JOYO R SERIES: THE PERFECT BUDGET GUITAR PEDALS?

Finding budget pedals that are well-made, creative, and unique can be a challenge, but in this article I'm going to show you one of my favorite budget lines that are currently being produced.

And no. It’s not Behringer.

No hate for Behringer, but I already did an episode of the JHS show on that, and I said what I wanted to say about that brand (honestly, most of it positive), but I’d like to stick my neck out for a different company today: Joyo.

Joyo has been making pedals for a very long time. The R series (also known as the Revolution Series) dropped in late 2018. Honestly, this whole series has flown underneath the radar for several years, which hurts my heart a little. These are just cool pedals. They're well made. They're in a really cool, unique enclosure. The circuits sound great. They're made to last, and they have some truly innovative sounds in them.

And you can get one of these pedals for under fifty bucks? Yeah, I’m not sure what shooting star you wished on last night, but your dreams are about to come true.

I'm going to walk you through my seven favorite pedals in this series. If you want to see some wicked sick demos of these pedals, check out my episode of the JHS show that dropped today.

Now, let’s do this thing.

Joyo Uzi

The first pedal I want to show you is the Uzi. It costs $49 (!!!) which is pretty amazing by itself, and it sounds great. This is basically a Marshall in a box, and it creates a British style amplifier sound that is really, really cool. Do me a solid and google the size comparison of an actual Marshall to the Uzi, and you may cry actual tears of joy.

The Uzi has a super powerful EQ low, mid, and high, that you can’t beat, but my absolutely favorite feature on this pedal is the bias control. It’s amazing. The bias control changes how this pedal reacts, how it sags, etc. It makes it feel like it has more wattage or less wattage. It actually responds under your fingers and your picking attack. It's really fantastic.

It makes this super versatile. Because of this bias control, I can tune in high gain overdrive sounds that I really love and would use, whereas I won’t use a massive wall of sound like modern Marshall sounds, because I just don't play that style of music. But I do love coaxing cool/on the edge of distortion overdrive sounds out of pedals like this. It’s very satisfying. The Uzi does it very, very well.**

**I’d like to take this moment to clarify that I am not talking about the American rapper Lil Uzi. Because that’s a real person that exists in the world, apparently.

Joyo XVI

Next up is the XVI. The XVI pedal is $90. Now, I know that may cause some people to go, “Is that budget?” Short answer: yes. Long answer: heck to the yes. I really do consider this to be a budget pedal, simply this pedal does its job really, really well for a (comparatively) low price.

This is a polyphonic octave pedal, meaning you can track multiple notes and you have a division of the low sub and the high upper octave. You can blend in your dry signal. It also has this really cool, unique feature of the mod control which adds movement and modulation into the octave. In some cases, you can get this spacey Leslie sound. I find unique sounds in this that I haven't really found in other octaves.

You can check out the JHS episode “What’s In Josh’s Mailbox?” for the demo of this pedal with a fuzz, but this thing is super useful and it makes a great addition to anyone who finds themselves playing lots of riff rock. If you use a lot of distortion and fuzz, it's awesome. Even if you don’t use a lot of distortion and fuzz, this pedal is still awesome.**

**This begs the obvious question: are pedals born awesome, or do they have awesomeness thrust upon them? We may never know.

Joyo Aquarius

Now, let’s take a look at the Aquarius delay/looper pedal. Yup. Both/and. Not either/or. In addition to the delay and looper functions, this pedal has tap tempo. If you press down on the switch, it turns into a tap control. Now, this pedal is super solid because it has all the classic sounds you want. It has tube echo, tape echo, plus a really nice reverse (I'm a fan of analog digital). It has a low bit, which is really a modulator delay.

But the star of this pedal is a mode called galaxy. Whatever you’re hearing in your head, it’s better. Trust me. It is spectacular. This mode is basically delay with phasing, a little flanging, some LFO of a tremolo movement, with a little auto swell? It just sounds like Pink Floyd and Incubus got together for some kind of Vans Warped Tour.

I don't even know. I don't even care what it is. It’s beautiful. Go listen to a demo, because you’ve just got to hear this. It's worth every dime of $90 for that one sound.

Joyo Tauren

Next up is the Tauren. It's a $55 overdrive that I really, really like. Now what is it? What does it sound like? I think that needs to be answered with my Google search.

What is a Tauren? “Tauren are huge nomadic creatures who live on the grassy, open plains of Mulgore in central Kalimdor. Tauren are large, muscular humanoids and bovine in appearance, complete with hooves and horns. Tauren stand anywhere from nine to twelve feet tall”-- so pretty much my height “--and they weigh 650 to 1000 pounds--” that's basically me in the winter.**

**Look, I’m not saying I’m a Tauren, but I will ask you this: have you ever seen me and a Tauren in the same place at the same time?

Now, for those of you feverishly flipping through your World Atlas, let me clarify: we’re talking about World of Warcraft here. Now, I'm hip. I know that's a video game. I haven't played it yet because I've played Fallout 4 for seven years, but let’s put our cards on the table: we all know this pedal is based around the Klon. And honestly? It does the Klon thing pretty dang well.

If I was going to use the Tauren on my pedal board, I'd set it up as I would normally set a Klon, as a high gain overdrive, I’d add some delay, and I’d thoroughly enjoy playing it.

Joyo Atmosphere

Up next, we have the Atmosphere, which clocks in at about $90. Worth every penny, let me tell you. This is the reverb offering from the R Series. Reverbs in the budget area have gotten better and better because of certain technologies, and this is a real standout to me because I'm really proud of Joyo and the fact that they did some classic sounds, like plate, church, and spring.

And then from there it's chaos. They went nuts. I mean, echo verb, shimmer, comet, rewind, forest pulse-- this pedal just devolves into a bunch of crazy reverbs, and I honestly like every one of them.

Coincidentally, it has a nice mod control, so you can add in movement. The tone is nice to darken that decay or brighten it up. And it’s $90, which again is a really great price for this.

Joyo Zip Amp

Next is the Zip, and it costs $52. Let's be honest. That's like three Starbucks Cappufrappés**, and that's a good deal.

**Patent pending, Howard Schultz.

This pedal has low and high controls, volume and drive, and then you have a clipping control for normal play. ‘Open’ is a nice, powerful, clean boost to drive, and then the ‘comp’ mode is more distorted, like a lower headroom amp. This is a fantastic pedal all by itself, but this thing really excels as a medium gain drive. It's honestly great with every guitar, but I demo’d it on the JHS Show with a Strat, which let me get into some higher game tones.

Seriously, just look up a demo of this. I don’t even care if it’s not mine. You have to hear this to truly appreciate it.

Joyo Cab Box

Last but not least is the Cab Box. Yes, it's $199, and yes, you could buy four Uzis for the same price, but I want to explain why I still consider this a budget pedal.

First off, this is so much more than just a pedal because it's a cab simulator/emulator and an IR loader. This is going to be a godsend for a lot of you. A lot of guitarists can't use a real guitar amp all the time. Maybe you need to play at home. Maybe you need some way to listen through headphones or run direct out into your DAW for home recording, or you play at venues where an amp isn't allowed because it's too loud in the Front of House.

Enter the Joyo Cab Box, A.K.A., the answer to all your problems.

Apart from being a well-made, great sounding pedal, this is really simple to use. I don't usually get along with pedals with hyper digital banks and categories and millions of choices. To paraphrase Ron Swanson, “I'm a simple man. I like pretty, dark-haired women, and user-friendly pedals.” Like any real man, I figured this out without the use of a wimpy manual, which pretty much says all you need to know.

Now IR loading is available in this, meaning you can download different IRs. I don't want to dive into that black hole about IRs here. Go watch some videos.

And if you went back and watched the JHS episode before reading this, I’m going to share a secret here: I actually tricked you in the video. You thought I was plugged into a killer amp the entire time, right? Nope. You weren't actually hearing the amp in the video. You were hearing this Cab Box direct in.**

**You’re welcome to grab a glass of water, take a sip, and read that over again so you can spit out your water dramatically. Or you can just do that Chris Farley Folgers crystals thing where you're furious, you're flipping tables, making a scene. That works, too.

I’m only going to say this once: if it sounds good, it is good. Don’t overthink it.

I hope that you see that this Joyo R Series really does check a lot of boxes that haven't been checked in the budget market: they sound great, they're made really well, they're made to last, and they have some really cool, innovative sounds.

Do yourself a favor. Head to Guitar Center, grab one of these pedals, and play it. You’ll be glad you did.