Joyo Sweet Baby

[Saintjonah]

I just put in an order on Amazon for a Joyo "Sweet Baby" overdrive. It's a low gain OD that seems like it will make a great boost pedal. I'm thinking of putting it before (or after?) my Joyo Ultimate Drive and running the gain low on both. Also using it as a clean boost as the clean tones on my Tweaker aren't exactly setting the world on fire.

Anyone have any experience with these? I'm really digging the Joyo line for the price/value. I got this guy for $34. Tough to argue with that.

It's supposed to be a clone of the Mad Professor "Sweet Honey" pedal.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPsCQLOUJBc]Joyo SWEET BABY Overdrive - Pedal Demo - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Tobacco Worm]

Personally I like the Joyo pedals. I've yet to find one that is not simply a great pedal, and for a mere fraction of what the "Name Brand" pedals cost....
That's a winner in anyone's book.:)

 

[Gemini75]

i still need to get their Plexi pedal.

 

[Saintjonah]

Well, I just got the SB in the mail. Havne't had a chance the try it yet though. Oddly it didn't come with a battery even though the product description said it did. Whatever, not a big deal.

Only thing of note as far as build quality is that the switch/button is just horrid quality. I wasn't entirely sure it even worked until I stuck a battery in to test it out.

Ah well, what I can ask for out of a $35 pedal that sounds 99% as good as one that costs 5 times as much? I'm sure it'll hold up to my minimal abuse.

I'll let you know when I put it through it's paces.

 

[Tobacco Worm]

Well switches are 80% mechanical anyway. Some are stiff at first and often will break in a bit after use. Oddly enough I have two dual footswitches for two different amps. One is a Crate branded model and the other a Johnson unit. The Crate's switches were stiff three years ago and still are. The Johnson unit's switches are as smooth as silk and were that way when the unit was removed from the box several months ago. Again, it's just a matter of construction and no doubt the one in your new Joyo was one of thousands in a crate in the assembly line. They get a few bad ones I'm sure.

A little trick. If it's a might stiff or sticks some in use, use a single drop of a good quality light machine oil along the shaft. Hold the unit almost 90 degrees on it's side and place that one drop of oil on the shaft. Then slowly let the oil spread around the shaft and slowly rotate the unit vertical. As it spreads down the shaft into the body of the switch, work the switch a few dozen times getting some of the lubricant to enter the switch's internal system. This often will allow switches that are less than perfect to improve. Again, just a single drop of a good oil is all it usually needs. Easiest way is with a toothpick to control the oil amount. No need to worry about the electronic end of the switch being affected by the oil, and by no means use that awful WD40! That will make things worse!!!

I have a small pen-like oiler I use with my weapons and electronics that is filled with a wonderful light machine oil called RIG #2 that controls the amount of oil via a plunger top button that works a small inner shaft with a spring loaded plug on a needle-like tube for the oil distribution. Quite controllable. The threeway on my Dot was acting up a little not long ago and a simple light drop into the switch from above and a little back and forth motion of the switch made it good as new.

By the way, RIG products are not allowed for sale in the silly state of California. I guess if something is really good and works well it's not going to be allowed to go there as they want people to suffer there.

 

[Saintjonah]

Thanks for the info! I'll have to get some oil and give it a shot.

Like I said though, it works. I'm not really that concerned about it.

Should get to test it out tonight. Hopefully I'll have time to play with the settings and try it with the UD and whatnot. Might piss off the other guys though with all my fiddling. Wish I had a better setup at home. My amp and cab are sitting at my drummers basement. The amp is super portable but I don't have a cab to hook it up to at home. My little Marshall practice amp doesn't really allow me to play with tones much though. It's not the best, lol.

Anywho, thanks again for the tip.

 

[Spyke]

Wow - that sounds NICE! :)

 

[Saintjonah]

Oh man, tried it last night and it's better than I hoped for. The range is fantastic. You can get a nice slightly dirty clean boost which is perfect for me, and all the way up to a fairly crunchy sound. It's a really nice tonal range. The response to your picking is incredible as well. You can get it playing really sweet with a light hand and nice and gnarly when you dig in. Basically if you watched the video, you know what to expect.

It worked well with the UD as well. I could keep the gain down on that pedal but still get all the dirt I could ask for for heavier songs. Keep the volume down to offset some of the dark tones from the UD if desired. Tons of range, tons of options. If I crank them both up it's mayhem. Love it.

It's $35. Just buy one.

 

[Tobacco Worm]

Outstanding!
Glad you enjoy this new unit. And you can arrive at "mayhem" with both units going. I like mayhem. When my rig sounds like a B52 on a takeoff roll then I know I've got mayhem!

Again, congrats on the new and highly useful unit!

 

[Paul G.]

I have one. I love the sound of it. Unfortunately, it's sitting on a shelf because the switch broke after about 6 months. I went to replace it and between the no lead solder and the not great traces I screwed it up trying to get the old switch out. I am very experienced in building/repairing pedals, amps etc. but this was hard and I screwed up.

I just went out and bought the original (Mad Professor Sweet Honey). The Joyo actually sounded a bit smoother, but the Mad Professor is built like a tank. I found a new one for about $130--a lot of money, but I need reliable stuff for gigging.

P.

 

[Tobacco Worm]

Not to sound rude or condescending by any means, but a "very experienced" individual would have no difficulty at all with a R&R of a switch. Out of curiosity is the switch PCB mounted? This unit is of the newer Joyo models and am curious if they went to that method to streamline production over a hardwired switch from some of their earlier designs. I'm out of the business now and haven't had an opportunity to work on, or inspect the newer Joyos.
Sorry you had a bad experience with Joyo and paid out so much for another pedal.

 

[Paul G.]

Yup, switch was mounted directly on PCB. I flowed some fresh solder on (I find this helps), then tried to desolder. I went a bit too long and the (tiny) traces lifted. I've kept the thing because I may get around to trying to repair it just because.

Not saying it can't be done, just saying I messed up. It was harder than it should have been.

P.

 

[Tobacco Worm]

Paul, I hear ya there. Micro sized PCB's can be a real pain. When I was in the business my repairs were done slowly and very deliberate with little things like that with the lowest wattage iron and FAST use of a solder sucker or wick. I wanted to remove as much solder from the posts as possible with the least hang time with the iron. If possible I'd get a clip across the close in circuit to be a heat sink for that sort of thing. But there were locations that a clip was useless and one takes a chance...

I've gone in and re-did many a repair that the customer had done that went south fast and oh yeah, have rebuilt portions of PCB's that were "cooked" a bit. But that's the biz I guess. Used to save cut pieces of resistor and capacitor wire just to use as hardwire "bridges" to repair boards that were beyond repair. What always baffled me was when a mfg would twist the blade of the switch's connections when placing it in the board's slot and then solder it in place.

Thanks for the come back on this. Maybe in time when you're in a real "sit down and fix it" mood you'll be ready to get that thing going. Hey, worse case you'll always have a box to build your own pedal too! I was forever cannibalizing old boxes and stuff for future projects.