The JHS Violet is a distortion and overdrive pedal from JHS Pedals, built as a signature model for Brazilian guitarist Lari Basilio and released in November 2024. JHS describes it as "a new take on distortion/overdrive" and frames its purpose plainly: "Using this pedal is like adding a new and ultra-flexible distortion channel to your favorite clean amplifier."12
The idea behind the pedal is that instead of pushing an already-broken-up amp, you set your amp clean and let the Violet supply the gain, from smooth overdrive through to modern distortion. Gearnews summed it up as "a flexible distortion channel for your favourite clean amp."2 It was developed by Josh Scott of JHS in cooperation with Basilio, who joined the JHS signature roster alongside players like Madison Cunningham and Paul Gilbert.3
What the Violet does
The Violet is voiced to sit in front of a clean amplifier and behave like that amp's missing high-gain channel. JHS places the midrange control before the distortion circuit, which the company calls "a powerful pre-amp distortion shaping tool": boosting or cutting mids before the clipping stage changes how the distortion itself is voiced, not just the tone after it.1
Delicious Audio described the result as a "3-way pre-distortion EQ with sweepable parametric mids," and noted that the pre-gain placement allows both mid-scooped and mid-heavy tones, though the changes are subtler than a post-gain EQ would give.5 MusicRadar reported that Scott also designed the pedal to be eminently stackable, so it can sit alongside other drives on a board.3
The controls
The pedal carries six knobs and a single bypass footswitch. Guitar Pedal X's review breaks the EQ into its two halves: Middle and Mid Freq sit before the gain stage, Bass and Treble after it.6
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Volume | Sets the overall output level; left is less, right is more1 |
| Gain | Sets the amount of distortion, from smooth overdrive to modern distortion4 |
| Middle | Boosts or cuts midrange before the distortion circuit16 |
| Mid Freq | Selects which midrange frequencies the Middle control affects36 |
| Bass | Post-gain bass boost/cut6 |
| Treble | Post-gain treble boost/cut6 |
MusicRadar reported that with every dial at noon the EQ gives a flat response, and that all the EQ controls can both boost and cut.3 Guitar World noted the signal path: "The guitar goes in buffered, and then you go straight into a mid control in the front."4
Power and bypass
The Violet runs on 9V DC, center negative, and draws 55mA. JHS warns against feeding it more than 9V DC; damage from doing so voids the warranty.1
The Violet is not true bypass. It uses a buffered bypass with silent, soft touch switching, per JHS Pedals' product page1, a detail MusicRadar and Guitar World both confirmed at launch34. The buffer is always in the signal path, which matters for players building a pedalboard around true bypass switching.
A Lari Basilio signature, not a Morning Glory circuit
The Violet is a signature collaboration between Josh Scott and Lari Basilio1, and it follows an earlier one-off: MusicRadar reported that Scott had previously made Basilio a version of his Morning Glory overdrive in purple, and that the Violet can do some of that work.3 The pedal ships in Purple and Black colorways at the same price364, with the purple version reflecting Basilio's favorite color and reportedly limited in stock6. MusicRadar also noted the enclosure design is similar to Paul Gilbert's JHS PG-14.3
Despite the family resemblance in the lineup, the circuit is its own thing. In JHS Pedals' own demo video, Josh Scott was direct about the comparison with the Morning Glory67:
"so they're nothing alike the circuits are wildly different"
Josh Scott, JHS Pedals demo video31
He added that the Violet "does the similar almost exact sound that happens when you crank a morning glory up towards a higher overdrive" territory, but goes beyond it into sounds the Morning Glory circuit could never do, and that "this is so flexible that if you've ever loved a morning glory and wished it was a distortion" it covers that ground.7
The relationship to the JHS Hard Drive is similar: Guitar Pedal X observed that the Violet's topology "looks identical to the harder and heavier recent Hard Drive High Gain Distortion," with the same three-band EQ and semi-parametric mids, but concluded that all three circuits, the Violet, Hard Drive and PG-14, "are distinctly different sounding."6
What reviewers said
Guitar Pedal X reviewed the Violet at launch and called it a versatile all-rounder, writing that "even if you aren't a Lari Basilio fan, you're still going to love the versatile core timbre and tonality" of the pedal, and that the $199 price tag was "spot on."6 In Guitar Pedal X's roundup of the best new distortion pedals of 2024, Stefan Karlsson went further, calling it "even better than the Hard Drive," one that takes you "from gorgeous mid-gain bluesy Morning Glory" tones into "warm, open and singing distortion" territory.8
In JHS Pedals' demo video, Josh Scott walks through the pedal's range and the Morning Glory comparison in full7:
Videos
JHS Pedals
Sweetwater
Lari Basilio
Questions
Is the JHS Violet true bypass?
No. The Violet uses a buffered bypass with silent, soft touch switching, according to JHS Pedals' own product page. MusicRadar and Guitar World both reported the same buffered design at launch. The guitar signal goes in buffered before hitting the mid control, so the pedal is not true bypass.
Is the JHS Violet the same circuit as the Morning Glory?
No. In JHS Pedals' own demo video, Josh Scott said the two circuits are wildly different. The Violet can cover similar territory to a cranked Morning Glory and go beyond it into sounds that circuit could not do, but it is its own design, not a Morning Glory variant.
Who designed the JHS Violet?
JHS Pedals describes the Violet as coming from the collaborative minds of Josh Scott and Brazilian guitarist Lari Basilio. Gearnews reported it was developed by Josh Scott in cooperation with Basilio, who joined JHS as a signature artist alongside players like Madison Cunningham and Paul Gilbert.
What colors does the JHS Violet come in?
The Violet ships in two colorways, Purple and Black, at the same $199 price. The purple finish reflects Lari Basilio's favorite color and was reportedly limited in stock, while the black version is the standard run. Both are the same circuit.
Is The Violet the same circuit as the JHS Hard Drive?
No. Guitar Pedal X noted that the Violet's topology looks identical to the Hard Drive on paper, with a three-band EQ and semi-parametric mids, but reported that all three circuits, the Violet, Hard Drive and PG-14, are distinctly different sounding.
Sources (8)
- VIOLET - JHS Pedals, JHS Pedals
- JHS Lari Basilio: Purple Pocket Rocket with 3-Band EQ, gearnews.com, 2024-11-05
- “Using this pedal is like adding a new and ultra-flexible distortion channel to your favorite clean amplifier”: JHS Pedals and Lari Basilio join forces for Violet, a versatile overdrive/distortion with a powerful EQ, MusicRadar, 2024-11-05
- JHS Pedals launches Lari Basilio The Violet signature pedal, Guitar World, 2024-11-04
- JHS The Violet Distortion, Delicious Audio, 2024-11-11
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2024-11-07
- Are the JHS Violet and the Morning Glory the same?, JHS Pedals (YouTube), 2025-01-25
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2024-12-17
Lari Basilio
