The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

[Machocula]

That's exactly correct, the XLR out is mic level and the 1/4" out is somewhere between instrument and line level, depending on the input level feeding the box and where you set the output volume. The finally has a pre out switch which allow you to bypass the tube pre and have a dry signal unaffected in the 1/4" output.

I just used my finally for a full month of shows and it worked like a charm. I installed a 12AU7 in mine to get more, clean tube input gain before it saturates into overdrive.
For me, the stock 12AX7's gain was too "hot" and it was either too much or not enough gain, I couldn't find a sweet spot, the AU7 fixed it. When I first used it with the stock 12AX7 the sound guy told me that last thing he wants is hearing a DI box distort.

I'm feeding the output of my pedalboard into a Morley optical volume pedal then into the finally's input and taking the 1/4" out of the finally into my amp. That way I can control my volume and dynamics in the pit and into the house alike, and it allows me to mute myself when changing basses without having to use the tuner as a mute.

After years of recording and live, I decided, long ago, that I knew my sound better than most engineers, so I send them a solid, eq'd, fx'd, and compressed feed and I tell the engineer to get his maximum gain level, set the board EQ flat and I'll take it from there. Once they hear it, they love it, and the fact I'm one less thing they have to worry about during the gig.

I'm totally pleased with my finally and it really enhances my overall tone, it just takes some time set it up.

How hard it is to switch tubes? I actually have an AU7 I was going to put in a guitar amp but never did. I don’t mess around opening electronics too often so am a little hesitant to try. Does it sound a lot different?

 

[Hasty]

Did

How hard it is to switch tubes? I actually have an AU7 I was going to put in a guitar amp but never did. I don’t mess around opening electronics too often so am a little hesitant to try. Does it sound a lot different?

It's not that difficult. Just temper the herculean strength, take your time, and be patient. Sometimes the tubes can be tricky to get out due to space issues... but otherwise it's not that big a deal.

Edit- found the YouTube video:

 

[bassbrad]

FWIW I use a sharpened chop stick to pry up the tube when rolling,
oddly I found this a most appropriate tool with Sushi Box pedals.

Otherwise I am hopeless with chop sticks, no matter how I try and try. When I was in Japan my band mates and Sumo wrestling buddy all made a lot of mileage ridiculing my gaijin lack of skills. I eventually started to carry my own set of cutlery. Hmm I wonder if those records are on Youtube?

 

[Machocula]

Wow, amazing. Can’t believe there’s a video. Thanks guys

 

[S-Bigbottom]

I eventually started to carry my own set of cutlery.

I am the opposite.
Some places do not have sticks, or good ones, so I carry my own travelin' chopsticks.

Guess I am ready to pull a tube in the field also.

 

[Sugarbear08]

I am the opposite.
Some places do not have sticks, or good ones, so I carry my own travelin' chopsticks.

Guess I am ready to pull a tube in the field also.

I pulled a tube in the field one time, but I was pretty drunk.

 

[Mojo34]

I was demonstrating the More to a musician friend who has an amazing ear. When he understood the improvement in the sound, a huge smile came on his face and he agreed, it's just more!! As in "more better"!

 

[Big Strings]

I A-B'd a Barbershop with a recently acquired UA.
My wife walked through the den while I was playing, stopped, looked back at me over
her shoulder, and said, "I really like the second one." The second one being the UA.
My question is: Do I pour gasoline over my basses, amps, and pedals and burn it all to oblivion, or should I see this as one of the ways God loves us?

 

[watt]

bassslinger s,

they're called 'hashi' in japan and what they're kept in is a 'hashibako' - I got a few of them: one for the boat, one for the wack-back-puter-sack, etc.

we keep on keepin on...

on bass, watt

mike watt's hoot page

I am the opposite.
Some places do not have sticks, or good ones, so I carry my own travelin' chopsticks.

Guess I am ready to pull a tube in the field also.

 

[Big Strings]

That the person responsible for me playing bass replied immediately after my post is only more beautiful because it's about chopsticks.

 

[laklandplayer]

How hard it is to switch tubes? I actually have an AU7 I was going to put in a guitar amp but never did. I don’t mess around opening electronics too often so am a little hesitant to try. Does it sound a lot different?

It's easy to change the tubes, here's a video:


The AU7 has the lowest gain factor of the 12A*7 tube family, the AX7 is the highest.
In my application the AU7 gives me more usable clean tube gain and harmonics without distortion.
My playing style and the work that I'm called to do does not require overdrive or distortion.
I'm a fan of even overtone harmonics and the overall resilient warmth that a tube gives my sound.

The higher the gain of the tube you use will give you more overdrive distortion at lower gain settings on the pedal, with the highest overdrive levels when maximizing the pedals' gain.

So the lowest gain is the 12AU7, Medium gain in the 12AT7 and the highest is the 12AX7.

Give it a try, you can always switch it back if you don't like the sound... good luck!

 

[Machocula]

With the video it's not bad to switch out. I tried the AU7 in the Finally and it was pretty much exactly how you guys described. Way more room to increase gain before hitting distortion.

I think I like the gain as high as I can get it before getting noticeable distortion. Right before distorting, I felt like the AU7 was way "cleaner" sounding than the AX7. It seems like the AU7 distorts in the higher frequencies first while the AX7 distorts in the lower frequencies first. So with both tubes at max gain before distorting, the AU7 made my low notes clearer to hear. But the AX7 had more lows across the board and sounded fatter/punchier.

I'm switching back to the AX7 for that reason. I don't have anything else in my chain that affects the sound other than an Empress bass compressor which is pretty clean so the Finally is doing all of my tone coloring. I think if I had another preamp adding color to the signal I'd benefit from the "cleaner" AU7 tone.

 

[Pedalnetics]

I use an AY7 in my Finally, along with the output attenuation trimmer tweaked for a louder output. I usually end up with level @ 80%, gain at 70%, with a nice clean loud output coming from an active bass

 

[laklandplayer]

With the video it's not bad to switch out. I tried the AU7 in the Finally and it was pretty much exactly how you guys described. Way more room to increase gain before hitting distortion.

I think I like the gain as high as I can get it before getting noticeable distortion. Right before distorting, I felt like the AU7 was way "cleaner" sounding than the AX7. It seems like the AU7 distorts in the higher frequencies first while the AX7 distorts in the lower frequencies first. So with both tubes at max gain before distorting, the AU7 made my low notes clearer to hear. But the AX7 had more lows across the board and sounded fatter/punchier.

I'm switching back to the AX7 for that reason. I don't have anything else in my chain that affects the sound other than an Empress bass compressor which is pretty clean so the Finally is doing all of my tone coloring. I think if I had another preamp adding color to the signal I'd benefit from the "cleaner" AU7 tone.

That’s totally cool, I’ve found that the brand of tube makes a difference. I was using JJ’s but I find the new Mullard tubes sound a whole lot better. Everyone has different taste in what they want, there is no right tube, it’s all about what works best for you. You need to make sure that any tube you use has balanced triodes and are low in noise and microphonics. You need to find a reliable supplier that tests and grades the tubes they sell to make sure that you have a good tube and a reliable point of reference.

 

[astoryarc]

That’s totally cool, I’ve found that the brand of tube makes a difference. I was using JJ’s but I find the new Mullard tubes sound a whole lot better. Everyone has different taste in what they want, there is no right tube, it’s all about what works best for you. You need to make sure that any tube you use has balanced triodes and are low in noise and microphonics. You need to find a reliable supplier that tests and grades the tubes they sell to make sure that you have a good tube and a reliable point of reference.

SushiFX himself has said you absolutely do not need balanced triodes in these pedals at all.

 

[laklandplayer]

SushiFX himself has said you absolutely do not need balanced triodes in these pedals at all.

I beg to differ. I had a bad one that wasn’t balanced and I switched it out, it made all of the difference in the world.

 

[astoryarc]

I beg to differ. I had a bad one that wasn’t balanced and I switched it out, it made all of the difference in the world.

Sounds to me like you are mistaking a bad tube for the need for balanced triodes. I'll take the word of the designer over you spreading bad advice

 

[Pedalnetics]

SushiFX himself has said you absolutely do not need balanced triodes in these pedals at all.

Got a quote link handy? Can't say I've seen that comment, but it'd save me $4/tube order...

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Got a quote link handy? Can't say I've seen that comment, but it'd save me $4/tube order...

If it's the comment I'm thinking of it was on the PedalPCB forum.

You need to make sure that any tube you use has balanced triodes

By that do you mean that each of the triodes in the tube has the same mu? That would be difficult to find depending on your allowable tolerance, I don't think I've ever personally seen one matched any closer than 2%, but all of the JJ's I've tested were within 7-8%.

From a theoretical perspective, when triodes are in series (i.e. cascaded one after the other) you're getting a combination of all the stages, no one stage is designed to be more prevalent than another. This is the case is the vast majority of my pedals.

The one exception (which I forgot about until I started writing this post) is More, which in fact utilizes parallel triodes. If the two triodes used in parallel are wildly different then the characteristics that the pedal was designed to achieve would change. How closely do they need to be matched? I have no idea. As mentioned JJ tends to be pretty close based off of the sample size of my study (30 or so tubes when I got my new tube tester and wanted to try it out).

I will of course add the caveat that everyone's tastes are different as everyone's ears are different. If you hear something special with balanced triodes, it would be stupid of me to say that you're wrong.

 

[Sushi Box FX]

Also sorry I haven't been around much lately, the central A/C went out in my house a couple days ago and we've been in the middle of a heat wave, so I haven't spent any time at the workbench since monday, been scrambling to try to fix things and make everyone comfortable while I work on it.