Colour Box

[Daniel Morris]

Anyone had experience using the JHS Colour Box pedal?
If so, how did you find it with pedal steel?
Looks intriguing.

[Steve Hinson]

Daniel,

I bailed a bass player friend out of a"Colour Box"...I asked him about it one day and he said"give me a hundred bucks and take it home"(he paid about $400)so I did...

I like it on bass, but found no use for it on steel or electric guitar...I guess it's their take on a Neve channel...

SH

[Jon Light (deceased)]

I'm restless and I don't give things much of an audition. I got one for its parametric tone shaping and for its other features such as a fairly different flavor of distortion. A friend (blues harp player with a massive pedal board) had raved.

Bottom line, it did not interest me. For a long time I've had the idea that I really wanted a parametric eq but after using a couple of different units, I've found that it's not really of interest. And while the distortion concept is interesting -- if I recall, it's based on overloading a channel of a Neve board with the guitar plugged directly in, apparently the sound of Beatles Revolution...? is that correct? I think I read that but I'm not sure now .... anyway, it's not an overdrive sound that appeals to me on steel (and I do love steel with dirt pedals).

I am confident that another steel player might love this thing. But it wasn't for me and in a piece of good timing, someone local to me was looking for one and we made a good deal.

[Daniel Morris]

Thank you, gents.

Jon, that's interesting - I'm also in a band with a harp player, who has a Colour Box. I may borrow it, but now I'm not sure I need to.

Was the dirt too much? I like a very light overdrive with this band, at least sometimes. My harp player felt the Box warmed up the tone, without dirt.

Still wondering.... it ain't cheap.

[Jon Light (deceased)]

Ha. My harp playing friend has a pedal board the size of a Buick. And he's a really good touring musician, not just a bedroom wanker.
Oh, you can definitely run it clean or with as little dirt as you want. But the color of the dirt is not 'pretty' or warm. Even some raucous distortion units (as opposed to overdrives) have charm but I found this to not be a sound I could use musically.

[Daniel Morris]

Thanks for the further info, Jon.

[John Larson]

Ha. My harp playing friend has a pedal board the size of a Buick. And he's a really good touring musician, not just a bedroom wanker.
Oh, you can definitely run it clean or with as little dirt as you want. But the color of the dirt is not 'pretty' or warm. Even some raucous distortion units (as opposed to overdrives) have charm but I found this to not be a sound I could use musically.

The dirt is gonna be like The Beatles "Revolution" id guess which was produced by overloading a console direct in. Or like the Marty Robbins "Don't Worry" happy accident on bass that led to the adoption of distortion as an effect on bass and guitar.

[Daniel Morris]

Yeah, that's not the kind of overdrive I want.
Thanks, John.

[John Larson]

As for getting a good steel DI sound from the Colour Box, how many greats recorded DI? I know Sneaky Pete did often but aside from him I can't think of anyone else.

[Steve Hinson]

As for getting a good steel DI sound from the Colour Box, how many greats recorded DI? I know Sneaky Pete did often but aside from him I can't think of anyone else.

Buddy Emmons,Weldon Myrick,and Sonny Garrish all recorded direct in the 90's...

Buddy,Weldon,and Sonny all used Alesis Quadraverbs(I think I still have Sonny's around here somewhere), along with an Alembic bass preamp that Sonny liked to use a lot...Sonny had a Korg A3 he liked, too.

They all used the rack stuff for preamps and went through"Mor-Me"boxes with built in direct boxes-you could plug into the cue system and turn yourself up!

All three of them sounded exactly like themselves...

SH

[Susan Alcorn (deceased)]

I had a Colour Box for a while, but couldn't get anything I liked out of it. After a couple of years, sold it. I don't think it's a bad pedal, just not for me.