Epiphone Power Players Multi-Effects

The Epiphone Power Players Multi-Effects is a compact multi-effects floor unit that puts three effect modules in one box: overdrive, distortion and delay, plus a built-in electronic tuner with an LED display¹. Epiphone pitched it as a unit that is "easy to use for beginners and makes a great fly rig for pros"¹, and Guitar World described it at launch as "a humble three-effect stompbox targeted towards beginner players"².

The pedal belongs to Epiphone's Power Players range, which Guitar World noted began with the Power Players Les Pauls and SGs². It is no longer in production: Epiphone's product page states the unit is no longer available and has been left up for reference only¹.

Overdrive, distortion and delay with a tuner

Each of the three effect modules has its own footswitch and its own knob set, so the unit works much like three pedals in one enclosure¹².

The distortion's Lo/Hi toggle is a mode select switch that gives two voicings for the gain stage¹. The delay covers a 10 ms to 2000 ms time range, and its time can be set either with the Time knob or with a tap tempo footswitch, which Epiphone describes as a quick way "to set the delay time to synchronize with the tempo of the music you're playing"¹. Holding the tap tempo footswitch calls up Guitar Tuner Mode, so the tuner is always one long press away¹.

The fourth footswitch handles tap tempo and tuner duty, giving the unit its four-switch layout: Tap Tempo (hold for tuner), Delay, Distortion and Overdrive On/Off¹. A separate pushbutton turns the cabinet simulation on and off, and a toggle switch selects the distortion's Lo/Hi mode¹.

Power and connections

The rear panel is unusually well connected for a beginner-oriented unit. Alongside the guitar input there is an aux input for playing along with a phone or music player, an FX loop for inserting other pedals, stereo 1/4 inch outputs with defeatable cabinet simulation, and stereo XLR balanced DI outputs¹.

The cabinet simulation on the 1/4" stereo outputs can be switched off with a pushbutton, which matters for players running into a real amp rather than a mixer or interface¹. The balanced XLR outputs make the unit usable straight into a PA or recording setup.

Power comes from a 9V DC supply with a 5.5 x 2.1 mm plug wired center-negative, drawing 300 mA¹.

A rebadged Joyo TC-1?

The most widely reported story about this pedal is that it is not an original Epiphone design. In October 2023, Guitar.com compared the Epiphone unit with the Joyo TC-1 Tone Chain, a multi-effects pedal Joyo launched in 2020, and found them effectively identical³.

Guitar.com also noted that the shape of the casing and the locations of the footswitches, knobs, inputs and outputs match the Joyo unit, and concluded that Gibson likely wanted an affordable compact multi-effects unit and ordered it from the same OEM source³. Gibson did not respond to Guitar.com's query about whether there are any technical differences between the Epiphone and the Joyo TC-1, so nothing beyond the cosmetic similarity is confirmed³.

The Joyo TC-1's own product page lists the same feature set: distortion, overdrive, delay, cabinet simulation, a tuner, an FX loop and more⁴. At its 2019 announcement, the TC-1 was described with an auxiliary input for smartphones or music players, an FX loop and a balanced XLR output⁵, plus stereo and balanced outputs⁶, all of which line up with the Epiphone unit's connections.

On price, the early dealer listings pointed in different directions. Guitar.com reported in October 2023 that some dealer listings priced the Epiphone at $70 more than the Joyo TC-1's 2020 launch price, and that this price dropped across the listings³. Both figures describe dealer listings rather than an official price from Epiphone³.

Questions