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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society
- Thread starter kranahan
- Start date
Question @Sushi Box FX
You've said a tube has two gain stages.
Does the Space Heater use both? Or just one?
And if it uses both, could you employ a switch that goes between one or both?
Like a hi/lol gain switch.
You've said a tube has two gain stages.
Does the Space Heater use both? Or just one?
And if it uses both, could you employ a switch that goes between one or both?
Like a hi/lol gain switch.
A few days ago I said I really dug the Fliptop, and now that the Slampegg arrived and the PA mini had been here for under a week, it was time to do a friendly shootout among the Ampeg style pres + PA mini.
Caveats: I didn't stack any, they were all put up against each other one to one. Five string passive used, neck P pickup soloed, except when trying for mid presence, switched to MM bridge.
Overall, the Fliptop is the one I dug the least compared to the others. It sounded thin and lacked presence and weight, and the cab sim control past noon made the general tone muffled. This is saying a lot because I love(d) this pedal for a long time. In fact, after doing the friendly shootout, I went back to it by itself and thought it sounded fantastic. But compared to the others, it obviously lacked to my ears.
Third place is moot since they're really 2A and 2B. The latter is the SV-PRE and the former is PA mini. Though I went back and forth on this for a long time. In fact, most of the friendly shootout was between these two, because last and first were obvious from the get-go to me. I'll probably flip the order of these tomorrow, it was that close.
The SV-PRE's strengths are how warm and massive the lows are, especially when dialing in clean sounds. Having mids plus frequency dial is huge to push thru mix, and are especially useful with the gain cracked. Minus here is the gain itself. I can't find a spot on that dial that, when combined with other settings, sounds like this (5 min mark.) That's the SVT gain I'm looking for. The SV-PRE gain sounds too mid-forward and throaty to my ears, even when I cut mids.
The PA mini is just incredible. Thanks to @el murdoque for the head's up re 2-10-2 flat EQ settings. I cranked the bass a little higher, brought treble to noon and kept the mids flat. Again, the words three dimensional and weight and warmth come up. That's what I'm hearing and it's so clean and distinct without muffling the low end. (I'm sure the HPF helps too, tho when I played it the first time, I didn't use one.) One minus is that there's an audible hiss when I crank the volume knob. I keep the gain at a setting where I won't need to go higher on volume, otherwise that hiss comes in. It's really ear-opening how much detail you can hear when the bass sounds so sweet and clear and true.
Slampegg is the champ. It's what I wish the Fliptop would be but with the gain that I wish the SV-PRE would have. Has all the positives of the PA mini, but with more gain available, a Bax stack, and the rad as hell Lo switch. I love Bax tonestacks so this was really easy to dial in. I tried to set up the gain as clean as possible but I really dig the breakup. Also, how can the Slampegg sound both like an SVT and a B-style?? @jbybj mentioned that the Slampegg is closer to the SVT to his ears and I totally see that point! It can def get there very easily.
I went from no Sushi Box to a week ago to having two recent arrivals becoming essentials and totally blowing me away. Can't wait to fit them into the big board somehow and to draw up a signal chain that would emphasize how great they are.
Btw, I've read elsewhere on this thread that folks stack the PA into the Slampegg, or Slampegg into the SV-PRE. Haven't tried either but will soon. Curious about how the preamps would interact since their qualities and variety of tones are so different. If anyone has experience with these combos, I'm all ears!
I would definitely try the SV-Pre into either the PA or Slampegg.
My SV-Pre into the DW is pretty awesome.
And I've borrowed a UA, which was the evolution of the PA. And, also pretty awesome (but not as awesome to my ears as the DW.)
My SV-Pre into the DW is pretty awesome.
And I've borrowed a UA, which was the evolution of the PA. And, also pretty awesome (but not as awesome to my ears as the DW.)
- Feb 16, 2008
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- John K Custom Basses
the Space Heater uses both.
Correct, Space Heater uses both. The way it's designed, the Gain control goes between the two stages, and the Master is obviously at the end. It would be possible to make a switch to shut off the second stage, but at that point it just becomes a clean boost as a single stage can't overdrive by itself. Could be neat as an academic exercise, but I'm not sure how practical it would be.
Now a switch to go between running the stages in series vs parallel, that would be interesting to hear. Series obviously gets you a fair bit of drive, but parallel would be a nice fat clean boost.
Note sure if you saw this very helpful link posted earlier by S-Box:
TSC in the web
Note Fender stack flat is actually 0/10/0, but that yields an overall output/gain cut below unity, whereas 2/10/2 yields a slight mid cut but no volume loss.
Yesterday I experimented with both of my UAs and the SH on the same board. Although I do not hear much benefit to getting a single sound by stacking >1 tube pedal (as opposed to having active, 3-band eq in the same chain as one tube pedal), it was definitely cool having multiple tube drive flavours on hand by eq'ing one UA with a low bump (3/10/0), the other with grinder highs and a slight mid cut (2/10/5) and then having the option of using A, B or both in series, with the PA also available as an over the top, "hot boost" option, all at the push of a toe without knob twisting. I had thought I'd sell one of my 4 SB pedals after my Slampeg arrives (since I have 3 boards) , but in the end none of 'em will be going anywhere.
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Will definitely have to try these combos out. Thanks for the tips!
That's a great link, thanks for sending. Yeah 2/10/2 sounds about flat with some makeup volume. Bass boosted with mid cut and treble flat is really incredible.
Just a side note: Since the Fender Tonestack pedals have kind of shelving bass and treble controls, they benefit greatly from playing into a low and high pass filter. You can play around with boosting massively and then cutting off the excess frequencies with the filter.
A series parallel switch might be interested interesting on the MORE.
Is there any one place that describes all the SB pedals, more than it is based upon or sounds like a ?. For instance saying it sounds like a Matchless means nothing to me since I've never seen or played through one. I am looking to dip my toes in the SB waters. My goal? To add a little sparkle to my Markbass rig (although my TC Spark already does a good job).
A lot of the pedals will have bass demos towards the bottom of the page which is probably your best indicator of how they will sound.
I'd say go for the Underground Accelerator. With the new bypass switch you basically have a Space Heater, which is essentially a machine to add tube sparkle and warmth, plus the option of using the tone shaping which makes it the Underground Accelerator. You can create nice, fat warm sounds. Super clean, the saturated brink of breakup or full on dirt. It's all in there and it's easy to dial in.
And isn't the Finally a Space Heater with a DI? Or does the UA do something else they don't? And what about the DW? It seems to get a lot of love here.
I used to play through a Mesa 400 and 2 SWR Goliath 410s, never really cared for it, turns out it was the Goliaths I didn't care for, but by then the 400 was gone. I also have a Markbass Compressore I like but it takes up a lot of space and requires a separate power supply. I would like some tube influence in my tone.
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.
Gotta check these out. Especially if I can run my incoming UA into it.
Sorry for the detail, guys
That would be interesting.
So, another bit of a derail.
Before the Westinghouse was discontinued, there were some talk of a dual pedal of it and the Space Heater.
Now, there's the "More", and I'm curious if it and the SH would sound great paired up.
Looking at the DW and SS, the DW is too small for 3 tubes, but the SS enclosure looks like the right size for it.
Here's a quick run down of the common ones still in production:
- Space Heater - In my opinion, the simplest 12AX7 preamp you can make. It's a single 12AX7, gain and volume controls. With the gain down it's a nice warm, punchy clean, with the gain up it can get into mid-overdrive territory. It has a nice wide frequency response so it's suitable for guitar or bass.
- Finally - Exact same circuit as Space Heater, with a Lightning Boy Audio D.I. transformer and XLR out.
- Underground Accelerator - Exact same circuit as Space Heater, with a Fender tone stack added. Due to tone stack loss it won't get as much drive as Space Heater, but can still get some nice grit.
- Slampegg Bee Pre - Most bassists know what an Ampeg B15 preamp sounds like, but in my words I would put it as growly and punchy. It can get more drive than UA, but the overall output level isn't as hot due to some circuit stuff that's boring to explain. It has a Baxandall tonestack which I've always loved as pretty much any setting is usable. The Ultra-Lo switch kicks in more bass but drops the gain a little, Ultra-Hi is a little more subtle but seems to make the treble control more noticeable.
- Dr. Wattson - A bit more bass-heavy than UA in my experience, but the tone stack is flexible enough that you can dial in a wide range of sounds. It has two tubes, and the extra stage gets it more gain than any of the single tube pedals, so it can drive heavier that SH, Finally, or UA. Also a nice wide frequency response that sounds excellent for guitar or bass.
- JC Emerald - Similar gain level to Dr. Wattson but considerably brighter-voiced. In my opinion it's much more suited to guitar, but I've heard people on here say they enjoy it for bass in conjunction with other pedals as well. I've done a mod once to a JC Emerald to tune it for bass, and I'm considering putting both components in the board and putting in a Bass/Guitar switch to make both available.
- More - definitely the hardest one to describe. It's big, it's warm, it's round, and it just makes everything sounds like More. Currently there aren't any out in the wild as August is the first batch they've been available, but there are 16(!) in this batch so there will be plenty of people to describe them in a few weeks.
- Lab Rat - Most people know what a Rat sounds like, it's a nice chunky distortion, but the tube adds an extra dimension to it that I really enjoy. It takes some of the harshness out while leaving in the aggression, if that makes any sense. I also replaced the filter control with the same Baxandall tone stack used in the Slampegg Bee Pre.
