The JHS Morning Glory is a low to medium gain pedal based on the Marshall Bluesbreaker, giving it a clear, smooth style that works great for both rhythm and lead playing. Version 4 has some reworked controls as well as the additional port to connect a Red Switch allowing you to switch between the gain settings using your foot during a live set. The difference in gain is not huge, so this isn’t going to give you the big step up an additional pedal or boost would provide, but more of a compressed thicker sound that is just enough to smooth out your tone when you don’t need the clarity and attack of the lower gain setting.
As you turn the gain up the Morning Glory provides a thick, smooth gain layer that retains a lot of your guitars original character. Meant to be a “transparent” overdrive, it accomplishes that character retention quite well up into the higher levels of compression.
All in all a great contender in the field of “transparent” overdrive pedals and with the newly added Red Switch functionality, a very nice tool to have on your board. JHS continue to put out some good products that capture some of the magic of the various vintage pedals they are based on, but with modern technological and function improvements that players demand these days. Gone are the days of diming the volume pot on a Mk1 Bluesbreaker pedal just to reach unity gain, as the JHS Morning Glory in it’s latest incarnation gives you all the sweetness with much more volume to spare.