For Nirvana fans reading this, the Joyo California is the equivalent to the SansAmp that Kurt Cobain used on In Utero and its tour, also it does Nirvana cleans really well because Kurt used a Mesa Boogie pre-amp for most if his career (1990-1994)
Absolutely, hands down agree. I keep looking for justification for buying the American Fender Tech 21 clone. I have been using the California for two months now and love its purity, and pristine transparency. Tonal bliss, is very versatile. Added with a touch of JHS Bonsai in front for some light tube screamer texture, the Cali Sans Amp Mesa clone simply rules. Big fan of JOYO and Harley Benton.
I've owned all 3. The California and American does well with a distortion. The British gets too shrill with one, but sounds pretty good just by itself.
@ChristopherSiller Like an actual amp there I'd no best here. It's a matter of what you happen to like. The American is capable of a scooped blackface sound with the Voice set about nine o'clock as well as a pretty flat midrange with the Voice control at noon .Set your Drive low, like eight or nine o'clock and it's a pretty good range of clean amp sounds that make for a very good platform for other pedals in front of it like distortion or fuzzes if you happen to like fuzz into a clean amp. Setting the Drive higher than a bit of gritty overdrive to my ears isn't great with the American it doesn't sound much at all like a real blackface or a tweed amp pushed but more like the distortion on a not so great transistor amp. Clean or just a touch of grit I think is where the American Sound shines. The British and AcTone I think do more convincing amp distortion on their own than the American does. If you like a pedal platform that is like a good clean amp I would go with the American but if you like a real amp that is a bit more gainy to get a mix of pedal as well as overdrive from the amp then sort of like the way the real amps work you might want that Marshall or Vox sound of the British or the AcTone rather than the American. To access the clean sounds out of the American don't be afraid to totally crank the Level knob to be able to run the Drive knob really low, especially with P90's or humbuckers there are good cleans to be found on the American with the Drive well below nine o'clock. Also the cab sim sound built into these pedals is rather slight so if going direct to an interface they really benefit from addition cab sim (especially on overdriven and distorted sounds) either a plugin in your daw or another external cab sim pedal / IR loader. The ADA GCS analog cab sim pedals work really well after the American but adds a bit to the cost, it does however provide a lot of control, fully analog sound, XLR output and a headphone out with it's own separate volume control.
