Joyo American Sound

The Joyo American Sound (JF-14) is an overdrive pedal from Joyo that works as an amp-in-a-box: it emulates a classic '57 Fender 5E3 Deluxe tweed amplifier rather than simply adding gain¹². Delicious Audio describes it as having a large gain range, and Joyo's own product page says it "performs great from clean, driven, and everywhere in between"².

What it does

The pedal is built around recreating the tweed Deluxe sound. Delicious Audio's 2024 buying guide of tweed-style pedals calls it "an amp-in-a-box pedal with a large gain range" that "emulates a classic '57 5e3 Deluxe"¹. That gain range is what lets it cover the clean end of that amp as well as cranked tweed breakup, matching Joyo's own description of performance "from clean, driven, and everywhere in between"².

Its tone shaping comes from two things working together:

• A Voice control that allows precise midrange contour¹
• A 3-band EQ that gives wide tonal shaping possibilities³¹

Delicious Audio's review of the pedal puts the two together: "With it's full 3 band EQ and voice knob you can easily dial in any tone you can think of"³.

How it compares and where it sits

At $40 USD as listed in November 2024, it sits at the budget end of tweed-style amp-in-a-box pedals. Delicious Audio notes that "at under $40, this pedal sells like candy and gets 4.5 stars out of 5 on both Amazon and Reverb"¹. The same rating figure appears in the site's earlier 2022 product page for the JF-14³.

The pedal has also been sold under another name: Guitar.com notes "there's a precedent for Joyo pedals being sold under different brands, just look at the Joyo American Sound compared to" the Harley Benton American TrueTone, a rebadged version⁴. Players comparing prices may therefore find the same circuit under both names.

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