Seems like everyone I see on YouTube has a JHS Morning Glory on their pedalboard. Is it worth the hype?
Josh Scott, Paul Gilbert, and others have the Morning Glory pedal usually early in the chain, and either “always on” or used as the first stage in gain pedals (“gain stacking”).
Let’s dive into the scenarios it is used for:
- “Transparent” overdrive for tube-like tone.
- Low level gain for stacking with other overdrive or distortion pedals. Adds sustain.
- Clean boost or lead boost (like having a lead or solo channel on your amp).
- Flip the Gain switch up and you have more gain and more headroom.
- Switch between those gain settings with the optional JHS Red Remote footswitch, which plugs into the extra jack on the side.
What the heck is Transparent Overdrive?
The JHS Morning Glory is a “Transparent” overdrive pedal. This is hard to describe, but many use it as an “always on” pedal to add that extra something – that tube-like response or articulation that you get with a tube amp. This makes a difference when you use it with a solid state amp.
What is a Bluesbreaker? – A little history. The JHS Morning Glory is based on the original Marshall amps of the 60’s (Clapton’s blues tone), 90’s Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, or the 2000’s custom AnalogMan King of Tone, more widely available as the MXR Prince of Tone pedal.
You know, that overdrive that is not really an overdrive, it’s just tasty tube tone.
“Transparent” overdrive is applied to many pedals. That’s the problem with terms in quotes. The Klon clones are often called a “transparent” overdrive but I don’t think it is. The Morning Glory is more “transparent”.
Clean Boost or Lead Boost
I was spoiled for many years by having a Mesa Boogie amp with a lead boost or Solo channel. The challenge was always dialing in the volume so it wasn’t too much lead boost. By using the Morning Glory as a lead boost, keep it off until you need to kick in that sweet lead guitar part. Add some Gain to give it bite.
You can also use the tone knob to fix your amp issues – add some sparkle or dial it back if you have a tinny amp. This would be helpful if you are using someone else’s amp (like at church) or you just didn’t have time to get a proper setup and soundcheck (we have all been in those kind of gigs).
This Ain’t a Tubescreamer
Since “transparent overdrive” is thrown around a lot, people often don’t know what it means. One of the online complaints that people have about this pedal is that the “overdrive isn’t like my Tubescreamer”.
True, it is not. I see the Tubescreamer as more of a distortion pedal than on overdrive.
Where this pedal shines is in pushing a tube amp into slight distortion, or layering with other distortion or overdrive pedals. Much like Josh Scott in the Sweetwater video, I stack this with a Klon-clone, in my case a Notaklon. This gives a tasty gain which is not a Tubescreamer, not a Rat, not a Boss DS-1.
My Take on the JHS Morning Glory
I found that the guitar and pickups make a huge difference. I tested this in the store with a PRS CE-24 and a Milkman-type amp. It was super sweet.
The Morning Glory really needs a guitar with pickups that are vintage sounding and leave a lot of “space” – the Seymour Duncan ’59-type, not with a Super Distortion-type pickup.
For example, I have an Ernie Ball Musicman John Petrucci JP6 guitar. The pickups are hot and they give a compressed distortion sound that fills in the space, and the “articulation”. The Morning Glory goes quickly into distortion mode with this guitar. It is difficult to get a vintage-type tone from this guitar, but I can somewhat accomplished that rare feat by using the piezo with a little bit of bridge pickup.
Flipping the Gain switch up on this pedal is like having another slight Vintage/Pushed/Crunch channel on your amp (to use Mesa Boogie terms).
Now comes the tough question: is it worth the $200 price tag? That’s up to you. I was skeptical but then bought it when I tried it out. The Morning Glory fits nicely with my Notaklon and other Klon pedals. If the price tag is a pain point, JHS has 25% sales around Black Friday, Christmas, and Memorial Day where the JHS site, the online stores like Sweetwater, and even stores on Amazon reflect that price. Jump on it when on sale and it will save you $50.
Get the JHS Morning Glory here:
