Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

[Pecan]

Well I got a Jekyll and Hyde ultimate overdrive pedal, one of the red ones. The left side seems to be a tube screamer clone and the right side is a distortion. The tube screamer side is pretty standard, it does have a bass boost switch which is quite handy, there are better clones out there, but its good quality. Not much more to say about it, you guys know how a TS sounds.

The distortion side has a drive, tone, EQ and vol knob. It also have a sharp/blunt switch. It makes it incredibly versatile for every kind of metal sound you could want imo. Pantera, Anthrax, Metallica are all pretty easy to get with it. Its also got some good settings for classic rock kind of stuff.

Finally the build quality looks incredibly sturdy, I Can't see it breaking, looks like the steel housing is thicker than it needs to be. Its a good value pedal, and having a good overdrive and distortion in the same pedal is a bargain for $250 AUD. Worth checking out, I'd give it an 8/10

Anyone else has experience with these things?

 

[SOLO GUITAR STEWIE]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

thanks for the review, How do you think it would work with a SS amp or an Moddler such as the POD XT?

chris

 

[Stratfan]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

I have the red one too, although I almost sold it. I was satisfied with the Jeckyll side (tubescreamer), but the Hyde side sounded just a hair thin, and didn't have enough gain for some things that I wanted to play. To be fair, I'm using a Strat with Lace Holy Grail noiseless pups which aren't very hot or thick-sounding, so I'm sure that a real humbucker would sound great through it.

I bought a Maxon OD-9 overdrive and a Boss MD-2 distortion to replace the J&H. The MD-2 had more than enough gain on tap and sounded great when used with the OD-9, but I still found it to be a bit thin sounding on its own with my single coil pups. I was about to box up the J&H to sell it when I just happened to run the OD-9 in front of the J&H. The mid hump of the OD-9 really thickened up the sound of the Hyde distortion.

I returned the MD-2 and decided to keep both the OD-9 and the J&H. By running both pedals into my Blues Junior I have a variety of sounds available; although I'm still in the process of deciding how I'm going to set each pedal. For now I'm using the OD-9 with the level up and the drive low as a volume/mid boost for the J&H.

The "extras" on the J&H (bass boost and sharp/blunt switch) are great features. Also, the amount of volume available on the J&H is IMO a lot more than what is on a standard tubescreamer-type pedal (such as my OD-9). Adjusting the EQ knob on the Hyde side can give you that "scooped mids" sound, although that's not for me!

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

I've got one of the older grey J&H, which doesn't have the bass boost, which I managed to pick up from a boot sale for £30! I use the Jekyll side quite extensively, the Hyde not so much since I got the Duplexer from Rid. It's a good, strong and versatile drive, especially using both sides together. I've been able to use the Jekyll side with an AC-30 setting on my V-Amp to get a pretty good Brian May type drive, and some nice bite with Brit Classic type settings. Plus it really gives my Marshall a good kick!

 

[LesStrat]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

I've been wanting to test drive the Route 66. But I can't justify it since I bought the SFX03.

I did get another Visual Volume pedal, though. GREAT pedal.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

I always liked the idea of the H2O pedal.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

There are many, many players using it now, so there must be something to it.

 

[foo3001]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

I had the red one too, bought it as an impulse buy (got it very cheap), but sold it off almost instantly, after one gig if I remember correctly.

The Jekyll side was an OK ts-clone, the bass-boost being a nice feature. Nothing special though, I think there´s tons of better tubescreamer-ish pedals out there. I like even the SD-1 better.

With my setup, the Hyde side was horrible. A fizzy, very transistor-y distortion, with a tad too much bass and far too little mids. Couldn´t find any use for it. Although when both sides on you could get some nice sustain-y fuzzy sounds.

Bought MI Audio Blues Pro and Tube Zone to replace the J&H and now I couldn´t be happier. (With a voodooLab Sparkle Drive for the ts-stuff)

 

[Pierre]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

I love my route 66.

Thank god for the bass boost. I don't like the TS style sound AT ALL. With that boost I can have a decent clean-ish boost. The compressor is fun too.
My only beef is that I still need a proper OD (i.e one with its own gain and not that boxy stuff in TS) but I use a muff so I'm set.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde review

My Marshall really benefits from the Jekyll boost. Really gets it cooking.