Recording - July 2016 - 52

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

JHS Pedals Colour Box
Way more than your average distortion pedal!
When is a guitar pedal not just a guitar
pedal? When it's the Colour Box from
boutique pedal manufacturer JHS Pedals.
Based in Grandview, MO, JHS Pedals
offers a full line of analog guitar pedals
and custom mods for pedals from other
manufacturers. Perfect for our "all things
guitar" issue, the JHS Pedals Colour Box is
an overdrive/distortion effects box, a
microphone preamp, an instrument preamp, and a full-fledged console-style channel strip... all rolled into a stomp box.
The Colour Box is housed in a 31/2 x
41/2 x 2" enclosure, dressed in a white
gloss enamel with red, blue and gray
knobs. (It's also available in a limited handpainted edition for an additional charge.) It
has a heavy-duty stomp switch and a blindingly bright white "it will burn a hole in
your soul if you stare at it too long" LED to
indicate when it's engaged. It uses an 18V
power adaptor and can't run on batteries.
The Colour Box's internal circuit design
is fashioned after a certain iconic Britishflavored recording desk... read: Neve!
However, it's more of an homage than a
literal clone. Internally it makes use of the
respected Lundahl transformer, rather than
the Carnhill in the current Neve 1073.
The Colour Box features a 3-part input
section that starts with a stepped gain pot
labeled Step. This begins at 18 dB of
input gain and goes up in 5 dB steps up
to a total of 39 dB (the last step is a 6 dB
step). Next is a Pre-Volume Trim, again
just like a console's, followed by a Master
Out which is akin to the main fader on a
desk. This setup allows you to drive the
input stage into the output stage for varied
levels of color and full-on drive and distortion, just like most in-out style mic preamps.
Its "channel strip" status comes from the
inclusion of a switchable 6 dB/octave Hi
Pass filter (60 Hz to 800 Hz corner frequency) and a 3-band EQ section. JHS
Pedals notes that this is a "highly modified
Baxandall style EQ". Each band is fixed
at 120 Hz, 1 kHz, and 10 kHz, with ±17
dB of cut or boost.
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RECORDING JULY 2016

Ins and outs are located on the sides of
the Colour Box. Unlike most 19" rack
devices, where ins, outs, controls and signal flow run left to right, on a guitar pedal
signal runs right to left. On the right side is
an XLR/TRS Neutrik Combo jack for input,
along with two recessed DIP switches.
One changes the input from instrument to
XLR, and the other is a 20 dB pad. On
the left of the box are parallel XLR and
1
/4" outputs for connecting to an amp, a
mixing desk, or your audio interface.
Note that the Colour Box's mic preamp
can't phantom-power condenser and
active ribbon mics.
Essentially The Colour Box can be used
one of four ways...
Stomp it!
Most obviously, it's a stomp box that
offers a flexible, dialable, and yes, colorful range of overdrive and distortion
effects when used with your favorite guitar and amp setup. To test this application, I let my friend and music director
Josh Poore use it for two weeks as part
of his guitar rig, with a Fender Princeton
reissue amp and his guitars that include
a 1978 Les Paul custom, a Fender
American Standard Stratocaster and a
Japanese-issue Fender Jazzmaster. Josh
was actually more familiar with JHS pedals than I was, having owned and used
the Morning Glory and Super Bolt overdrives, and he currently has the
Moonshine on his pedalboard.
Josh, like many guitarists, is on the
eternal guitar quest for the perfect
overdrive/distortion, and he appreciates
their every nuance. Not being a recording engineer, however, he was unsure
why one would want a console-based
channel strip running into one's guitar
amp. While it was a bit more fiddly
than he likes his overdrive pedals to be,
the Colour Box quickly won him over for
its broad range and tonal versatility... as
well as how closely it could ape the
sound of the coveted Klon Centaur
pedal!

Strip it!
Use number two for the Colour Box is as
a standard channel strip for tracking with
your favorite microphone into your DAW
interface. Tthe Colour Box works with passive microphones like dynamics, ribbons, or
with a tube mic that has its own power supply; you can add an inline phantom power
supply for condensers and active ribbons.
I used the Colour Box to track a folksy
roots-rock song with an Audix i5 on electric
guitar cab, a Shure SM7 on vocals, a
Telefunken M81 on acoustic guitar, cajon
and hi-hat, as well as my Royer R-121 for
additional tambourine, shaker and vocal
overdubs. Like most mic pres, it requires a
large amount of gain if you are using
dynamics and ribbons, especially at a distance or on quiet sources. Boosting the gain
to the top induces some noise, but up close
and on on loud signals (guitar cab, drums,
percussion, and loud rock vocals) it was
fine. Tube mics sound fantastic with the
Colour Box at normal levels, where it offers
a smooth vintage weight and a nice clarity.
Tracking with the EQ is also very
handy. Even though it offers an impressive
17 dB of cut or boost, the modified
Baxandall curves maintain a nice subtlety
at moderate levels and only get forceful at
extremes. The 10k band adds a nice
sheen on vocals and acoustic guitars that
is open but not too crisp or biting, and this
is one place where the Colour Box's
Nevishness is most apparent. (Did I just
make up a word?)
Compared to other solid-state mic pres
in my collection, like a Chandler TG-2,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2016