It’s time to lock and load. This twin assault from JHS packs versatility and power.
Combining the Bluesbreaker-style essence of the Morning Glory with the punchy (now discontinued) 808, this 2-in-1 dual overdrive is hailed by JHS as “everything low to medium gain”. Aside from the logo upgrade, the Double Barrel V3 replaces the V2 with only one extra addition – a 3-way gain toggle for the 808. In today’s gear market, the plethora of options involved in choosing a new stompbox can be as perplexing as picking out a new car. JHS however, hasn’t stopped since 2007 and this duo of drives is one of many stellar gain pedals from founder Josh Scott, a leading authority and educator in the pedal space. The Double Barrel was birthed from a customer order by a friend of Josh’s for a double drive featuring the Morning Glory – a combination of two circuits that excel individually but are incredible when stacked.
We’ve come a long way from the dark cream vanilla colour on the V1. The V3’s off-white aluminium chassis adds an alluring flair to my pedalboard. Extraordinarily light, the Double Barrel is a far cry from its neighbour, the Deluxe Memory Boy which is only slightly bigger but nearly double the weight. The user interface is very user friendly and simplistic with a six-pot setup (3 for each pedal side). These are easily accessible, bold and have three toggle switches that are included for even more tonal tweaking. The middle toggle can be a bit fiddly on-the-fly, at the risk of turning other parameters. Mono 1/4 input and output jacks are located as standard left and right. Gig-ready and efficiency are the key words here – the pedal’s lightweight design complements the surprisingly compact size of this dual overdrive. Rugged isn’t my initial thought but as I prop the pedal on my board and toe-tap, it changes my mind. Compared to my hefty Blackstar HT-Dual, this is a unit where pedalboard space poses no issue and is arguably the smallest dual pedal I have used.Navigating this JHS pedal to achieve great tones is a breeze. The three knobs for each drive are simple enough – Volume, Drive and Tone. The Drive knob turns up the brightness as the gain lifts in a warm amp-like sweep, at no point do I feel it becomes abrasive, even when cranked. The Bright Cut toggle on the left reduces those highest frequencies – turning it on instantly after plugging in my Tele and Strat. The right toggle is a utilitarian three-way gain toggle and as I push down, it becomes a saturated mode that you would expect from an 808-style stomp. The middle is standard boost mode and pushing it up takes me to crunch mode Finally, the hard-to-get-to order toggle in the centre is rather special in that it gives the option to choose which circuit goes first in the chain for different tones when stacking both sides. The Double Barrel only requires 9V DC power with the jack at the rear and as a dual circuit pedal, it draws more power than your typical stompbox. My CS7 isolated power supply is a necessity in a smaller board of five other pedals to prevent any noise.I trial the pedal through various guitars with my Kemper Profiler and through my DAW/Headphones and M-Audio speakers. With a Matchless Lightning profile and my Stratocaster, I roll the Drive knob up to eleven o’clock on the Morning Glory to get that cranked EL84 AC30-esque tone. Often, I just want ‘more’ from my amp or a clean boost with no colouring to my tone and this gives it that much-needed lift. The hi-cut toggle is always on for single-coiled guitars but as I pick up my mid-heavy Sheraton, I turn it off. For those needing even more of a hi-cut, the tone knob is also there to help tame those piercing highs. While the 808 is perfectly great on its own and as a no-nonsense mid-boost, what really makes this dual drive second-to-none is the stacking of both. I reach 70s Stones territory – both drive pots are past 12’clock with my Telecaster on the neck pickup for blues-rock lead, leaving me with a huge grin. I then flip to the bridge pickup for some roaring rhythm.
JoLeeMusic 