JHS Pedals - Colour Box V2 Preamp Pedal - 10th Anniversary Edition

JHS Pedals - Colour Box V2 Preamp Pedal - 10th Anniversary Edition

In 2012, I had a crazy idea for a tone shaping device that had never been done before in the world of guitar pedals. I wanted to create an effects pedal that replicated the hard-to-achieve sounds of "direct-in" electric guitar recordings that I loved. Bands like the Beatles, Spoon, Wilco, and Steely Dan had used this technique for years, but it was nearly impossible to recreate live.

I wanted this pedal to transform my guitar rig into the tonal equivalent of a Neve studio console, and that was no small task. After lots of trial and error, experimentation, and re-works, this concept evolved into something far beyond what we had imagined.

In 2014 as we filmed the first demo videos at Abbey Road Studios in London and this idea had evolved into the most unique product we had ever made. The Colour Box was a full-fledged studio-grade preamplifier, EQ, and distortion generator with multi-instrument compatibility. It did what I had always wanted it to do, but it did so much more!

On its release day, I wasn't quite sure how it would be accepted, but I knew that I loved it. As a few months went by, we saw something amazing begin to happen; this pedal was showing up in all types of environments. Producers, engineers, and artists were emailing us, tagging us on socials and showing how they had put the Colour Box to use. Studio vocals, live vocals, kick drums, acoustic guitars, bass, keys, overhead drums, stereo buses, room mics, synths, re-amps, and some incredibly large stage setups had it on almost every instrument! This unit can be heard on dozens of recordings from U2, Wilco, The National, Spoon, Collective Soul, Muse, the War on Drugs, and Phantogram amongst others. As proud of this pedal as we were, we wanted to make it better, so we did.

VERSION 2 EMERGES
The Colour Box V2 has all the same functionality of the V1 with many new and improved additions like expanded EQ controls, a Hi/Lo switch for massive clean headroom, and the ability to pass phantom power to your condenser mics.

The most significant improvements are:

• Addition of an Output transformer
• Safely Passes 48V Phantom Power
• EQ Shift Knobs for precision EQ control
• Hi/Lo Switch for ultra clean headroom
• 100% available clean signal even on acoustic guitar
• Silent switching, aka no "switch-pop"
• Runs on standard 9V DC Neg power

Features:

• Limited-edition pedal that celebrates 10 years of JHS’s Colour Box, sporting a special 10th anniversary finish
• Preamp and EQ pedal for guitar, microphone, or line-level sources
• 100% analog signal path, based on the design of vintage mixing consoles
• Lundahl input and output transformers
• Dual gain stages with over 39dB of gain give you everything from subtle sweetening to full-on distortion
• Re-creates the classic sound of plugging a guitar directly into a mic preamp
• Powerful tone-shaping potential, featuring a 3-band EQ with Shift controls and a wide-ranging variable low-cut filter (160Hz–800Hz)
• Pass 48V phantom power to condenser mics, active ribbon mics, and mic activators

Specifications:

• Type: Guitar/Mic Preamp
• Controls: Pre-Vol (drive), Step, Hi/Lo Switch
• EQ: 3-band EQ, 3-band Shift Controls, Hi Pass
• Inputs: 1 x XLR-1/4" combo (mic/Hi-Z)
• Outputs: 1 x 1/4" TS, 1 x XLR
• Features: -20dB Pad, Passes Phantom Power
• Power Source: 9V DC Negative Center power supply (sold separately)
• Power Usage: 193mA
• Height: 1.85"
• Width: 3.75"
• Depth: 5.7"
• Manufacturer Part Number: Colour Box V2 Anniversary