Features:

  • 20 watt amplifier with single 12AX7 preamp
  • 2 channels: clean and overdrive
  • Controls: Gain, tone and volume
  • FX Loop, Bluetooth, 8 or 16 Ohm loudspeaker output, 3.5 mm mini-jack headphone
  • Dimensions: 163 x 110 x 140 mm Weight 1.2 kg Power supply included
Metal Monster

I purchased a Joyo Meteor some time ago, and have been very impressed with it. So much so that I bought the Zombie, as well. All the BantAmp series amplifiers have essentially the same feature set, with a tube plus op-amp front end and a class D power stage. This, in itself, doesn't really tell the story, though. Some very intelligent engineering has been done with these amps. Instead of adding every bell and whistle, they've provided a good feature set of all useful and easy to understand functions. Inexpensive amps can often err on the side of trying to give you everything, and doing nothing particularly well. Joyo does not suffer from this problem, in my experience. The controls are simple, with clean/overdrive channels, volume, gain, and tone. Just the stuff you need. There's an effects loop and the bluetooth connection, which is maybe the only superfluous feature. The Meteor, for instance, has a surprisingly good clean tone, and a vintage, raspy overdrive tone that becomes a sharp and cutting lead tone when hit with a Tube Screamer-style pedal. The Zombie, while seeming to be a similar design with the same basic parts, is a different beast, sonically. I don't think the clean is as good as the Meteor. Some of the inherent EQ they had to bake in made it sound a little flat. But you're not getting this amp for its clean (serviceable, sure, but that's not the point). This thing, you get for the tooth-rattling, scare the cat out of the room distortion. The Zombie has tons of gain, more than most people will need. Even wheezy single coil pickups should be able to get all the overdrive they would ever need. I haven't ever owned a Mesa Dual Rectifier, but if you want that full-tilt metal sound, where palm-muted chugs punch you in the gut and pinch harmonics are rendered twice as easy, the Zombie does that. You can back off and get a less "metal in all your face holes" sound, sure. But do you want to? Depending on your rig and tuning, you might need some kind of bass cut/mid push pedal to tighten things up, but with medium output humbuckers and standard tuning, things are pretty tidy and defined with no assistance. This is a brutish, bloody knuckles little amp. And worth every penny. Nice job, Joyo.

This little amp sounds GREAT!!

This little amp sounds GREAT !!! clean or distorted , with an effects pedal , and any speaker cabinet at no less than 8 ohms . I bought this knowing I could be getting A great sound because of the tube in it's design . It is LOUD enough that you can back it down a bit , or crank it all the way up for a pleasing METAL SONIC ATTACK . The only thing I didn't like is the way the power cord is designed , Patrick C.

Gain!!! Gain!!! Gain!!! More gain!!!

This is a high gain amp. It shreds eardrums. It angers neighbors. It ruins marriages. Hook it up to a nice 2x12 cab and it’s metal. Great tone. Check out the YouTube videos on this amp. This thing is awesome. Put a tube screamer in front of it. Put your time based effects in the loop. For the money it’s an amazing amp. I love it.

Worth the cash

Love this mini head. Powers my 4x12 cabinet and sound great on clean and dirty channels. The Bluetooth was a huge selling point. F you are throwing a party this is the loudest Bluetooth speaker out there. And a bonus is you don’t need a cab. Plug your headphones into the back and rock out at a hotel if you want. Perfect for travel and great for at home. Not enough to gig with but it does get loud for a rehearsal. Definitely heard it over my buddy’s drum kit. Money well spent.

Cant be beat for the price

For the price, this little amp can not be beat. As a bedroom player, I don't need 100W of tube power through a full stack, but I was wanting something that offered a good metal tone, and i found it in this. I would recommend an EQ in the effects loop (thats right, this little thing has an effects loop) to have more control on shaping your tone, but it is not a must as out of the box this sounds really good. The bluetooth connectivity is nice, but honestly, I have not used it very much as i just run the amp into my DAW most of the time and just my laptop for backing tracks or drum beats.

This amp sounds AWESOME

First of all I love this amp It sounds fat as hell Granted I’m only using the preamp section because I run all my amps through the push/pull power section of my blackstar ht5 Yes yes I know the blackstar has solid state gain in the preamp but the Joyo doesn’t Anyway that goes into a Bluguitars Blubox speaker cabinet emulator with a resistive load. CRUSHING tone Can’t speak to the solid state power section cause I’ve never used it

BUY!!

This things sounds massive! Sounds astronomically better than the Randall diavlo 1 watt I returned for the zombie instead. Like the other reviews all say this amp is loud and has enough volume short of playing an arena to suit your needs. Also keep in mind like the amp it’s trying to sound like it needs a boost (overdrive pedal gain 0 volume 10 tone 10) to truly sound amazing. Clean channel is great too! For the money best high gain amp you can get.

Very cool little tiny amp head

I needed something to replace my rack mount pre-amp and decided I'd be buying an EVH 5150III 50 watt, but in the mean time while I"m saving up for that, I bought this and I was not disappointed by it. I'm actually kind of surprised by how loud 20 watts actually is. Way more than enough for playing at home through my 4x12 cab so, yeah. I may pick up one of the other models as well just so I can see how different they really are.

Blown away

I’ll start by saying that my expectations for this amp were measured. I figured for the price I could probably get a tone out of it (a tone. As in 1 passable sounding tone at a modest volume). I’m pleasantly surprised by this little amp. For reference, I’m running this into a Celestion Greenback loaded Victory 2x12 cab. For one, it comes in a box smaller than your average shoe box and the amp itself is crazy small for a tube amp. It’s not Blackstar Fly small but it’s in that realm. Think Katana mini. While you won’t be able to “dial” this amp in as much as anyone would like, the tone knob does make a reasonable difference sort of like The contour knob on an Orange amp but with less variation. The clean channel is really, really good. It’s not sparkly clean like a Fender but it has that slightly dark, mid-present clean that’s very easy to work with. Swap to the OD channel and it’s almost an entirely different amp. Maybe it’s the cab I’m running it through but the lows are pretty good, all things considered, the highs aren’t “searing” but they’re definitely there. It’s sounds great for the price. I can’t emphasize that enough. There are overdrive and distortion pedals that cost more and sound worse. Funny enough, the amp isn’t much bigger or heavier than them either. Is it a Mesa? No. Does it sound like a Mesa? No. Is it worth it? Definitely. Perfect for home practice or studio where you want that heavy gain saturated tone without all the volume that comes with it. I probably wouldn’t gig with it but it’s easily the best sub-$200 amp I’ve ever owned.

Powerful for its size

Just unboxed (Photo one) black tape covering blue tooth symbol and print (photo two). WHY? Removed tape (photo three). Not for packing. Deliberately cut and placed on amp. Hooked up Amp, sounds Good, did not try Bluetooth. Can someone explain why this tape was placed on their unit?

Full Reviews