The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

[LSM07]

Hi guys
Thx for a super useful forum with lots of good advice. I'm a bass player that is looking to buy my first Sushiboxfx pedal. I need a preamp for my small bass board. I have a pretty good Radial JDI so the pedal does not need to have a DI. I have heard loads of good things about the Underground Accelerator (though I'm a bit confused about how the 3-band tone stack works on it - the YT video from Jake Serek that Nathan links to makes it seem kind of weird to operate?). But there is also the Slampegg Bee Pre and the Elementary? I'm having a hard time finding good quality sound samples to compare the sound of these.
I play CCM at church and also a bit of rock in a local band. I tend to like to old school round tubey bottom end of an Alembic F-2B which kind of points to the UA. And I wouldn't mind if the pedal could do just a tiny bit of "edge of breakup" OD. I don't normally go all in on crazy drive for any of the projects that I play in. I have a Darkglass VMT as well I could use to ad a bit more gain on demand? I'm just looking for that sweet basic tone with just a bit of tube warmth and roundness.
Sorry for rambling - I'm just trying to point you guys in the right direction for giving me advice. What would you guys recommend me getting from Nathan? And do you have any usable sound clips to compare the sound of the different preamps?
I realize that this type of question has probably been asked many times before - and I'm sorry about that. But this thread has just become so long and filled with different versions of pedals with different names - so I have kind of given up on finding the answer myself.
Thanks again guys - and hope that some of you will chime in with advice!
Keep the groove going!
/Kristian

UA. Then branch out from there

 

[RobD_BritBass]

Hi guys
Thx for a super useful forum with lots of good advice. I'm a bass player that is looking to buy my first Sushiboxfx pedal. I need a preamp for my small bass board. I have a pretty good Radial JDI so the pedal does not need to have a DI. I have heard loads of good things about the Underground Accelerator (though I'm a bit confused about how the 3-band tone stack works on it - the YT video from Jake Serek that Nathan links to makes it seem kind of weird to operate?). But there is also the Slampegg Bee Pre and the Elementary? I'm having a hard time finding good quality sound samples to compare the sound of these.
I play CCM at church and also a bit of rock in a local band. I tend to like to old school round tubey bottom end of an Alembic F-2B which kind of points to the UA. And I wouldn't mind if the pedal could do just a tiny bit of "edge of breakup" OD. I don't normally go all in on crazy drive for any of the projects that I play in. I have a Darkglass VMT as well I could use to ad a bit more gain on demand? I'm just looking for that sweet basic tone with just a bit of tube warmth and roundness.
Sorry for rambling - I'm just trying to point you guys in the right direction for giving me advice. What would you guys recommend me getting from Nathan? And do you have any usable sound clips to compare the sound of the different preamps?
I realize that this type of question has probably been asked many times before - and I'm sorry about that. But this thread has just become so long and filled with different versions of pedals with different names - so I have kind of given up on finding the answer myself.
Thanks again guys - and hope that some of you will chime in with advice!
Keep the groove going!
/Kristian

The description of the tone you're looking for is pretty much what I was after, I went for a UA and have been really pleased with the results, that being said, I've also been really pleased with the results from the other Sushi Box pedals I have as well, I don't think you could really go wrong with any of the main preamp types on offer.

 

[Rev_Slinky]

Hi guys
Thx for a super useful forum with lots of good advice. I'm a bass player that is looking to buy my first Sushiboxfx pedal. I need a preamp for my small bass board. I have a pretty good Radial JDI so the pedal does not need to have a DI. I have heard loads of good things about the Underground Accelerator (though I'm a bit confused about how the 3-band tone stack works on it - the YT video from Jake Serek that Nathan links to makes it seem kind of weird to operate?). But there is also the Slampegg Bee Pre and the Elementary? I'm having a hard time finding good quality sound samples to compare the sound of these.
I play CCM at church and also a bit of rock in a local band. I tend to like to old school round tubey bottom end of an Alembic F-2B which kind of points to the UA. And I wouldn't mind if the pedal could do just a tiny bit of "edge of breakup" OD. I don't normally go all in on crazy drive for any of the projects that I play in. I have a Darkglass VMT as well I could use to ad a bit more gain on demand? I'm just looking for that sweet basic tone with just a bit of tube warmth and roundness.
Sorry for rambling - I'm just trying to point you guys in the right direction for giving me advice. What would you guys recommend me getting from Nathan? And do you have any usable sound clips to compare the sound of the different preamps?
I realize that this type of question has probably been asked many times before - and I'm sorry about that. But this thread has just become so long and filled with different versions of pedals with different names - so I have kind of given up on finding the answer myself.
Thanks again guys - and hope that some of you will chime in with advice!
Keep the groove going!
/Kristian

I agree with the general consensus so far; the UA is a great place to start. What I particularly like about it is that you use choose to bypass the EQ, if you ever decide you just want some simple tube goodness. It's very flexible and offers a wide range of sonic options. It's definitely the pedal I use the most often.

 

[bassbrad]

Hi guys
Thx for a super useful forum with lots of good advice. I'm a bass player that is looking to buy my first Sushiboxfx pedal. I need a preamp for my small bass board. I have a pretty good Radial JDI so the pedal does not need to have a DI. I have heard loads of good things about the Underground Accelerator (though I'm a bit confused about how the 3-band tone stack works on it - the YT video from Jake Serek that Nathan links to makes it seem kind of weird to operate?). But there is also the Slampegg Bee Pre and the Elementary? I'm having a hard time finding good quality sound samples to compare the sound of these.
I play CCM at church and also a bit of rock in a local band. I tend to like to old school round tubey bottom end of an Alembic F-2B which kind of points to the UA. And I wouldn't mind if the pedal could do just a tiny bit of "edge of breakup" OD. I don't normally go all in on crazy drive for any of the projects that I play in. I have a Darkglass VMT as well I could use to ad a bit more gain on demand? I'm just looking for that sweet basic tone with just a bit of tube warmth and roundness.
Sorry for rambling - I'm just trying to point you guys in the right direction for giving me advice. What would you guys recommend me getting from Nathan? And do you have any usable sound clips to compare the sound of the different preamps?
I realize that this type of question has probably been asked many times before - and I'm sorry about that. But this thread has just become so long and filled with different versions of pedals with different names - so I have kind of given up on finding the answer myself.
Thanks again guys - and hope that some of you will chime in with advice!
Keep the groove going!
/Kristian

Both the UA and Slampegg pair nicely with a JDI as most do. The Slampegg is a choice for more old school tones but the UA does better covering a wider range of gain and tones.

 

[s_wood]

Hi guys
Thx for a super useful forum with lots of good advice. I'm a bass player that is looking to buy my first Sushiboxfx pedal. I need a preamp for my small bass board. I have a pretty good Radial JDI so the pedal does not need to have a DI. I have heard loads of good things about the Underground Accelerator (though I'm a bit confused about how the 3-band tone stack works on it - the YT video from Jake Serek that Nathan links to makes it seem kind of weird to operate?). But there is also the Slampegg Bee Pre and the Elementary? I'm having a hard time finding good quality sound samples to compare the sound of these.
I play CCM at church and also a bit of rock in a local band. I tend to like to old school round tubey bottom end of an Alembic F-2B which kind of points to the UA. And I wouldn't mind if the pedal could do just a tiny bit of "edge of breakup" OD. I don't normally go all in on crazy drive for any of the projects that I play in. I have a Darkglass VMT as well I could use to ad a bit more gain on demand? I'm just looking for that sweet basic tone with just a bit of tube warmth and roundness.
Sorry for rambling - I'm just trying to point you guys in the right direction for giving me advice. What would you guys recommend me getting from Nathan? And do you have any usable sound clips to compare the sound of the different preamps?
I realize that this type of question has probably been asked many times before - and I'm sorry about that. But this thread has just become so long and filled with different versions of pedals with different names - so I have kind of given up on finding the answer myself.
Thanks again guys - and hope that some of you will chime in with advice!
Keep the groove going!
/Kristian

Kristian, as a fellow lover of Alembic rack preamps (I use an F-1X) I can tell you that the UA (which I also own and love) wil get you very close to that Alembic tone. The tone stack on the UA and Alembic preamps are nearly identical, as both are based on the Fender Showman tone stack. The circuit is very musical, but it’s virtually impossible to boost mids without cutting bass and treble since the mid control is cut only. There are several on- line tone stack calculators based on the original Seymour Duncan tone stack calculator. One of them is linked to several pages up in this thread. You can see a graphic representation of what happens when you adjust the various tone knobs on the Fender circuit using the calculator.

You can read more about how that tone stack works here:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/fender-alembic-bbe-tone-stack-explained.491699/

My experience with the UA and Alembic tone stacks is that they are very musical. It’s easy to get a good tone. Obviously, if you like to boost your mids a lot or favor complicated EQ solutions for your stage sound you would have to get there using an external EQ of some kind.

I love the UA… I also love the Elementary (which is on my board) but it is a more colored tone than the UA. Elementary based on the old HiWatt DR 103. It’s impossible to get that circuit to be flat, and there is an inherent boost in the upper mids which she would either love or hate, depending. You can’t go wrong with either, but if Alembic is your tone concept, the UA is the box for you.

 

[bassbrad]

Handy Dandy page for visualizing different gain and tone structures.

As to the Alembic F2B that is based on the Fender Showman, I have a Sushi Box Underground Accelerator and @johnk10 F2B-FET both excellent but to my ear the UA is superior for bass. For guitar and fretless bass I have a UA with a mid range boosted tube from JJ 12AX7MG.

TSC in the web

 

[Michael Vee]

I am now a member of the Sushi Box FX secret society, the owner of a Finally V2 with the original Unagi graphic, thanks to a super nice guy, @smeet.

I will be trying it out tomorrow and posting my thoughts. In the meantime, I will say - what a nice looking and solid feeling pedal!

I had written Nathan earlier this month to ask if the Finally V2 could be ordered sans the With Bass in Mind graphic which I don't care for, but he said it was not optional. And he'd said here that he wasn't sure when the V2 with the original Unagi graphic would be available next, so when I saw Sumit's listing, I went for it. Which was fortuitous, because it gave Sumit and I a chance to transact and converse.

I've been on Talkbass for over 20 years, and I always find the chances we get to get to know each other a bit better to be the best part of things here.

 

[RobD_BritBass]

Handy Dandy page for visualizing different gain and tone structures.

As to the Alembic F2B that is based on the Fender Showman, I have a Sushi Box Underground Accelerator and @johnk10 F2B-FET both excellent but to my ear the UA is superior for bass. For guitar and fretless bass I have a UA with a mid range boosted tube from JJ 12AX7MG.

TSC in the web

Does the 12AX7MG boost the mids? I thought it was the slightly lower gain more clean/hifi sounding option? Cool if it does bring up the mids a little more though!

 

[Kristian Hansen]

Hi guys
Thx for a super useful forum with lots of good advice. I'm a bass player that is looking to buy my first Sushiboxfx pedal. I need a preamp for my small bass board. I have a pretty good Radial JDI so the pedal does not need to have a DI. I have heard loads of good things about the Underground Accelerator (though I'm a bit confused about how the 3-band tone stack works on it - the YT video from Jake Serek that Nathan links to makes it seem kind of weird to operate?). But there is also the Slampegg Bee Pre and the Elementary? I'm having a hard time finding good quality sound samples to compare the sound of these.
I play CCM at church and also a bit of rock in a local band. I tend to like to old school round tubey bottom end of an Alembic F-2B which kind of points to the UA. And I wouldn't mind if the pedal could do just a tiny bit of "edge of breakup" OD. I don't normally go all in on crazy drive for any of the projects that I play in. I have a Darkglass VMT as well I could use to ad a bit more gain on demand? I'm just looking for that sweet basic tone with just a bit of tube warmth and roundness.
Sorry for rambling - I'm just trying to point you guys in the right direction for giving me advice. What would you guys recommend me getting from Nathan? And do you have any usable sound clips to compare the sound of the different preamps?
I realize that this type of question has probably been asked many times before - and I'm sorry about that. But this thread has just become so long and filled with different versions of pedals with different names - so I have kind of given up on finding the answer myself.
Thanks again guys - and hope that some of you will chime in with advice!
Keep the groove going!
/Kristian

Thank you everyone for chiming in. Very useful advice and definitely just what I was hoping for. A special thx to s_wood for the link to the thread about the Fender-Alembic tonestack. The tonestack calculator in the link is actually really helpful in understanding how the final eq-curve is going to look. Now I just need the actual values of the components in the UA.
Yes - I kind of revealed the end result right there - I bit the bullet and ordered the UA with delivery to Denmark/Europe. So now comes the hard waiting time for the shipment to arrive. I guess it is going to take at least a couple of weeks before my new little tube goodness box will reach the northern shores of our small viking country!
Best regards and thank you all!
/Kristian

 

[Averell]

I guess it is going to take at least a couple of weeks before my new little tube goodness box will reach the northern shores of our small viking country!

It took 4 or 5 weeks to arrive in France, when I choosed USPS delivery. It dropped to one week when I choosed "priority shipping".

 

[wayshot]

Now I just need the actual values of the components in the UA.

It seems like the UA tonestack components are the typical Fender TMB values, based on a Facebook gut shot of a handwired UA and the C2C Particle Accelerator build doc.

 

[lomo]

This is my “mama bear” board. 13.5”. Small enough to sit comfortably on a small head or useable on the floor. A bit more than the essentials. I cannot stress how useful an adjustable hpf can be with my UA (Detective & Dreamcatcher). It’s much more than a device to prevent unnecessary speaker effort. It’s an integral part of the EQ that allows me to heavily push bass frequencies on the pedals to levels that would be silly and non-musical without the filter, and instead get fantastically thick, saturated tones.

 

[JazznFunk]

You can use 12AX7 in place of either tube on More for testing purposes to verify that it will fix the issue, this will not hurt anything. Using 12AX7 in place of the 12AU7 will give a higher output volume, and using 12AX7 in place of the 12AT7 will just give a slightly higher output impedance.

I've had very good experiences with Tube Depot. Unlike some distributors they actually test their tubes before selling them (a novel idea for sure), they have a large selection, and their customer service is great.

Following this up for more insight.

I ordered 2 new, low-noise-and-microphonic tested tubes (Mullard reissues) from Tube Depot and finally got them swapped in this morning. Wore latex gloves to protect the glass and myself during the swap. Powered the pedal up using the same supply, inline with everything else on my board as before. Same problem. Rising or falling 'jet engine' whistle at random points, but especially after activating/deactivating the pedal with the switch. I couldn't see the elements/triodes lighting up on the buffer tube so I wondered if there might be an issue with power to that particular tube socket, or it wasn't seated fully. Nope. I swapped in the old/original tube as well as a variable check and it lit up and functioned fine, so power and connections don't seem to be the issue in terms of the tube/socket. The noise level out of the new tubes is noticeably lower, which is a nice surprise, but the original problem seems to persist. I have NOT had a chance to really let the pedal burn in yet with the new tubes to see what the longer term trend is over an hour or more of power-on status.

Also - curiously - it seems the microphonic 'noise' issue when I tap the chassis remains, even with new tubes. I can clearly hear a 'pop' and dissipating ringing when I activate/deactivate the pedal.

At this point I'm wondering if there's just a quirk with this particular MORE that renders it unusable with my pedalboard and power supply situation, or if there's a larger issue at play.... I'll try using a different power strip to plug all of my OneSpots, etc into later today to see if that is contributing to the issue.

 

[MikoFX]

Following this up for more insight.

I ordered 2 new, low-noise-and-microphonic tested tubes (Mullard reissues) from Tube Depot and finally got them swapped in this morning. Wore latex gloves to protect the glass and myself during the swap. Powered the pedal up using the same supply, inline with everything else on my board as before. Same problem. Rising or falling 'jet engine' whistle at random points, but especially after activating/deactivating the pedal with the switch. I couldn't see the elements/triodes lighting up on the buffer tube so I wondered if there might be an issue with power to that particular tube socket, or it wasn't seated fully. Nope. I swapped in the old/original tube as well as a variable check and it lit up and functioned fine, so power and connections don't seem to be the issue in terms of the tube/socket. The noise level out of the new tubes is noticeably lower, which is a nice surprise, but the original problem seems to persist. I have NOT had a chance to really let the pedal burn in yet with the new tubes to see what the longer term trend is over an hour or more of power-on status.

Also - curiously - it seems the microphonic 'noise' issue when I tap the chassis remains, even with new tubes. I can clearly hear a 'pop' and dissipating ringing when I activate/deactivate the pedal.

At this point I'm wondering if there's just a quirk with this particular MORE that renders it unusable with my pedalboard and power supply situation, or if there's a larger issue at play.... I'll try using a different power strip to plug all of my OneSpots, etc into later today to see if that is contributing to the issue.

I suspect that a capacitor has gone microphonic. Reach out to @Sushi Box FX via DM and Nathan will help get it sorted out.

 

[JazznFunk]

I suspect that a capacitor has gone microphonic. Reach out to @Sushi Box FX via DM and Nathan will help get it sorted out.

Wonderful. That's honestly the first I've ever heard of a capacitor going microphonic. You learn something new every day. I'm already out more than the cost of a brand new one trying to sort this out with the tube replacement, etc., so.... yay! That's the risk you take when buying used I guess.

 

[HueyFreeman]

I cannot stress how useful an adjustable hpf can be with my UA (Detective & Dreamcatcher).

Stand-alone adjustable high pass filters are inexpensive. I imagine it would be rather easy to implement.

 

[lomo]

Stand-alone adjustable high pass filters are inexpensive. I imagine it would be rather easy to implement.

Yes, but I guess every layer of complexity adds cost and takes up precious space. It's easy and relatively inexpensive to use an outboard unit as well

 

[bassbrad]

Does the 12AX7MG boost the mids? I thought it was the slightly lower gain more clean/hifi sounding option? Cool if it does bring up the mids a little more though!

To my ear there is a slight mid range boost but it does not saturate as well as a 12ax7, okay to me as I have loads of choices for dirty deeds.

JJ Electronic - ECC83MG / 12AX7MG

JJ Electronic - Vacuum tubes, Capacitors, Amplifiers

www.jj-electronic.com

 

[GR7G5TER]

Yes, but I guess every layer of complexity adds cost and takes up precious space. It's easy and relatively inexpensive to use an outboard unit as well

Agree, whilst "all in one" can be a space saver, HOF come in really small firm factors and a stand alone gives you placement options.

I have an Spx Thumpinator plus the LPF and HPF on the Stomp.

 

[Michael Vee]

Spent some time this morning with the new-to-me Finally V2. Very good first impressions!

I adjusted the internal 1/4" level trimpot to lower the gain. For gain-staging, I generally try to get all gain and volume knobs on pedals to 12:00 and then I can cut or boost from there if needed. I'm a fan of pedals being the same volume whether the pedal is switched on or off.

My goal on the Finally, since there is no footswitch, was to match the Dry-pass volume to the Pre-out volume. I chose to start with the Gain at 9:00 and the Level at 12:00, as I was hearing a fair amount of distortion with Gain at 12:00.

I switched back and forth between Dry-pass and Pre-out and adjusted the trim pot until the output was the same. Then I can increase the Gain and decrease the Level if I want more harmonics, and with the Gain at 9:00, the output is clean. Or something like that! It's a good starting point. I'm sure I'll be making further adjustments as I become more familiar with the Finally.

There are quite a few flavors of tube sound available with the Finally. I wasn't a fan of cranking the gain way up into distortion, but with the Gain set lower, the pedal is very smooth and rich sounding. There's definitely a lot of difference between Dry-Pass and Pre Out. The HPF is very noticeable. It takes a nice chunk out of the lows with its -6db per octave slope starting at 90 Hz.

I'm not sure yet how I will use it live, but I'll figure it out. It does sound excellent as the last pedal on the board and running the amp input. It's a keeper just for the tube tonal quality in my otherwise all-solid state pedalboard and amps.

I am hearing a bit of scratchiness in the Gain and Level pots, but am hoping that "exercising" them back and forth will clear that up.

The Finally is a neat concept... I'm glad I got it!