Visual Sound Jekyl & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive Red

Well, you can dail in only good sounds, realy you cant get bad sounds of it, so because it takes some time to find MY sound....
its an 8.

Classic, warm, chrunch tones at the Jekyll side very good for Blues, Jazz, Rock or Alternative tunes, very, very usefull and sounds realy tube like. a big fat 10 here.
The Hyde is more versatile very difficult to find the main sound, because its is great at every setting. From Hard Rock to Metal its all in there. My tip, dont pull the gain over 3 o clock or its sounds just to gainy.

My gear are Paulas and Strats, Marshall Plexi with 2 2x12, EHX Holier Grail, T Rex Replica delay, Jekyll and Hyde, Fulltone 69 Fuzz, moded Vox V 847.
And a littel home practise Amp.
I like it.

Mhh looks like a tank but sometimes the green LED dont work for a second, this is bad especially with low gain life situations, when you cant realy notice, is it on or not.

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I use this as my main overdrive distortion, I have the guvernor, ds1, sd1, Nobels, Big Muff, Zoom, and many more noise boxes but this one is the only I use, now.
I play since 15 years, from rock, blues, grunge, Metal,Jazz, everythink that is funn.
I play in a band, we make gigs, have demo Cd etc....and yes this one helps me to make musik and find great tones.

Pretty straightfoward in use, it's effectively just 2 dirt boxes mashed together, with a few switches. I skimmed the manual for any important info and just ignored the suggesting settings since..well..I have ears and hands, so can adjust the dials til it sounds good.

I primarily use hot singlecoils (Strat & Jazzmaster) into a few assorted delay and modulation FX, into the front end of a Marshall JCM2000 DSL50 and 1936 2x12 cab, with the amp set so the clean breaks up a bit when I dig into the strings. That's what tube amps are for, aren't they??

So you've got your 2 sides, the green 'Jekyll' overdrive and the red 'Hyde' distortion- green has a bass boost switch, red has a "sharp/blunt" switch which is basically a treble boost/cut. Right, one side at a time..

The overdrive is "a funny one", as they say. There's loads of pedals out there that audibly mix the clean with the overdriven signal to retain clarity (the original Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal does, an old fave of mine) and even some that allow you dial in the balance (Sparkledrive). I reckon the green OD side could do with one of these balance dials. Far too much clean in the signal, it just sounds like 2 sounds crammed together in a very unsubtle way, like you're running 2 amps or something.

Fortunately, this works a lot better with a crunchy amp though, the general mix between the 2 is a lot more subtle and pleasing. The bass boost switch is a boon, since so many Tubescreamer type pedals will lose your low end. The gain and tone controls cover a fairly wide spectrum, and the level can very LOUD! More on this later..

So, the red side. Why the hell Visual Sound decided to put that Sharp/Blunt switch in, I'll never know- even with the tone down all the way down, and said switch set to Blunt, I find the distortion still a little too bright. And I use singlecoils, so it's not like I'll have a high treble setting on the amp, I keep it fairly low to keep things smooth. God knows what it'd sound like with a more trebly, humbucker-friendly amp EQ setting.

The EQ dial is pretty useful, but I always leave it on "0" for the lovely midtone. It's not a 'honky' midtone by any means, it just sounds so much fuller in the lower settings. Bringing it up scoops the mids for braving early thrash metal territories.. fun once in a while, but not what I'm about. The volume has just about enough scope, could maybe do with being a little louder maybe, you can't get the huge volume boosts like availabe on the OD side.
from Mik
Now the low end problem. The Hyde seems to have low end hump around 150hz or so.. not a FAT low end, more of a rumbly one. It's not really a problem, until you start palm muting and it all gets a bit wooly. So, I ordered the online mod pack walkthrough thing at Indyguitarist.com to tame the low end, just a simple resistor swap. It made a bit of difference, but didn't totally cure it- I was worried about putting too low a value resistor in and finding all of the pedal's guts had gone since the bass was most prominent in that 150hz region.

But for all these niggles, I really like this pedal. I've got a warm, full sounding distortion on the Hyde side (gain at about 5, the tone and EQ low and the switch set to Blunt).. THEN! With the gain down and the tone and level at about 5-6 on the OD side, I've got a great sounding PHAT boost to add on top of the distortion. It's got a load more volume available too, I can almost double the volume with this setting.

This is what made this pedal for me. I'd messed around with EQ's and boosters to get my leads to cut through with limited success, but with the J&H I can get such a great lead tone and huge volume boost. The amp needs to be set fairly clean for this though, run into a crunchy clean channel, the solo boost just slams the front end for more preamp gain, not a volume boost.

Phew, that was comprehensive. I guess I tend to go for the classic rock-indie rock kinda guitar tones (ala Stephen Malkmus) and this pedal does a pretty decent job. Noise is pretty low unless you dime the gains on both sides, then you get this strange minor oscillation thing..might use it on a song actually..

After having taken the pedal completely apart to get at the PCB for modding purposes, I'd say I have a lot of faith in the construction and parts. Everything seems really sound, no dodgy soldering jobs or anything.

Not had to contact Visual Sound, but from what I hear, the main dude is a real gent.

I mainly bought this because.. well, I got a tax return, haha.. but wanted some kind of dual distortion thing so I could boost for solos and stuff, and also a nice natural overdrive. Turns out I'm alot more into the distortion side with a low gain setting and using the OD for the boost! So it worked out pretty well.

If it broke, I'd probably buy something else, because I like trying new gear really.

So yeah, a few annoyances like it's slightly bright nature and the rumbly low end but it's a great pedal for what I need it for.

I've got a few minutes of samples with the pedal if you're interested in hearing it in action. Just drop me a line at the email addy supplied.

Although it has 3-4 times the knobs of most overdrive pedals, I dialed it in quicker than any other I;ve used. I have never needed the manual. My only complaint is its size. I find it tough to fit such a big pedal in my pedal board. However, to contradict myself, I also find its girth helpful because it has two switches, and its width makes it easier to use the switches indepedently without accidentally hitting the other one.

This is the greatest overdrive pedal on the market. For years I have been trying in vain to get a natural sounding pedal, only to experiment with pedals that sounded thin and lacked bass. This sucker does everything. I use the overdrive for rhythm and then add the distortion for leads. It's easy to control and shape the tone, and it makes my Fender tweed deluxe reissue sound like a Marshall. I used to A/B my tweed for clean with a 412 tube half stack for crunch, but I no longer need to with this pedal. I has so much bass and fullness with the bass boost switch engaged, and it sounds 100% natural. I find that the two channels work very well together. I truly don't understand why someone would feel otherwise unless it was user error. I normally don't review products, but for this I made an exception.

Hasn't broken yet . . .

not needed

Sonically perfect.

Difficult to get good sounds out of both channels together, and the Hyde channel is basically useless as far as good tone is concerned. No amount of tweaking on the Hyde channel gave me a clear, cutting, well-defined sound. Jekyll side yields some decent tones, but nothing to really get excited about.

I run an American Standard Strat loaded with Seymour Duncans and a Gibson Custom Shop Class 5 Les Paul into a THD Univalve with a Celestion loaded 2-12 cab. Effects include a 535Q wah, Big Muff, Keeley-modded DS-1, Keeley Katana boost, Keeley-modded CE-2, and Keeley-modded DD-3. The Jekyll and Hyde was noisy and cheap sounding to my ears. I really wanted to like it, but I found it to be a total disappointment. As I said before, the Jekyll side is okay, but I couldn't get a ballsy, hard rock sound out of the Hyde side. The tone always seemed muffled and confused no matter what I did with the EQ. My Keeley DS-1 blows this inferior pedal away.

No functional problems with it while I had it. The paint chips off very easily, however.

Never contacted them.

This pedal rates a 3 only because the Jekyll side is somewhat useful. The Hyde channel rates a big, fat ZERO. In my opinion, this is an overpriced, over-hyped inferior piece of junk. The Keeley DS-1 is lightyears beyond this thing in tonal quality and COSTS LESS!!! I've been playing about 20 years now and have owned a myriad of pedals over the years. I bought the Jekyll and Hyde on a whim, and it was a mistake. I play blues and classic rock, and this pedal did not inspire or motivate me, and I'm glad to be rid of it.

Easy to use

carvin vintage 16, lespaul,strat,tele jeckle and hyde both sound very good, its not noisey, can get quite a variety of sounds with it

I got this pedal used like new condition and its built very well had it for several months with no problems

50's,60's, rock,country,hard rock, blues playing over 20 years
if I lost it I would get another
Tried quite a few other distortion and overdrive pedals before finding this one.

Easy nuff to get a nice sound out of. An addition of a switch to run either side or both would be easier then having to hit individual switches might be a nice plus. By which I mean having a switch that just goes from Hyde or Jekyl and not a switch for each as it has, plus a switch to run both if that is your gig, though I don?t like it ran together for noise issues. They are close nuff to hit together though, but problimatic somethings to turn one off and the other on that way.

I'm challenged to pull a bad tone out of this box, nice and rich, even if it isn't a true bypass. I run my FD2 for one tone, and the Hyde for another with the Jekyl as my phat over-the-top drive. Very well made, and adds so much girth to be admired.

So far so good but have only had it one month, hope it last as long as what it replaced. BK Bulter Realtube bought in 1983.

Again don't know, haven't yet needed to find out. :D

If you're looking to add extra punch on non-mater volume amps such as my old Maggy 460 and Gretsch Fury this is the box for you. If you have a Marshall a boast might be a better way to go. They Fulltone FD2 or OCD in that case are fine.

There are a lot of knobs but you won't get lost. There simply are no bad sounds in this box!
Some people seem to think that it is hard to get the two sides to work together.
I find that if you just spend some time with it you'll get great sounds out of this pedal.

Setup: Fender tele or Gretsch Duo - Jet into Lehle 1@3 - Ehx LPB-2 - T-Rex Moeller - Jekyll & Hyde - BYOC Tremole - BYOU Delay - EHx LPB-2 into Fender '63 Reissue Vibroverb or Peaver Classic 30.

I use the first LPB-2, the Moeller and the Jekyl & Hyde pedals as sort of like 4 stages for overdrive cascading them into each other wich I think is anabsolutely fantastic idea for getting good sounds out of overdrive stompboxes. This setup gives a lot of tonal oportunities ranging from "almost clean (which I love)" to a really hot and singing overdrive/distortion.

The Jekyl & Hyde I use like this: I set the Jekyll side to an overdriven sound that is not to dirty but with a good punch and sparkle. I then use the Hyde side to push it a little bit more to get more drive and a more singing sound. I started with using the "Hot blues" setting in the manual and just worked from there 'til I was home.
In this setting the Jekyll side sounds great by itself but the Hyde side is setup so that it will work together with the Jekyll side and that makes it sound absolutely crap by itself.

You can choose to use this pedal as two separate pedals or as one pedal with a sort of boost function which is what I do.

The sound of the Jekyll side is definitely a tubescreamer kind of thing. On the other hand, which OD isn't? It sounds absolutely great!
I use the bass switch most of the time. It makes the pedal sound full and rich. Some people think it gets muddy in a mix with the bass switch on. I have not noticed that so far but I'll try to listen for it.

The Hyde side is great to, both as a separate pedal and as a compliment to the Jekyll side. I guess you could get really good metal sounds out of it if you wanted to. The EQ control lets you scoop the mids. That is not my thing at all though. If you keep the gain low on the Hyde side you can get it to sound like a "tubescreamer on fire" sort of.

Both sides are transparent in my opinion and let the guitar come through.

And as I said. Putting boosters and OD's in front of it is something you REALLY should try. It just makes everything glow a little bit more if you know what I mean?

Yeah. Good build. The knobs don't twist too easily so you won't lose your setting accidentaly.
It can seem a little big but if you think about it as two pedals...

I don't even know what gigging with a backup means. Should I buy two pedals and keep one in my closet? Have a sence of adventure will you?

If I lost it I would try out the Menatone Fishfactory to compare. Otherwise I would definitely get another Jekyll & Hyde. I'm absolutely in love with the "two stage" approach you can do with this thing!

Never dealt with them. I hear good thing though.

I play rock in the style of Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Tom Petty and others. Been going for 14 years and have tried a lot of pedals. This one will stay on my board for a long time. Possibly forever.
My favorite thing with this pedal is how you can use the two sides together for great sounds.
I actually took a bit of a chance when I bought it. I was looking for a good quality OD and read some reviews on this site and looked around on the internet. It was either this one or the Menatone Fihfactory but since I live in Sweden it was too much of a hassle to get a hold of the Menatone. I would love o try it out some day though.
I look for pedals thatlets your guitar come through and this one does it so I'll keep it.

very easy,so 10 out of 10

I use custom strat-vox wha-small stone-marshall compressor-jekyll e hyde-roger mayer voodoo vibe-soldano supercharger-mesa formula pre-all fed into the power amp of a fender hot road de luxe.This pedal is a miracle! blues hot rocks metal end all in between,I compare it to the best sound of boogie and soldano but at a fraction of cost.
I's also very dinamic and works wonder with the wha.

I had a problem with the first vervion but the red new one is fine.

Didn't try.

I THINK THIS IS A REAL WINNER,IT COULD PROVIDE ALL THE OVERDRIVE AND DISTORTION YOU'LL EVER NEED!

This effect is intuitive to use. Dialing it in is a breeze.

Gibson Les Paul Studio -> Boss GE-7 EQ -> Jeykle and Hyde -> H2O

It sounds good and has a full range of color! I run through any guiatr amp I can get my grimy little hands on!!

I play a lot of styles. I compared this to so many crappy-sounding 'boutique' overdrive and distortion boxes you have no idea. I chose this one because it was actualy sounded pleasing.

You need good ears and a slow hand and you can dail every sound just simple in one minute.

The Jekyll is a smooth, chrunchy, sensetive and dynamik overdrive.
In my opinion 5 times better as the tubescreamers and bluesdriving-breakers etc. for roots rock sounds just simply a 12 for this side.
The Hyde is a good mix between that Marshall Full Stack tone that meets a rectifier and they rolling over your MetalzoneHyperleads. Wow, I can use it for anything harder stuff.
But it depends at all your equipment and especially at your fingers and ears. First try and than buy.

My setup. Gibson Paula, Fender Strat, Yamaha Strat, Kaman Strat, Crafter Acoustics in a Korg Tuner - Morley Wah - Jekyll&Hyde - Phase 90 - Digidelay - Holy Grail - in the clean chanel af my JTM 60 Home practise amp or my London City Halfstack at concerts.

Metal and solid metal case and metal and solid metal....and....

I play since 16 years, anything beetwen Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, Soundgarden, Metallica and myself stuff.
This is a long time keeper, and it makes me smile playing it.
But first check your ears and than your likings and than your money, the price is right for this one.