Spicy Tuna Roll... how pedestrian... I'm holdin' out for Hokkaido Scallop, spicy hand roll...
;-) Yes among other things I am also a sushi snob...
;-) Yes among other things I am also a sushi snob...
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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society
- Thread starter kranahan
- Start date
I'm convinced that the Peavey Decade comment in that interview was some kind of inside joke. Funny how those not so great sounding amps started selling for $400+ on eBay and Reverb.
You'll be pretty disappointed
My wife and I were actually talking about Sushi Box history today. I mentioned that 23 February slots have already been sold, and she reminded me of when I used to beg people to buy my pedals and sold one or two a month, so we reminisced about the origins of "the company".
So buckle in everyone, I'm waiting for the CNC machine to finish so I don't have anything to do for a few minutes, so you are getting THE FULL, UNABRIDGED HISTORY OF SUSHI BOX FX. I'll put a tl;dr at the end for those that don't feel like reading an essay.
So in 2013 I started university where I was studying electrical engineering. My pedalboard at the time consisted of a Vox Tonelab SE, a digital monstrosity with a tube running about 24V more or less just for show. One of my good friends, a guitarist that I had known for a couple years and who has always had an incredible ear for tone, recommended that I throw it away and get into analog stompboxes. I said okay sure, eventually, and locked that away in the back of my mind.
Well in my very first circuit class, my professor gave us an open-ended final project: build something. Whatever you want. It doesn't have to be fancy or complex, but build something that you can explain and that you think is neat. And I thought "Oh, I should build a pedal." But what's cooler than a pedal? A freaking TUBE pedal. So I did some digging around online and came across the Matsumin Valvecaster, a famous 12AU7 overdrive that runs starved-plate at 9V but that actually sounds pretty darn good. I bought a bunch of components on eBay (because I didn't know where else to go) and went to it. I would solder all day after school in the lab, then go home and solder at the desk in our two-bedroom apartment. Why did I solder so much on a simple project? Because I couldn't get it to work. It took a full 20 tries of assembling and reassembling before I got it going, and I was thrilled to bring my Les Paul and a little amp into class to demonstrate my success.
After the success of my first pedal, I posted pictures and video of it on facebook, as any normal person would do. One of my friends I had all but lost touch with sent me a message saying he loved the tone and offered me $100 for it. I was broke at the time and said HELL YES, then proceeded to build another two more, which he also bought. I figured if I was going to keep doing this, I needed a name. My initials are NS, so I threw an X on the end and started NSX Engineering. I made cheap clones of every pedal out there, starting on stripboard (veroboard) and eventually working up to etching my own circuit boards with acid. My wife and I reminisced about how I would etch circuit boards in the bathtub then go out on our balcony and spraypaint the enclosures, then apply waterslide decals over the top for coolness.
After a while the friend that told me to get into pedals in the first place told me that NSX Engineering was a stupid name, I needed something catchier, easy to remember. He had a great creative mind and came up with the name for several of my bands over the years as well as my first dozen or so pedals, so I asked him what he thought I should call the company. The first thing he came up with was SUSHI BOX, and he promptly drew up the 8-bit pixelated logo for me.
I went with Sushi Box for a while, I was getting bigger to the point that every band in the local music scene had at least one Sushi Box pedal on a board. I was starting to get more legit, so I decided it was time to set up a real website, not just a facebook page. I knew I wanted it to have a ".com" extension, but sushibox .com was already taken. So I became Sushi Box FX so I could justify www.sushiboxfx.com
I kept going with Sushi Box FX through school, including doing it as an internship, which is a long story itself (I had to create an imaginary "mentor" for it to count), then graduated and moved to a town with zero music scene. Absolutely none. I kept building, but sales slowed down because I didn't have the word-of-mouth. My job was doing circuit design for Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, which was a HUGE learning experience in circuit design, and the quality of my board designs improved dramatically. I also started playing with tubes again. I hadn't really touched tubes outside the valvecaster, but now that I had the hang of circuit board layout I decided to try the DIY-famous "nixie" power supply for high voltage, and this is when I discovered the 6N16B, 6N17B, and 6N21B miniature tubes, and I fell in love.
I started to get people's attention when I made my first batch of designs: Particle Accelerator, Ambassador, Black Eye, and Wrecking Ball. I sold a handful on facebook, then listed the rest on reverb. And that's when it happened: @DirtyDuke was apparently looking for Alembic-style preamps and came across the PA and decided to give it a shot. He liked what he heard and asked if I would be okay with him writing a review of it on a bassist forum I had never heard of. I said absolutely, and he shared the link with me so I could follow the discussion, and I decided to register so I could answer questions. Well soon a handful of other forum members were interested, and that's when the dark ages of "the waitlist" happened. Particle Accelerator was the only thing I was building, but there was more demand than I had ever had for anything, so I started a waitlist to keep track of who wanted one, and it went okay, I sold a few dozen in a couple months.
Then I moved to Illinois, the current Sushi HQ, and got more serious. What started as the Particle Accelerator thread formed into the Sushi Box FX Secret Society. What used to be just an expensive hobby now became an LLC that pays taxes and everything. Interestingly the amount of time I spend doing it hasn't changed much, even when nobody was buying anything I would still work until 2AM building things. But now I spend a lot more money doing it
Anyway, that's more or less the whole story. You guys rock, I would still be nobody doing next to nothing if it weren't for this forum and the amazing people here that continue to support my pedal-building addiction.
tl;dr Sushi Box was just a random name thought up by a friend because it was catchy and he drew the logo for me
It is. I am also fond of Osaka but not in a hurry to travel back.
@Sushi Box FX - That was a good read!
Last edited:
I am glad I asked. This is a wonderful story, and should be on your website. This history is both more normal, and more odd, than anything I imagined. I am glad I saw a random post on another forum section and was intrigued enough to take a look!
It’s really a love story for the ages.
As in I love pedals.
As in I love pedals.
Do all Sushibox devotees share our odd sense of humor at the start ? Or is it something we get from 12ax radiation ?
PDR, all controls at noon, thresh switch up > SH, controls at 9:00 = clean tone bliss.
You'll be pretty disappointed
My wife and I were actually talking about Sushi Box history today. I mentioned that 23 February slots have already been sold, and she reminded me of when I used to beg people to buy my pedals and sold one or two a month, so we reminisced about the origins of "the company".
So buckle in everyone, I'm waiting for the CNC machine to finish so I don't have anything to do for a few minutes, so you are getting THE FULL, UNABRIDGED HISTORY OF SUSHI BOX FX. I'll put a tl;dr at the end for those that don't feel like reading an essay.
So in 2013 I started university where I was studying electrical engineering. My pedalboard at the time consisted of a Vox Tonelab SE, a digital monstrosity with a tube running about 24V more or less just for show. One of my good friends, a guitarist that I had known for a couple years and who has always had an incredible ear for tone, recommended that I throw it away and get into analog stompboxes. I said okay sure, eventually, and locked that away in the back of my mind.
Well in my very first circuit class, my professor gave us an open-ended final project: build something. Whatever you want. It doesn't have to be fancy or complex, but build something that you can explain and that you think is neat. And I thought "Oh, I should build a pedal." But what's cooler than a pedal? A freaking TUBE pedal. So I did some digging around online and came across the Matsumin Valvecaster, a famous 12AU7 overdrive that runs starved-plate at 9V but that actually sounds pretty darn good. I bought a bunch of components on eBay (because I didn't know where else to go) and went to it. I would solder all day after school in the lab, then go home and solder at the desk in our two-bedroom apartment. Why did I solder so much on a simple project? Because I couldn't get it to work. It took a full 20 tries of assembling and reassembling before I got it going, and I was thrilled to bring my Les Paul and a little amp into class to demonstrate my success.
After the success of my first pedal, I posted pictures and video of it on facebook, as any normal person would do. One of my friends I had all but lost touch with sent me a message saying he loved the tone and offered me $100 for it. I was broke at the time and said HELL YES, then proceeded to build another two more, which he also bought. I figured if I was going to keep doing this, I needed a name. My initials are NS, so I threw an X on the end and started NSX Engineering. I made cheap clones of every pedal out there, starting on stripboard (veroboard) and eventually working up to etching my own circuit boards with acid. My wife and I reminisced about how I would etch circuit boards in the bathtub then go out on our balcony and spraypaint the enclosures, then apply waterslide decals over the top for coolness.
After a while the friend that told me to get into pedals in the first place told me that NSX Engineering was a stupid name, I needed something catchier, easy to remember. He had a great creative mind and came up with the name for several of my bands over the years as well as my first dozen or so pedals, so I asked him what he thought I should call the company. The first thing he came up with was SUSHI BOX, and he promptly drew up the 8-bit pixelated logo for me.
I went with Sushi Box for a while, I was getting bigger to the point that every band in the local music scene had at least one Sushi Box pedal on a board. I was starting to get more legit, so I decided it was time to set up a real website, not just a facebook page. I knew I wanted it to have a ".com" extension, but sushibox .com was already taken. So I became Sushi Box FX so I could justify www.sushiboxfx.com
I kept going with Sushi Box FX through school, including doing it as an internship, which is a long story itself (I had to create an imaginary "mentor" for it to count), then graduated and moved to a town with zero music scene. Absolutely none. I kept building, but sales slowed down because I didn't have the word-of-mouth. My job was doing circuit design for Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, which was a HUGE learning experience in circuit design, and the quality of my board designs improved dramatically. I also started playing with tubes again. I hadn't really touched tubes outside the valvecaster, but now that I had the hang of circuit board layout I decided to try the DIY-famous "nixie" power supply for high voltage, and this is when I discovered the 6N16B, 6N17B, and 6N21B miniature tubes, and I fell in love.
I started to get people's attention when I made my first batch of designs: Particle Accelerator, Ambassador, Black Eye, and Wrecking Ball. I sold a handful on facebook, then listed the rest on reverb. And that's when it happened: @DirtyDuke was apparently looking for Alembic-style preamps and came across the PA and decided to give it a shot. He liked what he heard and asked if I would be okay with him writing a review of it on a bassist forum I had never heard of. I said absolutely, and he shared the link with me so I could follow the discussion, and I decided to register so I could answer questions. Well soon a handful of other forum members were interested, and that's when the dark ages of "the waitlist" happened. Particle Accelerator was the only thing I was building, but there was more demand than I had ever had for anything, so I started a waitlist to keep track of who wanted one, and it went okay, I sold a few dozen in a couple months.
Then I moved to Illinois, the current Sushi HQ, and got more serious. What started as the Particle Accelerator thread formed into the Sushi Box FX Secret Society. What used to be just an expensive hobby now became an LLC that pays taxes and everything. Interestingly the amount of time I spend doing it hasn't changed much, even when nobody was buying anything I would still work until 2AM building things. But now I spend a lot more money doing it
Anyway, that's more or less the whole story. You guys rock, I would still be nobody doing next to nothing if it weren't for this forum and the amazing people here that continue to support my pedal-building addiction.
tl;dr Sushi Box was just a random name thought up by a friend because it was catchy and he drew the logo for me
Cool story bro!
I’ve been knee-deep in these mini-tube creations of yours — the Particle Accelerator, Underground Accelerator, and Slampegg Bee that I recently acquired (thanks @mmbongo & @4Mal for two of those) — as well as the Handwired Space Heater.
I put one of your Sushi Box preamps at the start-of-the-chain followed by a tube compressor and then a clear preamp. For me, this combo really highlights the flavoring of each Sushi pedal. I’m really enjoying these little fellers!
So then I thought why not insert all 3 Sushi boxes in a row? So SPB>UGA>PA>compressor>high fidelity preamp. Turning on each Sushi Box pedal (in the order above and adjusting for unity gain/volume) added a more subdued, deeper, and richer tone. Not sure I’d stack ‘em live, but you never know!
Finally, I added the HWSH at the end-of-the-chain to dial in a bit of dirt (or just amplify the tone). Very nice! The HWSH got a little noisy with this particular setup so I’ve got a buffer arriving that should help to tame that (I’ve also got the HWSH on another solid state board that just rocks it!).
After having been cooped up for a month (hip replacement surgery), it’s great to be feeling “normal” again, playing bass, and getting closer to tone nirvana.
Thanks for the “tube” cuisine!
Say it super fast 10 times forwards then backwards. You’ll understand.
hi there,
i`ve recently bought a SS second hand and absolutely love it! it`s such a creative pedal! it`s really rare that i`m building ideas around sounds - most of the time its the other way around. but with the SS i`m entering new musical territorys everytime i`m turning it on. here is what i came up with yesterday:
nothing edited. just bass -> meatsmoke -> interface. pretty weird for the old punk rocker that i`m usually
i`ve also got a question:
when bypassing the pedal i get a loud pop. it disapears when i`m really fast clicking the switch a couple times, but comes again after playing for a while. is this normal?
i`ve recently bought a SS second hand and absolutely love it! it`s such a creative pedal! it`s really rare that i`m building ideas around sounds - most of the time its the other way around. but with the SS i`m entering new musical territorys everytime i`m turning it on. here is what i came up with yesterday:
nothing edited. just bass -> meatsmoke -> interface. pretty weird for the old punk rocker that i`m usually
i`ve also got a question:
when bypassing the pedal i get a loud pop. it disapears when i`m really fast clicking the switch a couple times, but comes again after playing for a while. is this normal?
Cool story, thanks for sharing! And a hat tip to @DirtyDuke for his instrumental role.You'll be pretty disappointed
My wife and I were actually talking about Sushi Box history today. I mentioned that 23 February slots have already been sold, and she reminded me of when I used to beg people to buy my pedals and sold one or two a month, so we reminisced about the origins of "the company".
So buckle in everyone, I'm waiting for the CNC machine to finish so I don't have anything to do for a few minutes, so you are getting THE FULL, UNABRIDGED HISTORY OF SUSHI BOX FX. I'll put a tl;dr at the end for those that don't feel like reading an essay.
So in 2013 I started university where I was studying electrical engineering. My pedalboard at the time consisted of a Vox Tonelab SE, a digital monstrosity with a tube running about 24V more or less just for show. One of my good friends, a guitarist that I had known for a couple years and who has always had an incredible ear for tone, recommended that I throw it away and get into analog stompboxes. I said okay sure, eventually, and locked that away in the back of my mind.
Well in my very first circuit class, my professor gave us an open-ended final project: build something. Whatever you want. It doesn't have to be fancy or complex, but build something that you can explain and that you think is neat. And I thought "Oh, I should build a pedal." But what's cooler than a pedal? A freaking TUBE pedal. So I did some digging around online and came across the Matsumin Valvecaster, a famous 12AU7 overdrive that runs starved-plate at 9V but that actually sounds pretty darn good. I bought a bunch of components on eBay (because I didn't know where else to go) and went to it. I would solder all day after school in the lab, then go home and solder at the desk in our two-bedroom apartment. Why did I solder so much on a simple project? Because I couldn't get it to work. It took a full 20 tries of assembling and reassembling before I got it going, and I was thrilled to bring my Les Paul and a little amp into class to demonstrate my success.
After the success of my first pedal, I posted pictures and video of it on facebook, as any normal person would do. One of my friends I had all but lost touch with sent me a message saying he loved the tone and offered me $100 for it. I was broke at the time and said HELL YES, then proceeded to build another two more, which he also bought. I figured if I was going to keep doing this, I needed a name. My initials are NS, so I threw an X on the end and started NSX Engineering. I made cheap clones of every pedal out there, starting on stripboard (veroboard) and eventually working up to etching my own circuit boards with acid. My wife and I reminisced about how I would etch circuit boards in the bathtub then go out on our balcony and spraypaint the enclosures, then apply waterslide decals over the top for coolness.
After a while the friend that told me to get into pedals in the first place told me that NSX Engineering was a stupid name, I needed something catchier, easy to remember. He had a great creative mind and came up with the name for several of my bands over the years as well as my first dozen or so pedals, so I asked him what he thought I should call the company. The first thing he came up with was SUSHI BOX, and he promptly drew up the 8-bit pixelated logo for me.
I went with Sushi Box for a while, I was getting bigger to the point that every band in the local music scene had at least one Sushi Box pedal on a board. I was starting to get more legit, so I decided it was time to set up a real website, not just a facebook page. I knew I wanted it to have a ".com" extension, but sushibox .com was already taken. So I became Sushi Box FX so I could justify www.sushiboxfx.com
I kept going with Sushi Box FX through school, including doing it as an internship, which is a long story itself (I had to create an imaginary "mentor" for it to count), then graduated and moved to a town with zero music scene. Absolutely none. I kept building, but sales slowed down because I didn't have the word-of-mouth. My job was doing circuit design for Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, which was a HUGE learning experience in circuit design, and the quality of my board designs improved dramatically. I also started playing with tubes again. I hadn't really touched tubes outside the valvecaster, but now that I had the hang of circuit board layout I decided to try the DIY-famous "nixie" power supply for high voltage, and this is when I discovered the 6N16B, 6N17B, and 6N21B miniature tubes, and I fell in love.
I started to get people's attention when I made my first batch of designs: Particle Accelerator, Ambassador, Black Eye, and Wrecking Ball. I sold a handful on facebook, then listed the rest on reverb. And that's when it happened: @DirtyDuke was apparently looking for Alembic-style preamps and came across the PA and decided to give it a shot. He liked what he heard and asked if I would be okay with him writing a review of it on a bassist forum I had never heard of. I said absolutely, and he shared the link with me so I could follow the discussion, and I decided to register so I could answer questions. Well soon a handful of other forum members were interested, and that's when the dark ages of "the waitlist" happened. Particle Accelerator was the only thing I was building, but there was more demand than I had ever had for anything, so I started a waitlist to keep track of who wanted one, and it went okay, I sold a few dozen in a couple months.
Then I moved to Illinois, the current Sushi HQ, and got more serious. What started as the Particle Accelerator thread formed into the Sushi Box FX Secret Society. What used to be just an expensive hobby now became an LLC that pays taxes and everything. Interestingly the amount of time I spend doing it hasn't changed much, even when nobody was buying anything I would still work until 2AM building things. But now I spend a lot more money doing it
Anyway, that's more or less the whole story. You guys rock, I would still be nobody doing next to nothing if it weren't for this forum and the amazing people here that continue to support my pedal-building addiction.
tl;dr Sushi Box was just a random name thought up by a friend because it was catchy and he drew the logo for me
Not in a spicy I hope ;-) We haven't seen much Toro this winter what we have been getting is fatty Salmon belly. It's like salmon tasting butter. 1, 2 pieces as sashimi is enough. Too much fat and everything else tastes like salmon fat... and lately the Hokkaido scallops have been incredible. This is making me think I need to make a fish run to Portland ...
Little known... there is a natural wasabi grower on the Oregon coast. Fresh wasabi is stupid expensive but it is amazing.
Little known... there is a natural wasabi grower on the Oregon coast. Fresh wasabi is stupid expensive but it is amazing.
