JHS Colour box v2 - nice subtle saturation, with useful EQ - an alternative to boutique DIs for some?

[pn_day]

Hi all,

 

I finally took the plunge and bought the Colour box v2 (got the 10-year anniversary one with the Neve style colour scheme). 

 

I use a Stomp for my tone shaping & effects, but wanted a DI box that added some subtle warmth/fatness. After looking for ages I pulled the trigger on the Colour box and am thoroughly enjoying it.

• The EQ is very musical, even with extreme cuts/boosts. It's quite nice having easy to use controls to tweak on the fly. 
• The 2 transformers combine to give a subtle but pleasing 'warmth' to the sound. It also sounds slightly compressed - but maybe this is just the EQ colouration. 
• The high pass might be useful in some cases, but doesn't go low enough for bass guitar unless you add some boost at the same frequency. I'm guessing this is more useful for other instruments. 
• The console style distortion is best avoided in my opinion - I'm staying in the clean but warm lane
• It's quite a large pedal - just squeezes onto my new small board - but it looks the business, particularly in the Neve-inspired livery. 
• The white LED is eye-searingly bright. I am experimenting with tape/cupboard bumpers/stickers to save my poor eyes. 

 

I thought that I would share this in case anyone was also in the hunt for something to put at the end of the chain as an alternative offering. I know there are some really nice valve DIs / pres (Sushibox Finally , Noble, new Khan mini, Jad Freer Luce etc), but I've always enjoyed the sound of a direct bass straight into a nice vintage console. (I'm also a pessimist - I know pre-amp valves last a long time, but transformers last even longer!)

 

As always, your mileage may vary. This is just an opinion. I haven't even used it in anger yet - just at home, so I guess this is even less useful than normal!

 

Bad photo attached as I know it's bad form to post without pics. (The mini-tuner is because our church meets in a lively acoustic, with band setup in front of the speakers meaning that I can't always hear my bass clearly over the subwoofer mush, and so knowing if the fretless is in tune is rather useful.)

 

Let the flaming commence...!

Phil

[LukeFRC]

I did some eq sweeps here

 

 

I also pair mine with a hx stomp - I found (after those sweeps I did) line level out on the stomp with a TRS - xlr cable into the colourbox with the wee pad on the side on gave me the best variety of clean tones - and helps protect from some RFI noise i was getting at our church 

 

 

[pn_day]

Thanks for the tip on TRS to XLR. I just need to find a source for suitably low profile right angle XLR & TRS plugs to squeeze in!

I'm currently using a TRS to TRS lead to go between Stomp & Colour box - and running the stomp output at instrument level.

Edited 10 hours ago by pn_day

[LawrenceH]

This intrigues me as a 1073/84 is one of the more obvious 'bigger, better' coloured preamps and EQs. Be interested to hear your thoughts on how it compares to the 'real thing' as you get more time with it, as I assume it's a stripped-down/partial version of the circuit

[LukeFRC]

So - depends where you think the sound comes from - it does use an input and output transformer - and one of them is a Lundahl LL1578 - but don't know if that's shooting for a specific Neve Mariner transformer sound. They describe it as two of the Neve preamp circuit in series- with the ability to boost one into the other - which makes sense as it was mainly designed for higher gain overdriven sound. While clipping at the tops of the notes is actually quite nice I don't know if that's how you would be using it. The EQ is described as a non Neve influenced 3 band thing. 
So it adds colour and a kinda glue to the sound, and I can tell immediately if it's been turned off in transit - but if it has "that Neve sound" I don't know - I think if you want a Neve preamp you would be better off elsewhere - but if you want that transformer textured preamp - with a range of colour added and a very useful EQ it's very good. 

[fretmeister]

I'd like to try one but I'm also not quite convinced it would be different enough to the Stomp Retro Reel block for me to justify the cost of it.

 

The Retro Reel block is an often overlooked block for bass. Just set the Wow Flutter control to zero, the tape speed to 15ips and then Saturation and Texture to taste. I like about 2.8 Saturation and 8.3 Texture. Without the Wow/Flutter it is just a brilliant warmer-upper. I have it on most of my patches.

[simonlittle]

Nice little look inside the V2 just popped up on Instagram
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVEz6kfks2i/?igsh=MXFlaHBrc3VjYXZhag==

[LukeFRC]

24 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I'd like to try one but I'm also not quite convinced it would be different enough to the Stomp Retro Reel block for me to justify the cost of it.

 

The Retro Reel block is an often overlooked block for bass. Just set the Wow Flutter control to zero, the tape speed to 15ips and then Saturation and Texture to taste. I like about 2.8 Saturation and 8.3 Texture. Without the Wow/Flutter it is just a brilliant warmer-upper. I have it on most of my patches.

Very very different soundwise. Soundwise in how it feels/sounds it's probably closer to a snappier Nobel preamp block in Helix world - with a EQ block attached. It doesn't add the crazy amount of fat middy saturation Retro Reel adds. When it overdrives it goes grainy splatty.

Presuming you're not going for the drive sounds the Closest other pedals aiming for a similar thing for bass players would be the Caveman preamp or that Mantle thing. More EQ options than both, cheaper, with less iron in than Mantle. 
I still want a Warwick Hellborg preamp, that's the sound of the bit of gear I should never have sold I want to get back too

[fretmeister]

Maybe I'll have to try one at some point then.

 

I like a harmonically rich clean sound with a touch of fat mid slightly farty saturation. Somewhere between John Deacon's live sound and Joe Dart.

[pn_day]

@fretmeister, if you like more saturation you might be better with one of the valve preamps / DIs - like the Nobelium or others? (Based on what I've read here and on TB, rather than any hard evidence!)

 

The colour box is subtle in the effect of the transformers - until you get to the higher gain sounds, and then it has a 'distinctive' sound which I don't particularly like. 

 

So my view is that this is a good pedal if you just want a clean sound that sounds a bit less 'sterile', has useful EQ, and a decent DI out.  

[LukeFRC]

6 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Maybe I'll have to try one at some point then.

 

I like a harmonically rich clean sound with a touch of fat mid slightly farty saturation. Somewhere between John Deacon's live sound and Joe Dart.

My question would be - how do you make that on your hx stomp and then if you wanted to, ‘upgrade’ to have the analogue version of that tone…