JOYO Overdrive Distortion Pedal R Series High Gain OD Clean Boost to Dist for Electric Guitar Effect (Tauren R-01)

Product Information

One of the designs that most closely resembles the original Centaur, this unit uses only the highest-quality components. What is a Tauren? “Tauren are huge nomadic creatures who live on the grassy, open plains of Mulgore in central Kalimdor. Tauren are large, muscular humanoids and bovine in appearance, complete with hooves and horns. Tauren stand anywhere from nine to twelve feet tall”-- so pretty much my height “--and they weigh 650 to 1000 pounds--” that's basically me in the winter.**

This other Wampler Klon clone is an evolution of the original Tumnus (see “Authentic “Klones” list) in a bigger enclosure, with optional true bypass switch and tonal flexibility through a three-way EQ section. A toggle switch in the middle of the pedal gives you higher gain options for extra flexibility. Always’– The lights are always on, but the pedal is only activated when you press the footswitch and the LED effect indicator comes on.The Tauren pedal nails the classic emulation of a saught after low-to-medium gain overdrive guitar pedal at a great price. The Soul Food circuit board employs mostly small, surface-mount components, with the exception of several capacitors and the clipping diodes. The latter are silicon in lieu of the Klon's germanium. Still, as Image 2 above shows, the Soul Food's tone profile matches that of the original Klon almost exactly. At heavy settings, I think I hear slightly more compression and gain from the Soul Food, but I'm not always certain. We're quite close to Klon here. The Horseman's stable is a tiny AA-sized enclosure, which means there's no battery compartment. That makes it about 1/6 the size of the original Klon. It's a bit surreal to see that legendary circuit crammed into a device requiring only a sliver of pedalboard space. Unsurprisingly, given its low cost, the parts and build quality don't quite match those of the pricier options. But you can't argue with the Horseman's excellent tones. Wampler also loaned us their newer Tumnus Deluxe pedal. We don't have space for a standalone review, but we can summarize what it brings to the party: The control layout on the relatively large 125B-sized enclosure retains the usual treble-cut tone control (which functions just as it does on the original) but adds active bass and midrange controls. There's also a buffer bypass switch and a “hot" switch that boosts gain.

This non-true-bypass Klone features a 6-position rotary clipping switch that opens up a variety of options in the overdrive’s clipping stages, allowing the player to fine-tune the pedal to his or her amp. Like the real thing, it works great as a boost or overdrive in adding pleasing harmonics to an already dirty amp. Use with other pedals to shape the total gain, as a stand-alone overdrive, or as a slightly dirty boost to push the front end of your amp. While I didn’t give the EHX Soul Food a perfect review, here’s the JHS modified EHX Soul Food pedal. At the same time, there are some obvious upgrades in terms of tonal variety thanks to the toggle switch on the side and the “Meat” knob on the right. It makes this super versatile. Because of this bias control, I can tune in high gain overdrive sounds that I really love and would use, whereas I won’t use a massive wall of sound like modern Marshall sounds, because I just don't play that style of music. But I do love coaxing cool/on the edge of distortion overdrive sounds out of pedals like this. It’s very satisfying. The Uzi does it very, very well.**Apart from being a well-made, great sounding pedal, this is really simple to use. I don't usually get along with pedals with hyper digital banks and categories and millions of choices. To paraphrase Ron Swanson, “I'm a simple man. I like pretty, dark-haired women, and user-friendly pedals.” Like any real man, I figured this out without the use of a wimpy manual, which pretty much says all you need to know.

Its 18v circuit, combined with a circuit optimized to minimize compression, made it extremely dynamic. It could be used as a supplement, or as the focal point of a rig, and many famous players loved it as a clean boost and many others as an “amp-in-a-box.” The point being, it excelled at everything. Klon Centaur-based overdrive offering both a buffered clean boost with plenty of chime and a rich transparent overdrive for pushing your edge of breakup tones into singing lead. The voicing switch shifts the frequency range of the Treble control. In V3 a new selection of diodes adds a new tonal dimension to the higher gain settings and a bass control allows for a little extra tone shaping. A version of the popular Archer with six graphic EQ sliders instead of a tone knob, developed by guitarist Steve Stevens. Each slider controls 18dB of cut or boost at 6 different frequencies.The Tauren pedal nails the classic emulation of a saught after low-to-medium gain overdrive guitar pedal at a great price. Where other classic ‘clones’ have fallen short, the Tauren from JOYO produces a warm transparent overdrive that adds dynamic gain to the signal without altering the tone of the guitar.