The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

[bassbrad]

Mike Matthews owner of Electro Harmonix says no more Russian vacuum tubes in 2022 - gearnews.com
I'll just leave this here in hopes that it does not impact the JJ tubes @Sushi Box FX prefers as OEM. But certainly price increase will come again.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Mike Matthews owner of Electro Harmonix says no more Russian vacuum tubes in 2022 - gearnews.com
I'll just leave this here in hopes that it does not impact the JJ tubes @Sushi Box FX prefers as OEM. But certainly price increase will come again.

There was a thread about this (still going on I'm sure), JJ prices have gone up ever so slightly, less than $1 a piece. My wife says I should double my prices, but frankly I would like to keep them right where they are. I've been told "they're worth more" and "you could get away with charging more" but my current pricing reflects what I would personally be willing to pay for a pedal. There are way more expensive pedals out there and people buy them, but I don't. I want to keep my prices where I can comfortably say "yeah, I would totally buy that for that price."

To the point of the letter, with Sovtek, EHX, Tung-Sol, Mullard, Svetlana, and whatever others I'm missing disappearing from the market, I expect JJ to get scarce. I have enough tubes on hand for the April batch and I just placed an order for 100 more which should cover for a couple more months after. Hopefully by that point things will have gotten figured out for the future.

 

[Jamie Hale]

There was a thread about this (still going on I'm sure), JJ prices have gone up ever so slightly, less than $1 a piece. My wife says I should double my prices, but frankly I would like to keep them right where they are. I've been told "they're worth more" and "you could get away with charging more" but my current pricing reflects what I would personally be willing to pay for a pedal. There are way more expensive pedals out there and people buy them, but I don't. I want to keep my prices where I can comfortably say "yeah, I would totally buy that for that price."

To the point of the letter, with Sovtek, EHX, Tung-Sol, Mullard, Svetlana, and whatever others I'm missing disappearing from the market, I expect JJ to get scarce. I have enough tubes on hand for the April batch and I just placed an order for 100 more which should cover for a couple more months after. Hopefully by that point things will have gotten figured out for the future.

I would preorder a pedal if it helped to support wise stockpiling of supplies.

 

[SemiDriven]

Mike Matthews owner of Electro Harmonix says no more Russian vacuum tubes in 2022 - gearnews.com
I'll just leave this here in hopes that it does not impact the JJ tubes @Sushi Box FX prefers as OEM. But certainly price increase will come again.

Sobering....

Covid was bad enough.

But now hikes in Gas, groceries, and now even tubes.

Our world is certainly going through some gyrations.

 

[jcburn]

I was hoping someone else would jump in with their opinion but I can of course give mine. It's an interesting circuit, the first stage has a huge low end, but the second stage filters some of that out, and the tonestack is voiced a little bit brighter than the typical Alembic tonestack I used in Particle Accelerator/Underground Accelerator. It has a little more grit than Particle Accelerator due to the tonestack being at the very end rather than in the middle, so I would describe it as having a tight, focused low-end that's not overly warm but not overly bright. It has a nice punch in the low-mids, and while it doesn't have as much low end on the output as PA/UA it still has a nice fatness to it.

A common option was to get the Particle Accelerator tonestack added into the London Underground (which effectively makes it an Underground Accelerator) so if you could get a pic of the circuit board I could tell you if that has been done. It's a best-of-both-worlds thing in my opinion, keeps the grit of the London Underground with the rumbly low-end of Particle Accelerator.

Obviously I'm completely biased, but that's my view on London Underground.

Certainly appreciate your input man as you designed these pedals and know exactly how they are intended to sound!
And as for low end I will be running this into a fairly clean VT Bass Deluxe so if I need more bass I have it already there. I'm going to run this more as a bit of a character pedal and mild overdrive so if it will achieve this (and sounds like it will) I'm gonna do the purchase.
I believe this will be the straight LA original circuit, but I might post a gut shot when I get it just out of interest.
Thanks for the detailed answer.

 

[Nuage420]

There was a thread about this (still going on I'm sure), JJ prices have gone up ever so slightly, less than $1 a piece. My wife says I should double my prices, but frankly I would like to keep them right where they are. I've been told "they're worth more" and "you could get away with charging more" but my current pricing reflects what I would personally be willing to pay for a pedal. There are way more expensive pedals out there and people buy them, but I don't. I want to keep my prices where I can comfortably say "yeah, I would totally buy that for that price."

To the point of the letter, with Sovtek, EHX, Tung-Sol, Mullard, Svetlana, and whatever others I'm missing disappearing from the market, I expect JJ to get scarce. I have enough tubes on hand for the April batch and I just placed an order for 100 more which should cover for a couple more months after. Hopefully by that point things will have gotten figured out for the future.

And this kind of response is what fosters customer loyalty.

 

[jcburn]

So I've got the London Underground coming in this week. Interested what tones I'll pull out of it.

In the meantime - in the future could you forsee an end of chain pedal that existed that would include the following?....

24 bit 48k cab IR files (user defined)
Adjustable hi and low pass filters (dials)
Tube DI with high end transformer
1\4 out with both defeatable HP\LPF and cab Sims
Kinda a mash up of the Finally, my take on the talk-about Gondwana and a few tweaks of my own thrown in for good measure.
I know that's a bunch of circuits and a lot to throw in one case. Maybe it could be 2 pedals?

At a minimum how hard would it be to shove both an adjustable high and low pass filter (set slope, adjustable frequency) into a Finally? Even if the enclosure needed to be bigger?

Possible?

 

[andare]

I would preorder a pedal if it helped to support wise stockpiling of supplies.

Me too.

 

[Ryan L.]

And this kind of response is what fosters customer loyalty.

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

So I've got the London Underground coming in this week. Interested what tones I'll pull out of it.

In the meantime - in the future could you forsee an end of chain pedal that existed that would include the following?....

24 bit 48k cab IR files (user defined)
Adjustable hi and low pass filters (dials)
Tube DI with high end transformer
1\4 out with both defeatable HP\LPF and cab Sims
Kinda a mash up of the Finally, my take on the talk-about Gondwana and a few tweaks of my own thrown in for good measure.
I know that's a bunch of circuits and a lot to throw in one case. Maybe it could be 2 pedals?

At a minimum how hard would it be to shove both an adjustable high and low pass filter (set slope, adjustable frequency) into a Finally? Even if the enclosure needed to be bigger?

Possible?

So the intention is for the final version of Gondwana to have the Lightning Boy DI transformer for a balanced XLR output in addition to the unbalanced 1/4" output, I want Gondwana to be the all-in-one box. I didn't have specific plans for HPF and LPF, but it's doable.

Gondwana as I envisioned (and still envision) it will be hard, mostly due to the software/firmware part. I was hoping I could re-use the same firmware from the original IR module, but for completely understandable reasons they don't seem to want to share it with me. I'm working on the workaround that should initially give me a single IR that I can load in a very non-user-friendly way so I can produce preamps with a single built-in IR, and I'll work up from there, but moving up to the easily user-loadable bank of IRs is going to be a very big step.

 

[jcburn]

So the intention is for the final version of Gondwana to have the Lightning Boy DI transformer for a balanced XLR output in addition to the unbalanced 1/4" output, I want Gondwana to be the all-in-one box. I didn't have specific plans for HPF and LPF, but it's doable.

Gondwana as I envisioned (and still envision) it will be hard, mostly due to the software/firmware part. I was hoping I could re-use the same firmware from the original IR module, but for completely understandable reasons they don't seem to want to share it with me. I'm working on the workaround that should initially give me a single IR that I can load in a very non-user-friendly way so I can produce preamps with a single built-in IR, and I'll work up from there, but moving up to the easily user-loadable bank of IRs is going to be a very big step.

Really appreciate your response man, and totally understand there are many things to consider when planning and prototyping a product. I totally respect that in reality someone's wish-list can't realistically be implemented when in the scheme of things you need to build something that will have broad appeal.

Gondwana as per your own concept sounds rad.

Maybe somewhere down the track could it be possible to implement a set slope/variable frequency HP/LPF into the Finally? Again regardless you have a fanboy here already but the HP/LP filter built into this would mean I could ditch several pedals and have an all in one, end of pedal chain DI.

Can't wait to check out the London Underground I have coming.

 

[SemiDriven]

I'm getting closer to a great sounding Alembic F2-B / Fender tonestack.

A WestingHouse + UA + PA combo yields layers of warmth, depth, & Dirt.

It's been a good practice day!

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Maybe somewhere down the track could it be possible to implement a set slope/variable frequency HP/LPF into the Finally? Again regardless you have a fanboy here already but the HP/LP filter built into this would mean I could ditch several pedals and have an all in one, end of pedal chain DI.

I am planning to eventually do a more complicated DI preamp more on the lines of what Nobel does. I have the basics of a schematic drawn, but I kept pushing it back and it hasn't gotten built. The goal with Finally was to make a no-frills, great-sounding, easy to use, affordable tube DI. It was never meant to be the be-all end-all greatest DI in the history of the world. The new currently unnamed (working title is "Fancy DI") DI will have a lot more options. I'm thinking at minimum more gainstages with a buffered output, tonestack of some sort (leaning Baxandall, haven't committed 100%), and HPF/LPF in there. I mean at that point I just need to add IR and I have everything a bassist would need Gondwana to be.

I'm trying to get to bed early tonight as daylight savings time always kicks me in the face, but maybe tomorrow I can explain in more detail what's going on with IR loading for those that get as bored as me and like to read things.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

I'm getting closer to a great sounding Alembic F2-B / Fender tonestack.

A WestingHouse + UA + PA combo yields layers of warmth, depth, & Dirt.

It's been a good practice day!

View attachment 4620379

One of my favorite things in the world is seeing my pedals used together with quality pedals from prominent builders. I can see your Sushi Boxes are in good company Thanks for sharing!

 

[jcburn]

I am planning to eventually do a more complicated DI preamp more on the lines of what Nobel does. I have the basics of a schematic drawn, but I kept pushing it back and it hasn't gotten built. The goal with Finally was to make a no-frills, great-sounding, easy to use, affordable tube DI. It was never meant to be the be-all end-all greatest DI in the history of the world. The new currently unnamed (working title is "Fancy DI") DI will have a lot more options. I'm thinking at minimum more gainstages with a buffered output, tonestack of some sort (leaning Baxandall, haven't committed 100%), and HPF/LPF in there. I mean at that point I just need to add IR and I have everything a bassist would need Gondwana to be.

I'm trying to get to bed early tonight as daylight savings time always kicks me in the face, but maybe tomorrow I can explain in more detail what's going on with IR loading for those that get as bored as me and like to read things.

Sounds rad man - sleep well!!

 

[andare]

I am planning to eventually do a more complicated DI preamp more on the lines of what Nobel does. I have the basics of a schematic drawn, but I kept pushing it back and it hasn't gotten built. The goal with Finally was to make a no-frills, great-sounding, easy to use, affordable tube DI. It was never meant to be the be-all end-all greatest DI in the history of the world. The new currently unnamed (working title is "Fancy DI") DI will have a lot more options. I'm thinking at minimum more gainstages with a buffered output, tonestack of some sort (leaning Baxandall, haven't committed 100%), and HPF/LPF in there. I mean at that point I just need to add IR and I have everything a bassist would need Gondwana to be.

I'm trying to get to bed early tonight as daylight savings time always kicks me in the face, but maybe tomorrow I can explain in more detail what's going on with IR loading for those that get as bored as me and like to read things.

Since I missed my window for ordering this time around I started think of options.
Does the Finally have the same grit as the Space Heater or is it just a clean signal with tube warmth? Ideally I'd use it early in the chain, before any effects like compression, phaser or octave

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

Since I missed my window for ordering this time around I started think of options.
Does the Finally have the same grit as the Space Heater or is it just a clean signal with tube warmth? Ideally I'd use it early in the chain, before any effects like compression, phaser or octave

I don’t have a Space Heater, but I do have a finally.

The finally has more dirt on tap than my UA. It can do clean, dirty, or anywhere in between.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Since I missed my window for ordering this time around I started think of options.
Does the Finally have the same grit as the Space Heater or is it just a clean signal with tube warmth? Ideally I'd use it early in the chain, before any effects like compression, phaser or octave

Yup, Finally is Space Heater with a DI. Exact same circuit.

 

[andare]

Yup, Finally is Space Heater with a DI. Exact same circuit.

Thanks for being so responsive. I'm not even a customer yet and you've already built a ton of goodwill!

 

[DirtyDuke]

I am planning to eventually do a more complicated DI preamp more on the lines of what Nobel does. I have the basics of a schematic drawn, but I kept pushing it back and it hasn't gotten built. The goal with Finally was to make a no-frills, great-sounding, easy to use, affordable tube DI. It was never meant to be the be-all end-all greatest DI in the history of the world. The new currently unnamed (working title is "Fancy DI") DI will have a lot more options. I'm thinking at minimum more gainstages with a buffered output, tonestack of some sort (leaning Baxandall, haven't committed 100%), and HPF/LPF in there. I mean at that point I just need to add IR and I have everything a bassist would need Gondwana to be.

I'm trying to get to bed early tonight as daylight savings time always kicks me in the face, but maybe tomorrow I can explain in more detail what's going on with IR loading for those that get as bored as me and like to read things.

Just curious what type of HPF LPF are you thinking of using?