The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

[Real Soon]

I pulled the trigger on a nice JFET microphone last night, a Vanguard Audio Labs V4.

Aside from intending to mic the snot out of every bass cab I can reach with it, I had an idea.

It's the less expensive cousin of their tube-driven V13, and of course that tube is key to its smooth vintage sound. So I'm thinking, what if I re-amped a VOCAL track thru a Particle Accelerator and mixed that with the original?

I've got a vocal track from a client demo session last night, albeit with a Bluebird mic, but it's viable. Stay tuned.

 

[BunchyMutt]

What's the problem? Simply take all the pedals apart, sand off the artwork, re-design the artwork so it fits around the new knobs, reprint the enclosures, put the pedals back together with the new knobs. Easy peasy.

Or just design a whole new pedal and call it 'Big Knob' and use those knobs for it exclusively.

this guy gets it

 

[mikeGJ]

this guy gets it

What's the problem? Simply take all the pedals apart, sand off the artwork, re-design the artwork so it fits around the new knobs, reprint the enclosures, put the pedals back together with the new knobs. Easy peasy.

Or just design a whole new pedal and call it 'Big Knob' and use those knobs for it exclusively.

I think that’s the “Al Bundy” model.

 

[psychovox]

That's a bizarre one, I'm trying to think what that could possibly be. You have two SMPS in there but they're both fixed frequency, if it were from the regulators I wouldn't expect it to change pitch and would also expect it to be something that happens all the time, not coming and going.

Is there anything that seems to trigger it more often? Does it happen right away when you plug it in, or come later after the pedal has been on for a while? Does it ever go away by itself?

Ok. I think my claiming there is a pitch change is a red herring. I went to test and be as specific as I could. It really isn't a pitch change, The hiss just sounds different each time it happens. So, when I turn it on, it is perfectly quiet for 3 minutes or so. Then the hiss starts instantaneously. After another 4 minutes, the hissing starts jumping on and off like random gunshots slowly speeding up until rapid fire. Then it stopped completely for about 4 minutes. I can't seem to get it to make noise by doing anything. after the 4 minutes of silence, the noise is suddenly back. Some of the in and out poppoing occurs after a minute,, but not as pronounced. Then, after 3 minutes of noise it suddenly stops. This time it remained silent for a good 10 minutes. When it came back I touched the power cable and it stopped. I couldn't get it to start again by messing with the cable. It stayed quiet for the next few minutes, but i had to leave. I'll do the test again tomorrow with more time on my hands.

 

[Skip Chucker]

Ok. I think my claiming there is a pitch change is a red herring. I went to test and be as specific as I could. It really isn't a pitch change, The hiss just sounds different each time it happens. So, when I turn it on, it is perfectly quiet for 3 minutes or so. Then the hiss starts instantaneously. After another 4 minutes, the hissing starts jumping on and off like random gunshots slowly speeding up until rapid fire. Then it stopped completely for about 4 minutes. I can't seem to get it to make noise by doing anything. after the 4 minutes of silence, the noise is suddenly back. Some of the in and out poppoing occurs after a minute,, but not as pronounced. Then, after 3 minutes of noise it suddenly stops. This time it remained silent for a good 10 minutes. When it came back I touched the power cable and it stopped. I couldn't get it to start again by messing with the cable. It stayed quiet for the next few minutes, but i had to leave. I'll do the test again tomorrow with more time on my hands.

Dumb question- What else is on the circuit in the house that the pedal is plugged into? What else could be creating EMI?

This sounds really weird, but I have GPS/wifi/cellular collars for my dogs (I take them backcountry hiking with me) and those collars will wreak havoc on my instrument stuff if I forget to turn that stuff off and they're sitting next to me while I'm playing (or, in the case of my hound dog/pit bull mix, singing along).

 

[Skip Chucker]

Hound dog for reference (he's a good pup and never leaves my side).

 

[revd]

Nathan, this month's pedals are from the regular supplier right? I'd happily pay more for that.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Nathan, this month's pedals are from the regular supplier right? I'd happily pay more for that.

You mean the knobs? Yes, they are from the regular supplier. I wasn't planning to switch completely over until I've verified the quality. My supplier for enclosures and switches also carries a small selection of knobs, I'm considering getting some from there to try out. They're almost the same as the ones I currently use, just the knurl on the shaft is a little different and they only come in black and silver.

Ok. I think my claiming there is a pitch change is a red herring. I went to test and be as specific as I could. It really isn't a pitch change, The hiss just sounds different each time it happens. So, when I turn it on, it is perfectly quiet for 3 minutes or so. Then the hiss starts instantaneously. After another 4 minutes, the hissing starts jumping on and off like random gunshots slowly speeding up until rapid fire. Then it stopped completely for about 4 minutes. I can't seem to get it to make noise by doing anything. after the 4 minutes of silence, the noise is suddenly back. Some of the in and out poppoing occurs after a minute,, but not as pronounced. Then, after 3 minutes of noise it suddenly stops. This time it remained silent for a good 10 minutes. When it came back I touched the power cable and it stopped. I couldn't get it to start again by messing with the cable. It stayed quiet for the next few minutes, but i had to leave. I'll do the test again tomorrow with more time on my hands.

Can you remind me when this one was made? If you're not sure exactly the serial number is on the inside of the bottom plate, that would tell me.

EMI is possible, but I'm not sure. My gut tells me bad solder joint honestly, partially because it's happened a couple times and has seemingly random symptoms. Sometimes a solder joint is solid enough to hold for a quick play test before I send it out the door, but after heating up for a few minutes the connection worsens. Another I've seen on a couple is bad soldering on the footswitch board (one batch in particular my dear sweet wife soldered all the switches, and that batch had a few come back with bad switch connections that just needed to be reflowed; she doesn't solder switches anymore).

 

[psychovox]

Dumb question- What else is on the circuit in the house that the pedal is plugged into? What else could be creating EMI?

Not a dumb question at all. I've been considering EMI and RFI. At one point it sounded like it was reacting to a car revving outside. It wasn't. No heater, water heater, dishwasher. lI'll be trying different locations.

 

[Killing Floor]

I have mixed feelings there now. I love new shiny things, which is why I keep making new designs, and I love releasing things as quickly as possible so people can start playing them. BUT we all saw what happened with Westinghouse when I rushed it out the door, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen again.

As I said Wrecking Ball X works perfectly right now, the board layout just needs some cleaning up. I 100% expect it to work, but it has not gone through thorough testing, and even though the new layout shouldn't affect anything, you can never really guarantee that, so I'm still hesitant.

But on the other hand, I also hate saying no to people (you may have noticed). So I'll tell you what, if you're okay with waiting up to an extra week so I can fully vet the design before shipping, I'll let you upgrade to a Wrecking Ball X for May.

I would love to get it out there into the world, I just don't want it to suck

I booked a Wrecking Ball X June. No need to stress and also no need to make it "suck" haha. All good. It's important for me to always have pedals in the mailbox pipeline for the betterment of human kind.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

I booked a Wrecking Ball X June. No need to stress and also no need to make it "suck" haha. All good. It's important for me to always have pedals in the mailbox pipeline for the betterment of human kind.

Thanks man, I saw it come through, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner on your message. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to swap your May build for if you want something else for that.

Quick update on April builds:

I'm getting close to finishing up and have started final assembly. I'm going to see how many I can get completely done tonight, and I expect to start getting shipping notices out tomorrow. There are a couple builds this month that are a little different, I'll post plenty of pictures and details of those when they're finished.

That's all the good news.

The bad news is if you have a Westinghouse in your order it's going to be a few days late. I ran out of tube sockets and my supplier just got some back in stock yesterday so I ordered a bunch, but my 2-day shipping turned into a May 4th delivery date. Since everything else on the Westinghouses is finished I should be able to get them all (10 this month) finished up pretty quickly once the tube sockets show up, so hopefully I can turn them around by May 5th or 6th.

Additional bad news, my current knob supplier is still out of red, blue, and pink knobs. I had been holding out hope that he would get them in stock before the end of the month, but it hasn't happened. So if your build for April has one of those colors, you'll be getting an email from me tonight asking if you want to wait for the knob color you ordered to come back in stock (no idea when that will be) or if you would rather substitute for a color I have on hand and have me ship out on time.

 

[mmbongo]

Thanks man, I saw it come through, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner on your message. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to swap your May build for if you want something else for that.

Quick update on April builds:

I'm getting close to finishing up and have started final assembly. I'm going to see how many I can get completely done tonight, and I expect to start getting shipping notices out tomorrow. There are a couple builds this month that are a little different, I'll post plenty of pictures and details of those when they're finished.

That's all the good news.

The bad news is if you have a Westinghouse in your order it's going to be a few days late. I ran out of tube sockets and my supplier just got some back in stock yesterday so I ordered a bunch, but my 2-day shipping turned into a May 4th delivery date. Since everything else on the Westinghouses is finished I should be able to get them all (10 this month) finished up pretty quickly once the tube sockets show up, so hopefully I can turn them around by May 5th or 6th.

Additional bad news, my current knob supplier is still out of red, blue, and pink knobs. I had been holding out hope that he would get them in stock before the end of the month, but it hasn't happened. So if your build for April has one of those colors, you'll be getting an email from me tonight asking if you want to wait for the knob color you ordered to come back in stock (no idea when that will be) or if you would rather substitute for a color I have on hand and have me ship out on time.

View attachment 4253586

A WHITE London Underground???!?!?!

 

[Sushi Box FX]

A WHITE London Underground???!?!?!

View attachment 4253590

Yessir. Better pics when it's done. I'm very seriously considering discontinuing fractured cherry and offering white as an option instead. The bonus white offers is that I can do full color prints on top of it.

 

[Kelly robinson]

The white LU looks very clean as is for sure but what will the great LU graphic look like over top of the white . Could be a real stunner .... Kelly

 

[Sushi Box FX]

The white LU looks very clean as is for sure but what will the great LU graphic look like over top of the white . Could be a real stunner .... Kelly

I agree, I'd be super interested to see it. I may put one together for May just to see what it looks like

 

[macmanlou]

I agree, I'd be super interested to see it. I may put one together for May just to see what it looks like

Do it to mine (order #10345) if you like.

 

[Lowendtech]

Yessir. Better pics when it's done. I'm very seriously considering discontinuing fractured cherry and offering white as an option instead. The bonus white offers is that I can do full color prints on top of it.

View attachment 4253621

I like it.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Has anyone seen The Pedal Movie yet? I'm watching it right now as I work on April batch assembly.

 

[Killing Floor]

Hound dog for reference (he's a good pup and never leaves my side).

View attachment 4252230

I love the idea of a reference dog. Looks pretty happy.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Quick April batch update: if you have a build with a single tube that isn't a Westinghouse, your pedal is finished and will go through final testing and shipping tomorrow. If you have a build with two tubes or zero tubes, your pedal will go through final assembly tomorrow before final testing and shipping.

So basically if you didn't order a Westinghouse you will get a shipping notification Sunday and your pedal will get dropped off at the post office Monday. If you did order a Westinghouse, you will probably get a shipping notice Tuesday and your pedal will get dropped off at the post office Wednesday.

And of course if you ordered a custom dual PAX to go with your custom Alembic bass, you already picked up your build in person and are hopefully enjoying it in your sweet rig