The Joyeuse is an ongoing personal passion project of mine. Being a child of the 80’s, there are just certain sounds that stick with me and have become a part of my hearing pattern. The aggressive crispy edge and smooth studio gliss of the spandex-clad tones of my youth have always been deeply entrenched in my head, and yet I have never felt fulfilled playing the original amps that actually made those tones. In 2013, I decided to slay that dragon for myself and began working on what was to become the Joyeuse. I wanted it to be classic British crunchy, but without the un-musical fizz and artifact sometimes associated, I wanted it to be pick/touch sensitive and super responsive, even surpassing the vintage amps I was working to improve on, I wanted vintage inspired tones with some modern sensibility, and I wanted to keep it simple so as not to spoil the dish with too many ingredients. It took me about 3 years of listening, tweaking, listening again, and tweaking some more before I felt like it was ready, in February 2016 I finally unleashed it. 

Since it’s initial release, the Joyeuse has been a continuously evolving sound, always changing and improving, and new for 2024 now features an improved effects loop, and a whole new parts complement. This latest revision is truly the sound that I had initially envisioned, and getting there required parts that were previously unavailable. In my pursuit to improve the Bludo-Drive, I ended up having vintage resistors re-manufactured in Europe by the new owners of the original company, which turned out to be exactly what I needed to get the sound and response I wanted from the Joyeuse! Of course this also required changing all of the coupling capacitors and bypass capacitors to go with them. The end result is a true fidelity and balance that is as close to perfection as I can imagine in this type of circuit.

Channel 1 goes from a warm, chimey clean, to a rich classic overdrive.

Tonally it is somewhat like a super smooth plexi, but with a 3-d quality previously unheard in this style of amp. The voice is sort of halfway in between the bright and normal inputs, and the feel is somewhat easier, and less stiff than the amps of old, and of course lacking the harsh fizz.

Channel 2 is overdrive, and once again, smooth, three-dimensional, super touch sensitive, and very tweakable. I wanted the overdrive to be ultimately expressive, but still be able to grind and crunch.

The lows are tight but still hit you in the chest, the mids are present and thick, but not barky, the highs are cutting but never harsh and never fizz out.

The Joyeuse also has 2 inputs, the normal input takes you straight to the first tube stage, however, the MOS input allows you to tap into the Bludotone/Hermida MOSFET tube simulator circuit, which is foot switchable, and can be used on either channel, basically turning channel one into a ripping crunch channel, and turning channel 2 into a saturated lead tone; 4 different gain stages right there at your feet!

Features:

•   4xECC83, 2xEL34
•   50 watts output power
•   2 foot switchable channels
•   3-way bright switch on each channel
•   Foot switchable MOSFET tube simulator circuit
•   Tube buffered effects loop
•   Variable negative feedback (spread control)