Routing devices have been something that I’ve played with over the years. I get into them… and then rip them out.. and then get back into them. Not sure if you guys fall in this cycle or not. For those of you not familiar with routing, basically it’s a true bypass loop strip in the front of your pedal board. All pedals are ‘on’ and connected to the router giving you easier access to all of the pedals, but also cleans up the signal flow.
There are different type of routers. Basic routers, are usually simple true bypass strips, which are easy to build, and only give you dedicated loop chains. Things can get more complex with the ability to assign chains or combinations with switches. And things can get massively complex with MIDI, etc.
I wanted to talk about the Joyo PXL-8 router. For the price point, this is definitely something to look at. Unfortunately documentation is pretty slim, but I did find some interesting videos on the PXL line that I’ll include below. What I’m gathering, the PXL-8 allows you to connect 8 loops/chains/pedals to the unit, and you can program combinations of loops and assign them to banks/footswitches. With the PRO models you can get mute switching, groups of pedals chains (for front vs. effects loop) and triggered outputs.
I found this video which is the first of 6 videos, but I’ll include the intro first. This video is by EytschPi42 and he goes into detail on all the Joyo routers, so this will help if you’re interested in this routing system.
As I mentioned earlier, the price point is what initially caught my eye. As of right now, you can pick up the Joyo PXL-8 router for only $119 on Amazon. I feel like that is a great deal with this functionality. If you own any of these Joyo PXL routers, please comment below and let us know what you think about it!!!
