JHS' Josh Scott was so enamored of direct-to-console guitar tones—like those heard on The Beatles and Spoon's Gimme Fiction—that he created the Colour Box, a pedal based off of the preamp circuit found in a vintage Neve desk. A pro-audio 500 Series module, the Colour Box 500, soon followed.
In our video above, Andy Martin's going through some of our very own favorite direct guitar tones with the Colour Box V2, the newly retooled model, once again in pedal form.
In JHS' view, the Colour Box solves a conundrum for live musicians—giving them a way to bring direct-to-console tones to the the stage. However, as you can hear in our demo above, it can prove just as useful to DIY recordists who don't have access to the type of rich console preamps that sound good when cranked. (If you've ever tried to get a good direct tone from your entry-level audio interface, you'll understand the dilemma.)
The new model has even more EQ options than the original, and clean settings that promise crystal-clear sound, gorgeously blown-out, or anything in between.
Watch our video to hear the Colour Box V2 in action, and order yours on Reverb here.
- Amp: Suhr Bella 1x12"
- Guitar: Fender America Ultra Jazzmaster, Redtail '59 Goldtop, G&L Legacy, Reverend Airwave 12
- Pedals: ThorpyFX The Fat General, DryBell Unit67, ProCo Rat 2 Kinnatone Mod, Caroline Somersault
- Recording Gear: Universal Audio Apollo 8 QUAD, OX Amp Top Box, Royer R-121