The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

[Sushi Box FX]

Seeking opinion from the Sushi lovers here that have experience with the different pedals. I have an UA now and it is a wonderful pre. I like it as always on with just a touch of breakup. I am also in a never ending search for the perfect really dirty high gain drive. UA sounds great this way, but don’t want to switch while playing.
All of this to ask which pedal do you think has the best really dirty drive? UA, JC Emerald, Dr Watson, Elementary, or the dirty channel of Dreamcatcher?
TIA

Sushi Box Pedals Listed by Amount of Gain (descending)

• Black Eye II
• Lab Rat (I think, it's not apples-to-apples because of the op-amp)
• Dreamcatcher (Red Channel)
• JC Emerald
• Dr. Wattson
• Elementary
• Finally
• Underground Accelerator (tied with Finally when EQ is bypassed)
• Slampegg Bee Pre (kind of, it gets a little complicated)
• More

 

[GR7G5TER]

Sushi Box Pedals Listed by Amount of Gain (descending)

• Black Eye II
• Lab Rat (I think, it's not apples-to-apples because of the op-amp)
• Dreamcatcher (Red Channel)
• JC Emerald
• Dr. Wattson
• Elementary
• Finally
• Underground Accelerator (tied with Finally when EQ is bypassed)
• Slampegg Bee Pre (kind of, it gets a little complicated)
• More

That would make a great page on the website once you're through with NAMM and the Venus launch!

 

[Sushi Box FX]

That would make a great page on the website once you're through with NAMM and the Venus launch!

Yeah I'm going to be busy for a little bit here. These showed up a day earlier than expected.

 

[GR7G5TER]

Yeah I'm going to be busy for a little bit here. These showed up a day earlier than expected.

View attachment 5015146

Yeah dude, you've got a lot going right now! I gotta move house before i can think of any new pedals atm (or sell some of the existing ones I have!)

I'm really excited for the Venus, that's gonna be a big launch!

 

[rwkeating]

That would make a great page on the website ...

That and the block diagrams a few posts back.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

That and the block diagrams a few posts back.

Eventually I want to write actual user manuals for all my pedals that will include block diagrams like that, but that unfortunately hasn't happened yet. It's on the (perpetually very long) to-do list.

 

[_Tay_]

Parallel stages at every step and a low-impedance output buffer.

MORE Block Diagram

View attachment 5014782

SPACE HEATER Block Diagram

View attachment 5014783

Both of these are the Sushis i have and i couldn't be happier with them. Bon apetite!

 

[bassbrad]

I've been searching all over for a sound sample of the JC Emerald and just can't find one. Any chance you might be able to snatch a sound sample with a few different settings on it?

My pc recording setup is giving me problems, unwanted crunch on low notes, I am expecting a new interface soon and will post many demos. I won a contest where a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is one of the prizes.

 

[chiphaleonbass]

My pc recording setup is giving me problems, unwanted crunch on low notes, I am expecting a new interface soon and will post many demos. I won a contest where a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is one of the prizes.

I look forward to recording some more demos with the Finally.. and maybe one with both the UA and the Finally going at the same time. I think next for me will be the More to hit the front end of the UA; anyone else run their pedals this way?

 

[Sugarbear08]

I look forward to recording some more demos with the Finally.. and maybe one with both the UA and the Finally going at the same time. I think next for me will be the More to hit the front end of the UA; anyone else run their pedals this way?

I started out with MORE > UA and ended up preferring it the other way around.

 

[chiphaleonbass]

I started out with MORE > UA and ended up preferring it the other way around.

Interesting! Thought getting the UA to break up more would be cool; but more of a good thing could sound... more good! Into a Finally... how many tubes is too many?

 

[kcducttaper]

how many tubes is too many?

I got to wondering that myself, but I think the answer is similar to "How many basses is too many?"

 

[Sushi Box FX]

how many tubes is too many?

I'll let you know if I ever find out.

 

[76jazzbass]

@Sushi Box FX is the Diplomat diy coming back?

 

[Sushi Box FX]

@Sushi Box FX is the Diplomat diy coming back?

Diplomat is a new one that's never existed before. It's replacing Echo Foxtrot as it's (in my opinion) a superior design that also uses EF86.

 

[sloppy_phil]

I look forward to recording some more demos with the Finally.. and maybe one with both the UA and the Finally going at the same time. I think next for me will be the More to hit the front end of the UA; anyone else run their pedals this way?

I think the More is really meant to go at the back end of your chain, and just put a little special tube sauce on whatever is coming its way. For a little bit of a push, I hit the UA with a Wampler Belle, and that works spectacularly well! The Belle excels as a low gain drive, or even clean(ish) boost, so using it to hit a UA that's fully saturated, but not yet broken up, is a thing of absolute glory. I suspect most low gain drives/boosts could do a similar job. TC Spark, or something similar would likely fit the bill great, too.

 

[melloncollie]

I think this has been covered before but I wanted to be clear. The detective has two tubes but both are used for gain (one for one channel, and then both for the higher gain). However the Dr. Wattson has two tubes one has a gain and one as a buffer to add more tubey flavor but not add more gain necessarily. Right?

 

[Parzival]

I think the More is really meant to go at the back end of your chain, and just put a little special tube sauce on whatever is coming its way. For a little bit of a push, I hit the UA with a Wampler Belle, and that works spectacularly well! The Belle excels as a low gain drive, or even clean(ish) boost, so using it to hit a UA that's fully saturated, but not yet broken up, is a thing of absolute glory. I suspect most low gain drives/boosts could do a similar job. TC Spark, or something similar would likely fit the bill great, too.

Just hitting the UA with a little clean boost, like a Spark or similar, is amazing.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

I think this has been covered before but I wanted to be clear. The detective has two tubes but both are used for gain (one for one channel, and then both for the higher gain). However the Dr. Wattson has two tubes one has a gain and one as a buffer to add more tubey flavor but not add more gain necessarily. Right?

Almost.

12A*7 family tubes are dual triodes, which means they have two stages inside of them. That's the first part of the explanation.

The clean (blue) channel of Detective uses two of the available 4 stages (2 stages x 2 tubes = 4 stages). The red channel actually shares the first stage with the blue channel, and uses the additional 2 stages on the end, so it's a total of 3 stages. All of these are set up as gain, none of them are buffer stages.

Dr. Wattson also has 4 stages available, but it only uses 3 of them, again all set up for gain. I actually tried tacking a buffer on the end to make use of the extra stage, and I hated what it did to the sound. It could have just been a poorly designed buffer, but either way I pulled it out, and Dr. Wattson has always only used 3 stages, the 4th stage is completely unused.

And now everyone knows the dirty little secret of wasted tube stages on Dr. Wattson.

 

[melloncollie]

Almost.

12A*7 family tubes are dual triodes, which means they have two stages inside of them. That's the first part of the explanation.

The clean (blue) channel of Detective uses two of the available 4 stages (2 stages x 2 tubes = 4 stages). The red channel actually shares the first stage with the blue channel, and uses the additional 2 stages on the end, so it's a total of 3 stages. All of these are set up as gain, none of them are buffer stages.

Dr. Wattson also has 4 stages available, but it only uses 3 of them, again all set up for gain. I actually tried tacking a buffer on the end to make use of the extra stage, and I hated what it did to the sound. It could have just been a poorly designed buffer, but either way I pulled it out, and Dr. Wattson has always only used 3 stages, the 4th stage is completely unused.

And now everyone knows the dirty little secret of wasted tube stages on Dr. Wattson.

That makes the decision between the two easier then. I don’t feel like I need switchable gain stages so the Wattson is more my speed. And maybe I should get the JC Emerald. Just to give it a go.