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JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 12:07 pm
by Bronco Billy
I'm really curious about what people think of this!

Any experiences?

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 5:15 pm
by jorri
I haven't but was more drawn to the bogner pedals of the similar concept (transformers). worth checking out.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 6:26 pm
by mackerelmint
As a thing to run signals through, it has enough I/O options not to be a total gimmick, but I still think it's mostly a way to get suckers to pay good money to feel like they're getting some kind of Neve something whether they actually are or not rather than something really useful for recording. As a guitar pedal it's completely silly.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:42 pm
by Telliot
mackerelmint wrote:As a thing to run signals through, it has enough I/O options not to be a total gimmick, but I still think it's mostly a way to get suckers to pay good money to feel like they're getting some kind of Neve something whether they actually are or not rather than something really useful for recording. As a guitar pedal it's completely silly.
These are my thoughts exactly. If it were just billed as a simple preamp, not specific to guitars I might be more sold on the idea.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:50 am
by jorri
Telliot wrote:
mackerelmint wrote:As a thing to run signals through, it has enough I/O options not to be a total gimmick, but I still think it's mostly a way to get suckers to pay good money to feel like they're getting some kind of Neve something whether they actually are or not rather than something really useful for recording. As a guitar pedal it's completely silly.
These are my thoughts exactly. If it were just billed as a simple preamp, not specific to guitars I might be more sold on the idea.
That's why i'm more interested in the Bogners, they are for creating distortions (mostly), i like the transformer sound/alternative means of distorting but not sure i'd pay so much for one, even though its about the only distortion pedal that might actually cost near to its selling value in parts given transformers are expensive.
Its silly to expect some neve console, and what use is that is a pedal really. I wonder if any old cheap mixers /channels might get the sound?

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 1:33 pm
by mackerelmint
Telliot wrote:
mackerelmint wrote:As a thing to run signals through, it has enough I/O options not to be a total gimmick, but I still think it's mostly a way to get suckers to pay good money to feel like they're getting some kind of Neve something whether they actually are or not rather than something really useful for recording. As a guitar pedal it's completely silly.
These are my thoughts exactly. If it were just billed as a simple preamp, not specific to guitars I might be more sold on the idea.
I'm not sure what, other than a color scheme, it actually has in common with a 1073. Not the EQ. Not the transformers. Clearly not the circuit topology. An opamp, maybe? The JHS guy kind of bills it as a general preamp, but there's no phantom power. It's just a glorified DI that you can use as a boost and dirt box. In one of the videos he talks about getting that console sound for your live rig. OK, dude. Sure.

For less money I could get a GAP 73 and come way closer to getting a "Neve" sound. Phooey.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 7:01 pm
by Telliot
^^^ Speaking of which, have you ever tried a GAP 73?

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 7:22 pm
by hella1hella
I have a love/hate relationship with JHS. I think the Panther delay is pretty freaking awesome, but What I don't like is how a lot of their pedals are essentially clones, and they charge a ton of money for them claiming them to be some amazing gift from God. Never been impressed with the colour box. It's VERY gimmicky. Throw neve on there and you have all the sheep following immediately.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:34 pm
by mackerelmint
Telliot wrote:^^^ Speaking of which, have you ever tried a GAP 73?
Ever tried a Neve 1073?

I've never tried a Neve so maybe I oughtn't make such comparisons. But a friend of mine has a GAP 73 and I've used it a bit. A durn fine preamp. He doesn't have the EQ that it connects to, but he's got the UAD plugs, so the pieces are all there to make an honest attempt at sounding like a 1073. He and I both have the same presonus interface, and while we both think xmax pres are plenty good, the tracks recorded through the GAP didn't need as much work to make sound good, except when he miked things wrong. No preamp can compensate for that. He's an electronic guy, so using mics isn't his strong suit.

I'm a little more fond of the top end clarity you get in a 312, but it's not like the Neve design sounds shitty or anything. What makes me think that I'd go for a GAP rather than a WA 12 (because seriously, diminishing returns on money spent, I'm not shelling out for an actual API ever ever) is that the GAP has attenuation so you can get the trafos to cook a little bit without whacking up the level to a stupid degree.

If someone gave me a 500 chassis I'd probably build a pair of CAPI 312s with DIs and 1731s for extra smoothitude and never think about pres again. Unless someone wanted to give me a pair of TG-1s... Which to me are a lot like a Neve with a slightly nicer top end. I keep trying to find schematics and a bill of materials for those, but they're hard to come by and apparently hard to build. A DIY version a few years back was pretty short lived because of that.

Uh, anyway... :whistle:

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:49 pm
by s_mcsleazy
maybe it's just me being cynical as usual but i really dont see much point in it. i've never got the whole obsession over neve stuff. yes, so many great albums were recorded using it, yes, the guy who made it was a true sound chaser.... but it's a bit like the klon. something i may have liked to try being hyped to the point where i never want to try it. yes, i might be missing out on something i'd truely like BUT i cant help how i feel about hype.

but i've only heard demos of the colour box. not for me. sorry. i'm not big into the whole "pre-amp in a box" kinda thing. i never really know where to put them in my chain. because they are meant to be pre-amps, my intimidate thought is to always put them late in the chain and use it as a tone shaper in case i have no access to a amp at a venue/studio. but they always sound odd with the dirt pedals i do have. then the idea is put it with the dirt pedals, well there goes the whole "treat it like a pre-amp" thing. on my pedalboard, the only place i could see the jhs colour box would be filling space or using it as a DI

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 2:19 am
by thenewromance
One could always frame it and put it on a wall, because it looks really cool, IMO. I don't really understand, however, how to use it and what to use it for.

I'm not a fan of pre-amps, generally speaking. I don't much believe in "general sound improvement", because everyone has a different idea of what improvement really means, and then there's a million amp/guitar combos with a billion tone/vol/EQ setting combinations, and I don't see how a given pre-amp can make each of them sound better. I mean, if there were such a thing as "the" pre-amp sound, how come it's only available as a pedal and no one ever bothered to modify the actual amp's pre-amp stage to Neve/EP-3/whatever specs? Should be the thing to do if the hype was justified...

... or maybe I just don't get pre-amps :)

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 9:25 am
by Bronco Billy
Soooo I got one, and I kind a love it! ;-)
It has pretty many sounds going on.

I was really hesitating, but a used one, a week old came up for sale at 2/3 of the original price tag.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 7:01 pm
by Flippersotherguitar
I was wondering if anyone who had used one had any thoughts on them. I am pretty much on the edge of buying a used one but I wanna hear some opinions from those who have them.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:36 am
by matbard
I have it and absolutely love.

Re: JHS Colour BOX? Any love?

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 11:06 pm
by Bronco Billy
I still rock mine!
Go for that wrecked Neil Young Sound or just something subtle.

I mostly use mine as a small volume bump after overdrives. I boost the EQ to around 2pm, because it really makes my Tweed amp bark.

Appreciated it in the studio to get a "closer", more out of the box sound. (If that makes sense.)

Still hate that loud pop when engaged. JHS says there's nothing to do about it. :derp: