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JHS Color Box: a Neve console in a stompbox

#2
I'm skeptical... but interested. Hopefully enough people will buy in to them and give some feedback. Otherwise there's only one way to know for sure, and I'm not quite ready to dive in right in. Maybe later in the year.

How much are they? Went to the JHS site and there is no product page for it, just a teaser image.
 
#4
For one thing, JHS makes mostly average clones, and there's an outsized amount of hype for what the pedals actually are.

For another, this follows a common and annoying pattern in my niche: for practically every comp pedal containing an optical component, they advertise it as being "just like the famed LA2A" or "just like legendary studio compressors that made all your favorite records". But obviously those pedals are NOT just like an LA2A or whatever. Just having a similar circuit design, or a similar component, or a similar knob layout, does NOT make the pedal sound like the original device.

I'd be delighted to find out this new JHS pedal beats the odds and isn't just a bag of hype. :)
 
#6
It has my interest from purely a design perspective. Wonder what kind of circuitry is in the signal path. I can't tell much from the video but I see some discrete transistors and IC's...but that doesn't mean much. There is a transformer, but again, that doesn't mean much when I don't know how it's used. I hope that since they are mentioning vintage Neve, the 1073, and the 1081 that at least some of the signal path is class A or has a discrete amplifier.
 
#7
bigtexashonk said:
Waiting for Bongo's review.
Click to expand...


With ya there! He'll tell it like it is.

Like I said before, I'm not usually much for preamp pedals (I have really good pickups in my bass for a reason) but to me, this is at least an interesting idea, and really different from most of what's out there. Strikes me as being on the same train of thought as like a Reddi or something. (Not comparing them, just giving example). Interested to see if they're on to something here.
 
#10
If the 'Color Box' turns out to actually be 1/10 as impressive as the ad copy pushing it on their site, it will be a 'must have' pedal.

Odds are it's not just another way over-hyped, top buck pedal - right ????

Also, I just noticed the pedal has a line drawing of a console on the pedal in case you need more convincing.
 
#11
D.A.R.K. said:
Of course it's not a Neve, although apparently the design has copies of a circuit.
Click to expand...

If anyone has read anything by Rupert Neve discussing his audio designs, you would see this guy is in the very rarefied stratosphere of audio design.

His knowledge and attention to detail, nuance and quality is almost unbelievable.

Hence, the huge price tags for his hardware and the attendant admiration of the professional recording community.

So this pedal isn't just a 'copy of a circuit'. Someone is apparently trying to cash in on a legend.

No offense intended.
 
#12
Maybe, I really don't know- i'm assuming that's what the hype is all about. Behringer copies Midas circuit designs and sells them for pennies on the dollar in comparison- cheap labor and components, yes but the ripped off designs are the same.
It's not priced like a Neve, and I really wouldn't expect it to be one.
But, from the JHS site, a bit of description:
"We used the same topology and discrete gain stage found in the Neve* 1073, but we have two gain stages in series instead of one. We use a high quality Lundahl transformer "

Design copy.
Bottom line regardless, the Color Box sounded very cool when I heard it in action. Worth the price of a pedal for sure.
 
#14
ddnidd1 said:
If anyone has read anything by Rupert Neve discussing his audio designs, you would see this guy is in the very rarefied stratosphere of audio design.

His knowledge and attention to detail, nuance and quality is almost unbelievable.

Hence, the huge price tags for his hardware and the attendant admiration of the professional recording community.

So this pedal isn't just a 'copy of a circuit'. Someone is apparently trying to cash in on a legend.

No offense intended.
Click to expand...

There is a whole industry of Neve clones in various form factors. Each one claiming to be the closest to the original. This is the first I have heard in a pedal though. Schematics of the circuits are not hard to find.
 

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