GUITAR
THE BIRTH OF MR . JAX ( OVERDRIVE / DISTORTION ) PEDAL | Chris Rocha & Eddie Lozano
[ Chris Rocha ] For years I ’ ve been wanting to have a signature pedal that enveloped everything I wanted for my lead tone and I ’ m proud that I set out to do that with my good friends from JET Pedals . We put our heads together and came out with a super unique and powerful distortion pedal called “ Mr Jax ”. Many of you know that I did a signature overdrive pedal a few years back called “ El Valiente ”. I still use it every time I play and love it , but it was time to invest some serious time to create my perfect lead distortion pedal . I wanted Eddie Lozano to do a review on it and I ’ m very impressed with his perspective on it .
[ Eddie Lozano ] If I ’ ve learned anything about JET Pedals and their growth in the gear world , it ’ s that you better just get used to being surprised with each new pedal that they make . I recently got my hands on the newest release , the Mr . Jax and believe me , this is no exception .
In partnership with Chris Rocha , guitarist for Miel San Marcos and multi award-winning producer , JET has released an exciting multistage overdrive / distortion pedal that has the capability of becoming a multi-tool option for your pedal board .
To understand the Mr . Jax as a whole , you have to first understand the magic of Chris ’ playing . When you solo him out , you ’ ll quickly notice high gain melodic goodness . He cuts through the mix but not in a harsh manner , more so an overdriven warm lead . When I asked Chris about his inspiration for this pedal , he mentioned a pedal suggested by a friend which was the Hotcake by Crowther Audio . The Hotcake helped shape his tone for many years after that . Fast forward to present time , with crazy touring schedules , the need for consistency , more options and a pedal that could take his main tone to the next level , enters Mr . Jax .
I did something I wouldn ’ t necessarily recommend … I had the new pedal in hand , a worship night coming up the next day , so I figured I ’ d unplug my entire rig and get the Mr . Jax on my board so I could really test it out . What could go wrong ? First thing we need to know is that the Mr . Jax offers 4 gain stages at 25 %, 50 %, 75 % & 100 %. Knowing that , I started to think through how I ’ d use it on my board and started playing with different combinations . I first tried it like I know Chris currently uses it : 3rd stage pedal set for the