Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Reviews

5.0/5.0 based on 10 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Carson McClain

This pedal needs a special home. The type of place where monsters lurk under the stairs. The dark alley you would never take your pretty girlfriend down on the darkest coldest night of the year. The type of place where the dead walk after a nuclear explosion.Jekyll & Hyde will strip the skin off of your body, break your bones, then eat your soul for dessert. Oh, and it's red!

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Customer Reviews

Mark Glanemann
from Fort Wayne, Indiana
June 19, 2012Music Background:
Drummer, Guitar.

Just as the name implies.

My guitarist in my band(I'm a drummer btw), asked me why would you need overdrive and distortion. But then he used it once and was like oh I like this. Yeah that's what I thought!

But the way I use it is Jekyll is used for a boost with a hint of drive to break it up a little, then Hyde is setup to be a beast. I set it to the recommended setting for a British overdrive which I use on a VoxAC15 and I get a lot of noise! But yeah, this badboy, I won't be getting rid of anytime soon!

Tommy
from Newport News, VA USA
June 5, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist

The Best Pedal, Period

This pedal is great! SUPER versatile. You can get tones from a light overdrive for country or indie, all the way to black metal-worthy distortion. It is absolutely necessary no matter what type of music you play. You CAN NOT find a better distortion or overdrive for the price (or for a higher price, for that matter). The casing, switches, and knobs are super durable. There is nothing I would change about this pedal at all. It is perfect.

Devin Bell
from North Carolina
January 31, 2011Music Background:
Church musician/Lead Electric Guitar

Sleeper pedal!

Tubescreamer sound on the Overdrive side and a very convincing Marshall-y sound on the distortion side! What attracted me to this pedal was you get basically two pedals for the price of one. I ordered this without playing it before because the reviews were so good and one of my friends who has a great ear but didn't own this talked so highly of it. The Overdrive side is great for anything! Perfect for Mayer,SRV (classic strat tones) and alternative, indie and modern worship music (think The Edge from U2, Chris Tomlin.....). I use it as my main drive (with the bass boost off). The Distortion as I stated earlier has a killer Marshall-esque sound to it. Very timeless and classic. I use it for a heavier sound and lead tones (I have it set on the blunt side. The sharp side sounds really treble-y and fizzy to MY EARS.) My current chain is Fender pedal tuner to Boss Blues Driver to Jekyll & Hyde to Boss DD-20 w/ Boss FS-5U tap tempo to Boss RV-5. I am using an American Standard Fender Stratocaster and a Peavey Valveking 1x12s clean channel (sounds like a Fender Blackface amp to me). Hope this helps and My sales rep Mike Baldonado ext. 1315 will do a great job of helping you out! Sweetwater gives you candy with your purchases too haha!

Brad Spead
from Grand Rapids, MI
July 21, 2010Music Background:
active musician, hobbyist, blues/rock/jazz/fusion guitarist

can't say enough good things about this pedal...

Ever since i first heard SRV, i wanted a tubescreamer. I went through acouple variants (TS-7, TS-9DX) using them purely for solo boosts. But after awhile, i got sick of using my amps rhythm sound because it shared an EQ with the clean, and it was near impossible to set the levels to the same volume point, so i switched to just the tubescreamer... except of course, i then only had a good rhythm sound, so i set out to find the end all pedal for my tone... Enter the Jekyll & Hyde.

I use the Jekyll (TS-808) side for my rhythm crunch, and MAN does it deliver! very versatile, alot of tone options, just killer sound. Then, i kick on the Hyde side as a solo/gain boost, and it just SINGS! Tons of gain, but still tons of clarity (my main setting is a variant on the 'Hot Blues' in the manual... i think thats what it was called). The bass boost and sharp/blunt switches make it even more versatile. Switch the Hyde channel to sharp, roll the mids knob all the way back and you've got perfect metal tones. Switch it to blunt and roll the mids up, and it more resembles a cranked JCM than a distortion pedal.

Visual Sound really hit the nail on the head with this guy. I can't wait to pick up their Open Road Overdrive to complement it. Alot of big-name players use this pedal, and for good reason. Try it out, tweak it alot, and i can guarantee you'll find some sounds that you like. The J&H helped me finally achieve the tone i've heard in my head for years! Thanks Bob!!

from
May 25, 2010

Holy Crap this Pedal is Awesome

This peddle is mayhem and irresponsible fun in a metal casing. I have been looking for the right overdrive/distortion pedal for a long time, and actually purchased and returned a Fulltone OCD. It sounded great, but did not offer enough range or distortion for what I was looking for. I wanted a pedal that I could play through a very clean amp, and get any sound that I was looking for. This pedal is it, in spades.

When I tested this pedal we plugged into a fender princeton reverb, and were using a low end fender strat. On more high gain settings this pedal was causing harmonic feedback like three Hendrix's were trying to crawl out of the amp. It sounded so good, and so ridiculous, that my sales rep and I were literally laughing like school kids. It made that fender amp sound like a marshall stack. But better, because it still retained all that Fender glassy goodness.

And tone, my god the tone. Huge, round, fat, dirty tone. Not noisy, not dirty, just pure awesomeness. Killer SRV tone when the bass boost is engaged. Amazing texas grungy blues sounds. Super smooth creamy overdrive tones. Hell has come to earth metal tones. Unbelievable. Super flexible. As my rep said, there is not a bad tone in this pedal. He is right. It goes to 11! This pedal is in a class by itself. There is none higher. Amazing. Truly the most mind blowing piece of gear I have ever tried. It sounds that good, and works that well.

Isaac
from US
January 10, 2010Music Background:
Hobbyist, Live Sound Engineer

Perfect For Any Style Of Music

Just like the review title says, this is a perfect sounding OD/Dist pedal that will work for any style of music. Hands down the best I've ever played, and definately worth $150. The Jekyll channel can go from clean boost to jazz to crunch in seconds, and the Hyde channel goes from crunch to southern rock to metal madness with no effort at all (suggested settings in the manual are great!). You can also combine the 2 channels and get an even more amazing sound. This thing is so versatile it is almost worth buying another one you can add 3 more distinct rock sounds. Great job Visual Sound!

Nick Funyak
from
October 27, 2009Music Background:
Hobbyist

Honestly the best

Like many other users, I was having trouble finding a great Distortion pedal. Most completely destroyed any tone I wanted to retain. The Jekyll part of the pedal is a very classic and wonderful overdrive, and the Hyde part of the pedal is hands down the greatest distortion I have ever heard from a stomp box pedal. It's tonal possibilities are amazing; reaching anywhere from a little bit of grit to major beef and saturation. My only gripe is that the bass and noise reduction controls are inside the pedal, and you have to obviously take it apart to get to them. Still worth it for the sound.

Isaac
from NC
May 30, 2009Music Background:
Hobbyist

WOW!

This is my favorite distortion/overdrive pedal that I have every played, and I have played a LOT of them. Both channels are extremely versatile and both sound great. I play in various praise teams, and also in an orchestra/ensemble at my church, so I love the fact that one pedal do everything from jazz to crunch, because it saves me the trouble of hauling around my entire pedalboard just for a 30 minute practice. I would reccomend this to any guitarist who is looking for versatility and great tone in a distortion pedal.

StoneBarn
from NJ
May 11, 2009Music Background:
Professional Engineer and multi-instrumentalist

My favorite OD/Distortion

Like a lot of guitar players, I have never been really happy with any of the distortion pedals I've had, and that's a lot in 20 years of playing. I then found the first generation Jekyll and hyde pedal and I new my troubles were over. It's extremely versatile from a little crunch to very thick and lush. I'll never sell mine!

mr. drybones
from buffalo, NY
February 28, 2010Music Background:
producer, professional musician

covers alot of bases...

what can i say that hasnt been said a thousand times about the ts808 circuit...great saturated sound, similar to a overdriven 12ax7, harmonics come alive with even passive pick ups! i love the hyde too! plenty of high end sizzle if you like, brown and muddy if you dont. plenty of user control to dial in that perfect combo of od/dist. i use mine w/ jekyll on for rythm and both on for a fab boosted solo tone. if you like the dual gain stage idea (like orange amps) then youll definately fall in love with this stompbox! construction is solid (though i admit i havent taken mine out of the studio yet) enough to tour, anyone with a decent knowledge of soldering and small circuits can service this one if something should go kaputz. i love the switches by the way... alltogether a solid investment for any genre looking to heat up their tone a bit (or a whole lot). buy with confidence.