Radial JDX Direct-Drive Active Guitar Amp Direct Box Reviews

I own and rely heavily on many Radial DIs. I run sound from stage for both of my current three piece cover bands. The JDI is the anchor to my bass rig. The sound is clear and warm.
We utilize two Pro D2 stereo DIs for my brother's electronic drums. The sound is clean and full from the thump of the kick to the shimmer of the cymbals.
My son sends his bass to FOH through my Stage Bug SB-5. Again, clear and strong, isolated sound from a DI with a small footprint that fits easily on his pedalboard.
And I swear by and highly recommend the JDX Direct Drive for any ampless rig and as backup for amplifiers for live performance. It's the anchor to my guitar pedalboard and it works perfectly and reliably.
I tried other options including the Strymon Iridium. I found them too distracting to adjust during shows. The JDX is, to me, the right tool for the job! It is key to my guitar sound and is quick and less physically demanding during setup and teardown at shows.
As a matter of fact, I will be ordering another JDX for my son's large guitar pedalboard. It's simply a tool that works!
Radial builds quality devices. And Sweetwater provides quality service.

This is a powerful little box! Incredible value. What attracted me was that it's analogue, simple, and has all the I/O I need. This box really comes to live with a preamp and/or some type of drive pedal with eq and coloration in front. In my experience, you'll want and need that additional flexibility from a few pedals in front to dial in your tone, and let me tell you, it plays GREAT with EVERY single pedal I have from drives to delays and verbs. I really like the five settings this has...I personally keep coming back to the "combo, normal" setting. Fantastic clarity, transparency & feel. I'm very comfortable playing live with this in lieu of bringing a tube amp...in some ways I even prefer it. I'm really not one to sort thru a lot of digital menus, etc. If want good, straightforward tone without an amp, put this at the end of your board & I think you'll be really pleased.

I'm 67 years old and don't want to haul heavy amps around. I used this for our gig last weekend and took a small practice amp (Fender Champion) with me. The JDX worked wonderfully. I did the "thru" channel to my small amp and then direct to the PA system. Our sound man also had a monitor in front of me and the bass player. We could hear everything and the JDX was great!
Our other guitar player has a rule...nothing over 20 pounds. I love my good old Hot Rod Deluxe 212 amp but it's a bear to lug around.

Well I was a little bit skeptical about going amp free at my gigs. But I have to say this DI does what it advertises. I like the sound and it rocks the house. Works well with my Boss ME 80 floor processor and I don't have to carry my Marshall amp to the gigs anymore. I am 65 and the less I have to carry to the gig the better. Way to go Sweetwater. Another promise made and kept. Got it delivered in less than a week. Now I am good to go. Thanks Sweetwater

In a few words, this Radial JDX Direct Drive is perfect for me. It's transparent, it's rugged, the amp sims are just what I need. Simple and easy to use. Great product.

Bought this and a amp sim for my clav. I DI into a mixer to work with my looper and the combo if this and the amp sim really made my clav shine

I'm a disabled 63 year old guitarist who did not want to retire. I've played guitar professionally since I was 13. I have seen a lot of the world and experienced so much because of this amazing instrument...the Guitar. Since I've been disabled I have been recording in my home project studio. I have some cool gear but I needed something to Record direct that wasn't full of effects and would accept pedals well. The JDX Direct Drive is fantastic. I play an assortment of Les Pauls, Strats, Teles etc....The JDX lets each guitar sound like itself, it works great with gain pedals and is very quite. I set it up as if it was an amp and I run pedals in the same order I would thru the front of say a Princeton Reverb. I'm also very happy with Matt McGowen my sales engineer, He's always helpful and honest and very very patient with me. I have dealt with Sweetwater for years and will continue to do so.

This DI by Radial is a great option for going without an amp into the PA! Due to physical limitations I was restricted to how much I could lift. No more hauling around 50 lb. tube amps. In researching options I stumbled upon the JDX and was intrigued by the fact I could use my pedal board with a DI box. After reading some reviews I bought it.
Best money I"ve spent on gear in a long time! I"m very impressed with the way it takes my pedals and sounds great thru the monitors or thru my IEM"s. I"ve had it about 6 months now and played in church and an outdoor gig. Sounds great in all invironments! I play in the combo mode on normal. Both stack and 4x12 sound good as well. My sound people say it sounds great FOH! Love the fact it fits on my pedalboard so all I haul is that and my guitar. It"s a great piece of equipment! My tone matters to me and this thing helps me maintain that without an amp. Highly recommended!

I've been playing tube amps for years. This pedal allows me to use my existing pedals and line out to the PA. With a parametric EQ in front of my pedal board it sounds great. The key is the EQ. You have to know what to scoop and boost. My guitar sounds as good as ever and better on some things. I didn't think I would like it. I'm kinda old school. But my guitar pick attack ect feels great. I didn't have to change any of my pedal settings. Even when you switch amps there's a reasonable amount of adjustment that needs done. I didn't even have to change my reverb or delay settings.

I hate the term blown away. But I don't want to give this anything less than a good rating. It does exactly what it says it will do. You are able to use your personal pedal board and run it into the simulator preferably with an EQ in front of it. DI out to FOH or monitor system. It does sound great. I recommend it. I've been a boutique amp player for many years. I can use the JDX behind my pedals and make it sound good to FOH.

I had to get rid of the amps at church to keep our stage volume down. I am replacing a VOX AC15, so I had high standards for what I was looking for. I tried just using the Strymon Big Sky Cab Filter but it lacked volume and presence; I tried the Mooer Day Tripper, which wasn't good at all; then I found this and I'm blown away. I'm not saying it's as good as amp, but 99.9% of the people listening won't know the difference. Thanks Mike A.!

In an attempt to reduce stage noise and get a "cleaner" signal from my guitar, I experimented with a few different (and cheaper) DI boxes for guitars. Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for.
The Radial JDX Direct-Drive is fan-freaking-tastic. I use this box at the end of my pedal chain. I go XLR out into my PA. I use a Fulltone OCD as my main distortion pedal and it sounds great through this DI box. It worked so well for me, I convinced my other guitarist to buy one and leave his amp at home.
This pedal is well-constructed, works great, and is definitely a must-have piece of equipment if you want to play straight through the PA. Don't mess with the cheaper products. Save your gig money and buy this pedal!

I wanted a way that I can record without waking up the.entire house. Able to have quality sound and not just some DI. So I did my research and watched a ton of videos, etc. I purchased this with high hopes and I wasn't disappointed. This box is amazing. Great Fender and Marshall tones. The JDX setting is useful as well.
What's huge difference from just a DI or worse direct from pedalboard.
I run my guitar thru my pedalboard and XLR to mixer. I'm really impressed with the clean tones from all settings. I'm choosing for now the Fender like with Normal selected. I use pedals for my OD. This is exactly what I wanted. I will have same consistent sound direct in mix.
Thanks Radial!

I love tube amps. Period. But I've been searching for ways to getting a good clean tone from a light rig and using a light OD for all my blues/rock performances. Though there are many half decent clean tones to be had from existing digital modellers as sans amp stuff and hacks mehffects, they all seem to be either lacking the fidelity and clarity of a tube amp or cost a fortune and still lack the clarity, lol.

And so I was amazed when I heard Sweetwater's demo of this little red box I was stunned to hear how clear it was. So I ordered one. The packaging and presentation of this pedal are spot on. It's bright red, the picture doesn't do it justice! The switches are great too.

Connectivity-wise it has everything you'd ever need. It can even double as a Y splitter for your signal as it has two 1/4'' unaltered outputs (THRU AND TUNER) though I'm not sure it was designed for that. Works great though! It doesn't need an output knob because it's designed to have the volume set from your interface/ mixing board.

So I connected the THRU to my Orange OR15 full stack miked with an E906 at the edge of the dust cap and the XLR output to my interface. Played with a LP.

And now for the tones: the Combo setting in either normal or bright is hands down THE BEST CLEAN SOUND I've experienced without miking a tube amp. Zero noise with a very dynamic response and a great attack that lets you hear every little scrape, ring and reverberation made by your guitar. Left me speechless and with a big ole grin :D.

The Stack setting works very well clean too, but it's a different sound then I'm used to for humbuckers. A little warmer (possibly to accommodate pedals and singlecoils better), but a usable sound all the same.

The jdx 4x12 setting is in my opinion a pedal setting, as it seems to have quite a prominent mid range and mellow highs. It will take bright gainy distortion boxes very well.

I prefer having this minimalist layout for the tone settings, as it saves a lot of time and you get your tones from your guitar, toggling pickups and using the Volume and Tone as you would on a great Tube amp.

But is the Combo setting as good as a tube amp set clean? I guess people who don't like pedals and have played small all-tube amps all their life (like me) will still hear a very very slight difference in the clarity. The tube amp has just a little more detail if you listen in. And obviously, the JDX it doesn't have any overdrive without adding a pedal. I'm not selling my tube amp for the studio just yet.

But it's less noisy than any amp I've heard. Just dead quiet. Not to mention more flexible, tough as a steel brick and a whopping 77lbs (!!) lighter than my studio rig. It just can't be beaten. I'd have honestly payed double for this if I had to, so hats down to Radial for making yet another ultra high quality, great sounding and down right affordable piece of brilliant engineering.

And thanks to Sweetwater for showing the way!

I've had mine since Christmas and it has been great. I have to admit that I was skeptical at first, but I am very very pleased with the results I've been getting. I can't detect any weird coloring/gain or thinning of my tone, but there is a difference in the sound settings (if that makes any sense). I play in many different types of rooms and studios and I'm able to plug straight in and my pedals sound and respond as if I were playing them through a tube amp.

The ONLY reason I would say that it doesn't replace your amp 100% of the time is that you are completely dependent on the house sound system. If it sucks, or no monitors, lazy/bad sound person then good luck... wish you would've had that amp!

However, it has significantly decreased my need to carry an amp and it is worth every single penny. I recommend it to all players or any churches and venues trying to run a silent stage.

This direct box does exactly what it says it does gives you a clean balanced guitar signal. Additionally it emulates the sound of different cabinet and amp configurations with the ability to tweak tunnel color.

You can very comfortably play directly through a PA or into a studio set up. It also takes effects very nicely.

Our band recently started to plug directly into our new digital mixer to give us better balance to our PA/FOH in certain venues. As a Guitar player, not having an amp right behind me was hard to get used to. I was using a BOSS multi effect into my amp which I also could go directly into the board. This delivered good sound, but whenever I wanted to use my pedal board versus the multi-effects, going direct in the PA sounded very thin without the amp in the set up.

This JDX Direct Drive box emulates the AMP so I can have it at the end of my pedal board effects chain and go directly to the PA/board. Another cool feature is I can also take the "thru" signal and send it out to my amp (if I choose) to use as my guitar monitor in larger venues. The band gets the desired "control" and balance in the mix of everyone's levels via the PA/FOH and I can still have the feel of an amp (with lower volume settings...depending on the venue).

If you're using a pedal board to the FOH without an AMP...this is a great solution to get the tone you want without breaking the bank.

Firstly, this is a great piece of kit. Sounds like a miced-up high-quality rig and works straight after the guitar pedals. Highly recommended.

Secondly, if you're going to buy musical equipment, you might as well get it from the good guys. Sweetwater has excellent customer service and, as far as I'm concerned, Dave Snow is the jewel in Sweetwater's crown. Thank you so much, Dave.

Using it live in front of my pedals and thru to my amp for both my guitar and harmonica!!
Sound Tech Loves FOH sound. Radial Products Rock!!

First thing I noticed is how solid and hefty it feels, excellent construction. Next is the sound, through my UE custom IEM"s, the sound was very immediate. I also had a Peavey Classic 30 connected at the Thru output miked with an Audix i5 and an XLR cable from the JDX going to the House digital board. I was able to A/B my guitar sound (a PRS Mira Semi-hollow) in real time. There was a noticeable difference in sound between the JDX and the miked Peavey, not better or worse, just more "direct". At the end of the Worship service, I asked our sound engineer (this guy has over 10 years experience) his thoughts on the JDX. His comments were ""I like it, sounds very "woody and jazzy". I then asked if he prefers the JDX sound over the milked amp, to which he responded " they"re both good, I can work with either one". So, if the engineer likes it, it says quite a bit about the product. It"s a keeper.

I've only had one opportunity to use this direct box and it worked out rather well. It was necessary to go direct into the board for the show and it solved the issues at hand. I'll just leave this on the pedal board and have the amp-free option available when needed or just sitting in.