It's probably been said already, but was Black Eye officially discontinued? or is it in the same almost-discontinued holding pattern as JC Emerald? I don't see it on the site, and I'm not skilled enough to do the DIY.
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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society
- Thread starter kranahan
- Start date
It's probably been said already, but was Black Eye officially discontinued? or is it in the same almost-discontinued holding pattern as JC Emerald? I don't see it on the site, and I'm not skilled enough to do the DIY.
Black Eye was officially discontinued (you can still see it in the Archives section of the site) for the reasons described above, multiple months went by with no orders for it so I pulled it. Black Eye is bar-none my favorite pedal in the world for guitar which is why I kept it around so long, but it's admittedly less useful for bass, and I don't have anywhere near the visibility in the guitar market as I do in the bass market.
Which I think is the only reason you don't get more orders for the JC Emerald...
But the guitar market is super-saturated anyways!
Besides, bass players tend to have better taste in tone, which I think comes from more of them listening with their ears rather than their eyes...
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Could you combine a Emerald and Black Eye?
Kinda Smoke Signal style, for a dual channel fire breathing guitar beast?
That would be pretty freaking great. I would have to think about it though, both of them are dual tube, and both of them use all the stages of both tubes. So I would either have to put 4 tubes in it or get really creative with switching.
In case anyone was wondering what I'm going to be doing with the extra free time I have when I stop offering colored powdercoats, I auditioned for a band tonight. I've been in the area now for almost two years and I don't really have any friends, and my recent experience at NAMM reminded me that music people are my people, so I decided the best way to find people to hang out with would be to join a band.
The style is something I haven't played in years (prog/metalcore) so I was a little rusty, but I think it went really well and they told me they thought it went well. One guy couldn't make it and another had to leave early so they're going to wait until the full band is together to take a vote on whether they want to officially invite me to join. I don't expect there to be money, but the music is good and the guys are talented and cool to hang out with, so 2/3 is good enough for me.
The style is something I haven't played in years (prog/metalcore) so I was a little rusty, but I think it went really well and they told me they thought it went well. One guy couldn't make it and another had to leave early so they're going to wait until the full band is together to take a vote on whether they want to officially invite me to join. I don't expect there to be money, but the music is good and the guys are talented and cool to hang out with, so 2/3 is good enough for me.
If you are not really a pedal person (other than a compressor), but have become interested in SB pedals, which would be the one to buy?
Lately I've been using SWR or GK amps (although my favorite is an SVT that is too heavy).
I use either a Fender or Stingray and a 2x12 GB cabinet and play rock, funk, R&B.
Not interested in distortion but curious if a SB could add some something/something for tonal gains.
A little bit of OD would be OK but have not been satisfied with using a pedal for this previously.
Perhaps a Space Heater or Slampeg?
Is hand wired worth the cost?
TIA
Lately I've been using SWR or GK amps (although my favorite is an SVT that is too heavy).
I use either a Fender or Stingray and a 2x12 GB cabinet and play rock, funk, R&B.
Not interested in distortion but curious if a SB could add some something/something for tonal gains.
A little bit of OD would be OK but have not been satisfied with using a pedal for this previously.
Perhaps a Space Heater or Slampeg?
Is hand wired worth the cost?
TIA
I was in your exact situation, I bought a HWSH and I'm perfectly happy with it. I choose the Space Heater because I don't want to cumulate too many EQ stages (I'm already covered).
I didn't compare the hand wired version with the SMD version, but others seems to hear the difference.
It brings me everything from clean warmth, to light grit, to distortion, but I had to swap the tube because the signal of my active bass (L2000) is very hot, so with the default tube the pedal was going too quickly into distortion.
I had same concerns; as with both of you looking maybe for light distortion sometimes but clean mostly [heavy distortion/OD just for fun at home once in a while
]I just got my HWSH 350v [SMD 250v] it now has a trim pot so you can have more clean headroom on gain before OD.
I would say order an Underground Accelerator when August batch ordering opens. It will have a tone bypass switch, which allows it to be both the Fender-tonestack preamp when on into a SH, or just a simple SpaceHeater when EQ is bypassed.
(Unless I drastically misquoted that @Sushi Box FX, we should add the right words to the site
)
If all you are looking for is to add a little bit of that special tube sauce, a simple space heater would be the way to go in my opinion. The alternative would be a finally, if you really want the DI as well. If you plan on leaving it on all or most of the time and running it in front of an amp that has its own EQ, I don’t see much benefit to having EQ capability within the pedal itself. On the other hand, if you want to use it only occasionally and toggle it on and off, then having its own EQ might be beneficial because it would allow the pedal to sound even more different from your unaffected sound.. To be completely honest, at this point, my unscientific experiment isn’t proving the hand wired and SMD versions of the UA to sound different to my casual ear. From where I'm listening, whether you want to spend a small upcharge for the hand wired version depends On secondary factors like how much/money is floating around in your PayPal account, how much you value the upgraded components and concept of hand wiring itself , and how much future resale matters to you. Regardless, you'll be tonally happy
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I would say Space Heater if all you want is some t00b mojo.
I have no need for more EQ so the recommendations for a SH makes sense.
And I like the tone of the SM400 or GK MBF800 just fine
OTOH, I have spent a fortune trying to get a lightish SVT and have two tube Ameg pre's and power amplifiers.
Also hated the 3 Pro and 7 Pro I had.
I have no reason to think using ANY Ampeg based pre-amp pedal is going to get me that much closer.
Unless, some of you say the Slampeg is MUCH better than other pedals.
The Broughton and Linden pedal were nice but I'm not using them.
And I like the tone of the SM400 or GK MBF800 just fine
OTOH, I have spent a fortune trying to get a lightish SVT and have two tube Ameg pre's and power amplifiers.
Also hated the 3 Pro and 7 Pro I had.
I have no reason to think using ANY Ampeg based pre-amp pedal is going to get me that much closer.
Unless, some of you say the Slampeg is MUCH better than other pedals.
The Broughton and Linden pedal were nice but I'm not using them.
I have an SV-pre and a Linden, I like them both and am keeping them but I prefer my Slampegg (recently upgraded to HW).
P.S. I love my old SM-400 too!
I have the SV-PRE, the Linden, and the Slampegg on 3-different boards.
And I like 'em that way!
Got a Finally on another board and a SH currently awaiting reassignment.
FWIW, I think going with a SH/Finally is a good way for you to go.
Black Eye is amazing on gu-tar. So is JC Emerald. Maybe guitar people just don’t get it.
Guitarists are weirdos, we all know this. Guitarists don't understand things, drummers need to be fired. Laws of nature.
So I had a conversation with my unbiased third-party tester yesterday, I sent him More and Greenhouse to try out and he gave me some opinions:
Seriously though, thoughts on a non-bypassable always-on More?
- Greenhouse - he said he thought the controls setup isn't great, for something as simple as an FX loop it seems like it takes a lot of knob twiddling to get things dialed in. He suggested that I lose a knob somewhere, his recommendation was to hard-set the clean passthrough to unity volume and get rid of the clean level knob and just let the Blend knob take care of it. Currently the Clean level gives you the option of boosting the clean signal above unity, but if it's not necessary I can get rid of it. He didn't need the phase switch on any of the pedals he tried, and switching it when it isn't needed made the pedal "unhappy" and made some noise. He also said there was more noise than he liked, which he said may have been due to wiring in his 100 year-old house, but was something to look at. Overall he liked the tone, but he thought it needed some work. That being said he also admitted he's primarily a guitarist and suggested I have a bassist or two try it out and see how they feel about it.
- More - he said More is absolutely perfect, not to change a thing, and he wants four of them. Some direct quotes: "It's super, cancel all your other preamps." "I tried it before other pedals, after other pedals, between other pedals, I love it. Using it any which way it's awesome." He said it's hands-down his favorite "post-FX tube thing" he's ever tried. The only potential mods he suggested would be to get rid of the footswitch and leave it always on, and to set the minimum gain level at unity, so with the knob fully CCW you have unity signal, and you can boost from there. I'm not sure how I feel about changing the knob like that, but I was thinking of this as the sort of thing you leave always-on, how does everyone feel about getting rid of the footswitch?
Seriously though, thoughts on a non-bypassable always-on More?
