Jackson Audio - The Golden Boy

Jackson Audio effects pedals have recently hit our stores. For those of you who don't know about these gems, prepare to be amazed at what a pedal of this size has in its bag. This is a top-notch company that does not compromise on the quality they deliver with their products. The curiosity of connoisseurs and experimenters of this type of item will be more than satisfied and surprised by what Jackson Audio has to offer.

Who are Jackson Audio?

Jackson Audio is a young company with over 40 years of well founded expertise. Born in 2016, the company emerged from a conversation between Brad Jackson, Juan Kyle (both from Jackson Ampworks) and Nigel Hendroff. Their ideology is based on passion and their calling to help musicians who feel they need to follow through with their ideas and expression of their music. Those musicians who are not just guitarists and for whom playing music is not just a job, it is a vocation.
In fact, the company works hand in hand with many seasoned musicians and rising stars of the music industry such as: Joey Landreth. Mateus Asato and Cory Wong as well as many other guitarists

The Golden Boy is gold.

This pedal is a collaboration between the Jackson Audio team and Canadian guitarist Joey Landreth and deserves a prominent place on any pedalboard. It is one of the most complete overdrive pedals on the market. Not to say: THE most versatile and manipulable. Moreover, its format is ideal for accessibility due to its slightly higher than average height. Add to that the fact that it's no wider than the average standard pedal, so it takes up less space on a pedalboard than most double-sized pedals.

Besides its size, it has innumerable qualities starting with the transparency of its circuitry based on the famous Bluesbreaker. It is called transparent saturation for a reason. It allows to saturate the signal of the guitarist without tinting the basic sound on which each of us works so hard to reach.
It has a MIDI input accessible through a ¼ cable located on the back to keep favorite backups. Because yes, there are many ways to work it and it's possible to store/recall our work whenever we feel like it.

The Drive side

One of the two sides of the pedal is the Drive circuit, that is, the saturation rate. There are 4 ways to work on your sound. Each of the options is defined by a flashing light of different colors that represent different variations of the Bluesbraker circuit. Within these choices there is; TS 808 style clipping (more compressed), 3 diode unbalanced clipping, 4 diode symmetrical clipping and a Marshall Vintage style circuit (less compressed).

Each of these options can be manipulated through the EQ knobs available on the top of the pedal; Volume, Gain, Bass, Mids and Highs.

The Boost side

As for the Boost side, it should be mentioned from the outset that it is completely independent from its neighbor Drive. Nevertheless, it has an influence on it by the fact that it is added to the latter when they are both activated. The Boost also offers 4 preset options which, starting with the yellow blinker, adds bass and opens up a wider frequency spectrum as the presets are made. Yellow being the brightest of all. This gives us the choice to complement the two channels well and put it to the personal taste of each player. Of course, everything can be saved and recalled via MIDI.

Gain cycle

This is an interesting addition to control the available gain level. By pressing both buttons simultaneously it is possible to play with the gain percentage. By setting the gain to, say, 100%, each stage offers an additional 25% of gain, so from 25% to 50% to 75% and finally 100% of the manually selected level. This option comes in handy in a live situation, without changing the sound, just increasing the saturation level can accompany a certain section of the song well. > Use as you see fit.

Conclusion

If you've read this far, you probably understand the range of possibilities and customization that this pedal offers. This pedal is for the serious enthusiast in the world. If these options speak to you, take a look at other Jackson Audio pedals, their processing is simple....but infinite!