I have heard a lot about this pedal and was wondering what you guys thought of it. I checked Hamony-central reviews, but they seem to be pretty inconsistent. People seem to either love it or hate it.

I have been using one for about three years now and I still find it's tones almost heart stopping it sounds so great. I don't know what style music you play, but I use it for Blues to Classic Rock Tones. My set-up consists of : Fender Big Apple Strat, Fender U.S. Telecaster Plus, Ibanez AS200 > (PEDALBOARD) Vox Wah-Wah (modified for true-bypass)> MXR Dynacomp> Visual Sound J&H1> ProCo Vintage Rat> Voodoo Labs Tremolo (4 knob version)> Boss DD-3 Delay to a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10 amplifier. The Jekyll side is good for light to medium blues....cannot compare to orignal TS-808 (never played one) but it is very close to my TS-9 Reissue (so close I took the TS-9 RI off my pedalboard). The Hyde side does the light blues to classic rock thing really good and the Marshall stack sound great. It has a sharp/blunt switch on the Hyde side ( I leave mine on sharp, the blunt side sounds to compressed to me). This pedal does not sound good through SS amp's. A few tips for achieving the best tones with it is to use a TUBE amp with the volume up (it will really make your tube cook) and a compressor set to a slight clean boost. Since i purchased mine several of the local guitarist have bought them after hearing my set-up ( not that I'm a great guitarist by anyones stretch of imagination). I tried it against several other distortion/overdrive makers pedals including Fulltone pedals (fulldrive, '69,'70), several Boss effects, Big Muff Pie, Carl Martins, Ibanez, etc. It just sounded better to me and was more versitile to me for what I need. I have put in storage the following pedals since I bought it : Ibanez TS-9 RI, Ibanez Tube King TK999, MXR Distortion +, Voodoo Labs Overdrive. I find I can match all of those pedals with this one pretty close. I looked at the reviews you talked about and it is pretty clear most people either have a love it or hate it relationship with it.....But 57 people rated the sound quality an average of 9.2 and an overall value a 9.0 and the reliablity was also pretty high (never had any problems with mine). That's pretty good in my book. Try one out, the proof is in the sound. It can cover anything from mild to wild tones.

I am looking to use it with a plexi I have.. I use a rat, but it seems every pedal I use gets turned to mud. Do you think the Jekyll & Hyde would cause this problem also? Does it have as much distortion as the rat? I play everything from jazz to blues to classic rock to newer stuff like radiohead and the such.

I'd bet the J&H (Hyde side) would sound great with a Plexi, and yes it has as much gain as a Rat. It's a very different sound than a Rat, and whereas a Rat will turn to mush with any kind of gain on an amp, the Hyde won't. I'm not a fan of the jeckyl side but others seem to like it. I actually asked the guy at Visual Sound if he could just build me a HYDE but no-go! Seemed to be a very nice guy though! He also designed the Reverend Drivetrain and that's an excellent Od pedal

ERIC

Have you checked out the route 66 overdrive? From what I know. that is supposed to be very similar to the Hyde side, but with an added compressor...

Hi there, it's similar to the Jeckyl side (not the Hyde). I'm not a fan of guitar compressors, and also am very much all set with distortions and od's so not in the works for me! ERIC

The Route 66 is a clone of the TS-808 (Jekyll side of the J&H1 and the Reverend Drivetrain is also a clone of this tone). I agree that the Jekyll side is "not my cup of tea" so to speak, I bought mine for the Hyde side. I do use the Jekyll for a boost/very light overdrive, but it's not used half as much as the Hyde side. The drive on the Hyde side exceeds the Vintage Rats distortion level, also the rat does sound very different. The Hyde side is thickier and has a very meaty tone compared to the rat. Don't know what it would sound like through a Plexi, but it sounds great through Fenders and Mesa's.

Hi, you said the "reverend drivetrain is a clone of the Jeckyl side", however I own a couple of J&H's and the Drivetrain, and I like the Drivetrain 100% more than the JEckyl. It bears some similarities but in no way or form is it a clone!! Just thought I'd clear that up

ERIC

Sorry, I didn't clarify what I meant to say clearly. What I meant to say was that the Jekyll side of the J&H1 and the overdrive side of the Route 66 are the same overdrive circuits and are suppose to be a clone of the TS-808, the Reverend Drivetrain is also suppose to be a clone of the TS-808 circuit. I have never played one I'm just going off of what Guitar Player Magazine said in their February 2001 reveiw of the Reverend Drivetrain. They said it was a clone of the TS-808 that could lay it on a little thicker and had a two tone knobs instead of one (treble & bass). Does the Drivetrain sound like the TS-808 / TS-9 RI pedals to you? How does the Drivetrain compare to the VooDoo Labs Sparkle Drive (If you've been able to compare them)?

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Originally posted by Gearfreak:
Does the Drivetrain sound like the TS-808 / TS-9 RI pedals to you? How does the Drivetrain compare to the VooDoo Labs Sparkle Drive (If you've been able to compare them)?

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I’ve never played a TS-808, and my TS-9 RI has been modded, so I can’t really compare. However, the Drivetrain is an excellent overdrive pedal. To me it just sounds natural (although it is a bit compressed) and I’m having fun with it. I have an addiction for overdrives, and the Drivetrain is definitely one of my favorites. I haven’t played the Sparkle either.

Same as Eddie, I haven't compared it to the Sparkle Drive either, but won't be buying the Sparkle Drive as I'm all set with my od pedals. I like the Reverend a lot more than Tube Screamers with almost every amp, but there are definitely still occasions where I like my modded ts10. I got it modded by Analog Man years ago, but also had 2 other Ts10's at the time and had a ts9. They were all very similar before and after the mod. The Drivetrain is quite a bit different in that it has way less mids, more gain, and 100% better eq controls. However just like with all od pedals, there are amps the Drivetrain doesn't sound great with either. If you suck all the mids out of your tone, or if your amp has no mids the Drivetrain won't really cut thru....but I love it with my amps.

ERIC