UNBIASED GEAR REVIEW - Joyo Mjolnir Guitar Amplifier Head 

I've had this amp for years and swear by it. It's a two channel amp and has no "crunch channel". You did not use the bundled footswitch cable, the amp expects a stereo 1/4 not a regular mono guitar cable for the footswitch. That "crunch" you got was the amps high gain channel being starved. The amp doesn't even have an orange LED. So sad to see this being the first video that pops up on RU-vid when you look up the Mjolnir as it does not do the amp justice.

I solemnly never hear brutal technical death metal riffs that endearing in my ear but you. Thanks! Gotta check all your

Hey brother its great to see something recent on this amp. I suggested to a friend/student of mine to pick one up back in '19 after being impressed by Spector Glenns review of it. When he got it we played it and could both agree it sounded decent but only with a TS or something up front. After some time i said fuck it and decided to mod it because after all its at least a good starting point right? I was impressed straight away with the components and PCB, (no SMT shit! good MF resistors, satisfactory electrolytics, Alpha pots and even WIMA caps not to mention very good JJ preamp tubes), this amp is fully serviceable. Too bad no amount of searching produced a schem and the board is 3 layer so 😂 tracing the circuits kinda not gonna happen. Whatever. So to make a long story boring i started reducing the first decoupling stages like i would with a 2203/2204 but that only sent me backwards. After a few days of scratching my head i noticed a couple op amps at the input similar to my old ADA MP1, which led me to think that potentially ones an inverting opamp and i was right. So I changed the 1meg input resistor to 2meg. Wow. Definite improvement. How about 3meg? Damn! Ok lets go 4meg. What the actual fuck??!! Suddenly this amp was in league, no, suddenly it buried 99%+ of all the amps ive ever played!! No, im not the guy thats played 200 of the latest and greatest, ive probably only played 50-60 amps in my 46 years but they were all noteworthy, ie Pitbull, SLO, (real) 1987/ 1959, 2203/2204 modded and stock, Krankenstein, Mesa MKII B, C+ and MK4, u get the idea. I honestly could not believe my ears. All in all i changed all decoupling and cathode caps to Sozo (preference) and modded the boost, push and mid cut circuits to make them actually useable. After hearing it this way my only question was why in blue fuck didn't THEY do this??!!. Truly, and ill swear on both my parents graves about this, 4meg at the input is all thats needed to get a distortion sound better than probably all the recorded high gain sounds youve ever heard and no pedals required! So to conclude, maybe u solder, maybe not, if not u must have a buddy that does. Humour me and try the 4meg, your jaw will drop. Itll literally change your life. P.S. Recto oversized, Marshall MF400, vintage Marshall slant, VHT Fattbottom, forget it. A $200 Marshall MG 4x12 bottom is a practically ideal match for this head. And after you realize im not a mush head just be running my mouth, delete this comment. Itll be our secret 🤘😤🤘

Secret crunch channel with an HM2-like skreeeeee? Cool 🤩

The crunch tone options they give just make it sound broken.

Sounds like a cool amp. Definitely needs a boost to get it how I'd want, but interesting nonetheless. Kinda has a Mesa recto thing going on at certain settings

Thanks for the review Arnold, I have this amp and just wanted to note that it only has two channels - clean (green) and distortion (red). I haven't had any problems with the footswitch and it changes channels quietly, though some folks have reported a popping noise. The push switch adds a bit of gain to the clean channel only, but I agree that it's not enough for crunch. I just use the distortion channel alone as a crunch and then kick on an overdrive to take it into chug territory with some degree of success if the gain's on 5 or less. On another note, an ale with cacao and coffee flavours is something I'd like to try! \m/

Nice to hear that kickass 8 string Blackened Death Metal full mix demo. 🤘

killer song killer tone, absolutely stunning guitar!

Love your honest reviews! \m/

Such a sick intro song!! Thanks Arnold!!

Would this possibly inspire you to get a few of the joyo mini heads? Curious of your thoughts of the meteor, zombie, and vivo. I have the zombie and its ok. Bug now I just use my hd500x and a headrush frfr. But want a better frfr and maybe a helix lt or a mooer modeler.

Do you still livestream? Haven’t caught it in awhile if you still do.

The guitar playing at the very beginning of the video, Is that a Jackson multiscale?

That one is cool but I'd like to see you do the evh iconic someday. I own the 100S and 50 watt but im still curious about the iconic.

Intro track was sikk as hell dude. Nice!

Hey dude thanks for making the video. Just wondering did you have the right cable on the footswitch? I've been looking up the Mjolnir for a while, the manual says the footswitch needs a stereo TRS cable - no idea why, it's just a single on/off switch to change 2 channels right? But I saw you held up the footswitch and it had that angled mono cable rather than a stereo TRS cable. No idea why they'd design it where you need a TRS cable to switch between 2 channels, seems stupid to me, but I wonder if that's what was causing the problems with the channel when you plugged the footswitch in. I might be wrong, maybe the amp is just broken haha

@arnoldplaysguitar at 8:25 you might have used a standard cable. It needs the trs cable.

Love the shirt, awesome band. It soundes good, everybody boosts in metal anyway, and it's a 350$ amp anyway. You can get better stuff 2nd hand for that but it's alright

Hey! Arnold do a review on the Ibanez Axe Design Lab RGDMS8 Multi-scale 8-string Electric Guitar of 2023!! Would love a review! Thanks

Nailed Dime's Far Beyond Driven tone @ 10:30 😁

Hmm. Reminds me of a guy in Australia who reviews vape products paired with beer

Hey man love you're content was wondering if you'd do a review on the boss katana mk 2 amp head it's pretty sick

My dude, on the opposite end of price point. You absolutely have to try the Friedman JJ jr. I’m not an EL84 guy at all but I have a JJ jr and have gigged with it. It’s loud as hell and can handle low tunings no problem. I play it more than my EVH 5150iii now. Would love to see a comparison between a cheap pretty decent lunch box head like this against something like the JJ jr or the Revv lunchbox heads.

I’m assuming the footswitch is for going back n forth for the amp gain stages,( like a standard rhythm tone and a boosted tone) you wouldn’t need the Foot switch if your using the clean channel and running only dirt pedals n effects pedals,

Yeah the thing with the footswitch kinda kills it for me, great review as usual keep up the incredible work

I don't see the price on the website but it sounds pretty great at times

Just out of curiosity, is the issue with the footswitch because you have the FX loop bypassed?

0:46 Dude! Only the intro is worth it 👍☕

That opening song was so fucking tasty

That crunch channel sounds like Rockford local metal bands. 😳

I’d actually love to look at the schematic for this amp. I have a theory on what’s going on but I need to see the circuit schematic.

Yeah I think that footswitch is just broken, or rather whatever happens in the amp when the footswitch is plugged in is doing something very wrong in the amp. From what I heard elsewhere it shouldn't sound like that with footswitch in.

The crunch mode would do well for some heavy doom fuzz stuff but always here for the high gain. Fuck whoever bitches about whatever bs ur tha shit bra🤘🏾

Seems like they want you to buy pedals alongside this amp. It might be cool to mod.

Im going to go play guitar, awesome video

That crunch is horrendous ... it's attack of the killer fuzzy bees, dear GOD that's bad. I am actually suprised you endured through that torture. As ofr the foot swtich crunch plug unplug to get clean ... what is that bullshit!?! The high gain is MUCH better but I much prefer my OR15 for that tone.

Great video. I owned the PRS mt15 the distortion was unable.but put a mulity effects board threw the Clean with a klone boost now sound pasable. But the distortion on the jayo is probly the worst I've heard. Second is the prs

I think that’s a broken amp you were demoing there Arnold, that crunch/ distortion Channel foot switch issue and sound didn’t seem right like a bad biasing component too fuzzy.

I've had one of these for about 3 years. It's just blown its 3rd set of powertubes, always after only a few weeks of usage. I think it sounds decent enough but seriously considering just throwing it out so I don't spend more money on it.

Actually the cleans are not very clean. One thing I find annoying about a lot of high gain heads is when their clean channel sounds like di instead of an actual tube amp. The MT15 is like that. It sounds nice, but it basically is only useable for a heavily modulated prebreakdown arpegiated chords. The foot switch seems like it might just be broken.

I heard it! Freezing moon

How does it compare to the recto ?

I wouldnt trust a glitchy thing like that what else may not be working right also my "clean" is usually a crunch so thanks for helping narrow my home amp search

That thing really only sounds good distorted, and for that price, you could get a used 6505mh that sounds and functions better on all 3 modes.

That "clean"/pushed channel is awful with that footswitch in. Before you plugged it in, it had a pretty decent gain-y Marshall thing going on. Something is wrong with that amp.

Love the hair brah

Freezing fucking Moon lol

Lol. Your thumbnail reminds me of sleepaway camp

Sounds terrible with that pedal plugged in but the high gain stuff without it sounds pretty dang good

That sounds awful. I appreciate your honest review because it definitely helped me decide on whether to get one or not.

That "crunch channel" makes me not want to live anymore.

So basically no actual clean? Everything else was perfect

It sounded like it was farting out half the time. I have yet to hear this amp sound good on any demo.

Sounds like freekin crap !! I have a Joyo Zombie 2 abs it’s amazing

I would pick a Boss Katana any day rather than this amp.

Not clean enough

Holy shit, that's actually a sick little amp. Really crunchy.

Yikes.....that thing has 0 purpose except as a paper weight. 😂

no way that intro riff was just the amp alone. i rrefuse to accept a fucjin ttube amp could deliver that pristine depth of distortion

okay,..this is suppossd to be a review videoo for an amplifier,...so why are they using pedals, its likee he's insinuating thatt tthe amp is an overpriced shhitbox without any sort of pedals to aaccentuate, the fuckin amp should standd on its own merits