JHS Pedals 3 Series

[marqueemoon]

Sarcasm punctuation was implied.

[seenoevil II]

I can imagine the blank white canvas on a budget line is intended to invite decoration.

I'm a non pedal person. I really liked the fuzz in what I heard, but some here say it's overpriced. What are some better deals on a similar fuzz?

The chorus/vibe is also tempting if it go slow enough to be a subtle (not mac Demarco) thickening thing.

Again, not a pedal head. His YouTube series has actually taught me a good amount about the pedal landscape. I've found it useful.

[ElephantDNA]

I can imagine the blank white canvas on a budget line is intended to invite decoration.

I'm a non pedal person. I really liked the fuzz in what I heard, but some here say it's overpriced. What are some better deals on a similar fuzz?

The chorus/vibe is also tempting if it go slow enough to be a subtle (not mac Demarco) thickening thing.

Again, not a pedal head. His YouTube series has actually taught me a good amount about the pedal landscape. I've found it useful.

Well overpriced is kind of in the eye of the beholder but you can get a lot of ehx stuff, clones, and used fuzz for 50-75 range. Obviously there are boutiques that charge many times that.

[Beltone]

I learned about the release of the JHS 3 pedals and the Boss GT-1000Core a day apart. Not sure if the actual release was that close, but it makes for an interesting thought experiment. If a guitar player new to pedals came to you and said they had a budget of exactly $700USD and they were either going to buy all 7 JHS or the Boss, what would you recommend? Even though I like my mix and match pedal board and the ability to adjust on the fly, I think I'd have to recommend the Boss. Not just for the number of patches, but the power supply would be much simpler to manage. Might be an unfair hypothetical, but the discussion itself might be of use to someone new to pedals trying to decide between starting a custom board and buying one multiFX unit.

[Firecat]

After watching some demo's, I do think most of these seem to sound pretty good. Especially liked the distortion and the reverb. I don't mind the simple enclosures. They look pretty classy, but they could have been a different colour for each effect, especially after making an episode about associating effects with colours. And it would help to keep them apart if you put multiple on a board.

[seenoevil II]

The big feature for me with the fuzz is that bias control. Starving the voltage a touch makes it sound real nuts and that's the sound I'm after. That would be a mod that I'm not up to or a boutique feature I couldn't afford. That is, of course, unless one of you heroes can suggest a cheaper fuzz with just that.

Ugh, all of these sound good. And they all have a feature that makes them very desirable. I remember my buddy buying a dan electro pedal set that was every pedal they made. It came in a plastic suitcase that doubled as a board. NGL something about these makes you want all of them. It's brilliant marketing.

I've successfully avoided dragging a massive board to shows up til now. Last month I bought a phaser and now I'm screwed.

[blunderbuss]

I agree on that each has a little special sauce going on. I really dig the pre-delay toggle on the reverb. Switching modified vs. unmodified delay to mimic analog vs digital delay sounds is really nice.

For my money I’ll stick with my DOD Compressor or go ahead and get a Keeley C+.

[peterherman]

These seem...fine. No more and no less than "fine", "OK", or "good enough".

[Nevets]

The big feature for me with the fuzz is that bias control. Starving the voltage a touch makes it sound real nuts and that's the sound I'm after. That would be a mod that I'm not up to or a boutique feature I couldn't afford. That is, of course, unless one of you heroes can suggest a cheaper fuzz with just that.

I have a Joyo Purple Storm fuzz with bias control and it sounds a lot like the JHS one.

[Maggieo]

I'd be onboard with these...if I hadn't just bought a bunch of DOD pedals for $40.00!

[jorri]

Sarcasm punctuation was implied.

I assumed so, but i hear some say it unironically, given they are a prevalent company and requires a bit of research. Poe's law and all that.

[fever606]

Presented without comment...

[MarkN]

I'm also interested in seeing gut shots. My guess is that they went the EHX route of getting boards made with SMD in China and then just assembling them in the USA.

These are inexpensive, but they aren't cheap. A rat clone for $100 is still more expensive then what EHX charges. And fuzzes are hand built by smaller builders for $100 and under. I really don't get the hype other than it's JHS and JHS has fanboys and they tend to overcharge for pedals that are just clones.

Also, Korg kept costs down with the Volcas by using similar cases. I don't understand why these JHS pedals are all similar looking. My guess is they are screenprinted and you'd have to use a separate screen for each one. Is there a printing method I don't know about? How is it cheaper to design these confusing looking pedals then just sticking stupid pineapple or whatever like a typical JHS pedal?

[blunderbuss]

I'm also interested in seeing gut shots. My guess is that they went the EHX route of getting boards made with SMD in China and then just assembling them in the USA.

This is what I was assuming they were doing but I doubt they’ll scream it from the rooftops during a marketing blitz. Anyway, I haven’t really decided yet. I don’t have any of their pedals. The closest I’ve ever gotten is the bear trem because I just really like bears. Which you know not the best reason to spend money.

On these I keep thinking about what I’d buy and thinking more what I’d buy instead that’d do the same job. Reverb and Delay? For my money I’d rather have a Dispatch Master. Fuzz? Well I’d rather got a bit more and have a Fuzz War. Compressor? The Keeley is like only a little more.

Still I hope more folk go with simpler is better thing. That’s the part that really spoke to me.

[beninma]

I just got one of the Fuzz pedals yesterday.

I think it's a really good option for people who aren't super experienced/comfortable with Fuzz pedals. I have a Big Muff right now, and have had an Orange Fur Coat (Foxx tone machine), and swollen pickle in the past. I've got a homemade Fuzz Face too that I've never finished to the point I can use it all the time.

It's easy to use and seems like it has a lot of flexibility to work with different setups.

If the bias is turned way down it acts a lot like a Fuzz Face. The Bias interacts with the Fuzz knob to turn into something else entirely.

It doesn't have a tone knob, but the voicing on it doesn't strike me as particularly likely to clash with different setups. We all have tone knobs on the guitars for the most part. The fat switch can be used to control the bass a bit. (I have a bass knob on my guitar too, so even easier to deal with.). It doesn't sound particularly mid-boosted or scooped to me.

It cleans up and gets brighter as you turn your guitar volume down, so it's going to work OK whether or not you have a treble bleed I think.

It seems lost a little in some of the reviews but of note these pedals are smaller than normal JHS pedals. They're similar height and depth to an EHX nano enclosure (like the Big Muff reissues) but the height of the 3-series enclosure seems to be a little shorter. I think they're a really good size.. compact without having the issues that mini pedals have where they want to fall of the board when you stomp them.