I've been playing guitar now for almost 20 years and have owned lots of pedals over the years. I've never had the money to get a proper Marshall amp and have spent all this time chasing a tone I couldn't achieve with the gear I had.

Well I think my quest has ended. My current amp is a solid state late 80's/early 90's Peavey Bandit...yeah, the pre transtube ones. I've always felt the dirty channel on the amp was suitable for solos, especially when playing blues but for rhythm it sucked so I tried to compensate with pedals. Over the years, the money I've spent on pedals could probably have bought me a decent Marshall tube amp. I picked this pedal up because I saw some guy in the local music store toying with it and it seems pretty versatile.

When I plugged it into my amp I was instantly blown away. I had it on the Overdrive mode and was getting a classic Marshall tone straight out of the box. Keeping the same settings, I set my dirty channel of my amp to only slightly dirty and a little louder than my clean channel and was floored when I put on the Jackhammer and (to my ears at least) the tone reminded me of Jimmy Page's Whole Lotta Love solo.

If you want a tone similar to a Marshall tube amp but can't afford the expense of getting a Marshall, GET THIS PEDAL. It's not the same as having an actual Marshall amp, but it's as close as you'll get in a pedal format.

So far I like the OD mode best, like most people. It's very "TUBE-LIKE", but I don't think the distortion mode is as bad as others say...yes it's bassy, but even the manual suggests lowering the bass controls in this mode and by doing so I got a decent tone from it that reminds me of my friend's JCM-2000's lead channel.

Also, it's build like a tank...I've not seen anything this solid from Boss or Digitech...Even Dunlop will have to watch themselves if Marshall desides to make a bigger move towards the pedal market.

Next amp I buy is going to be a Marshall, but until I can afford the expense, this is the next best thing. If you want the overdrive and distortion tones that Marshall is famous for but can't shell out a grand or more for a Marshall tube amp, this is the next best thing.

I'm giving this a 5 in all categories...especially value because I've owned pedals way more expensive that don't come close. It came down to this pedal and a Sans Amp, and although the sansamp has more sounds to offer and also does well at the Marshall tones, it cost more than I paid for my amp and the Jackhammer delivered the tones I really wanted.

The Jh-1 is a good overdrive pedal but not so much a distortion pedal. Its overdrive preamp works amazing on my signal channel Sano but is only good as a solo booster on my Marshall MG-100 half stack on the O/D with both of my guitars which are and ESP LTD Viper 400 with EMG-85(b)/81(n) and my Dean Vendetta with an EMG-85(b). This pedals regular distortion setting has way to much natural contour and not enough natural treble. Over all I would say the Marshall Jh-1 is a well build, useful pedal.

The JH1 is the best O.D. pedal I have ever owned. I play a fender deville and a jackson guitar,and with JH1 I am able to get the over the top distortion I am looking for. I run a delay, waw pedal,and a eq pedal. THE JH1 pedal has been the best in the series of pedals I ever had.

I have this pedal and it works great but when it comes to my vox AD50VT it dosn't change the sound of my amp. Now when you use it I would recomend turning down the volume from the guitar of a volume pedal because if you don't it gets to muddy. I used my mr crybaby with it now its just used as a travel amp when I dont have my vox with me.

To my ears, this pedal beat the Sovtek Big Muff, the Marshall Shredmaster, the ProCo Rat, the Boss Metal Zone, the Ibanez TS9DX Tubescreamer, the Fender Blender, the DOD Supra Distortion and I bet it will probably beat any other pedal out there. I'm reluctant to buy one because it will make my pedal collection sound bad and I'm kind of attached to all of them. If you are starting out and are looking for a good distortion pedal, look no further. Don't make the mistake I made buying all kinds of other pedals looking for great distortion. This is the Holy Grail. And I'm not talking about electro harmonix reverb,