The JLD MOSFET Overdrive is a breath of fresh air when in a World flooded with overdrive pedals.  Not only is the build quality of the JLD top notch you also get tones that are unique which is a rare thing these days.  To sum up the tone it’s very, very amp like.  Imagine cranking your favorite black face up till it starts clipping – that’s what you get.  This isn’t a Fender voiced pedal by any means but for my money, the overdrive it produces is better than an amp pushed to the max.

Tone:
In terms of gain I would put this as a low to medium gain transparent overdrive.  What this pedal does extremely well is it doesn’t change the voicing of your amp.  With the pedal on you don’t lose any low end that I could notice and it doesn’t boost your mids like a Tubescreamer.  That said, it feels familiar like a Tubescreamer without the rolled out highs making this much more usable for humbucker guitars.   For those who play a Stratocaster and Telecaster, you’ll be able to get the chug you’ve always wanted without it getting too over the top.  The JLD MOSFET Overdrive also stacks really well. I ran a Maxon OD808 in front of it at a gig and it sounded great.  Due to the voicing of the JLD I’m sure it would stack in front of another pedal perfectly as well.

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive also stacks really well. I ran a Maxon OD808 in front of it at a gig and it sounded great.  Due to the voicing of the JLD I’m sure it would stack in from of another pedal perfectly as well.

A striking feature of this pedal is its dynamic, which means that the drive depends directly on your picking (footprint). Lines run with less force you grant a light drive, and employing more force, the drive will be distorted and incisive.

Controls:

The three main controls take care of the volume, tone, and gain settings.  The two selection toggle switch changes the pedal from “Low Gain” mode with the switch down to “High Gain” mode with the switch up.  Both modes sound great and depending on if it’s your only pedal in your chain you can decide which setting you like best.  High gain mode with your guitar volume controls down still cleans up really well so it’s win-win.  Another thing to mention too is if you run the gain control all the way down it will work as a true clean boost pedal.

Looks:

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive looks the business!  It’s slightly larger than your regular enclosure but it definitely has a great look and feel, without being over the top large.  It’s roughly 10-15% larger (mostly in the width) than your regular Boss pedal for example.

Overall

This is a great pedal for the price.  It sells in Brazil for $149 USD which is well worth the price.  I have this hooked up to my smaller pedalboard right now alongside my Maxon OD808 and it’s a pleasure to use.