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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

#14,081
Giff said:
I put an SV-PRE up against my Slampegg, and the Slampegg won! In my setup the Broughton was dark. But when I turned up the treble to compensate, it introduced hiss - whereas the Sushi Box was dead silent and still had more bite! SV had a thickness in the lower-mids that was nice on the D & G strings around the fifth fret, and it does have a very nice overall feel. Having a mid control with selectable frequency is nice, but it lacked the clarity of the Bee. I would still recommend trying one if you have the chance. But it didn’t knock the Bee off my board!
Now I am thinking about getting in on the October run for an Underground Accelerator… for those who have tried both - would you go SMD or hand-wired?
Click to expand...
20220929_081512.jpg

Don't have a Bee, but yer probably gonna wanna keep both...
 
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#14,083
I spent a little time with this tonight before I get it off to my tester. It made me realize that with both gains cranked Elementary can get probably 90% as dirty as Dr. Wattson. It's really close. Dr. Wattson has more overall output and still has a little different feel (compare the two master knobs in the pic, they're set for the same output level) to the point I think the two-channel preamp makes sense, but the more time I spend with Elementary the more Dr. Wattson starts to feel redundant.

IMG20221001005626.jpg
 
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#14,084
Sushi Box FX said:
Yeah I've been quietly walking a handful of people through it privately as well as implementing it on all builds from August onward, but the plan is to get a nice walk-through document put together and put up on the website.

Long story short, the problem is caused by the polarity protection I put on the power input to allow the pedals to accept either polarity, and that needs to be bypassed so the pedals become center negative only.

Long story long, I've used a couple different but similar components in that position based on availability, cost, etc., and even within the same component type there are going to be manufacturing tolerances that affect certain parameters. I haven't been able to find the exact number where the problem occurs, but basically what's happening is the circuit's ground is too far removed from the common power ground level. So you could have multiple sushi pedals with different ideas of what "ground" should be, which basically creates what we call a ground loop. If the diodes in the polarity protection were closely matched then they should still be at the same ground level and it wouldn't cause a problem, but when they're too different we see these problems. Also the ground level through this protection diode is going to differ based on the current pulled by the pedal, which means a pedal pulling more current, like a HW pedal compared to an SMD pedal, is going to be more different and more likely to have this ground loop issue.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this is what's been going on, and there's really no one to blame but me. The good news is that, like I said, it's an easy fix. You literally just disconnect the negative (most likely black) wire on your DC jack from the circuit board and connect it to the input jack sleeve instead. That's it. You move one wire and problem solved. The pedal will no longer work with a center positive power supply, but it still has inline polarity protection on the positive side so it will not be damaged and will still protect the circuit.
Click to expand...

So does that mean this fix had already been implemented on the first batch of More pedals?
 
#14,085
CH Design said:
So does that mean this fix had already been implemented on the first batch of More pedals?
Click to expand...
If I remember right not all of them. I shipped the Mores before anything else in the batch, and I think I was still figuring things out when the first several Mores went out. It's an easy visual check to see if it was done.
 
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#14,087
lomo said:
I have both, and IMHE the HW version is worth the extra rubles, unless said rubles are earmarked for food or shelter, of course.
Click to expand...
Luckily it just so happened that I had the extra dough! Hand wired Underground Accelerator is on order! Thank you for sharing your experience - it helps mitigate the sting of paying extra vs real or perceived benefit. :cool: It’s really quite a bargain honestly to have a hand-wired tube preamp-when you put it in perspective.
 
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#14,088
Giff said:
Luckily it just so happened that I had the extra dough! Hand wired Underground Accelerator is on order! Thank you for sharing your experience - it helps mitigate the sting of paying extra vs real or perceived benefit. :cool: It’s really quite a bargain honestly to have a hand-wired tube preamp-when you put it in perspective.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's well-worth the price of admission.......and there won't be any sting once you hear it sing ;)
 
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#14,089
Giff said:
I put an SV-PRE up against my Slampegg, and the Slampegg won! In my setup the Broughton was dark. But when I turned up the treble to compensate, it introduced hiss - whereas the Sushi Box was dead silent and still had more bite! SV had a thickness in the lower-mids that was nice on the D & G strings around the fifth fret, and it does have a very nice overall feel. Having a mid control with selectable frequency is nice, but it lacked the clarity of the Bee. I would still recommend trying one if you have the chance. But it didn’t knock the Bee off my board!
Now I am thinking about getting in on the October run for an Underground Accelerator… for those who have tried both - would you go SMD or hand-wired?
Click to expand...
I know this is a Sushi thread,

But, I own an SV-Pre as well.
I too found boosting the treble introduced hiss.
I found I got better results (and hiss free) putting the bright switch in the right position, and starting from zero on the control, to dial it in.
 
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#14,090
dedpool1052 said:
I know this is a Sushi thread,

But, I own an SV-Pre as well.
I too found boosting the treble introduced hiss.
I found I got better results (and hiss free) putting the bright switch in the right position, and starting from zero on the control, to dial it in.
Click to expand...

+1
Still playing with eq and gain on it. Didn't like the bright switch at first, but now I've got bright engaged, treble at about 11, bass and mids around 2 at ~800Hz, and low switch off.
The UA is set for a bit of hair when I dig in, and nice fat bottom.
The DW is super clean, big and round. The too end has a very different feel than either of the other two, glassy and present.
Love having three very distinct tones, especially in a cover band setting doing everything from 60s rock grind to current dance pop.
 
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#14,091
DrHooper said:
+1
Still playing with eq and gain on it. Didn't like the bright switch at first, but now I've got bright engaged, treble at about 11, bass and mids around 2 at ~800Hz, and low switch off.
The UA is set for a bit of hair when I dig in, and nice fat bottom.
The DW is super clean, big and round. The too end has a very different feel than either of the other two, glassy and present.
Love having three very distinct tones, especially in a cover band setting doing everything from 60s rock grind to current dance pop.
Click to expand...
I like the variety the SV-Pre and DW afford me.
DW set like you, with the SVP pulling low-gain OD duties.
 
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#14,092
Sushi Box FX said:
took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this is what's been going on, and there's really no one to blame but me. The good news is that, like I said, it's an easy fix. You literally just disconnect the negative (most likely black) wire on your DC jack from the circuit board and connect it to the input jack sleeve instead. That's it. You move one wire and problem solved. The pedal will no longer work with a center positive power supply, but it still has inline polarity protection on the positive side so it will not be damaged and will still protect the circuit.
Click to expand...
I think the polarity protection, is far greater than being able to run it off of either center negative or center positive, as most pedals these days are center negative anyway
 
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#14,095
Mmkay, a couple quick things, because I don't like keeping secrets:
  • SBVT II prototype has been wired up and sounds fabulous. I think the ultra hi and ultra lo switches are completely useless so I'm going to remove them as the EQ is flexible enough (in my opinion) without them. Also the biggest change I made was switching from the teeny tiny SMD inductors in the mids control circuit to much larger and more appropriately spec'd through-hole inductors, and lo and behold the mids selector makes a much more noticeable effect on the tone. So I'm going to get it boxed up as a prototype then find some unexpecting bassist in a back alley somewhere and force them to test it and let me know what they think.
  • HW Elementary prototype is wired up and also sounds great. The enclosure has been printed and powdercoated and is in the oven right now, I'll probably assemble it later tonight then find another bassist to try it out and give me some thoughts before determining if it's ready for the big time.
  • I've started writing up my document on the wire swap for the polarity protection/noise fix and will post it tonight. I'll probably keep it stored on google drive and keep a link to it in the FAQ on the website. As you all know by now I tend to be fairly verbose in my descriptions of things, so I'm trying to keep the word count down and the picture count up as that will be more helpful.
 
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#14,096
Sushi Box FX said:
think the ultra hi and ultra lo switches are completely useful so I'm going to remove them as the EQ is flexible enough (in my opinion) without them.
Click to expand...
Useful or useless?

I think those switches (as implemented) on the SV-Pre are completely useful

Someone equated it to a Pultec EQ.
Simultaneously cutting and boosting EQ at different frequency points
 
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