JHS Morning Glory Settings Guide
JHS's take on the Marshall Bluesbreaker circuit. Three voicing modes (toggle switch) and a wide gain range from transparent boost to crunchy overdrive. Designed to interact with the amp rather than override it.
Used by: John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore
The best JHS Morning Glory settings start with: Drive at 3/10, Treble at 5/10, Volume at 6/10, Voicing at 2/10. Adjust from there based on your amp, guitar, and room volume. For Blues (Push): Drive 2/10, Treble 5/10, Volume 7/10, Voicing 2/10.
⚡ Start Here — Recommended Settings
| Control | Starting Position | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Drive | 3/10 | Boost → Crunch |
| Treble | 5/10 | Dark → Bright |
| Volume | 6/10 | Silent → Loud |
| Voicing | 2/10 | Low → High |
These are universal starting points. Adjust based on your amp, guitar, and room. Scroll down for genre-specific settings and artist-documented positions.
What Each Control Does
Recommended Starting Settings
Safe starting positions for any style. Adjust from here based on your amp and room.
All values on a 0–10 scale. These are starting points — fine-tune by ear.
Settings by Genre
Flat voicing, low Drive, Volume above unity — the clean amp push approach. The Morning Glory in this configuration acts as a transparent tone enhancer that adds harmonic richness without a recognisable pedal character.
Flat voicing, moderate Drive for genuine overdrive character. The Morning Glory at Drive 6 produces a Bluesbreaker-style crunch that responds to picking dynamics — clean up with lighter touch, push with harder picking.
High voicing, minimum Drive, bright Treble — transparent boost with added high-end clarity. For clean Strat or Tele playing where you want presence and harmonic richness without any overdrive character.
Low voicing for a darker, warmer character — more vintage Marshall-adjacent. Dark Treble, moderate Drive. This setting suits Les Paul humbuckers where the Low voicing's warmer character complements the pickup's natural warmth.
Artist Settings
Documented settings used by professional guitarists on this unit.
Mayer has used Marshall Bluesbreaker-circuit pedals extensively. Flat voicing, low-to-moderate Drive for the amp-pushing approach he favours. The Morning Glory at these settings adds harmonic content without imposing its own strong character on his clean Fender tone.
The Bluesbreaker circuit references Clapton's early tone. Moderate Drive, Flat voicing — the Morning Glory at Drive 5 produces the crunch that defined his 1966 John Mayall's Bluesbreakers recording, where a small Marshall combo was cranked for natural tube overdrive.
Moore often stacked overdrive pedals for his thick, sustained lead tone. The Morning Glory at Drive 7 into a Marshall produces the harmonically dense crunch he used before adding additional lead boost.
Tips & Common Mistakes
- The voicing toggle is the most important choice — try all three before adjusting Drive. Low suits warm guitars and amps; High suits bright rigs.
- The Morning Glory was designed to be sensitive to the amp — into a warm 1x12 combo it sounds different from into a 4x12 stack. Set it in the context of your actual rig.
- As an always-on tone enhancer: Drive at 1, Volume at 7, Flat voicing. Most players won't identify it as an overdrive pedal at this setting — it just makes the guitar sound better.
- The Bluesbreaker circuit produces its most characteristic tone at moderate Drive (4–6) — it's not designed for extreme saturation. Above Drive 8 it loses some of the touch-sensitive quality.
FAQ
JHS Morning Glory — Common Questions
Best starting settings for JHS Morning Glory: Drive at 3/10, Treble at 5/10, Volume at 6/10, Voicing at 2/10. Adjust from there based on your guitar, room, and playing style.
For Blues (Push): Drive 2/10, Treble 5/10, Volume 7/10, Voicing 2/10. Flat voicing, low Drive, Volume above unity — the clean amp push approach. The Morning Glory in this configuration acts as a transparent tone enhancer that adds harmonic richness without a recognisable pedal character.
For Classic Rock: Drive 6/10, Treble 5/10, Volume 5/10, Voicing 2/10. Flat voicing, moderate Drive for genuine overdrive character. The Morning Glory at Drive 6 produces a Bluesbreaker-style crunch that responds to picking dynamics — clean up with lighter touch, push with harder picking.
Drive: Gain amount. At minimum Drive it acts as a clean tone enhancer; at maximum it produces genuine light-gain overdrive. (Boost to Crunch). Treble: High-frequency shaping. Less critical than on many ODs — the Morning Glory is voiced to be usable across the full Treble range. (Dark to Bright). Volume: Output level. Set above unity for amp-push boost application. (Silent to Loud). Voicing: 3-position toggle: Low (darker, more vintage), Flat (neutral), High (brighter, more transparent). Fundamentally changes the pedal's character. (Low to High)
The voicing toggle is the most important choice — try all three before adjusting Drive. Low suits warm guitars and amps; High suits bright rigs. The Morning Glory was designed to be sensitive to the amp — into a warm 1x12 combo it sounds different from into a 4x12 stack. Set it in the context of your actual rig. As an always-on tone enhancer: Drive at 1, Volume at 7, Flat voicing. Most players won't identify it as an overdrive pedal at this setting — it just makes the guitar sound better. The Bluesbreaker circuit produces its most characteristic tone at moderate Drive (4–6) — it's not designed for extreme saturation. Above Drive 8 it loses some of the touch-sensitive quality.
John Mayer settings: Drive 3/10, Treble 5/10, Volume 6/10, Voicing 2/10. Mayer has used Marshall Bluesbreaker-circuit pedals extensively. Flat voicing, low-to-moderate Drive for the amp-pushing approach he favours. The Morning Glory at these settings adds harmonic content without imposing its own strong character on his clean Fender tone.
Got the JHS Morning Glory? Build the rest of your rig.
Use the Rig Builder to find matching guitars, pedals and cables for your genre and budget.