JHS Colour Box
- Thread starter peccary
- Start date
Danbieranowski
Well-known member
Not an easy one to take on. It's a Neve 1073 preamp with a few differences. Dropping it in a pedal sized enclosure without a lot of SMD stuff would be a tight fit.
This is what the insides look like:
This is what the insides look like:
peccary
Well-known member
Yeah, I had been doing a little research on my own and it seems like it'd be a fairly advanced build even with a premade PCB. I could probably ruin three or four before I got to the retail price, though
peccary
Well-known member
Yeah, big ass enclosure or not it'd be sweet. It'd look pretty bad ass in a sloped console, come to think of it.
peccary
Well-known member
Ah, good to know. Is the transformer out of production? Do you know if there are good substitutes, or is it one of those mojo things that just hasn't been reproduced?
FrendanBraser
Member
Lundahl still make the transformer, it's just an uncommon off the shelf part. You can buy it from them direct but they don't list the price for individual units, just an email for price enquiries. Although buying from a retailer you could be anywhere between £50-100 per transformer probably. There are probably alternatives kicking about but any good ones will probably be in the same price range.
dmnCrawler
Well-known member
FrendanBraser
Member
Aye, so the transformer alone will make it a pricey project. Not opposed to it though, would still be a cool one to build. And even then it'll still only cost about a half to a third of the price of a new one. Also might give me an excuse to get into winding my own transformers.
Untro
Active member
I guess enough transformers is the breaching from guitar pedals into audio equipment, but check out
www.hairballaudio.com
They do the hard lifting in hard to source components for some kits, I had a blast building their lola pres.
I was looking at the 500 series jhs, but at this point ill just build my own 1073 eventually
Edit: plus the 1/4” front panel input is as good as a guitar pedal!
Hairball Audio
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I was looking at the 500 series jhs, but at this point ill just build my own 1073 eventually
Edit: plus the 1/4” front panel input is as good as a guitar pedal!
Last edited:
FrendanBraser
Member
Been wanting to build some rack mounted and 500 series stuff for a while. Hairball stuff looks cool but I'll get bitten on customs charges to the UK, but theres a couple of places that offer something similar over here.
Harry Klippton
Well-known member
I've built some 500 series stuff from DIYRE, which is generally lower price than hairball. I've enjoyed all the DIYRE stuff I've built, it works great, and their support is excellent
mdc
Well-known member
The 3-band and hi-pass filter are what make the color box a bit different than other straight neve-clones. It's more of a full channel than just the preamp that you'd get out of most 500-series modules.
A colour box clone (or other 'console-style' transformer-coupled-ish) preamp with unbalanced and XLR i/o and a nice 3-band EQ would be a cool way to build out a multi-channel "character" preamp for tracking drums, etc. Obviously there are a million more cost-effective ways to get there, but I'm all for dumb fun.
A colour box clone (or other 'console-style' transformer-coupled-ish) preamp with unbalanced and XLR i/o and a nice 3-band EQ would be a cool way to build out a multi-channel "character" preamp for tracking drums, etc. Obviously there are a million more cost-effective ways to get there, but I'm all for dumb fun.
junderwood
Active member
Oh man. A DIY colourbox would be so cool. I would immediately snap that up. I have the 500 series JHS one and run my guitar through it all the time. It sounds heckin' great. I've also built the Sound Skulptor 500 series Neve style pre (MP573 & EQ573), and while there are a lot of parts, they're not too challenging. It would make for a more complex kit, but at least to me very very worth it.
Feral Feline
Well-known member
Well, since the Lullduhm transformer is less than optimiss primaL, prisewice, how about a Colourbocks with a different transformer?
How about using something less expensive... a cinnebonne-mague?
Serialously though, I'm thinkering
TRIAD MAGNETICS TY250-P
Better than the Triad that's spec'd for the Hudsonian Brawdgast.
The TY250-P has great specs, ie it's FULL RANGE — a little love for the bass players and multi-instrumentalists here.
Will it sound exactly like a JHS ColostomyBlox? Don't care, so long as it sounds NEVE-ish and GOOD.
How about using something less expensive... a cinnebonne-mague?
Serialously though, I'm thinkering
TRIAD MAGNETICS TY250-P
Better than the Triad that's spec'd for the Hudsonian Brawdgast.
The TY250-P has great specs, ie it's FULL RANGE — a little love for the bass players and multi-instrumentalists here.
Will it sound exactly like a JHS ColostomyBlox? Don't care, so long as it sounds NEVE-ish and GOOD.
junderwood
Active member
With the Sound Skulptor MP573 and EQ573 there's a little cable that lets you connect them up. Then you can use the EQ either on its own like any other 500 series module or put it "in between the input and output stages" of the MP573. I'm not entirely sure what that means electrically, but could you do something like add a loop to be able to insert an effect or other thing sort of the same way? That would be pretty cool.
junderwood
Active member
Oh, totally agree it would be easier to just do the Crayon. On mine I use the EQ all the time, though. It's part of the usefulness of the thing as a tone shaper. Without an eq it's kind of, well just one crayon out of the box.
If it would be anything like the Sound Skulptor kit rendition of that sort of preamp it'll be huge indeed. Maybe you could have room for cool faders for part of the EQ
If it would be anything like the Sound Skulptor kit rendition of that sort of preamp it'll be huge indeed. Maybe you could have room for cool faders for part of the EQ
