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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

#25,041
smatanovic said:
Can you say more? I'm pretty happy running my LA-2A pedal into a Finally, and I'm wondering what I would gain (other than temporarily satiating the GAS monster).
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Apples and oranges in my opinion. LA-2A, like most optical compressors, is a "compressor-limiter", whereas OTA-based compressors are "compressor-expanders". The overall goal of reducing transients for a consistent level is achieved both ways, but a compressor-expander has a unique way of fattening the sound that is incredibly pleasing, and feeding that fat sound into Finally, especially with the HPF dialed in just right, is an incredibly pleasing sound and incredibly easy to dial in for just about any setting.
 
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#25,043
Sushi Box FX said:
Apples and oranges in my opinion. LA-2A, like most optical compressors, is a "compressor-limiter", whereas OTA-based compressors are "compressor-expanders". The overall goal of reducing transients for a consistent level is achieved both ways, but a compressor-expander has a unique way of fattening the sound that is incredibly pleasing, and feeding that fat sound into Finally, especially with the HPF dialed in just right, is an incredibly pleasing sound and incredibly easy to dial in for just about any setting.
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Ouch, this feels like something I must see for myself. I really like my LA-1A into the GS or the NP, but a little extra phat never hurts. Now please stop making great pedals, you're turning this into a Sushi Box Money Pit LLC.
 
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#25,044
RAININENGLAND said:
I wish I could do both, but I don’t have enough space on my board. Which one would you choose if you had to pick one?
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You don't need the DI or HPF on the Finally, and you don't "need" the eq on the UA, but the UA is cheaper and because of it's EQ, can also serve as a volume and / or low end booster when/if desired. The Elementary mentioned above is another option similar to the UA. (UA has a passive Fender tone stack, Elementary is inspired by Hiwatt). I have both but if you're only opting for one, the UA is prolly preferable because it can be set flat, whereas the Elementary cannot.
 
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#25,045
lomo said:
You don't need the DI or HPF on the Finally, and you don't "need" the eq on the UA, but the UA is cheaper and because of it's EQ, can also serve as a volume and / or low end booster when/if desired. The Elementary mentioned above is another option similar to the UA. (UA has a passive Fender tone stack, Elementary is inspired by Hiwatt). I have both but if you're only opting for one, the UA is prolly preferable because it can be set flat, whereas the Elementary cannot.
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What's the "baked in" characteristic of Elementary? (I've never played a Hiwatt.)
 
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#25,047
rickdog said:
What's the "baked in" characteristic of Elementary? (I've never played a Hiwatt.)
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RAININENGLAND said:
I’m wondering the same thing.
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Nor have I played a Hiwatt back in the day.

A lot of players describe it as clean and punchy. Perhaps it's the "punchy" aspect that lends itself to the "baked in" comment.

TB Thread (late 70's DR-103 perhaps had a bit of drive to it).

The Dr. Wattson I have (listed in classified; affiliated) is based on the early 70's DR-103. It's clean, punchy, and gets LOUD.
 
#25,048
rickdog said:
What's the "baked in" characteristic of Elementary? (I've never played a Hiwatt.)
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RAININENGLAND said:
I’m wondering the same thing.
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A big part of it is the mids scoop. With a Fender/Marshall/Vox tonestack you can dial in a "flat" tone with the mids all the way up and treble and bass all the way down, but no matter what the Hiwatt tonestack will always have a mids scoop. Elementary inherently has a little more gain than Underground Accelerator, but I wouldn't call it high gain. It does have a very pleasing overdrive characteristic though.

When I play an Underground Accelerator I typically enjoy keeping it clean, and the controls end up around Bass 12:00 Mids cranked Treble 12:00 Gain 10:00. It has a really nice fat presence, and this EQ setting keeps the mids flat while boosting the bass and treble a bit for a mild scoop that just feels great.

When I play an Elementary, I end up with all the knobs turned all the way up, and it sounds amazing. It's commanding, it's aggressive, it's punchy, but it never feels like "too much".
 
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#25,049
I think it was Fender who started using a tonestack with a mid scoop simply because the early guitar pickups were very peaky in the mids so they needed a tonestack that flattened the overall tone.
I think we all just got so used to hearing the mid dip that we like it even though the pickups are more flat these days.
I could be wrong but I recall reading it somewhere.
 
#25,050
rickdog said:
What's the "baked in" characteristic of Elementary? (I've never played a Hiwatt.)
Click to expand...
It's very helpful to visit this web tool that allows you to mess with each tone stack and see the freq plot:


IME the Elementary/ HiWatt front end excels at a grindier tone with a lot more high mid content, whereas the UA has the edge at pumping big low end without losing as much mids........but if you are using the pedal in a chain with muscular and precise mid control elsewhere (which I get from my amp head), the UA and Elementary can overlap a lot and either one can "bring it" in pretty much any context. All that said, if I had to have only one, it'd be the UA.
 
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#25,051
Sushi Box FX said:
A big part of it is the mids scoop. With a Fender/Marshall/Vox tonestack you can dial in a "flat" tone with the mids all the way up and treble and bass all the way down, but no matter what the Hiwatt tonestack will always have a mids scoop. Elementary inherently has a little more gain than Underground Accelerator, but I wouldn't call it high gain. It does have a very pleasing overdrive characteristic though.

When I play an Underground Accelerator I typically enjoy keeping it clean, and the controls end up around Bass 12:00 Mids cranked Treble 12:00 Gain 10:00. It has a really nice fat presence, and this EQ setting keeps the mids flat while boosting the bass and treble a bit for a mild scoop that just feels great.

When I play an Elementary, I end up with all the knobs turned all the way up, and it sounds amazing. It's commanding, it's aggressive, it's punchy, but it never feels like "too much".
Click to expand...
Thanks for everyone's great descriptions of Elementary! I've already gone over my gear budget for the month (parts to rescue a 1969 Bassman, plus a driver for a cab I want to build) but I think that will be my next pedal purchase.

I almost always gig with two very different sounding basses (one fretless, one fretted). They both sound good through my UA, but the settings have to be a bit of a compromise (yesterday it was gain about 12:00, just before obvious breakup with the JJ ECC803S currently in there, bass and treble maybe 9:00 -10:00, mids all the way up). Another UA would probably work for me, but having two differently-voiced preamps seems like a better idea. My ears will tell me which one for which bass.

My EQ downstream from the pedals is a Broughton HPF/LPF the amp. Yesterday I was using my trusty old Ampeg SVT-3Pro, running its preamp clean and flat. I was really glad for the HPF after I heard the woofy mumble from the subs during sound check. Uh-oh, did I hear someone whisper "Finally v3"?
 
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#25,055
Sushi Box FX said:
I liked Single Slice from the get-go, but man the very first time I ran Single Slice into Finally, it was eye-opening.
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What about running it into a "More"?

I'm currently running a Laney Black Country Customs "The Custard Factory" compressor > Way Huge Pork & Pickle OD/Fuzz > "More" > Mesa D-800+

Absolutely love my More. Actually that 3 pedal setup works pretty well, but your Single Slice has gotten my attention.
 
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#25,056
BassChap said:
Had anyone experience with ordering a pedal in the US and shipping it to the EU? Any import tax added?
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I believe there usually is.

Clark W said:
What about running it into a "More"?

I'm currently running a Laney Black Country Customs "The Custard Factory" compressor > Way Huge Pork & Pickle OD/Fuzz > "More" > Mesa D-800+

Absolutely love my More. Actually that 3 pedal setup works pretty well, but your Single Slice has gotten my attention.
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Good question, I honestly haven't played with that pairing much. I'll have to give that a shot.
 
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#25,057
BassChap said:
Had anyone experience with ordering a pedal in the US and shipping it to the EU? Any import tax added?
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Done it several times, to France. Yes, taxes are added. For the shipment, everything depends of the company you choose : with USPS, shipment takes a whole month, and I had to go to post office took pay taxes and get the package. With express delivery (I don’t remember right now which company Nathan uses), it takes less than a week, delivery at home and tax payments is done by internet during transit (and in my opinion it deserves the few bucks more).
 
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#25,059
Averell said:
(I don’t remember right now which company Nathan uses)
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I've started using UPS for most "economy" international shipments (besides Canada, where for some reason they decide to charge exorbitant processing fees) and I have always typically used DHL for "express" shipments.

I don't know if UPS is intentionally trying to compete with USPS, but a couple months ago I started to find their prices to be comparable to or lower than USPS for faster speeds, so I also use UPS for almost all domestic shipments now.
 
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