Dark Phoenix - Sushi Box FX Black Eye

[jhaneyzz]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

Sushi Box FX's interpretation of the legendary Soldano Supercharger G.T.O.

It's a fire breathing dragon of gain and tube-rich raspy goodness.

I'm not a high gain guy in general so this isn't replacing the Particle Accelerator (or two) I've got on the board but whoever ends up with this one is going to have a smile on their face for a good long while...

This thing is a beast.

Obviously I've been more than a bit infatuated with Nathan's PCBs lately, and knowing me, it isn't the least bit surprising that part of the draw is that his pedals just look so damn cool. Hell, I even buy his pre-CNC'd enclosures because those slotted vents are so damn sweet.

But damn... his pedals sound great....

And they are drop dead simple builds, and the concise build docs very clearly call out and illustrate how to fit the parts together.

Just be careful not to touch the wrong bits when the back is open, they kick out well upwards of 250V. Good to know though that the capacitors don't hold on to that voltage. unplug and the voltage drops to nil in a few seconds.

I've developed a few safety tips I use when working with tube pedals I'm happy to share with anyone looking to take the plunge.

 

[vigilante398]

Looks great! Glad you're enjoying the builds, I always enjoy seeing how they turn out.

 

[The Gator]

First off, this build looks awesome!
Great build report!
I have yet to venture outpast vero board and pedalpcb builds.
This gives me inspiration to try a sushibox build.
I have some old tube overdrives that I hardly use because I don't like how they sound with certain guitars. (I'm probably too picky)
It looks like there's a lot going on in there.

 

[music6000]

Sushi Box FX's interpretation of the legendary Soldano Supercharger G.T.O.

It's a fire breathing dragon of gain and tube-rich raspy goodness.

I'm not a high gain guy in general so this isn't replacing the Particle Accelerator (or two) I've got on the board but whoever ends up with this one is going to have a smile on their face for a good long while...

This thing is a beast.

Obviously I've been more than a bit infatuated with Nathan's PCBs lately, and knowing me, it isn't the least bit surprising that part of the draw is that his pedals just look so damn cool. Hell, I even buy his pre-CNC'd enclosures because those slotted vents are so damn sweet.

But damn... his pedals sound great....

And they are drop dead simple builds, and the concise build docs very clearly call out and illustrate how to fit the parts together.

Just be careful not to touch the wrong bits when the back is open, they kick out well upwards of 250V. Good to know though that the capacitors don't hold on to that voltage. unplug and the voltage drops to nil in a few seconds.

I've developed a few safety tips I use when working with tube pedals I'm happy to share with anyone looking to take the plunge.



View attachment 44431

View attachment 44432

Marbellous!!!

 

[jhaneyzz]

First off, this build looks awesome!
Great build report!
I have yet to venture outpast vero board and pedalpcb builds.
This gives me inspiration to try a sushibox build.
I have some old tube overdrives that I hardly use because I don't like how they sound with certain guitars. (I'm probably too picky)
It looks like there's a lot going on in there.

I think they only look a bit more "extra" because of the parts we aren't use to seeing as much like high voltage caps and the voltage regulator, well... and the tube(s) but they actually have a very low part count and are very straightforward builds. Tube circuits are actually much simpler in general than most pedals I've built.

I've got some extra wiring going on in this one to light up the marble as well... not exactly optimal since it makes the tube backlight a bit dim on one side. I either need to throttle the other LED a bit or run another set of wires and light something else.... Guess which one I'm more likely to do...

 

[vigilante398]

I have some old tube overdrives that I hardly use because I don't like how they sound with certain guitars. (I'm probably too picky)

You may not be picky, they may just not be good. There are a plethora of starved-plate "tube overdrives" out there that are less than amazing. I'm obviously biased, but I think my stuff holds up pretty well as far as sound quality.

 

[The Gator]

Yeah when I compare the real tube pedals I used in the 90s to some of todays circuits, they don't hold up. I mostly could only use them as light overdrive anyway. Too noisy.
So this circuit has 2 tubes and a single tone knob?
This is much diffetent than the particle accelerator with its full TMB circuit.
Have you thought about a black eye with a TMB tone stack?

 

[vigilante398]

Yeah when I compare the real tube pedals I used in the 90s to some of todays circuits, they don't hold up. I mostly could only use them as light overdrive anyway. Too noisy.
So this circuit has 2 tubes and a single tone knob?
This is much diffetent than the particle accelerator with its full TMB circuit.
Have you thought about a black eye with a TMB tone stack?

I have, and the "commercial" Black Eye that I sell has a baxandall (james) stack with a bass boost switch for flexibility, but that's also all SMD. If I were to add a more complex tonestack to the DIY version it would probably have to go to a larger enclosure. As-is this was intended to be more or less a direct clone of the Soldano GTO, which is just a single tone knob.