Lazy J x ThorpyFX The J review: “one of the best sounding, most tactile and responsive dirt pedals I’ve ever played”
£329 / $399, thorpyfx.com
Collabs are all the rage in the pedal world these days, but it’s still exciting when you see someone enter the field that hasn’t been there before. Jesse Hoff, the main man behind Lazy J, has won a reputation as one of the world’s foremost boutique amp makers over the last few decades. You’ll find his takes on vintage Tweed amps on stages and in studios with everyone from David Gilmour and Noel Gallagher to Ed O’Brien and Joe Satriani.
READ MORE: Horrothia Effects Triage Deluxe review – the ultimate all-in-one gain machine for fussy tonehounds?
Hoff is also no stranger to effects either, having put out the well-regarded Cruiser boost/drive pedal well over a decade ago. But collaborations? That’s a new one.
Thorpy main man Adrian Thorpe is much more familiar with that sort of thing of course – whether that’s making signature gear for Chris Buck and Danish Pete, or collaborating with pedal legend Dan Coggins to revive both the Dinosaural and Lovetone brands.
Two tone connoisseurs teaming up to make something altogether a bit different for both of them then? Well, that sounds like a lot of fun…
“I like to work with good people who genuinely inspire me,” Thorpe tells me. “Jesse is such a great guy, one of the great amp builders. I’ve been an owner and huge fan of his Lazy J J 20 amp for years. It’s such a harmonically rich and beautifully tactile amp to play. It’s taken us about four years of collaboration to develop The J pedal, and we’re really proud of the result.”
Image: Press
Lazy J x Thorpy Fx The J – what is it?
As Adrian implies, the primary mission of The J is to faithfully emulate the tones and response of a J 20 amp in compact pedal format, itself derived from the classic Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe amp. To do that, The J includes a built-in transformer that can mimic the real amp feel, paired with a circuit chock full of high-grade audiophile capacitors and such. All of it is built to Thorpy’s famously military-grade specs, and differs from the usual Thorpy fare by squeezing it all into a rather lovely UV-printed enclosure. It’s still recognisably a Thorpy pedal of course, but one that feels equally indebted to the Lazy J boutique amp lineage.
As with the original, you get the option of a normal or bright channel, and the controls are suitably spartan for an amp based on the similarly simple J 20 – with independent volume for each, as well as a presence control, single tone and a master output. Things you won’t find on the top of the J 20 include a toggle switch to select X or Y mode – the circuit’s impression of either 12AX7 or 12AY7 valves – as well as a ‘supply’ switch, which is designed to emulate the J 20’s impressive attenuator.
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Lazy J x Thorpy Fx The J – usability and sounds
I’ve owned, gigged and recorded with both vintage tweed amps and J 20 for over a decade, and so I approached The J with a bit of trepidation. Surely it couldn’t capture the magic touch-sensitive 3D sonic experience of an amp that’s simultaneously chiming with top clarity and snarling with chewy, barking midrange?
Plugging my Strat into a Deluxe Reverb set sparkly clean, I set The J in the lower gain 12AY7 mode and select the normal channel. One thing that’s worth being aware of here is that, like the J 20, the positioning of the volume of the channel you aren’t using does have an impact on the gain of the one you are – a weird eccentricity for sure but one that I respect Thorpy and Hoff going to the trouble of recreating here.
With the supply, output and normal volume set high (and the bright volume low), I’m greeted with a fat, harmonically rich, very sweet edge-of-breakup up tone, just what I love about tweed amps.
The bright channel is – as you’d expect – a touch brighter, but also more gainy than the normal channel. But utilising the additional controls I can dial in everything from a fat clean boost to snarling fuzz tone freakouts, much like a great old tweed amp.
Plugging in a Tele is Keef riff and Cropper heaven, and upping the gain with my P-90-loaded Les Paul has me revelling in the rich tonal spectrum of Neil Young. It’s a chewy feeling, slightly flabby, gorgeously addictive and crucially, superbly touch responsive guitar tone that the Thorpy J convincingly nails, even when tried back-to-back with my J 20 amp.
As a tweed emulator pedal The J responds magnificently to a lighter touch or guitar volume manipulation, and not only crucially captures both the playing feel and tone of a cranked amp, but also a lot of the quirky nature of the unexpectedly interactive control set. Hours of lush tonal experimentation await the tone curious player.
Image: Press
Lazy J x Thorpy Fx The J – should I buy one?
Thorpy has been producing some truly superb pedals for many years now, but The J might very well be the brand’s crowning achievement. It’s a superb tweed amp emulation that more than lives up to the Lazy J name, but there’s more to it than just that.
Even if you never cared about capturing the authentic sound of a tweed amp, The J is a fantastic overdrive pedal in its own right – in fact, it’s one of the best sounding, most tactile and responsive dirt pedals I’ve ever had the privilege of playing.
Image: Press
Lazy J x Thorpy Fx The J – alternatives
Capturing Tweed in a box is a notoriously tricky task, for a decent flavour however the Catalinbread Formula No. 55 ($189) is a JFET-based overdrive designed to replicate those classic Tweed Deluxe flavours. More pricey, but the Origin Effects Deluxe55 (£279) is an all-analogue tribute to the legendary Fender 5E3 with some twists. If you’re after a more digital emulation of the tweed thing, the Universal Audio Woodrow ’55 ($399) is worth a look.
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