Maximum Guitar Pedal, Overdrive Dual Channel Pedal Clean, and Wild Effect for Electric Guitar

I have been playing guitar for 35 years. I have always been a "plug and play" guy- guitar straight into the amp most of the time. I have dabbled with the occasional pedal here and there as well as owned a few multi-effect units, modeling amps, etc...I decided to assemble a small (4-5 spots) board for my 15-watt tube amp. The first two had to be a Noise Gate (Fender guy as well) and an Overdrive. I initially purchased a Boss Noise Suppressor (NS-2) and a Boss Super Overdrive (SD-1). No surprise, they are great pedals. BUT it's a noise gate and an overdrive. There are tons of options out there. Many for a fraction of the price as the Boss pedals as well. I ended up getting an Amuzik noise gate and this pedal, the Horse Maximum, to put head-to-head against their Boss counterparts.Excluding the Boost knob (more on that in a moment), this has the same three knobs as the SD-1. Set at roughly the same settings, this pedal sounded nearly identical. And that is a good thing. To my ears, they were one and the same tone. Could be a very similar circuit, I have no idea. Electronics aren't my forte. Regardless, anything the Boss could do, the Maximum could mimic. That's where the tone stops with the Boss- those three knobs. The Maximum has a few more tricks up its sleeve...The Maximum has 2 additional switches the Boss doesn't. One 3-way toggle for clipping and a 2-way toggle for diode selection. These alter the sound noticeably and give you a few more colors to work with. In addition to those switches, the Maximum also has a boost built in and selectable via its own dedicated footswitch. This little guy has its own knob to dial in just how boosted you want the already overdriven signal to be. This really thickens up the sound and kicks up the overdrive a few notches. The only downside is the main overdrive has to be engaged for the boost to work (although you can leave it on for the next time you stomp the main overdrive). This means you can't boost any other pedals but this one. Still, it's a pretty sweet feature the Boss SD-1 doesn't have.As other reviewers have stated: THIS IS AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL, NOT A DISTORTION PEDAL. With the Gain dimed and Boost engaged/dimed it can get pretty gnarly, but you won't be inclined to start chugging. If you're looking for a Klon, Tube Screamer, etc. breakup and the Boost function would appeal to you for solos, this is definitely worth a look in the flooded market of overdrives. Especially if your budget is on the lower end or you just love a good bargain to shock your boutique pedal-loving friends with.In summary, I got this pedal from Amazon for $24 and it rocks. It appears they have redesigned this pedal into a larger housing (and more than doubled the price), but it still comes in a few bucks under the $63 SD-1. Given the additional tone shaping via the 2 switches and Boost feature, I would still recommend it over the Boss after a few days of trials. My main concern is durability, but this is home use only at the moment. I will most definitely update the review if any QC issues pop up or it dies prematurely...

It's ok. Works well but it doesn't sound like a Marshall!

That pedal should be 299$It’s unbelievable smooth sound. Makes lots of pedals look non existent.

This is a great pedal, it is my first and I still use it all the time, it sounds great, plays well, and goes good with my wah.

It was only $16 when I got it, so I figured why not? The additional gain control and compressor work well enough, especially for the price. Build quality more than fine for the price. The only downside is that like some others have reported, mine picks up the radio :( for me it’s the classic rock station so it could be worse lol. A noise gate would probably fix it, but I don’t have one and if I got one it would end up costing me more than the price of just getting the joyo this is a clone of in the first place. But again, for so cheap it isn’t worth returning. I’ll just keep it as a toy. I would give it 2.5 stars if it let me.

Pedal self-oscillated, making a feedback sound if the gain and eq were set above noon with nothing plugged into the input jack. Clearly some problem in QC. NOT GOOD. Get the Caline Americana or the Joyo American Sound instead. This one had problems.

Buen pedal, sin embargo hay que subir bastante el volumen para notar el efecto lo cual no es muy favorable si quieres ensayar en casa sin audífonos

Shipped quickly and arrived in perfect condition. I used this in front of a Peavey Vypyr X2 set to the clean channel of both the TWN (Fender Twin Reverb) and the Peavey Classic amp settings. No other effects. I compared the Maximum to the Vypyr Tsc (Tube Screamer) emulation. I did not have high expectations since it was so inexpensive, but the Maximum was significantly better sounding. It sounded like a MUCH more expensive stomp box as opposed to Peavey's Tsc emulation which sounded artificial with a lot of extraneous digital background noise. The Maximum was dead quite even when the Boost was added. No issues with the knobs and switches. If the Maximum is indicative of the quality of other Horse stomp boxes, I will be getting more.