The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

[Hasty]

Got the HW UA today. Pretty sweet pedal. Been playing around with it to see how it acts and so far I'm impressed. The most interesting thing is the Tonestack Bypass switch. I wasn't expecting that. I also notice that the pedal is significantly louder when the tone stack is bypassed, like almost twice as loud. This thing drives my Straight Ahead power amp very very nicely. In all honesty that amp has never sounded better. Makes me realize everything I've driven it with before seems sort of anemic by comparison, plus the tube gives it just that little something that it was always missing.

Is it essentially a Space Heater with the tone stack is bypassed? Either way I like it. I'm also afraid to put velcro on it because the bottom looks so nice and I don't want to mess up the print.

 

[dedpool1052]

Is it essentially a Space Heater with the tone stack is bypassed?

Yes.

 

[johnk_10]

I haven't put it into the main build doc yet, I'll try to get that done later, but this is the drill template.

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Also available as .dxf if that's easier to work with.

thanks!

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Makes me realize everything I've driven it with before seems sort of anemic by comparison, plus the tube gives it just that little something that it was always missing.

I honestly just can't do solid-state boosts, drives, or preamps anymore. I've spoiled myself for too long, and now my ears won't let me have anything but tubes.

And seriously, UA with the tonestack bypassed is WAY louder. Gives you a real feel for how much signal you lose when a tonestack is in there.

 

[Hasty]

I honestly just can't do solid-state boosts, drives, or preamps anymore. I've spoiled myself for too long, and now my ears won't let me have anything but tubes.

And seriously, UA with the tonestack bypassed is WAY louder. Gives you a real feel for how much signal you lose when a tonestack is in there.

Oh yeah. That UA bypassed is the real deal. It caught me off guard and sounded really good.

Niw this doesn’t mean I’m getting rid of the Grace Felix… but I think I’ll probably combine the two together. Can’t wait to see how the Double Bass sounds through it. I once had an SVT tube head as a back line once and I’m not sure how they set it, but my upright just sounded so good with a lightly toasted crunch that I’ve never been able to fully replicate. I’m thinking this and the Felix will get me closer than I’ve ever been with it. Makes me all tingly thinking about it.

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

Oh yeah. That UA bypassed is the real deal. It caught me off guard and sounded really good.

Niw this doesn’t mean I’m getting rid of the Grace Felix… but I think I’ll probably combine the two together. Can’t wait to see how the Double Bass sounds through it. I once had an SVT tube head as a back line once and I’m not sure how they set it, but my upright just sounded so good with a lightly toasted crunch that I’ve never been able to fully replicate. I’m thinking this and the Felix will get me closer than I’ve ever been with it. Makes me all tingly thinking about it.

I'm doing kind of similar approach with my mesa subway di+ I'm using a Sushi box deep dish tube comp in front and a two notes cab m+ with a JT Amps Alpha tube di at the output stage. Stacking tube preamps and solidstate ones seems to work really well. I just happen to be doing it on the input and output stages lol

 

[el murdoque]

I just learned that I want to try something else in place of my Ictineo.
What I'm looking for in that spot is a pedal that can give my rather scooped mids a solid push.
If I was to employ the arts of Mr. Sushi to address that part, what should I be looking at?

 

[Sushi Box FX]

I just learned that I want to try something else in place of my Ictineo.
What I'm looking for in that spot is a pedal that can give my rather scooped mids a solid push.
If I was to employ the arts of Mr. Sushi to address that part, what should I be looking at?

That's a tough one. Dr. Wattson maybe? The Fender/Marshall/Vox tonestack isn't great for mids pushiness, DW may give you what you're looking for.

 

[el murdoque]

That's a tough one. Dr. Wattson maybe? The Fender/Marshall/Vox tonestack isn't great for mids pushiness, DW may give you what you're looking for.

Oh that name! It keeps popping up! Dr. Wattson here, Dr. Wattson there. Everybody and their Mother seems to have one by now.

Here's my problem, though:

...things aren't exactly spacey on my board.

 

[gonzkal]

And seriously, UA with the tonestack bypassed is WAY louder. Gives you a real feel for how much signal you lose when a tonestack is in there.

Naive electrical engineering question: Is that a general property of tone stacks? That is, does the introduction of a tone stack in an amplifying circuit necessarily decrease the signal/noise ratio?

 

[ahbass2500]

Oh that name! It keeps popping up! Dr. Wattson here, Dr. Wattson there. Everybody and their Mother seems to have one by now.

Here's my problem, though:
View attachment 4772412

...things aren't exactly spacey on my board.

Given the space you have available and the UA and Noble on your board, I don’t know that Sushi has anything in current lineup for you (small pedals with tone controls are UA and Slampegg and you are covered there). For that spot, I would probably point you at the Broughton SV-Pre. Noting that you should listen to demos to see if it is what you are after, since I am guessing at what you want based on what you have and the brief description in your post.

If you are set on Sushi for the spot, finding one of the older mini tube pedals expands your options.

 

[el murdoque]

Given the space you have available and the UA and Noble on your board, I don’t know that Sushi has anything in current lineup for you (small pedals with tone controls are UA and Slampegg and you are covered there). For that spot, I would probably point you at the Broughton SV-Pre. Noting that you should listen to demos to see if it is what you are after, since I am guessing at what you want based on what you have and the brief description in your post.

If you are set on Sushi for the spot, finding one of the older mini tube pedals expands your options.

I feared as much.
I think I should mention at this point that I don't like the Ampeg tonestack.
The only Ampeg product I tried where I liked the tone controls was the PF 20-T.

 

[ahbass2500]

I feared as much.
I think I should mention at this point that I don't like the Ampeg tonestack.
The only Ampeg product I tried where I liked the tone controls was the PF 20-T.

I hear you there. I have Ictineo, Slampegg, Silver Deluxe, and SV-Pre. The SV-pre is the one I use the least for basically the same reason.

Are you just after a mid boost? If you are then maybe keep the Ictineo and swap the Broughton HPF/LPF for a Broughton RFE. You lose the boost control but get more control over the low/high cut and get a parametric mid.

Another alternative… watch Reverb and TB classifieds for one of the mini tube Dr Wattsons. They do not pop up for sale that often, but I have definitely seen a few of them in the last couple years.

 

[el murdoque]

Are you just after a mid boost? If you are then maybe keep the Ictineo and swap the Broughton HPF/LPF for a Broughton RFE. You lose the boost control but get more control over the low/high cut and get a parametric mid.

Another alternative… watch Reverb and TB classifieds for one of the mini tube Dr Wattsons. They do not pop up for sale that often, but I have definitely seen a few of them in the last couple years.

I'm monitoring reverb for Sushi Boxes anyway, so I could keep that in mind.
What I'm looking for is something that fits into the general theme of my board (boutique'ish) and bumps the mids. I don't have a scoop set up, it's just that the treble and bass content gets quite a boost along the way, resulting in a bathtub EQ. This is fine when I play with the reggae band where I have the sonic space all to myself and the bass is turned up way louder than most other instruments.
If I could wish for something, I'd take a pedal that has two knobs, labeled Mids and Gain and that's exactly what they do - effectively making my J style bass sounding like a P bass, helping me get a little more through the denser mixes.

 

[Derek Williams]

Oh that name! It keeps popping up! Dr. Wattson here, Dr. Wattson there. Everybody and their Mother seems to have one by now.

Here's my problem, though:
View attachment 4772412

...things aren't exactly spacey on my board.

Have you tried dropping the bass and treble on the Noble? I believe those are boost only controls, so you are currently adding more midscoop with them turned up to noon. Especially with the UA in there.

 

[el murdoque]

Have you tried dropping the bass and treble on the Noble? I believe those are boost only controls, so you are currently adding more midscoop with them turned up to noon. Especially with the UA in there.

At the moment, my default sound is Bass into Cali76 into Reverb into Broughton Filter into Noble.
The UA is set to the brink of breakup and adds highs - it's not always on.
When my HW UA arrives it will take up the spot on the big board and the UA will move to my small board.
I really love that pedal and what it does. Tone sweetener? Check. Standalone preamp? Check. Dirt pedal? Check.
If you ask me, Mr. Sushi could modify the Smoke Signal even further so that the second stage is another UA on top of the first UA. And add a switch to reverse order, so you can choose between playing the UA, the UA, the UA into the UA or the UA into the UA.

 

[el murdoque]

Mr. Sushi could modify the Smoke Signal even further so that the second stage is another UA on top of the first UA. And add a switch to reverse order, so you can choose between playing the UA, the UA, the UA into the UA or the UA into the UA.

After thinking on this for nearly five seconds, I came to the conclusion that this box would basically only contain two UAs. The result, however, would not be twice as good, but 2² times as good, with all the added possibilities.
I think I'd buy one without thinking.


I might even buy 2.


Or 2².

 

[Nuage420]

I honestly just can't do solid-state boosts, drives, or preamps anymore. I've spoiled myself for too long, and now my ears won't let me have anything but tubes.

And seriously, UA with the tonestack bypassed is WAY louder. Gives you a real feel for how much signal you lose when a tonestack is in there.

Yep. The smoke Signal was my first tube anything. Now I'm on my 5th tube head and recently picked up a darkglass ao900 and only use it for the ultra clean deep modern sub bass tones for jamming neo jazz or techno stuff. The ss drives aren't as fat and heavy down low nor as sparkly up top.

 

[XLunacy]

Oh that name! It keeps popping up! Dr. Wattson here, Dr. Wattson there. Everybody and their Mother seems to have one by now.

Here's my problem, though:
View attachment 4772412

...things aren't exactly spacey on my board.

Since you have both, don't the Noble and UA provide similar tone profiles ? Both seem to implement the Fender tone stack and add tube warmth, with different sets of features though (DI and HPF vs mids and separate gain / volume). Would that be correct ?

 

[el murdoque]

Since you have both, don't the Noble and UA provide similar tone profiles ? Both seem to implement the Fender tone stack and add tube warmth, with different sets of features though (DI and HPF vs mids and separate gain / volume). Would that be correct ?

Not really. The Noble's EQ is described on their website: EQ, shelving: Bass +18dB @ 150Hz corner, Treble +20dB @ 3.5kHz corner, Low cut switch drops 6dB/octave below 90Hz.

The Noble is clean and stays clean - as clean as it gets. Your two controls allow you to dial in fatness (bass) or sweet sweet treble (I'm not a big fan of treble) which is super musical. Both controls are boost only and very easy to set.

The Fender tonestack is a lot more complicated than that. You have shelving bass and treble - which are boost only - and the mids are cut only, but there is a lot of interaction between the knobs going on. The Noble is as intuitive as it gets and you've dialed in "your" sound in 20 seconds or less.
The UA is counterintuitive - you start flat, which is 2-10-2 and work your way from there.