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

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

Post by fuzzjunkie » Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:22 pm

You don't find that the Throbak has to go first with the germanium? All of my fuzzes seem to need to be first in line that are germanium, which are most of them - even the Catalinbread Karma Suture ge version that I have seems to get wonky if there's a buffer or almost anything pushing anywhere in front of it. Not a big deal, it is what it is, and I am very partial to the germanium sound and willing to let it be the first pedal.
Possibly? I've seen others (and possibly the builder) say it doesn't matter, though a lot of folks do put it first.

In my setup it worked okay in front of a stock Vox or Crybaby Wah, but oscillated when placed after in Germanium mode. When in Silicon mode it did not, but the tone thinned out. I have it after three other true bypass dirt boxes that don't have buffers. A Basic Audio Gnarly, Fairfield Circuitry Four Eyes, and a Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe. I use the Four Eyes for wah and filter sounds and don't have a problem stacking it or the Scarab. The only buffered pedal that I tried it after was the Voodoo Vibe. It didn't seem to matter which came first, but I ended up putting the ODB in front, more for board layout than anything. Usually it's in Silicon mode and when it's in Germanium the ODB is the only thing on except for the El Capistan or the Voodoo Vibe, so I only stack the other dirt pedals and delays in Silicon mode.

Edit: Vick Audio. Violet Audio makes high end preamps and compressors.

Reading another thread I saw that Violet Audio also has a reasonably priced Overdriver pedal. If the Bogner pedals couny, I wonder if Keeley has something? I know he had a series of pedals out a year or two ago that did ADT and plate reverb, etc, aimed at Beatles tones.

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

Post by bubba899 » Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:19 pm

I know op found something already but I've just bought something which fits the bill perfectly!

https://hudsonelectronicsuk.com/broadca ... ot-switch/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This thing is an absolute joy! It's got that always on boosty sparkle to it, and with the second gain stage it's a full on fuzz. Totally nails that revolution tone, but seems to have so much more in the locker, looking forward to getting to know it more.

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

Post by fuzzjunkie » Sat Aug 12, 2017 7:03 pm

bubba899 wrote:I know op found something already but I've just bought something which fits the bill perfectly!

https://hudsonelectronicsuk.com/broadca" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ot-switch/

This thing is an absolute joy! It's got that always on boosty sparkle to it, and with the second gain stage it's a full on fuzz. Totally nails that revolution tone, but seems to have so much more in the locker, looking forward to getting to know it more.
Interesting. I thought the Broadcast, with the single switch at least, was like the Chandler Germanium Drive.

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

Post by bubba899 » Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:55 am

I always thought it was just a drive pedal as well, perhaps the transformer differentiates it? Apparently they've based it on old neve broadcasting console.

Image

love the tip of the hat with the knobs.

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

Post by somanytoys » Fri Aug 25, 2017 8:40 am

fuzzjunkie wrote:
You don't find that the Throbak has to go first with the germanium? All of my fuzzes seem to need to be first in line that are germanium, which are most of them - even the Catalinbread Karma Suture ge version that I have seems to get wonky if there's a buffer or almost anything pushing anywhere in front of it. Not a big deal, it is what it is, and I am very partial to the germanium sound and willing to let it be the first pedal.
Possibly? I've seen others (and possibly the builder) say it doesn't matter, though a lot of folks do put it first.

In my setup it worked okay in front of a stock Vox or Crybaby Wah, but oscillated when placed after in Germanium mode. When in Silicon mode it did not, but the tone thinned out. I have it after three other true bypass dirt boxes that don't have buffers. A Basic Audio Gnarly, Fairfield Circuitry Four Eyes, and a Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe. I use the Four Eyes for wah and filter sounds and don't have a problem stacking it or the Scarab. The only buffered pedal that I tried it after was the Voodoo Vibe. It didn't seem to matter which came first, but I ended up putting the ODB in front, more for board layout than anything. Usually it's in Silicon mode and when it's in Germanium the ODB is the only thing on except for the El Capistan or the Voodoo Vibe, so I only stack the other dirt pedals and delays in Silicon mode.

Edit: Vick Audio. Violet Audio makes high end preamps and compressors.

Reading another thread I saw that Violet Audio also has a reasonably priced Overdriver pedal. If the Bogner pedals couny, I wonder if Keeley has something? I know he had a series of pedals out a year or two ago that did ADT and plate reverb, etc, aimed at Beatles tones.
Not sure, but I have 3 Keeley British Glass pedals, and usually use the OC44 version first in line. I think most of my pedals and pretty much all of my dirt boxes are true bypass, but to avoid kicking something on by mistake that's in front of the ge fuzz and whacking it out, I just put it first. I don't find that the fuzz oscillates, as much as kind of flattening it out and squishing the hell out of it, maybe kind of starved, but not in a good way.

I used to place the fuzzes down in the chain, and wondered why they suddenly sounded like shit, until I read about ge not liking any buffers in front, and I would assume that means another pedal's signal as well. I use the Keeley Loomer after it, but I only the reverb side on Hall mode - I'm not so big on the muff side - I dont' think it's necessarily bad for a muff, it'll do, but I'm not the biggest muff fan, and I think that I have better choices for dirt for my tastes. I"m not sure sure if the reverb signal from the Loomer would whack the fuzz if I put it behind the reverb, I guess I may have to try it to see. I'm definitely going to get the Throback one day, just a matter of time.

I have to say that I do love the Colour Box, it was pretty cool on guitar, unique, but I find that it's really standout on bass. I don't get the impression that the transformer is a gimmick, but I'm no electronics guru, I just know it sounds pretty unique and good, and has very cool options. The nod to the knob color scheme is really cool, although it would be cooler if they were the more muted colors of the console knobs - still, very good. Hell, I even like the gray console logo on it.

I've read good things about the Telez but have never seen or tried one. If they're at all similar, it must be pretty cool.
-David

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

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

Post by øøøøøøø » Fri Aug 25, 2017 2:00 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 !
This is a tricky question to address, for a few reasons! Number one is because the "Revolution" and "Helter Skelter" sounds were different, and achieved by different means, and neither were achieved with a pedal :)

The "Revolution" fuzz tone was an Epiphone Casino run direct (no amp) into a REDD.47 console preamp from the REDD.51 desk at EMI Abbey Road Studio Two, fed into a second REDD.47. The first REDD.47 overloaded the second, producing the fuzz. The REDD.47 was an EF86-input valve design with heavy negative feedback around both valves/tubes. This characteristic is what leads to the abrupt square-wavey breakup that is "Revolution." I've built ten copies of these preamps, and running my ES-330 into two of them cascaded is a VERY familiar sound!

The JHS "Colour Box" is allegedly "inspired by" the Neve 1073-- a solid-state mic preamp/EQ channel strip that was not yet in existence when either "Revolution" or "Helter Skelter" were recorded. In fact, the Beatles had broken up before the first 1073 was ever manufactured!

We have a vintage 80-series Neve console in our B room, and I've overdriven those channels hundreds of time (both on purpose and NOT on purpose! :ph34r: ). I can assure you that overdriving an 80-series Neve preamp like the 1073, 1084, 31102, etc. is not anything remotely like cascading two REDD.47s. Not "better" or "worse"-- just different. (I tend to prefer the sound of both functioning within their normal operating parameters, but I digress...)

I know JHS's hype literature for the "Colour Box" states outright that "Revolution" was "the unmistakable sound of plugging an electric guitar directly into a Neve recording console" but that--much like an alarming percentage of the REST of the marketing claims JHS makes about that product--is factually inaccurate. It was nothing of the sort. :fp:

It's a guitar pedal. Make of it what you will. Try it. Maybe you'll like it. Do not be fooled into thinking it's the same as a Neve 1073. It's not. Do not be fooled into thinking it will make you sound like "Revolution." It will not. :)

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

Post by preservation » Fri Aug 25, 2017 4:17 pm

just jumping in to say the Crayon has been an absolute joy to play. pretty much nails the 2-3 sounds i was hoping to get from one of these Neve-inspired pedals !
still would love to try a Jext Telez tho... just because !

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

Post by somanytoys » Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:34 am

I would tend to agree with that statement about JHS, if it's indeed true that they did support an intolerant church or whatever. I bought the Colourbox before I had heard or read about any of that, and I've read some stuff from that whole period since - it's hard to tell what his affiliation was (one time donation vs many?), and he has supposedly removed himself from it since then - I guess it's up to the potential buyer to believe what they want about it. I don't know if he really didn't know that church supported that or not, or if the church or the intolerance is something that he would still support if he didn't have to maintain an image with his business or not, but it's just another version of having the right to free speech or whatever, and the aftermath of the fallout of saying or doing something that's disagreeable to people. Especially to most musicians, I would think, since music is labeled as a "liberal" art and a great many musicians tend to be pretty open minded and more tolerant than some other walks of life.

All that said, I already bought it, the proceeds have already gone to the company, and I'd just take a loss selling something to someone else that I'm glad that I bought and own. If someone buys one used, it's not like the proceeds from that sale are going to the company anymore, so there's that, for whatever it's worth. The Colourbox appears to be one of the (only?) unique items that they sell, that isn't a pretty blatant knockoff of something else, from what I've read.

I also agree about sensationalism in advertising, for gear or really anything, but if I didn't buy gear because of hyperbole in advertising, I probably wouldn't have at least half of just my pedals alone.

Has anyone tried both the Colourbox and the Jext Telez side by side? And/or the Broadcast? Just wondering what the difference is in sound.
-David

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

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

Post by repoman » Fri Oct 06, 2017 5:38 pm

I had a Jext Telez White Box for a while. It sounded good but I could never get mine to sound anything like the demo of it on youtube made by Reverb. Mine sounded like a good tubescreamer that could get a bit fuzzy. Its not supposed to be a overdriven console though, its the fuzz circuit from the Vox Conqueror in a pedal. I had a JHS Crayon which is very similar to the Colourbox and that did the fried console thing very well. Hudson Broadcast is another pedal thats modeled on a board preamp IIRC, I have one now and it is a fantastic pedal.
I would say the JHS Crayon had the most 'fried console' sound, Jext Telez the least, Broadcast happy medium between fried console fuzz and really nice boost/OD.

FYI- you can get the Hudson Broadcast for MUCH less if you buy from Europe, I think mine was $215 shipped and it is the 2 button 24v model in Magenta.

Other pedals I've had that did what I would categorize along the same lines as the fuzz in the JHS Crayon would be the Infanem Driving Notion and the fuzz circuit in the Industrialectric RM1N. Both of those pedals gave a kind of otherworldly, clanging, overloaded circuits, strange overdrive/fuzz.

The Crayon was really zippy though. I would say thats your best bet if you want that sound in a very specific manner. It did seem full on or nothing though, where the sweet spot was having the fuzz on pretty much full up and very pronounced. The Jext Telez and Broadcast excelled at adding more grit and sparkle, but they can go up to have lots of gain/fuzz/OD.

I think another pedal worth looking at is the Germanium Pigtronix Philosophers Tone boost/compressor. I've never had one but they sound like they can do that thing very well.

I LOVE GERMANIUM.

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

Post by somanytoys » Sun Oct 08, 2017 1:57 pm

That's pretty interesting, thank you for the rundown. I haven't really paid attention to the differences between the colourbox and the crayon, but the colourbox has different stages with different intensities, it can be almost clean, but it typically sounds better on the higher the settings. I like your description - zippy.

I also have the RM-1N, and I never really thought about that their sounds might be similar, although I do have both the colourbox and the RM-1N on my bass pedalboard right now, they're both very interesting with bass.

I love germanium, too. I have one fuzz that isn't germanium (a flying tomato v2) and I'm not nearly as fond of it as any of my germanium fuzzes.
-David

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

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

Post by somanytoys » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:37 pm

fuzzjunkie wrote:
Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:32 pm
+1 on the Throbak Overdrive Boost. It's the most versatile pedal I've owned. I had the one-switch version years ago, sold it for no reason except a desire to try something new, and recently bought a new two-switch version after realizing that I needed at least three pedals to replace it.

It can be preamp, EQ, clean boost, dirty boost, overdrive, and tone-bender-like fuzz. And it does each one really well. Because it does so much so well, it's a great at-home pedal. It's a little less useful in a band setting, only because you can only use one to two settings at a time. If you're looking, I'd suggest the newer version with two switches. Keep an eye out for a used one, because the new price will set you back a ways.
Before I bought mine I read posts where guys liked it so much that they wanted to buy a second one, to have one set dirty and the other clean, and stack them as well. Mine did replace 3 pedals (SHO, vintage Rat, 3 knob Tone Bender). You can put it anywhere in your chain, depending on what your use is, and it stays dynamic. It runs just fine off battery or power supply. Note that I have had it oscillate after an unbuffered wah when set to germanium, but not silicon.

I'm able to get 3 settings out of it without tweaking knobs. Pre-gain on in silicon mode/ pre-gain off in silicon mode/ and pre-gain off in germanium mode. That gives me a vintage sounding boost, a fuzzy edged overdrive, and a MK-1 tone benderish fuzz that I can roll back my volume knob to clean up.

The bass and treble controls are very musical and interactive. While my settings are a bit of a compromise for 3-1 live use, I would tweak each a little in the studio to get something perfect, but it's close as is. My settings add a bit of Marshall crunch to my Vox by adding some bottom end all the way up to a Beck in the Yardbirds/Mick Ronson type tone. It can, as I've read on TGP, do something akin to a Klon or Timmy at clean settings, Fender BF with a bit more gain and Rust Never Sleeps tweed tones with things cranked on the germanium side. It's very amp like but not an amp sim pedal.

I've found all those tones with mine and many others. I don't usually stack fuzz, but this thing takes other pedals really well or can boost going into them. It works equally well with my AC-30 and Bassman.

So this is not a total thread derail, set to a fuzzy overdrive on the silicon setting and adjusting the two tone controls to give a thinner sound, I can get Hey Bulldog and What is Life fuzz tones as well as some early Zeppelin depending on the guitar .
Just ordered one of these over the weekend, I can't wait to get it in and test drive it. Thanks again for the recommendation.
-David

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

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

Post by somanytoys » Fri Oct 27, 2017 8:19 am

I got the Throback OD/B in last night and played with it for a few hours. LOTS of character, in like all of the settings, I really like it a lot. I'll have to try those settings you mentioned above to get the 3 different sounds at once, but I was impressed with all the different sounds I could get, although like you said, to really dial something in nice, it probably isn't good for other settings. But that's okay, I can live with one good sound or have to make more changes to the controls for multiple sounds, but it's good to know it can do a good job at 3 sounds by only changing the switch and a footswitch.

As nice as the sound with gain tanked on germanium mode with no pre-grain was, it doesn't quite get the sounds that my Keeley Black Glass fuzzes do (I think they're mkIII circuits?). I'm using an OC44 version of it, a Tanabe Zenkudo that's usually in Dumble mode, and now the Throbak (in place of a GTC Bloody Fingers), and those are 3 very different and great sounds covered.

I like the diversity of sounds and the quality of them all, this kind of reminds me of what I thought the SHO would be, but I think better for my tastes (and apparently yours, since it kicked off an SHO). I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this thing, I'm really glad I bought it. Thanks again for the tip.
-David

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

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

Post by fuzzjunkie » 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.

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

Post by Ro_S » 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?
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Re: overdriven-board pedals: JHS Colour Box, Jext Telez whit

Post by Ro_S » Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:32 am

somanytoys wrote:
Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:24 am
What were the hybrid Vox amps, what exactly was it that was hybrid about them?
4-/7- series Vox amps -
solid state (transistor, not jfets?) preamp; tube power amp. I think. or vice versa.
they evolved into the all transistor solid state Super Beatle/Guardsman (USA) and Conqueror/Defiant (UK) series
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