LukeFRC Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 I don't really do pedals... really I'm trying not too, but I love a nice preamp and have a thing about wanting to try transformer stuff since I had a Hellborg preamp which was really nice.... Normally run a HX stomp... I've even got some "Neve desk" and Neve EQ IRs - which do do a very slight nice thing to the sound... but obviously aren't really quite the same... So a conversation with @krispn and then "look, this guy is selling one" ended up with me buying off a nice guy on Facebook marketplace. It looks like the one on the JHS website... and it's utterly crazy flexible - three gain/volume type knobs, a highness filter and then a eq.... First impressions are - it's a great pedal designed for guitar - that works for bass... it can do all sorts of overdrive to fuzz, to very nasty something-is-clipping-in-a-bad-way-i-think-thats-what-a-square-wave-through-a-horn-soundslike - the EQ is really quite musical and also did some odd sounding things at the extremes. playing with it I didn't really know what I was hearing, now my ears are ok, not great - but my memory is very visual so @MartinB and his lovey laney digbeth thread gave me an idea... why not actually get some pictures of what it is doing? So I did, and am sharing them for your interest here... I'll make the caveat that I'm not an expert in anyway in anything musical so if I've made some major mistakes... well this thread will just quietly disappear I sent Track of white noise into the Input of my HX stomp from Reaper, and then took the output into reaper and Voxengo SPAN... then took screenshot... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 Tension builds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 First the dull ones - white noise into HXstomp and out again... Then patched through to with the pedal off - I think it passes through at least one of the transformers ... So pedal on... volume knob in 3o'clock position pre volume in middle 12'clock step control on 1 (the lowest) output (eq knobs all centred) Then... volume knob in 12 o'clock position pre volume 9'clock step control on 3 output (eq knobs all centred) Then next step... volume knob in 12 o'clock position pre volume 12'clock step control on 4 output (eq knobs all centred) I couldn't hear anything as I wasn't listening to white noise.... it would send me mad or to sleep.... but it's possibly going into clipping at some point here here, or the "pre volume" up too high the bottom end drops out But going up to step 5 and with the output volume at 12o'clock and bringing the pre-vol down to 9'oclock we're back to that similar shape to some of the others... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 (edited) The HPF So if you go online to talkbass or somewhere there are people mouthing off that "this wouldn't work for bass as the HPF is too high for bass" - or even that theres a built in HPF that lops off the bottom end... Lets look at that Master=12, pre-vol=9 step=3 graph from the post above again... you can see we've got a gentle rolloff on the lows... Now if you are someone who must leave all EQ knobs centred then that may be a problem for bass players - in reality knobs are made for twisting as I may be able to show later... HPF on and set to lowest setting which is stated at 160Hz ... which is roughly what I'm seeing... and turned up to the stated 650Hz .. which may be even higher .... So any use for bass players? Yes and no... If you are using the OD/Fuzz capabilities of this thing it very much affects how the fuzz behaves and sounds - so that might be useful.... And also you can do the old HPF and boost EQ at similar point to get a "fatter" sounding bottom... which might look like this ... (I had the bass shift control at around 9 o'clock and the bass boost at about 3 o'clock) so if you like your bottom end you might not use this switch - but also the above pink line roll off isn't crazy compared to say, the Helix cab models I could compare it too... Edited July 17, 2022 by LukeFRC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 The EQ Now this is the interesting bit for me.... and involved some photoshop... The high control - which goes quite low if you want it too... (grey line is flat) The mid control purple is shift at it's lowest setting, pink is the shift set at 12o'clock and the lilac is the highest setting. And here's where it gets a bit odd... The Bass control Light yellow is set at it's lowest setting- it also pulls down everything above 200Hz but fairly powerful control... it can go plenty low enough and fat enough for bass, don't listen to Talkbass... The orange is set at it's highest setting... if 450Hz is considered Bass? Interestingly that boost seemed to go a bit weird at the full rotation of the pot and gives that secondary peaks at 1.5k and 2.5k - backed off just a smidge and this turns into a more regular peak ... there's actually a lot of change available at the end of the pots travel. I'm not sure when I would turn down the bass on the orange line... 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 So there you go... the collective basschat hive mind probably understands what they are looking at more than me, it kinda helps me visualise what it's doing... It seems that there's more than 15db bass boost on tap... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispn Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 (edited) Above and beyond the call of duty! I just turned the knobs until it made noises what I like the sound of betterer! Often there are ideas and opinions about gear in general based only on opinions *over practical experiences* and more so with no practical experience of the gear in question - the HPF on the CBox v.2 being no good with bass for instance seemed to totally ignore the fact it has a bass eq control for both boost/cut and frequency. Then applying some experimentation/imagination and or studio type trickery (the Pultec trick for instance) folks can get a wide range of sounds out of the Cbox and from my experience even change the low eq curve to tighten things up a bit and offer another option for eq’ing the low end. The CBox is a great unit which does it’s thing in a variety of ways from musical to maniacal! Top work Luke! Edited July 18, 2022 by krispn 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 18, 2022 Author Share Posted July 18, 2022 15 hours ago, LukeFRC said: And also you can do the old HPF and boost EQ at similar point to get a "fatter" sounding bottom... which might look like this ... (I had the bass shift control at around 9 o'clock and the bass boost at about 3 o'clock) so if you like your bottom end you might not use this switch - but also the above pink line roll off isn't crazy compared to say, the Helix cab models I could compare it too... also I should add - the pink line was me boosting the mids enough to get the response flattish- I could have added more to give a boost if I wanted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispn Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 (edited) I think because the eq boosts are broad and musical they’re useable across the range of their sweep. The CBox isn’t as surgical as some units but it’s easy to get a great sound and not have to worry about it plus the TX’ers do add to the overall tone of the unit too. I was comparing it with my Basswitch which is a less coloured unit and was thinking about running it into the Basswitch’ on it’s ‘no eq channel’ two have two distinct sounds available for my 80’s band. More character low mids thing from the CBox and a cleaner slappity sound from the Basswitch. It’s great having options I’d just need to double the size of my pedal board to make that happen! Edited July 18, 2022 by krispn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 “Do I like this pedal” I asked turning it on and off wait - I think it still has a transformer in the signal path when turned off so put it in the effect loop of the hx stomp - def makes a difference also an envelope filter before it is fun- quiet playing and when the filter is triggered it pushes the colour box into fuzz territory! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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