JHS PedalsJhs Colour Box V2 Preamp

I wasn't prepared for how incredible this is. I was looking for a way to practice and record direct. I had previously bought a Mooer cab/sim pedal (The JCM marshall voiced one), and that was pretty good.I saw this being used on the JHS Pedals channel and just decided to spring for something high end. And this is really a next level bit of engineering.All the knobs are useful and although it's an unconventional setup, it's really easy to get used to. The Mooer pedal took some tweaking just to get a realistic sound, but the Color Box is so much more flexible! Tones can be explored that all sound good, I don't have to work at finding the "sweet spot" and leaving it there.I haven't tried this with bass and vocals yet, but I can't imagine my experience being any less than how great it sounds for guitar. I'm not even using a cab sim. I don't think it's necessary now. I can put pedals in front of it for dirt, compression, whatever and it all works. I'm amazed.

As long as you don't go in expected it to ACTUALLY be a Neve console in some miraculously small box, it's remarkably versatile! Similar in spirit, but definitely a departure with unique high-gain features.Pros:-Powerful-but-simple parametric EQ (minus a Q control I suppose)-XLR in, plus parallel XLR and 1/4 inch out.-Both input and output transformers (I view it as a nice little "mastering" kind of effect)-Step control and hi/lo toggle in addition to two volumes provide as wide a range of gain as you would ever really need.-No-nonsense hi-pass with on-off toggle is very useful for applying this pedal to a variety of instruments/microphones/pickups. I have recorded vocals and instruments through a variety of mics, and performed with it as a DI for acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and electric bass. *Once you learn how to use it* I have found it to be a wonderful catch-all EQ+D.I.Cons:-Significant monetary investment (ultimately worth the feature set, but admittedly steep)-Somewhat noisy 1/4inch output (XLR is remarkably noiseLESS, and I suspect this is a natural factor of the original intension of getting the "drive a console very hard like on x,y,z record!" sound live through your amp on a stage. I typically use this direct through XLR live, however, and have had no noise issues.)-Very bright LED (easy to fix by coloring or taping over) that makes it hard to see the controls in a lot of the lower-light situations of a typical stage.

People I think fail to understand that Jhs makes gear. Not just guitar pedals. This isn’t a fuzz or a distortion or a drive. This is a preamp (in guitarist that’s a “boost”) And This is a GREAT preamp with eq. The eq is musical and sounds good once dialed in on every source I’ve tried it on. It has high enough gain settings to power a dynamic mic and send it in line level without eating up a mic pre. And low enough gain settings to let you run line level signal out of a daw into it to reamp the signal. Either through the colour box alone or the colour box and guitar pedals. I honestly need a midi version that saves presets because of all the ways I use it. The only problem with mine is he’s getting lonely. Might have to order him a friend...

This isn't a guitar pedal for people just starting (get some dedicated dirt or delay pedals) or who can't really distinguish good tone. This pedal is very subtle, almost non-existent sounding, to the untrained ear. But if you care about tone and seek to hear raw emotions in sounds, this pedal is for you. It's honestly incredible. It begs me to throw more at it to see what it can do. Just an incredible boost to any chain. It's an always-on pedal on my board and should be for yours too. The hefty price is worth it. Sorry it cannot be explained in words by anyone giving a review but that's because it is such an unexplainable pedal.

I'm working on a track that will post in a few days...'cogbern' on soundclick. I used the JHS unit on the vocal for 'Teardrops' which is posted now. Mic was an SM58. I don't have Sinatra's voice, but I was very pleased with the sound. If you listen to my track, use good headphones to really hear the subtleties and perhaps compare to any other track-they did not have the JHS. They are .wav files you can stream for free.If you have a budget studio like mine, I think you will be pleased with the 'added spark' to the sound the JHS gives.

It is a pricey pedal but, holy heck. Not only will this give you incredible control on your sound, but you can overdrive and distort it in such a great analogue sounding way. I use it for Bass, Vocals, guitar.... etc. It really lives up to the namesake "Colour box." Worth every penny. An indispensable piece of gear. It's like have a Neve preamp.

This pedal is so great. It’s like the preamp I’ve been waiting for, can do so many sounds and is so versatile.

Ok ok ok this pedal is NOT as good as you expect, it's BETTER THAN YOU EXPECT. It's like dipping your ax in hot butter and then having just a touch of the sweetest and most musical overdrive I've ever heard... and that's the clean setup with the knobs in tame positions... This is OUT OF CONTROL. I've been using a Neve emulator for over a decade from SLATE and this is a DIFFERENT BEAST ENTIRELY. JHS - hats off to you brother!!

Gran pedal. Potente pre amplificador y ecualizador para uso en estudio. Muy recomendable.

I purchased a American made JHS pedal and instead was sent a Chinese made ammoon pedal with a price difference of around £300.All stickers, picks etc that would normally come with a JHS pedal have also been removed, so the box was opened items removed and replaced with a cheap pedal!

Es un producto excelente cuesta bastante pero merece la pena porque se usa para muchas cosas