The ShadowMusic Web Community

I have today taken delivery of the JHS Colour Box 2 and just had under an hour putting it through it's paces by playing some Shadows favourites and being blown away by what it brings to the table.
Firstly, all those times I thought I almost nailed a sound on the records but not quite - that's now in the past. The EQ on this unit is based on the Abbey Road Neve Mixing Console and it took seconds to hear what I was looking for just by using the High Pass Filter in the correct range, I did it by sweeping it as I played. There's much more than that, but this is where I got it to do what the Gemini III does and deliver that early tone that we all love. I then pushed it a little into 'distress' and immediately recognised the 'Flingle Bunt' sound when I set the tone controls as a Vox AC30 TB, it was that easy.
I'm going to try and get my J200 to record and hopefully deliver something close to the sound that Bruce achieved on Apache, although the guitar delivers it never records that way.
What I am saying here is that Roger Bayliss has uncovered a gem for me here, something that I wouldn't have considered because of it's hefty pice tag, but I can tell you that it works, provided you know what you are doing and you will be very happy with your sound. Thanks Roger for being so inquisitive and unearthing this little gem.

Probably the most expensive pedal I have bought other than multi-effect pedals. It is indeed a pedal format of the famous input to a Neve console as used at Abbey Road in 60s and 70s and also has a transformer on the output.

It is useful for studio work too in shaping tone and can be used on just about any instrument anc vocals. It also does transparenf clean boosting, overdrive and fuzz tones.

The eq circuit is quite smooth and subtle in operation.

Glad you listened to me Dave.

I always check out what others find Roger, it's how I learn more and I'm not afraid to say that I never stop learning. I know that this unit will be considered expensive by many people here and I fully understand that, but I can use this for all manner of things to improve on what I do so it's money well spent.
The icing on the cake was realising that I was able to get the 'Holy Grail' tone so easily, even with a relatively cheap guitar.

It's not the price that puts me off but the fact that I wouldn't know how to use it, or indeed really know what I was looking for unless I stumbled on it by accident... I'm not saying that sound is not important but I feel, by the evidence presented, that most players would be better concentrating on their playing and performance standard... I'd rather listen to a good player using a Les Paul rather than a less than competent performance by someone on a Strat with all the 'right' gear.

Talking about 'sound', it's very subjective- you can sound good one day and with the same settings sound awful the next day... I always personally think that when you've got a new guitar that it takes a few days to 'hear' it- it's why you can't always rely on impressions made in a music shop, especially on a strange amp- It's why I think I've only ever bought about three guitars directly from music shops, the rest always by mail order.

Martin there is no way I would tell someone to go and spend £349 on something for the sake of it, that goes against my principles, but for me this was money well spent and I could hear what I have been looking for instantly, just by twiddiling a few knobs, it was that quick. I spent a lot of time yesterday making adjustments and I came across many of those guitar sounds that I recognised on The Shadows recordings as well as The Beatles and more. I sat playing the record of Atlantis and fiddled around and eventually matched it. I had to step back from it because you can get too absorbed but starting with fresh ears I expect to discover a lot more, especially on other instruments such as a acoustic guitar. When I am 100% certain of where the knobs need to be for specific tunes I intend to photograph the positions and compile a list.

I photographed my settings Dave for the 3 main Vox amp settings Normal Channel, Top boost early and TB later (Burns)

I did not use the HPF on Atlantis , just cut little bass and treble a fair bit but not quite as much as say Wonderful Land and cut mids at about 800 hz due to tone circuit on my Vox amp being newer design without 800hz mid xcoop as discussed before regardijg the Modern Vox tone circuit alteration .