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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society
- Thread starter kranahan
- Start date
I like the EQ in the Ua a lot. If you are new to the RCA/Fender/Alembic tone stack it is based on, you might be approaching it wrong.How do you guys like EQn the UA? I think im noticing my lows are to low like on my bass the bass is ti much for gain to come through as easy. Im using the pedal to get that tube my sound. I have a spec euro dark glass tone cap an im using the bass from the pedal more then the bass guitar but it makes it where the pedal doesn’t shine something about the dark glass judt doesn’t have enough clarity or sparkle to me.
Ive wondered which pedal would match the UA for eqn + more tube sound I have a genzler Magellan 800 head and he just came out with tubed version of it! Wish I woulda waited! But the class D Magellan is amazing sn has a great DI so I just wonder can I get the pedal to gst me there.
Mids are Cut only. Treble and bass are Boost only. Mids on 10. Bass on 0 and treble on 2 is approximate flat. Nathan's take on that setup does have increased bass - which I like.
Start with Mids on 10, AKA All the way up, not 10 on the clock dial. Bring the Treble in and get a nice 'bite' if that is your thing... Now bring the bass up to taste. Dial the Treble down if necessary.
Bass at say 10 O'clock, Treble at 1 O'clock Mids at about 4 O'clock is a nice fat but defined scoop in my rig.
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Here's a more general question about these tube pedals vs some others - I've seen it mentioned here and on some of the pedalboard threads about using a More (or sometimes a UA) early in the chain to get a super low noise floor to make the downstream gain staging really easy and clean.
Almost all of my pedals are running fairly close to unity gain, and I noticed moving my final major signal adjustment to my new Finally V2 (compared to the input gain on my head or the output boost on my Buffer+) produces the least noise.
How does this work, and what is it about these tube pedals that provides that super low noise floor?
Almost all of my pedals are running fairly close to unity gain, and I noticed moving my final major signal adjustment to my new Finally V2 (compared to the input gain on my head or the output boost on my Buffer+) produces the least noise.
How does this work, and what is it about these tube pedals that provides that super low noise floor?
It all comes down to good clean living
It's going to start with the SMPS that generates the high voltage. Some tube purists will turn up their nose at SMPS designs, but I find them to be much quieter than transformer-based high voltage designs. The SMPS in this circuit operates around 46kHz, well above the audio spectrum. Naturally it will have harmonics that are down in the upper audio spectrum, but they will be low amplitude and are easily filtered out.
Transformer-based circuits will operate at 50-60Hz (depending on where you live), which already is solidly in the audio spectrum. These will also have harmonics that are in the audio spectrum and will need to be filtered out. The job of a rectifier is to turn AC into DC, removing the "waves" from your power, but rectifiers aren't perfect which is why we use giant filter capacitors to try to scrub out the remaining AC signal mixed in with the DC that the tubes need. The more filtering you throw in, the cleaner the supply comes out, but obviously there's a trade-off of size. High voltage filtering capacitors are big, and you eventually need to decide how good is good enough so you don't need an infinitely large enclosure.
Power supply aside, More benefits from a hi-fi trick of running multiple gainstages in parallel, which is a neat way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Obviously this is another size trade-off as you need twice as many tubes to do the same amplification job, but More is a simple circuit so two tubes does the trick.
@Sushi Box FX Very very cool, and so the More really is its own special little beast.
If I recall correctly More has a fixed input gain with the knob controlling the output level. Then taking advantage of the extremely clean signal boost (maybe a bit above unity) the rest of the pedals don’t have to run gains as high, keeping them from introducing as much noise. At the end use the Finally to adjust level for the FOH and the power amp. Cool cool cool.
If I recall correctly More has a fixed input gain with the knob controlling the output level. Then taking advantage of the extremely clean signal boost (maybe a bit above unity) the rest of the pedals don’t have to run gains as high, keeping them from introducing as much noise. At the end use the Finally to adjust level for the FOH and the power amp. Cool cool cool.
Would would everyone suggest stacking a UA with? I was thinking eventually another UA? I think I probably tend to do something most might not cause of preamp in my bass. It’s the dark glass toncap. That came stock in the Spector Euro LT. it’s great but diff. I usually have to do a lot of eqn to get the tone I want out of it. But the UA has helped also I think it hits way to low and punchy with the bass knob on my bass “onboard pre”. I turn the bass down on my onboard pre and have Been letting the pedal do most the tone. I jack the treble cause top end is what I feel it lacks tone wise “my bass tone now”. Ive on stage felt like it was to much gain. But my DI “Magellan 800” send a flat signal to FOH a people love the tone. None the less i was to be able to eq more. It seems like the UA is the least colorful on disortion with breakup to get like my class D head to sound more tube.
I want to add another. But I just hope it’s not to much. Cause distortion isnt what I want. Im torn on taking the onboard pre out of my bass w/ something better ot fitting I should say. But I also wonder what would stack well with UA? I like running it at unity gain so when I step off i get a real clean tone for slapping but as a mostly on pedal it adds ALOT to my higher strings in harmonic sound an heft. A since im Leaning so hard on it already im thinking maybe I can live with my onboard for awhile and stack?
What’s y’all think if you’re still with me on my tone snob post. I can’t decide what to do tbh but I’ve been happy at what the UA brought but dialing in so much treble ti a lot of floor nosie.
I want to add another. But I just hope it’s not to much. Cause distortion isnt what I want. Im torn on taking the onboard pre out of my bass w/ something better ot fitting I should say. But I also wonder what would stack well with UA? I like running it at unity gain so when I step off i get a real clean tone for slapping but as a mostly on pedal it adds ALOT to my higher strings in harmonic sound an heft. A since im Leaning so hard on it already im thinking maybe I can live with my onboard for awhile and stack?
What’s y’all think if you’re still with me on my tone snob post. I can’t decide what to do tbh but I’ve been happy at what the UA brought but dialing in so much treble ti a lot of floor nosie.
I'd find it hard to believe that you need more EQ than the on-board and UA provide, if I'm understanding properly? Sounds like you want more mids and highs, and less lows. If that's the case, I might cut some lows on the onboard, but keep mids and highs full. Then use the UA EQ to fine-tune it. I think mids are where it's at and has most affect on tone. Don't be afraid to turn knobs to extremes, I do that to just about everything I buy to understand function/etc.
This is key - once you EQ/cut it out of your signal path, you can not "EQ"/boost it back in, because there's nothing there to boost. On my active, I start "in the middle" ("full" on passive).
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When I'm running into my Magellan 350, I often switch the EQ off on my UA. There's a noticeable volume jump to accommodate for, but then I can just use the Magellan EQ to adjust the final balance. I love that the UA gives you that option.
@PhishPhan22 with my active basses I leave the on board EQ flat for the most part. About the only eq that happens is in the high end. Add bite or take bite away...
I use my picking hand placement and the active blend to add or subtract emphasis from the mids. My philosophy is that there is a very narrow window for bass tone manipultion in a live environment. Song to song, set to set you can't deviate much without impacting the mix in the money seats... so my tone changes are there, defined but subtle.
I use my picking hand placement and the active blend to add or subtract emphasis from the mids. My philosophy is that there is a very narrow window for bass tone manipultion in a live environment. Song to song, set to set you can't deviate much without impacting the mix in the money seats... so my tone changes are there, defined but subtle.
"Production" version of Grand Slampegg sounds freaking incredible.
That's it. That's the post.
That's it. That's the post.
@Sushi Box FX
Just curious as to when GS will be ready to purchase.
Asking for a friend
Just curious as to when GS will be ready to purchase.
Asking for a friend
Late November was the last estimate of the GS release, go back one page and read it on post 22,209.@Sushi Box FX
Just curious as to when GS will be ready to purchase.
Asking for a friend
Before the end of the month is still a very safe estimate, but depending on how much I can clear off the to-do list I may be able to move it up a little.@Sushi Box FX
Just curious as to when GS will be ready to purchase.
Asking for a friend
As of yesterday I have parts on hand to build up a couple dozen units, but aside from my usual to-do list my birthday is coming up this week so it's a lot easier for me to justify procrastination.
Happy early birthday, Nathan!
Beat me by about 2 weeks on the Bday but I beat you by many many years overall.
Have a great Bday, at my age I drag it out to a Bday week. (and another to sober up and recover after)
Well, i ordered new tubes for my glass butterfly..ehx 12au7 and nos ge grey plate 12at7, got 2 12at7s for $20 so i think I'll test the other in my UA and see how that goes.
I also use my UA with the eq off. I try to only eq from one pedal or amp per pedalboard/rig.
I also use my UA with the eq off. I try to only eq from one pedal or amp per pedalboard/rig.
So I bought a non sushi box pedal (I know I know) a drunk beaver FX distortion, basically a really nice multi mode ds1, as much as it's a really nice sounding pedal on it's own, and great fun for those 90s guitar riff sounds, running it into the UA set slightly dirty and a little on the darker side and it sounds amazing.
So much fun and inspiring for some guitar noodling, and with the gain dialed down a bit and on one of the more bass friendly options on the distortion, it's a brilliant combination for bass.
Basically just another example of how versatile the UA is, I knew people had said it's good on guitar, but I hadn't realised quite how good.
So much fun and inspiring for some guitar noodling, and with the gain dialed down a bit and on one of the more bass friendly options on the distortion, it's a brilliant combination for bass.
Basically just another example of how versatile the UA is, I knew people had said it's good on guitar, but I hadn't realised quite how good.
