The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

[OldSoulDownLow]

My Nobelium has, finally , arrived at the post office....but I'm in the mountains skiing for the weekend....so picking it up Monday and going straight to rehearsal with it Monday night. Really looking forward to that!

You're going to Love it. Received mine last week, placed it on my simple/compact pedal board (Peterson Tuner, Broughton Comp, Nobelium) and gigged it Friday night. It's pretty darned phenomenal. Even FOH guy wanted to know what it was and gave it a positive compliment.

 

[Tassieviking]

Some of you may remember my jazz bass build from a while back where I installed an Underground Accelerator as

I have completely missed that build, do you have a link to it ? I would love to read it.
If you used a stereo cable could it be run on 12v like your pedals through the ring ?

 

[Sushi Box FX]

I have completely missed that build, do you have a link to it ? I would love to read it.
If you used a stereo cable could it be run on 12v like your pedals through the ring ?

It could be done like that in theory, but one of my main design goals was for it to behave like any other bass. No floor-based power supply, no proprietary cable, no special requirements. I want to be able to plug this into any amp with any cable any time.

Had to dig a little, but here's the build thread.

Geeze, not another one of these things... | TalkBass.com

 

[PineappleOwl]

Breaking in The Detective this weekend. I bought it for the clean(er) blue channel (Elementary) but am absolutely in love with the high(er) gain red channel (Dr. Watson) so far!

Pushing gain to about 3:30-4 o'clock where things really start to break up sounds amazing. Especially in combination with an EHX Big Muff before it!

Two questions;
Where does even EQ sit for both of these stacks?

Is it possible to adjust the volume output on the red channel to be quieter? With red at higher gain, I'm basically just above zero for the volume knob. My blue channel is set to ~1 o'clock gain and volume is maxed and still a bit quieter than than the red channel.

 

[furym]

Breaking in The Detective this weekend. I bought it for the clean(er) blue channel (Elementary) but am absolutely in love with the high(er) gain red channel (Dr. Watson) so far!

Pushing gain to about 3:30-4 o'clock where things really start to break up sounds amazing. Especially in combination with an EHX Big Muff before it!

Two questions;
Where does even EQ sit for both of these stacks?

Is it possible to adjust the volume output on the red channel to be quieter? With red at higher gain, I'm basically just above zero for the volume knob. My blue channel is set to ~1 o'clock gain and volume is maxed and still a bit quieter than than the red channel.

Does this work? I can post this every year with the current pedals and make sure to use the word THANKSGIVING in the post so if you search the thread for THANKSGIVING you can find it. I'm always happy to answer stuff and this is all stuff I know without having to look up, so this just took a couple minutes.

EDIT: just realized a bit got cut off of More, that should have said "circuit changes", a word got chopped.

Also happy thanksgiving to those that celebrate.

View attachment 5260822

 

[furym]

I realize the above does not include the Bassdude. What is considered flat for it?

 

[lomo]

Breaking in The Detective this weekend. I bought it for the clean(er) blue channel (Elementary) but am absolutely in love with the high(er) gain red channel (Dr. Watson) so far!

Pushing gain to about 3:30-4 o'clock where things really start to break up sounds amazing. Especially in combination with an EHX Big Muff before it!

Two questions;
Where does even EQ sit for both of these stacks?

Is it possible to adjust the volume output on the red channel to be quieter? With red at higher gain, I'm basically just above zero for the volume knob. My blue channel is set to ~1 o'clock gain and volume is maxed and still a bit quieter than than the red channel.

If you want more runway before the gain staging maxes out, try subbing 12au7, 12at7 or 5751.
Use the simulator (select HiWatt and mess with the sliders) below to understand the HiWatt passive tone stack. Knowledge is power that will save you a lot of fiddling time IMHE. Select Fender 3 band for the UA and Dreamcatcher, Marshall for the JC Emerald. These stacks are not intuitive at all because of how the 3 controls are interactive.

TSC in the web

 

[PineappleOwl]

If you want more runway before the gain staging maxes out, try subbing 12au7, 12at7 or 5751.
Use the simulator (select HiWatt and mess with the sliders) below to understand the HiWatt passive tone stack. Knowledge is power that will save you a lot of fiddling time IMHE. Select Fender 3 band for the UA and Dreamcatcher, Marshall for the JC Emerald. These stacks are not intuitive at all because of how the 3 controls are interactive.

TSC in the web

Thank you! I'm not used to fiddling with tone stacks so this will save me some time for sure.

Am I correct in assuming that I can't swap the tube and get both a quieter output and more access to breakup? Or am I thinking about this backwards?

 

[jbybj]

Thank you! I'm not used to fiddling with tone stacks so this will save me some time for sure.

Am I correct in assuming that I can't swap the tube and get both a quieter output and more access to breakup? Or am I thinking about this backwards?

Try this. The Detective has two tubes. Swap the V2 position with a 12AT7 or a 5751. This will lower your output on the gain channel but still leave plenty of crunch available. A 12AU7 will yield lower output and less distortion. How much so, I could not predict. Be sure to share what you end up with.

 

[lomo]

Thank you! I'm not used to fiddling with tone stacks so this will save me some time for sure.

Am I correct in assuming that I can't swap the tube and get both a quieter output and more access to breakup? Or am I thinking about this backwards?

I'm unsure what you mean by "more access to breakup", but if you mean a longer range of useable tones between clean and filthy, some of that will depend on the particular tube. In my experience yes, a 12at7 will make more of the gain dial sweep useful. A 12au7 will yield even lower gain with less OD on tap....and all of this will also depend on how hot your bass' output is=several moving parts.....a rabbit hole as deep and twisty as you dare to make it

 

[PineappleOwl]

Try this. The Detective has two tubes. Swap the V2 position with a 12AT7 or a 5751. This will lower your output on the gain channel but still leave plenty of crunch available. A 12AU7 will yield lower output and less distortion. How much so, I could not predict. Be sure to share what you end up with.

Thanks for the suggestions! I ordered a 12AT7 and a 5751, I will report back!

I'm unsure what you mean by "more access to breakup", but if you mean a longer range of useable tones between clean and filthy, some of that will depend on the particular tube. In my experience yes, a 12at7 will make more of the gain dial sweep useful. A 12au7 will yield even lower gain with less OD on tap....and all of this will also depend on how hot your bass' output is=several moving parts.....a rabbit hole as deep and twisty as you dare to make it

I think you understood me correctly. I would love to have slightly more usable range of distortion (right now I need to crack the red channel to about 2:30 for any breakup). I'm on a passive bass and trying to keep my input somewhat close to unity before the preamp, so I don't get much drive going in. I could crank my compressor output some, but it makes the overall output a bit too hot.

If a tube has more gain, will it be harder to drive to distortion? Likewise, if a tube has less gain, will it be easier to driver to distortion? Easier meaning you don't need quite as hot of a signal to cause breakup.

 

[furym]

Th

Thanks for the suggestions! I ordered a 12AT7 and a 5751, I will report back!



I think you understood me correctly. I would love to have slightly more usable range of distortion (right now I need to crack the red channel to about 2:30 for any breakup). I'm on a passive bass and trying to keep my input somewhat close to unity before the preamp, so I don't get much drive going in. I could crank my compressor output some, but it makes the overall output a bit too hot.

If a tube has more gain, will it be harder to drive to distortion? Likewise, if a tube has less gain, will it be easier to driver to distortion? Easier meaning you don't need quite as hot of a signal to cause breakup.

e 12AX7 will break up at a lower gain setting. 12AU7 may not break up at all or at a very high knob setting.

 

[furym]

For Bassdude, is it V1 or V2 that makes the overdrive? And is there an output attenuation pot? I tried lower gain tubes in V1 but I have to crank the vol to near max to bring my signal up to unity with when it is bypassed.

 

[Tassieviking]

I realize the above does not include the Bassdude. What is considered flat for it?

I think the Bassdude is flat with the knobs in the 12 o'clock position.
It is an early Fender E-Series tone control, try it on the TSC below.
TSC in the web

 

[Tassieviking]

For Bassdude, is it V1 or V2 that makes the overdrive? And is there an output attenuation pot? I tried lower gain tubes in V1 but I have to crank the vol to near max to bring my signal up to unity with when it is

I can't help with the question right now (strong medication)but there is a good writeup on a later Bassman circuit that would also apply here, the tone stack is different in the later version so ignore that.
The Bassdude is based on the Bassman 5D6 schematic.
There are some great tube calculators on this site as well that is well worth a look, lots of good information.
Fender Bassman 5F6-A Circuit Analysis

Lots of Fender schematics here:
Schematics and Layout Diagrams

 

[furym]

I can't help with the question right now (strong medication)but there is a good writeup on a later Bassman circuit that would also apply here, the tone stack is different in the later version so ignore that.
The Bassdude is based on the Bassman 5D6 schematic.
There are some great tube calculators on this site as well that is well worth a look, lots of good information.
Fender Bassman 5F6-A Circuit Analysis

Lots of Fender schematics here:
Schematics and Layout Diagrams

Thank you but I’m not a builder, I’m a knob twister. I can swap a tube like a light bulb but I only know it sounds different. I know some of other Sushi pedals have a pot inside to adjust the output level if you swap tubes, just wondering if the Bassdude has one as well that I am just not seeing.

 

[JKos]

If a tube has more gain, will it be harder to drive to distortion? Likewise, if a tube has less gain, will it be easier to driver to distortion?

It is the opposite.

 

[RobD_BritBass]

So after swapping the valve in my finally V2 for an NOS 12AU7 this evening, I have additional appreciation for the work that Nathan puts in to these pedals. It's a really well packaged pedal, not much space going spare, I can imagine assembly of each one can be a bit of a pain in the arse to get right.

As for the sound with the new valve, I'm really liking it so far, I've only tried it through my interface with headphones to make sure I hadn't broken anything, but even like that it's great, I can turn the gain up a lot and get that slightly more compressed and harmonically rich sound and it still sounds lovely and smooth and clear.
I haven't tried it into my main rig to check how it drives the power amp, but looking at how much louder than unity gain it is without even turning up the internal trim pot I don't think I have anything to worry about level wise.

 

[lomo]

A question about tube compression: will 2 tube types with different gain factors compress to the same degree at the same degree of overdrive? For example, if I set the gain knob in a pedal such that it's on the very edge of clean & breakup with both a 12ax7 and a 12au7 (ie sounds about the same), will the degree of compression be the same? Intuitively I think so, but I'm no lektrik engineer.

 

[Parzival]

I just did some pedal testing at home earlier today. It really took getting my Finally v2 up past 12 o’clock before I was really hearing significant breakup. I’m keeping mine about just about 10 o’clock and there is just the tiniest bit of hair on top. Not too noticeable and the layperson would call it clean. That is fine for me with the 12ax7. I don’t need more headroom. We’ll see where the UA falls. It may be fine with the 12ax7 as I want more hair out of it and it will be pushing the Finally.