overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Everyone needs a stompbox.
User avatar
Ro_S
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 160
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:46 pm
Location: England
Contact:

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by Ro_S » Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:37 am

preservation wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:02 pm
so far the only pedals i'm aware of that can make that Beatles "Revolution"/"Helter Skelter" sound
is the Jext White & the Colour box.
are there any alternatives ? any clones ?
i adore the sound but they cost a pretty penny !
The JHS Colour Box (and Crayon and the Hudson Broadcast) are inspired by the straight to recording board console idea.

The Jext Telez White Box is NOT. It is based on the preamp of the all the transistor solid state Conqueror/Supreme/Defiant range of Vox amps, whoch the Beatles used in the Revolution[edit - i meant Revolver]/St Pepper LPs era.
Last edited by Ro_S on Mon Oct 30, 2017 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Effects for Me & my Monkey
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/effectsformeandmymonkey
YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/RSguitarEFFECTS

User avatar
bubba899
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 829
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:22 am
Location: Chelmsford, UK

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez whit

Post by bubba899 » Mon Oct 30, 2017 7:19 am

Ro_S wrote:
Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:29 am
bubba899 wrote:
Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:55 am
Apparently they've based it on old neve broadcasting console.
I thought the Hudson was based on a RCA Broadcast unit?
Your right! Have just read the Husdon quote on it. I made the assumption on the Neve thing based on their choice of Knobs.

Either way it's an absolute monster and I love it!

User avatar
somanytoys
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3325
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:59 pm
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by somanytoys » Fri Nov 03, 2017 6:10 am

fuzzjunkie wrote:
Fri Oct 27, 2017 11:11 am
^^^Cool! Glad you like it!

It does do so many sounds, I can see why people want a 2nd one. My 3-in-1 settings are a bit of a compromise, but they still sound good, and a tweak of the tone or volume knob on the guitar is usually enough to fix the difference.

Since it does so much, you kind of have to decide how you want to use it, as an always on overdrive pedal, as a two stage boost, as a fuzz, or a combination. I like a fuzzy overdrive to low gain fuzz sound, so I use it for that, and keep it on a lot. I turn it off for clean tones and I have a higher gain fuzz when I want more of that. I like the low gain fuzz tones it does, something akin to a Tonebender MK1 to MK1.5 depending on where the bass and treble are set. It's almost like the designer took a Fuzz Face and mashed a tone control with make up gain circuit into the middle of it, so it doesn't quite get to Fuzz Face territory, but it cleans up nicely and has more texture and gain than a Rangemaster would and more volume boost than a Fuzz Face.
Agreed, it's very versatile. But after a week or so, like most of my pedals, I'd rather find a really good setting and leave it there, than use it as a swiss army knife. I like it in Ge mode, with the gain about halfway or higher, and the tone knobs decently high - it gives me a perfect fatter sound that really rounds out the guitar's sound. For heavier tones, I can either feed another pedal into it (it handles that really well), or go with the Keeley fuzz instead for more grit. The boost is good, but changes the sound of that setting a good bit, it may take more trial/getting used to. Definitely cleans up well rolling the guitar volume back, it's just a great sound enhancing pedal with many, many sounds.

I could definitely see this being one of the pedals that I would buy another one of. It's expensive, but it's totally worth it. Thanks again for the heads up, I love this thing.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

User avatar
somanytoys
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3325
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:59 pm
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez whit

Post by somanytoys » Fri Nov 03, 2017 6:18 am

bubba899 wrote:
Mon Oct 30, 2017 7:19 am
Ro_S wrote:
Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:29 am
bubba899 wrote:
Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:55 am
Apparently they've based it on old neve broadcasting console.
I thought the Hudson was based on a RCA Broadcast unit?
Your right! Have just read the Husdon quote on it. I made the assumption on the Neve thing based on their choice of Knobs.

Either way it's an absolute monster and I love it!
I read about that, it sounds very nice, and I bet it sounds damn good as well. I'll have to try to check one out one day.

I also ran across this recently, which I wasn't aware that using projector audio as a guitar amp was a thing, but it seems like it would be pretty cool as well - definitely at least the idea behind it. Here's the link, and I'll paste some of the info from the site:

https://www.walrusaudio.com/products/385-overdrive-1

"Dynamic, responsive, tube-like, and amp-like. Walrus Audio is extremely excited to announce the new 385 Overdrive that is boastfully responsible for all those adjectives. For decades now, guitarists in search of pure tone have been taking the tube-powered audio sections of vintage film projectors and using it as a guitar amp. Heads up – it sounds amazing. After endless hours of research on vintage Bell and Howell 385 Filmosound projector, Walrus has created a fantastic new overdrive modeled after the projector’s tone. The Bell and Howell 385 gracefully lends itself to create an amazing guitar amp. Its simple, but effective controls, plus dual 6V6 output section make for a simple and extremely responsive amp that has an amazing compressed overdrive when cranked. THIS was the sound and feel Walrus needed to shoot for in an amp-like pedal. The 385 was developed to have the same simple but effective tone control as it’s grandfather. The amp has this as well but bass and treble are stacked behind the single tone knob. With our design breaking them up, we allow for a much wider array of tones to be achieved. The user is able to boost and cut bass and treble, allowing them to be creative with mid-frequency scoops and bumps. The pedal is internally running at 18v, which helps us nail the same dynamic feel of the amp in a stomp box. This means it is extremely sensitive to how hard you dig in – just like the amp."

What a great time to be alive....
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

User avatar
bubba899
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 829
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:22 am
Location: Chelmsford, UK

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by bubba899 » Fri Nov 03, 2017 3:17 pm

this has got to be the critical mass. from here we're gonna get a pedal recreating the direct in on a windows 95 sound card.

User avatar
mackerelmint
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 9:51 pm
Location: トイレ国、ウンチ市

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by mackerelmint » Fri Nov 03, 2017 6:30 pm

API made a pedal that costs 400 dollars or something, because how can you possibly play without that classic API sound?

Not sure how it'll get you there, even with the EQ and whatever else they put in it. Brad was right on the money when he said they're just guitar pedals. This all just seems so silly to me. I'm pretty sure I could run my guitar through that and then run it through a 312 or any other API preamp and they aren't going to sound the same. The "console sound" fetishism of late is weird. I'd wager most people lusting after it couldn't tell the difference. The subtext of those advertisements seems to be "buy our thing and your music will magically sound like your favorite 70s records and all slick and shit", aimed at people who don't know what they're even supposed to be listening for, except "smooth top end" or "that API mid sound". People get farther faster trying to find sounds they like rather than chasing sounds they've heard already, and now there's this whole new level of gruesomeness in the way people covet this stuff.

A preamp sound! How hard it must be to articulate what specifically one wants in terms of sonic enrichment from something that's recorded as many varied sounds as any one given model of preamp. Unless one works with different kinds across different projects, it's hard for me to believe that one could really get across to others what they hope to get from such a gizmo. Vagueries copied from descriptions on gearslutz don't count. And it seems doubtful that many engineers with the kind of experience to know what a given preamp will add to a track would expect a guitar pedal to accomplish that task on a recording, or that they would believe such a pedal would amount to anything played live. I've been looking into building some active DIs around transformers, but I'd be kidding myself if I thought that making a pedal that just runs my signal through a trafo would make any meaningful difference to my sound when played live. What are in these things, anyway? An op-amp, a transformer and an EQ? If anything, the nebulous nature of the "sound" being chased probably lets people hear whatever they want to. That's a great thing to sell, but one should question the utility of such as a consumer.
This is an excellent rectangle

User avatar
somanytoys
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3325
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:59 pm
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by somanytoys » Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:55 am

Yeah, I can understand hating the hype that they try to use to advertise these. And it's a shame that they try to hype it that way, but I guess if it sells stuff, it works.

I tried the Colourbox out on the lowest settings to see if it made a difference in the sound, and it did to a degree, somewhat like the EP booster-type pedals. I have no idea if it made it sound more like it had been processed or boosted through a specific console or just a preamp in a pedal (or amp in a box type pedal), but it offers a lot of tone shaping, and the XLR out is a good idea.

My main goal was going to be to use it at the end of the chain, similar to an EP booster but with more contour control, and the XLR would give the ability to go out direct for recording, to a pa, whatever. But in the end, I found it worked better using the heavier distortions with a bass. So I have that and the Tronographic Rusty Box, and there is a lot of diversity between those 2 boxes.

That said, no matter how they try to hype them, there are a lot of valid sounds in various circuits and components, and just because these may all be trying to be marketed as "consoles in a box", they still provide some good products that there is actually a want for, whether it's for the intended sales marketing or not. I don't regret buying the colour box, the Rusty Box or the EP booster, each does a thing very well.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

User avatar
mackerelmint
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 9:51 pm
Location: トイレ国、ウンチ市

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by mackerelmint » Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:24 pm

I just saw that Grace makes a whole line of them too, now. So funny, since they're the "pristine pre" people. But there's an EQ, just like the rest of them.

Still a guitar pedal.
This is an excellent rectangle

User avatar
borntohang
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 187
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:15 am
Location: The North, The North
Contact:

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by borntohang » Fri Nov 17, 2017 5:28 am

Total conjecture but I feel like the rise in overdriven board and transformer pedals is just a consequence of the growing boutique pedals market. Five years ago if you had a Zvex or a Devi fuzz and maybe a DL4 on your board you were the craziest 'pedals' guy in town, but now with all the digital and booteek options on the market anyone can sound like that so you have to start looking further afield for unusual sounds.

User avatar
øøøøøøø
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 5984
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:26 pm
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by øøøøøøø » Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:12 am

Obvious thing:

The very thing that makes direct guitar sounds distinctive is the fact that they are not running through a guitar amp and a severely band-limited (80-6k, give or take) speaker.

This is far more important than the preamp itself.

So if you were to take a loosely-"inspired" copy of some preamp and then run the output of that through a guitar amp and its severely band-limited speaker...

what do you get?

Just another distortion/boost/whatever pedal.

User avatar
somanytoys
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3325
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:59 pm
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez white...

Post by somanytoys » Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:39 am

Yeah, and I guess what I'm saying is that I'm fine with that, as long as I'm recognizing it. There are lots of variations on circuits and components, for pedals, preamps, mics, guitar amps, whatever, and each one typically gives a different sound as a result.

My only point was that if I'm not swallowing the hype of a pedal sounding just like the preamp from an X console, or necessarily trying to achieve that, and that pedal gives me a sound or sounds that I like, that's either difficult to find or achieve in other pedals, or is just better than other versions that are like it, I don't see it as a problem - I bought a pedal to be used specifically as a pedal for what it does give me. with this pedal, it's also a way to go direct into an interface that might not have a nice preamp, and record the sounds without the signal going through an amp and speaker first, for the bandwidth of the sounds to be narrowed. And I'd still like to try that pedal based on the amp in the projector - that's based on an amp, similar to the amp in a box pedals that Catalinbread makes, and I think they're effective. In a way, to me, it's almost similar to the Klon debate that has raged on for years and displaced a great many electrons in servers hosting forums.

But I do understand the problem with the deceptive nature of trying to market them in that way. Unfortunately, it's what marketing has become to be all about - whatever it takes to sell more widgets that you can't get outright sued for.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

Post Reply