Joyo Ultimate Drive. Worth It?

I use it mostly for solos with an AC15c2 (and a standard tele or strat).
I think that it sounds good/very good for getting a strong overdrive/almost fuzzy lead sound out of that chain (british style amp + single coil guitar). I use it in two ways: as a "dirty" booster (no gain, volume up) or as an heavy overdrive (gain at 10/11 vol around 11/12).
I don't like for rhythmic parts, I find it too bassy IMO.
Conclusion: very good for the price if used with a specific goal in mind, not very versatile.

I hope it helps

 

Hi i just found this old thread where you say that you've got both the OCD and the JOYO ULTIMATE DRIVE,i've just bought the Joyo and i like it so much, because i need another drive i was thinking of buying another one to use it as light crunch, how do they stack together ? Are they any good when both are on at the same time ?
Thanks a lot.

 

I see a lot of people saying the joyo UD doesn't sound as good as the OCD and they cant get a good sound out of it....I don't know man, mine sounds great. but you have to know what it is and what you expect out of it. Its not a tube screamer, and it doesn't sound like one. it does not have that mid range boost like tube screamers do. it also doesn't suck the bottom end out of your tone, again like tube screamers do. that's not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. so its got kind of a flat EQ, and doesn't thin your signal out. I have no problem at all making it just as dark or bright as I want it. and I have A/B'd it with my OCD for hours and if you can hear a big difference then you have a better ear than I do. I could tell a very very very slight difference. if anything the OCD seemed a little "grainier" to me. but it was very slight. certainly not worth the price difference. and certainly not anything anyone would hear in the mix. like at all. So on sound alone, I would take the joyo any day. now that's just sound. quality wise, if I was going to gig I would take the OCD hands down. I have had my joyo for a while with no issues but I don't gig with it. its just not robust enough for that. its strictly an at home/garage band pedal in that regard. so its going to depend on your application. also, I know this is a tele forum but I run my 2001 les paul classic through it into a marshall dsl40. clean channel with gain up to about the point where its just breaking up. it sounds better to me when the amp is distorting just a little already rather than going from total clean. i think you can get a pretty good tone out of it without all that much tweaking. I think its a great pedal.

 

I keep mine on it covers all the bases. It’s beat several “booticki” pedals. Lol. Best pedal at any price.

 

Man, you should try it with guitars

I only kick it on for solos - but man ...those thick, syrupy driven sounds are to die for.
In a two hour gig I might use it for ....maybe six minutes total.
absolutely worth the 30 bucks.
100+dollars for a an OCD to do the same? nah, not really worth it. IMHO.

 

my thoughts on the Ultimate Drive;
1. i dont view it anymore as an OCD alternative contrary to its hype
2. It may be rig/amp dependent. for my rig it functions well (better than the OCD) i was looking for a pedal with more mids and highs while the OCD is dark in my set up. I use solid state amps. it think the OCD would sound good in a tube amp
3. its more of a distortion pedal similar to a keeley DS1 but not as harsh, rather than an overdrive
4. i dont need to boost it. i find i need to boost the OCD so my solos will not get lost in the mix

just all my thoughts and opinions. YMMV

Its currently on my B board but i may get one for my A board

 

I second the Eno "Trouble" drive. I've had both, and I felt that the Joyo was a more muffled tone. Maybe what Mike Simpson was describing as "woofy". I can get behind that. I thought the Eno sounded better. Although, I can't tell you whether either of them sounded like an OCD because I've never actually had one.

 

My 2 cents! I got the Ultimate Drive for the Higher Gain OD and thought it was great until I picked
up a TC Electronics Dark Matter. I still have the Ultimate Drive that I now use for my lowest gain OD(hair), use a Old Version VS Route 66 for mid gain OD and the Dark Matter for High gain OD/Distortion. I got quite a few dirt boxes accumulated now but IMHO the Dark Matter is the top of the heap. Platrefire

 

My main overdrive pedal for years was an OCD, used at lower gain settings as an always-on pedal. I was looking for a pedal for my other board which stays in church, so I thought the UD could save me money and would be a good choice. I’m afraid I was not at all impressed.

I totally admit that with careful positioning of the pots, I was able to get almost the same sound from the UD as the OCD. However, I personally felt that most of the sounds on the OCD were good, and I found the pots had useful ranges. By contrast, every time I tried to find a usable sound on the UD, I had to carefully position the pots and the slightest move in any direction made it sound terrible to my ears.

The OCD had lots of really natural earthy sounding tones - like Mike Landau’s lighter overdriven tones - it’s no wonder he used an OCD for a while on a James Taylor tour. But the UD seemed to naturally tend towards raspy, tinny tones.

I thought the UD was a great example of a pedal which I accept could be set to sound almost the same as the OCD, but still really frustrated and disappointed me at the end of the day. Really strange experience for a copy of a pedal I love.

Anyway, that’s just my experience. Obviously YMMV.

 

Mine sound decent but it's quite noisy, not sure if that's a common thing with these?

 

I used to love these things but the Ultimate Drive tends to be too woofy or trebly. My switch also broke so you get what you pay for

I would invest in the real thing i.e. OCD