Visual Sound JH1 Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive

The pedal is easy, but you need to get a little crafty to get a sweet sound by mixing the two sides together.

I use a mid 70's epiphone sheraton with humbuckers, and an epiphone les paul standard with dimarzio humbuckers and I run through the J/H and a big muff into my sovtek mig-50 tube head and a fender dt-412 cabinet. It sounds great with just the overdrive slightly on, and my tube amp cranked up.

I have had this pedal for 2 years now and have not had a problem since I first got it. The right side swtich would not click for a little while, but the problem corrected itself somehow. I ahve not gigged with this pedal.

Never called them.

I love this pedal. I am now looking for a harder fuzz/ 60's garage sound. I'm looking into the Nick Greer Razor burn pedal. It's so awesome.

In my opinion, this is a very easy pedal to use. You dont really need anything other than he actual pedal, to understand what the controls do. Its basically a two channel tubescreamer clone/metal distortion pedal, although the Hyde can get blusey. Easy to get a good sound out of it. In fact, the only bad sound was with everything up full.

Maverick SF1 Custom>Crybaby>Jeckyll&Hyde>Digitech Whammy>Boss DD3>Marshall DSL100

If you keep the gains on both channels below 3 o clock, I dont really notice "alot" of noise at all. Its when the two channels are combined that hiss problems start, but you can tweak it out. I love the Hyde side. I use it to boost my solos, and it does a very good job. The Hyde side im less impressed with. Although it is a GREAT sound, there is just too much mid cut gooing on. I know its mainly to be used for metal (or which it does and admirable job), but a bit more mid wouldnt hurt? Its great for Grunge/Punk/Metal, though. Combining both channels is when the fun starts. If you start off with a metal rythmn sound, and set the Jeckyll side up with a bit more volume, you get a nice mid/volume boost for those widdly solos. Exellent. It feedsback like a mo'fo' tho' when you let go of the strings (only at extreme settings, I might add) Great sounds all around.

It looks absolutely solid, while still looking very cool. I would depend on it. Im not one to abuse my pedals (or my stuff in general). In fact, I really look after my gear. Its still early days, but the first impression is a thumbs up.

Ive heard they are great. The website has some nice info, and soundclips, which is a big bonus. Im sure they are cool. A mention to Peach Ideas in England though, for their outstanding turnaround (ordered saturday, came tuseday morning! on normal post!)

Ive moved away from shred and metal now, and ive really got back into oasis, nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam ect... This pedal does its job exellently. Very versatile. How can anyone not find a use for it? Solo booster? You got it. Metal Pedal? Yup. Blues box? You bet.

This is a great pedal with amazing crunch. Versitle! Just turn the knobs and you are there. Volume knobs for each ditortion side and two switches.

Jekyll side is a very nice solid state tube screemer but the Hyde side gets really noisey, crunchy and bitey. Byut what do you expect from a Overdrive?

My amp fell on it durring a concert. I broke the jekyll side and was lost eith out it. Aside from a 60 pound amp falling from 3 feet high on top of it I found it to be very dependable and I've owned it since `98.

When I broke the pedal I called the customer service and Bob himself picked up the phone. He said that if I would ship him the pedal he would fix it and send it back for free. He is a wonderful guy to talk to and very easy to work with! If I could give him higher than a 10 I would.

I would recomend this pedal as anyones #1 in the distortion arsenal. It's reliable, great customer service, and not to pricey at all!

tubescreamer on the left.stack on the right.

goes from fat to scooped on the stack side by turning the eq knob.

it's a doddle!

The best way I found to use this is straight into the front of an old, single channel, clean tube amp. I used to use it with a Boss DS-1 (for extra gain on the TS side) and a wah in the front all going into a Marshall Super Bass (really clean).

I found it's only really noisey if you run it into an amp with a stacked pre amp stage. Old amps usually have a lot less gain to start with so the sound is cleaner and the amp doesnt "magnify" the hiss as much. Anyway, stand next to a dual rectifier with the gain and the master way up and tell me it's quiet.

Using both pedals together will probably make your eyes bleed

I gigged it, dropped it, lost it, found it again, threw it at the drummer and dropped my amp on it and it's still in one piece.

I know a guy who broke the switch on his (GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT HE DID TO IT. MAYBE HE DROVE OVER IT WITH A ROAD LEVELER) so they sent the store a new switch and paid for the engineer to fit it no questions.

Probably the most flexible distortion box I've come across.

I've played bluesrockjazzmetaldungeonrappunk and ska, and does it all!

It's worth having one in your bag just in case you ever do a shared backline gig and the guys amp sounds like a biscuit tin. You can wrestle a good sound out of nearly any amp with this little box (Have I tried? oh yes!)

the only way they could make it better is by putting the the channels the other way round. Then you could use the TS side to drive the stack side........ yes, that would be cool..

but they did'nt so just
Buy one anyway!

10...simple as any OD box.

well...i didnt have a ggod time with this peadl AT ALL. I play a gibson Sg with iommi bridge pickup through a 70's sunn solara (exremely quiet and clean head)and a nice 2x12 with soun city speakers. I excitedly race to the practice room to try this pedal when it came...UGH. In a word NOISY. My vintage script bluebox puts out about ooohhhh a TENTH the noise this pedal does on the jekyll setting. the hyde channel was a nice bluesy ts-808 type sound and nice and quiet...but maaaan try to use this thing on jekyll for metal and watch out...hiss city. Now...it can be gated out..but who wants to deal with gatey sounding palm mutes...yuk. I think visual sound dropped the ball on this one a little. i even tried it through my other guitar players les paul/soldano 50/4x12 setup and same this...hiss. Now i also tried his varidrive through my exact rig to make sure it wasnt my guitar and/or pickups and viola...no noise at all. It seemed like the tone was there with this pedal too...except buried in hiss. I sent this pedal back...post haste. Do not buy a jekyll and hyde with the intention of using it for high gain applications my friends. Sorry visual sound.

seemed solidly built *shrugs but a plastic battery cover and no adaptor???

didnt bother with them sent back to AMS

i cant in good concience give this pedal a good rating as in my opinion it does not do what it promises...not for me at least. why would you have all this amazing crushing tone virtually BURIED in hiss and hum? could be a great pedal with some redesigning, but in my opinion, right now, it's just not. A noisy noisy pedal when used for anything but bluesy semi-dirty gain.

This is an update to my review of about 4 months ago... since I've now had the pedal for 6 months and some serious gigging. It's still extremely easy to use- although the main setback is that now instead of just 15 or so knobs on your guitar amp, you now have 7 more from the J&H... oh well. In my pedalboard I have about 50 settings that I have to remember... so I just have my basic settings for everything jotted down and I can tweak from there.

My setup has changed very little since the last review. I still use a hot rodded Epi LP and now my Cort strat copy (and occasionally my Alvarez artist acoustic) into my pedal board. My pedal board- Guitar -> Dunlop Crybaby -> J&H -> Boss EQ (for mid cut EQing) -> Rogue EQ (Set for solo boosts) -> Arion Flanger (my fave flange on the market- buy it!) -> Morley wah/volume -> Ibanez Delay -> Fender Power Chorus 2x12 400W amp... Of course with a setup like this, I will always get a relatively large amount of buzz, but considering how many effects I have running in series, I just take it as the nature of the beast.

BTW- I've discovered (at least in my amp) that although the J&H shreds in front of the amp (ie between guitar and amp), it sounds powerfully weak in the effects loop- Jekyll side barely sounds dirty even at full gain. Doesn't bother me because I don't like using the extra cords anyway, but I thought I'd mention it.

When you click on distortion, of course it gets a little more buzzy (especially on the Hyde side - and even more if you try both sides), but you'll find that with any distortion. After all, how many times will you click on distortion and just leave it on when you're not playing? Jekyll is quite quiet, although I only have gain up to about 50 percent.

As for sounds of my favorite artists, I don't really care. I get my sound and if I'm covering songs, I just bend their songs to sound like me. Typically I've found the J&H to be a little muddy when playing chords that require all 6 strings to shimmer through (ie Creed and such)- but I'm guessing that's mainly because of my settings.

Since I submitted my last review, my Crybaby started crackling up on me, my Boss EQ started buzzing, my footswitch on my amp died, my input jack on the amp went AWOL, and even my beloved Arion Flanger started overdriving itself, but the ole J&H has kept itself and everything else reigned in wonderfully. Again, I've only had it for 6 months, but it has passed the "baby" phase and now takes as much of a beating as the rest of my equipment... and seems to be handling it quite well. Now if it can last 7 years like my Flanger without many problems, I'll be pleased.

Haven't had the pleasure.

I play sort of bluesy southern rock inpired rock. I also take some flavor from late 80s early 90s rock (so the Jekyll side gets a lot of lead work). I've been playing now for nearly 8 years, and I already let you know what other effects I use (not counting the stuff that's made it to my effects graveyard- my advice- DOD stands for "Dead On Delivery").

If it was stolen, I'd chuck DOD pedals at him until he dropped my J&H (cuz after all, DOD pedals are worth far less than other things I could throw, including rocks and pop cans).

My favorite part of the J&H is going to pro shows and counting how many pro pedalboards have this exact pedal running their 5 or 6 Marshall stacks.

Since I bought the pedal, a friend of mine bought the Boss Metalzone, and boy, am I glad I didn't buy that piece of junk. It's tinny and flat. No tone whatsoever. The only thing that I've found that's easier and sounds better is the Line 6 FlexTone amp... but I have a fear of all digital amplifiers... something that complex and expensive tells me that as soon as I would buy one, something important and expensive would break and then I'd be out of luck.

I love this thing. From slightly distorted to raucus punk, it does the job.

Many knobs...

But thats okay. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out how to use this baby. This has got to be the BEST dang pedal I have ever bought in my entire life!

How to get good tone out of the Jekyll and Hyde:
Step 1: Turn on unit
Step 2: Plug in Guitar and Amp
Step 3: Play Guitar. Turn knobs only if you have to!

This sucker ROCKS.

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. You want SRV? Jekyll. You want POD? Hyde. You want UNGODLY sustain? Both at same time. I use the dirty channels on my VS-100 Marshall only in extreme circumstances lol!

This thing is a freakin tank! Its acually made of sturdy metal, a concept unknown to most effects pedals....

Dunno, but I have heard great things about them.

I dont think I have stressed the awesomeness of this pedal enough. If someone stole my J/H I would track the jerk down and get it back. This is the best Distort pedal on the market. End of story.

pretty easy to use. it has lots of knobs but don't get overwhelmed, it's really just two pedals in one- one with three knobs(drive, tone, volume) and one with four (drive, tone, eq, volume). Two stomp switches, one for each section. Use them one at a time or at the same time as well.

I bought the pedal for use with bass guitar. Most of the review will deal with the sounds as used on bass, but when i used it on guitar i will make a note of it.

The first section of the pedal, "jeckyll" is an overdrive. Gets a little gritty and sounds pretty good. I would compare it to a marshall jmp or 800 getting on the verge of distortion. Very nice rounded overdrive sound.

The second section "hyde" is similar to a Boss Metal Zone or similar sounding metal distortion. The difference is the eq knob, which allows a much more drastic change in tone, allows you to get a big mid cut.

Used together is where the pedal really shines. Great, overdriven sounds... full and rich. However, not much bass when used with bass guitar. Not as much as some others when used with guitar either, hard to get good chugging low end outta it.

dunno. Seems built well. Loses points for the battery door on the back, which is a flexible piece of plastic screwed down at one end. You lift if up and swing it out of the way to access the battery. Pain in the ass.

didn't get to that point

pretty good pedal. I can think it would be best used by a guitarist in a cover band who needs metal distortion for a few songs and then some overdrive when he plays some clapton or something. Sounds damn fine with both on at the same time. If you're going to buy a Boss or DOD pedal, spend another $40 and get the Jeckyll and Hyde.

The complication on this product is proportional to the many settings you can get out of this box. I would not say is easy to use I will say it has a lot of differents posibilities really usables.
Still sounds great just when you get it out of the box.

I have Fender strat and gibson 345. It is not noisy at all just a little when you put both effects togheter but in a musical way. I never had or hear an overdrive or distortion from you can hear what Pick-up (in your guitar) are you using. With the J&H you can say for example in a strat if you are in position 2 or 4. I love it. I never like distortions or fuzz cause I always prefer the dirty channel of my Marshall JCM 2000 but since I have the J&H I use only the clean Channnel and use the pedal for all my overdrives. I also have a Mesa Nomad 55 and the same. In the Jeckyl part you get SRV in a box. I use this channel even for clean sounds cause I love the warm I get just with a little drive. I use it like this:
Jeckyl: Drive 9 0'clock Tone all Down Vol. 3 o'clock.
Yes I thinks in this pedal (like somebody said before) you don't have to add any tone or trebble to your sound because it sounds very natural and organic.
The Hyde part is another thing.
Drive 3 o'clock or up, Down or whereever you want. Eq Down Vol: 12 o'clock.
You can get all tipes of distortions from this. If you turn the Eq knob all the way up you get sounds like old british stacks and in the other side you get more compressed american styles I think.
You can really hear every note out of this box even at hi distortions settings. It is amazing. Shure you also get all the sustain you want ala Santana, Gary moore, EVH but in the jeckyl you can get also a really clean but drived sound ala Robben Ford. I don't do cause as I said before I use the Jeckyl side just for warm my clean sound.

I think this is the better pedal ever build. Is really nice to have two switches to pull down under your feet.
The leds are really bright and the box looks very solid. I don't see how a musician can break this. Do you?

I'm a guy who lives in Argentina so I did a lot of questions to Bob because I could not try the pedal up here and he always answer and help me really fast.
I remember I send an e-mail on friday'night and I found his answer on saturday morning when I supposed I would wait until monday.
Thanks a lot Bob.

I play rock and pop and this pedal is perfect for all modern styles I think. If you turn the EQ knob all the way up you can turn the pedal in a metal way and interacts all the others knob.( what I hate)I like the Eq Knob all the way down so I get a very fat compressed kind of middle focused distortion what I like. If you want that kind of bee screaming like zzzzzzzz then try the other. Even you can get a really nice Fuzz face or Big muffing sound.
I've been playing almost 35 years and try all kind of stuff and I can tell you you cannnot get a pedal like this anywhere.
I love the warm It has. You can drive but still hear the particular sound of your guitar even at hi levels of distortion. I've hear this a lot of times about other boxes but it was not true. They never distort so extremely. I don't want to name others brand but I can say I try almost everything including all boutiques stuff and I never found nothing to replace my marshall drived sound until I bought the J&H. I don't know how can Bob Weil sells this beauties at this price range comparing with the others. When I bought it I didn't think the true bypass will work as I've heard but it does.
This pedals have a great versatility.
By the way Is up there any chorus that sound really good?
Thanks for help.

I have a strange guitar/pedalboard/amp setup , using a Wendler guitar which has the BEST clean/jazzy tone i've ever heard..it has Kent Armstrong thinbuckers, and i've been shopping distortion/OD pedals to find a compatible one. Unfortunately, the J/h wasn't it.its a VERY good pedal , especially if you're looking for ts808 tone, which i don't care for.

this pedal is great in that you get 2 for 1 overdrives.

very dependable

i wish this one had worked for me, i'm sure most folks would be thrilled with it.i'm trying a combination of Zinky True Grit and Jacques Fuseblower for medium/hot applications. Will review them when i've had 'em long enough.