side is a lighter to medium gain. The other is a medium to high gain. There is also a blunt/sharp switch which is a good and bad thing. Which I'll explain under the sound and overall chunks. Each side has drive, tone, and volume knobs. The high gain side also has an EQ knob.
Only one compliant. That is the battery compartment is the worst design idea I have ever seen. Its on the bottom and the lid is a piece of plastic that swivels open on a screw. Even worse then that is the fact that the circuit board is what holds the battery in. Either I'm pessimistic or thats mojo gone bad comin' right at ya. Hence the 9 rating.

Well I play a Epi Les Pual custom with a Duncan JB in the bridge. Amp is a Red Bear MK120 Lead head into some old Ampeg 4x12(which by the way is really big!! As in size and sound.)loaded celestions. Effects in order of guitar to amp are Vox wah,Ibanez DL-5 delay,Ibanez FL99 analog flanger,Ibanez PH99 analog phaser,Vox V830 distortion booster, and the J&H.
First the lighter distortion side or the "tube screamer" side. Astounding would be a good word to use. It sounds just like some old tube screamers I played with. Even the tone knob reacted the same. Good for pop,country,blues,funk, or any time a half clean half dirty sound is needed. Soooooo tubey.... it had me playing for hours. I now like the lighter driven sounds I now get.
Now for the high gain side. What else can I say but this is so far the thickest, ballsiest, well defined distortion tone I've ever heard. This side of the pedal is amazingly versitle and clear. The magic is in the EQ knob and blunt/sharp switch. Once again its sooooo tubey. It resonates like no other pedal.
Use the two together and bam your instantly the lead guitar guy! Yeah three cheese blend baby!

Well the only other pedal I got from this company crapped out on me. So the store gave me a replacement and that one broke too!!! So if you see a Visual Volume pedal anywhere do not buy it. But this one is a much more solid unit. So far its been fine. Although I've only had it for 4 months

Haven't ever dealt with them.

I've been playing for... 11 years... I think. I play all forms of music but, I mainly play a darker,odd chorded, odd timed hard rock. The notes I play come out crystal! Everything is heard and beautiful.
If it were stolen I would find them and do not so nice things to them. I would get a back if I could afford it. Even though its probably not needed.
Now the compliant about the blunt/sharp switch. Another arosol huffing moment for the designers... its attached to the circiut board! If it gets stepped on in a bad aim miss happ it will crack the board and buh bah crunch box.
Still kick ass sound!!!

The pedal is pretty straight forward. There are two sides and a set of control knobs for each side.
Jeckyl:
Drive, Tone, and Volume
Hyde:
Drive, Tone, EQ, and Volume
They could train a monkey to use this pedal.

I'm running the pedal through an 80s model Fender Blues DeVille with an Epiphone Dot guitar or my Fender Squier. The sound is awesome. The pedal even turns my Epiphone into a monster. My band plays punk, blues, and straight ahead rock, so I need versatile gear, and that's what this pedal gives to me. I can get a SRV sound and a Jimi sound, and the next second get a sound like Angus Young. I'm sure this pedal can do a lot more than that, but that's all I've really used it for.

It's pretty solid and I've gigged without a backup for this bad boy.

Haven't used it yet

I've been playing for about 6 years now and this is, by far, the best pedal I've owned. If someone stole it from me, I'd buy another one. If versatility is what you've been looking for, this is the pedal for you.

This thing is simple enough for beginner to expert to use, with only 7 knobs and one switch (for comp. on the hyde side), and EXTREME versatility of overdrive/distortion sounds, it has just enough knobs for nearly anyone's sound.

This is only the second review I have felt so inclined to post. This pedal is AMAZING. The dude at Visual Sound really knows what he's doing... I'd say that it must be God-thing for him to design such a wonderful sounding gizmo.

On the left side (green), of course, one has the Jekyl, a very tube-screamer sounding channel only it DOES NOT suck out low end and is a bit less compressed (or just compressed differently). TOTALLY smooth and creamy from chords to subtle single notes. The tone control is superb... You can get extreme mellowness to extreme high end bite around 2-4 kHz.
The Hyde side (red) is a totally different story. It is stricly heavier than the prior. MUCH more crunch and growl to it. Definately more heavy rock, marshall, vox/mesa (sort of) sounding... The EQ knob. Ha! What a suprize. It's only got ONE EQ knob. But you just wait and see (or go stinkin' try it)... That knob will take you from beautiful rich and punchy drive to almost COMPLETELY SWEPT out midrange for the more hard core sound. Also on this channel are the tone knob and compression switch. They work hand in hand. You want compression? Turn up your tone. You don't want it? Turn down the tone.

This is, though not by far, one of the best overdrive/distortion pedals I have ever used. I mean, anyone who has used a variety of pedals KNOWS that every overdrive and/or distortion pedal has its own unique qualities and characteristics. The thing is, this one covers quite a few of them (or REALLY DARN close to them) VERY well, and well... It just has this very 3D sweet spot all over it (especially on the Jekyl side). Let's put it this way... For the Jekyl alone, I would buy this pedal. The Hyde (even when you run them both at once and balance them nicely) is just a HUGE bonus.

My great thanks and appreciation to Mr. Visual Sound... Everyone I have talked to (several friends/professionals/etc...) loves your Ultimate Overdrive, and I feel that it is a title WELL deserved. Why this pedal is so cheap, I have NO idea. I know it's not completely true bypass, but really, for this baby, I don't care. Thanks.

YES. It's rugged. Hard-core switches. Today is my birthday. I've had the Jekyl for about 11 months now. No worries about it breaking, but if it did, Mr. Visual Sound (I have no doubts) would save my day.

I've spoken with him once via email. A gentleman and an electronically inclined poet. Shalom to him. Haven't had a breakdown of any pedal yet, so I only give it a 9.

Any person seeking a wonderful overdrive pedal should get this. I am VERY impressed, and I recommend this to everyone I talk to -well, everyone who plays guitar worth anything. Shalom to all.

Great manual with cool suggested settings
Very easy to get a good sound

Not too noisy
Makes a great sound (sounded huge on volume 4 on a small Fender combo)
Great variety for all three switching settings

I would definately depend on it
I would use it in a gig without a backup (mainly because I'm skint)

Their website seems quite informative

Good for all styles
I would buy a new one if it were stolen or lost
I bought it due to the good reviews on the site and all the good things that I heard are true

I play bass and guitar, the guitar sounds great at almost any setting, BASS takes some noodling, but it pays off when using the distortion side, Jack Bruce or Tool type tone with good bass production. I use the OD side as a signal boost for solos or to give major distorto bass tone combined.

On Bass I use an modulus Fretless 4 into EBS BassIQ envelope filter, then Jeckyl/Hyde into a DBX 166 compressor then to SWR Bass 750 and Eden 4x10 speaker. Great bypass, I'm a true bypass weenie. Boss sucks! Pretty good grit like Geezer or Jack Bruce, Justin Chancellor, and Claypool big distorto tones for dynamic surges are great too. The perfect distortion is a raging Ampeg tube amp, so I have to give a 9.

Been gigged and "spilt upon" for 6 months, good on battery life too. I don't use a backup at all, never failed.

No failures. Friends use the rt 66 for bass too, no problems ever, he's addicted to it (rt 66)

I play Funk and Jazz, Sabbath and improvisational music. Great for short bursts of grinding texture or to add grit when needed. When used with the envelope filter it can do some cool triggering type effects for soloing. I've played for 17 years, great match for my style and would be very cool for metal players too. I'd replace it again and again, I tried many distortions and this gets the nod for subtlety and the in your face super gain too. I love it, it says "blunt" as one of it's settings (compressor), what more can you ask?

Couldn't be any simpler! All the controls do exactly what they say, with a nice smooth transition from each end of their scale to the other. I've just been fiddling about with mine, and with a bit of patience, you can get nearly any driven sound you want - right from a slightly driven jazz tone to full-on fuzz and thrashy tones. I find that combining the two channels and making use of the sharp/blunt slider is the best way to call up different tones. Also, the fact that there are dual volume pots means that you can use them more as mix controls when both channels are on, giving even more tonal flexibility.

I use a dual humbucker Tanglewood and homemade strat with high output Kent Armstrong single coils, sometimes a Les Paul special, into a Laney HCM65R, with a Korg multi-effects unit giving some occasional modulation, and I always find I get a great sound from this pedal.

With the drive from the pedal switched off, there's no true bypass, but I can't detect any colouration to the tone of my guitars.

Kicking in the Jeckyll side, you can get pretty much anything between a nice, twangy country tone through to a Keith Richards-ish, overdriven vintage amp tone. One thing I would say about this side of the pedal is it's a little too trebly for my taste sometimes, and I can't really fill it out with extra mids or bass with the pedal itself (I have to use my amp's EQ) but that's mostly personal preference. I tend to use this side to supplement the Hyde channel - it's great for boosting gain and knocking off a bit of fizz if you've got the Hyde running in 'Sharp' mode.

Moving on to the Hyde, there's much more scope for different tones. I play medium to heavy rock in my band, and I never need to use anything but this side of this pedal for rhythm playing. There's a great range of gain, and its worth experimenting with different settings on the EQ, tone and Sharp/Blunt controls to find great tones for different styles. Again, it's extremely versatile.

The only overall comment I'd make about the sound is that it doesn't really do very bassy tones - the only sound I struggle to get out of it is a really warm, Slash-style sounds, or modern high-gain, rectified stuff, although you can get close by combining both channels, and you can still get fuzzy, thrashy stuff out of it.

If it wasn't for that one complaint, it'd get a rating of 10 for tone.

I've had this pedal for about 2 years now, and I had one brief problem with the power socket (it's a bit flimsy), but the shop I bought it from replaced it easily.

It's all contained in a solid metal case, the switches, pots and jack sockets are build like fekkin' rocks, it gets gigged a fair bit, and I've got total confidence in it. More than my shitty Korg...

No idea!

This pedal does pretty much everything I want it to, and for the price it was a bargain, although it was supposed to be #120-ish (I think). That said, it'd still be a bargain at full price.

I think they're pretty rare, so if you see this pedal, buy it. Could be a classic for the future.

Very straightfoward dual stomp box, which can yeild a lot of different sounds, without being complicated to use. Left side is OD, right side is distortion, with a bright (sharp)/ duller (blunt) voicing switch for the distortion pedal. Just turn the knobs and go for it. I was able to find a useable sound from both sides in less than a day

This pedal can definetely fill gaps. I own a Carvin Legacy amp, and it has a smooth high gain sound, similar to say a Mesa Boogie Mark or an amp in that realm. With the od side, I can get a slightly broken up sound, perfect for a bluesy sound. I don't have any guitars with single coil pickups, but I imagine it would sound wonderful with say a strat. Of course it also sounds great with a humbucker equipped guitar. I set the distortion to sharp, and I can get a very sizzly soldano-ish high gain sound, with a good bit of clarity. I would advise against setting the gain too high on this pedal, the sound tends to get mushy with the gain jacked up. I set the distortion gain at 10 oclock, and the od gain at 8 oclock, and that is working for the sound I want out of it. For the money its a great pedal to put infront of a single channal amp. Just set the amp to clean and let this thing do the dirty work. Its a nice cheap alternative to a Fulltone Fulldrive, or a Tonebone, or any of those more expensive pedals.

I just got it, so I can't just tell yet. The switching is pretty silent, and the "virtual bypass" is alright. Its not as good as true bypass, but its ok. First time I bought a Visual Sound pedal, I received a defective h20 chorus/echo. I exchanged it for another one, and I have been loving that unit ever since. I like these Visual Sound pedals.

I have never dealt with Visual Sound, but it seems like a reputable company, and I like their product

I traded an MXR dynacomp for this thing, and I think its well worth it. Its a good looking pedal, that sounds great, and doesn't need to be tinkered with.

7 knobs, 1 sharp/blunt switch 2 on/off switches for each side, easy!!
Most if not all the settings in this mean looking box is very usable although it took me quite a while to figure out how to get a good sound with both sides turned on

I use a custom made guitar(mahogany body set neck dual buckers and a les paul bridge)->boss tu-12 tuner->jeckyll n hyde->boss ph-2 phaser->fender bassman 10

this box can really kick! It turns my clean sounding amp into a fuckin' marshall stack with just a single stomp!

jeckyll:
a mellow overdrive that is great for driving a tube amp. they say that it uses the same parts as a ts-9 but i never had a chance to compare the two. this is a very warm sounding overdrive that will not color your tone. i think it will satisfy tone freaks and gear snobs out there that are very picky with their overdrive. it's perfect for rock and blues when i crank the volume and just add a tiny bit of gain and tone thru my bassman 10. I get srv, clapton, ccr when i use it this way. with more gain i get classic rock sound(led zeppelin, black crowes, jimi hendrix etc.)

hyde:
has great bass and sounds great at any setting from distorted crunchy sounds to no holds barred metal, and it is very natural sounding but makes a bit of noise in high gain (it's high gain distortion duh!). I set this thing in many different ways, gain:10-12 o'clock, tone:zero or just a lil' bit, eq:10-2, volume: 12-3 set to sharp for a standard distorted tone. when i want a warmer effect i just put it on blunt and i raise the tone somewhere between 10-3. these settings are great for your standard hard rock/grunge distorted tone(acdc, black sabbath, soundgarden, razorback, collective soul etc.)
for metal this hing kicks ass! eq 3o'clock to max( i usually use 3 coz it has more definition this way) tone cranked set on blunt to get that mid scoop kick ass palm muting metallica sound.

both sides together:
two words... Marshall stack!! activate both sides together and keep the tone pretty low both sides, gain and volume set close to each other but don't crank it coz it will be noisy, set on sharp. use eq to shape desired tone and voila! Marshall stack type GRRROWL hehe:) were talking wild animal growl here not muddy toneless distortion.

I do gig with it without a backup. got it used but in great condition with the manual and box. its made of metal with metal switches and sturdy rubber knobs. never failed me before but the plastic sharp blunt switch scares me

never tried

I play rock, blues, classic rock and metal(not that slipknot korn shit i play sabbath, ozzy, metallica)
Amazing box!! the guy who sold it to me switched from guitar playing to bass and I got a great bargain P3000. you can play any distortion sound you want with it blues, metal and everything in between. both sides on and i'm talking growl with a unique voice that has given my guitar playing a unique voice. This is surely designed by guitar players for guitar players, they thought of everything. they set the switches close enough so you can manipulate both sides simultaneously, rubber knobs, metal chassis, heavy duty switch, never gets muddy sounding, 2 fx in one but uses 1 9v battery and it lasts pretty long plus it looks wicked!! too good to be true? believe it! I'd give this a 10 rating overall if it had true bypass on it and a metal sharp/blunt switch but I think thats askin for too much

it's about as easy as analog knobs can get.
very straight forward.
10

i play 6-string bass through a Hartke 3500 w/ 4-10's & 1-15.
rack mounted compressor/gate, 31 band eq, & a sonic maximiser in the head
boss octaver, crybaby wah, jekyll & hyde u.o., boss chorus ensembal & a
zoom mult-effects processor for special f.x. on the floor

i set the jekyll side pretty light as to get a smooth and creamy bite and mixes
well with the guitarists fucking heavy distortion as well as the cleaner stuff

but when i want to cut through the rhythm for a solo or exentuate our low-b-of-
doom death grind, i kick on the hyde side which i set the opposite from the jekyll side for extreme bottom-heavy fuzz that really screams bloody murder
10

ive had this for a year, so i cant really say for sure how reliable it is, but its built
like a tank, so im sure itll last for many years to come
10

i got no manual.took 10 minutes to get good sound

using a 1969 fender jazzmaster and a rehearsal peavey amp that sounded like it was gonna blow up once the hyde kicked in.i like guided by voices,sleater kinney.jim o rourke.i had the best gat sound i have ever had last night,i like the psychocandy sound on occasion. this is more of a strokes sounding pedal-the tone is good too.pretty vicious hyde action .big sound .i live in seoul so am at mercy of whatever amp is the house amp so this is my saviour.i freakin hate marshall solid state jcms and while i am at it ,why the hell cant fender make amps like they did in the 1960s with a warm overdrive that comes on when the volume gets loud to a point.out of the states ya never see old vintage fender amps.

id steal one if i saw one.sure. ihad a danelectro overdrive box that i never used anymore.this rules over it.