Elementary vs Particle Accelerator

[bluedmc777]

@vigilante398 @music6000 @MichaelW On guitar, what are the sound differences between these 2? They appear to have the same layout. I assume same layout but with different values but could be wrong. I have the PA and King Nothing…would it be redundant to own all 3? One thing I should mention is I’m a huge Gilmour fan and he of course used the old Hi-watts. Another positive is that this appears to have been built by Nathan, sorry if got your name wrong buddy, himself and uses possible new layout?

Any thoughts before I buy this? It’s a great deal and from a local vendor that I respect. Edit to say I’d be putting this down for layaway until Friday

 

[vigilante398]

@vigilante398 @music6000 @MichaelW On guitar, what are the sound differences between these 2? They appear to have the same layout. I assume same layout but with different values but could be wrong. I have the PA and King Nothing…would it be redundant to own all 3? One thing I should mention is I’m a huge Gilmour fan and he of course used the old Hi-watts. Another positive is that this appears to have been built by Nathan, sorry if got your name wrong buddy, himself and uses possible new layout?

Any thoughts before I buy this? It’s a great deal and from a local vendor that I respect. Edit to say I’d be putting this down for layaway until Friday

Hey there, just saw your email but I can go ahead and reply here. Particle Accelerator and Elementary are completely different layouts, it's a different circuit. They have the same controls and the same size, but they do not sound the same. Gain levels are different, frequency response is different, tonestack is different. It's a different beast.

I can confirm that this is a Sushi Box unit, but no way of knowing when it was built because I don't serialize builds anymore. I do find it unusual that the knobs have been changed, I never use plastic knobs, and the tube is not the original one but nothing inherently wrong with it. Whoever had it before decided they wanted less gain and swapped for a 12AU7, so I'm going to assume it's a bassist (Sushi Box's main market).

 

[bluedmc777]

@vigilante398 I noticed the 12au7 also and came to the same conclusion. Appears to be in excellent condition. Board says 6/2023 but I don’t suppose that means much. Either way I know the store will let me return if something isn’t right. I was thinking about the black eye as my next tube pedal but it may have to wait.

What are your thoughts about the elementary going into an ac inspired amp but with EL34s? Both the Diplomat and Ambassador were just too bright unfortunately.

 

[Creach]

Hello bluedmc777,
What is your amp? You may consider to install a cut control, it is just a potentiometer and a capacitor. You will be able to set the brightness and use your Diplomat and Ambassador.

 

[bluedmc777]

Hello bluedmc777,
What is your amp? You may consider to install a cut control, it is just a potentiometer and a capacitor. You will be able to set the brightness and use your Diplomat and Ambassador.

I run a bad cat cub 40r on the right and a 68 custom deluxe reverb on the left. The bad cat has a cut knob and there were ways I could’ve gotten around it but I didn’t care for the boost being always on without a cut control or something. The boost into the drive was super sweet though.

For the diplomat, and it may just be me, an ef86 pushing the crap out of another ef86 just doesn’t work as well as I thought it would. They’re very picky tubes that sound really fat when compared to a 12ax7 but doesn’t break up like a 12ax7 in my amp atleast. It just REALLY beefs up all the frequencies and I usually have to roll the bass down some. Theyre great though. Unfortunately they are the reason I started searching for older anos/nos tubes. You can get some good EF86s for not alot of money. Plus they all sound different the silver plate telefunken and Mullard, short mesh, older long mesh and the gray plates. JJ is the only new production that I tried that didn’t suck.

 

[bluedmc777]

@vigilante398 Excellent job on the Elementary. I immediately took the 12AU7 out because I wanted to hear how it was intended. Great as a boost or an od/distortion but still, as with the PA, I like to keep the gain relatively low and run dirt pedals into it for slightly dirty tube boost.

Haven’t gotten the chance to try different tubes in it yet but I will. The 5751 is still in the PA and KON is still rocking with one of the old Beijing 12ax7s with the square foil getter. Black eye is next and will focus on a board for headphones for silent practice along with backing tracking tracks. Wanna be able to run some pedals into it though.

BTW-I assume the ATTEN pot in the Elementary is the second output level you refer to for some other pedals in your site? I didn’t see the Elementary on the list so I wanted to make sure an also make sure you also feel that it’s best set to the center. Thanks in advance.

 

[bluedmc777]

@vigilante398 What’s stock preset for the “ATTE”? Assume it attenuation? My Elenentary is a good bit hotter than I expected lol. Maybe that’s why there was a 12AU7 tube in at first.

 

[vigilante398]

@vigilante398 What’s stock preset for the “ATTE”? Assume it attenuation? My Elenentary is a good bit hotter than I expected lol. Maybe that’s why there was a 12AU7 tube in at first.

The ATTEN trimpots are set at 12:00 when they leave the shop.