DEMO SushiBoxFX Ambassador (Matchless HotBox)

[bluedmc777]

They aren't using parallel paths, just multiple triodes in parallel. This is common in studio designs for noise reduction and also produces a "fattening" of the sound due to how the parallel staging affects the impedances of the stage. I thought they had an article on their site about it, but I'm having trouble finding it from my phone.

They mentioned it briefly in the long product description. There’s some interesting reads on that site.

 

[bluedmc777]

I generally use one of two amps. It's either my VHT D-Fifty (Dumble clone) or my Frenzel DP-525 (Kind of a weird amalgamation of a Fender 5E3 and a Marshall).

For demo's I only use clean tones and the VHT really is my fave. A tube upgrade did wonders. I'm using a Bugle Boy 12AX7 in V1 and the rest are Tung Sol re-issues and the 6L6's are Genelux Gold Lions. It does the "Dumble Clean to slightly pushed" really well. The overdrive channel is not my favorite Dumble sound though.

Re: Tube boosts, I think I've built every one of SushiBoxFx's boost pedals from his earlier generation to his current production ones.
I love them all but the Particle Accelerator is my all time fave. I think it's the extended EQ controls.

Having said that, my current set up I'm running 2x Clandestine Preamps in my chain. One at the end of my drives in front of the amp and the second one in the FX loop of the amp before my delays and reverb.

This gives me a lot of flexibility of where to add boost depending on the amp settings and I love the tone of the Clandestine. For me it's magic.
At the front of my drive chain I'm still using my tried and true Modus Operandi the most. Another "magic" pedal. Not sure what it's doing exactly but it just makes every overdrive sound better.

Does the Clandestine sound a lot different than the EP Booster? I’ve tried them several times thinking I’d missed something considering so many people rave about them but it just seemed to add a few db of mostly clean volume, add some lows and rolled off some highs. I prefer a COT or a Bad Bob. Or even a light optical comp set with the level raised and comp almost off. Or is the Clandestine a lot different? That’s alot of boosts you’re running…is your amp set really low or are cutting some volume somewhere? My head would explode with the Bad Cat. However I have it set to where a fuzz face or muff can do it’s thing.

Speaking of the Bad Bob-Isn’t it just a few minor changes to Jack Ormans mini-booster project? I built one of those as my first build. I need to go back to it and cut some lows and try some different jfets. Anyone know exactly what vakues are different on the bad bob?

 

[MichaelW]

Does the Clandestine sound a lot different than the EP Booster? I’ve tried them several times thinking I’d missed something considering so many people rave about them but it just seemed to add a few db of mostly clean volume, add some lows and rolled off some highs. I prefer a COT or a Bad Bob. Or even a light optical comp set with the level raised and comp almost off. Or is the Clandestine a lot different? That’s alot of boosts you’re running…is your amp set really low or are cutting some volume somewhere? My head would explode with the Bad Cat. However I have it set to where a fuzz face or muff can do it’s thing.

Speaking of the Bad Bob-Isn’t it just a few minor changes to Jack Ormans mini-booster project? I built one of those as my first build. I need to go back to it and cut some lows and try some different jfets. Anyone know exactly what vakues are different on the bad bob?

You mean the Xotic EP Booster? I think you can get the EP Booster to sound close to the Clandestine with the internal dip switches. But by default it's more transparent than the Clandestine/Secret Preamp.

The 3 "EchoPlex" style boosters I've tried are the Clandestine (Secret Preamp), the AIONFx Ares (ClinchFX Pre) and the Episode Booster (Xotic EP) plus I have a retail Xotic EP. They all have their own thing going on.

If you buy into the hype, then selecting the correct JFET plays a role in the sound. But my favorites are the two Clandestines I've built with randomly selected 2N5457 SMD. I prefer the Clandestine and Ares setup as all the tones are right there on the toggle or the position of the gain pot.

Re: running boosts, I use boosts mostly at unity gain or a skootch above. I'm not trying to drive my tube amp but rather provide some coloration to my signal chain.

I've never heard of the Bad Bob, whazzat?

 

[bluedmc777]

You mean the Xotic EP Booster? I think you can get the EP Booster to sound close to the Clandestine with the internal dip switches. But by default it's more transparent than the Clandestine/Secret Preamp.

The 3 "EchoPlex" style boosters I've tried are the Clandestine (Secret Preamp), the AIONFx Ares (ClinchFX Pre) and the Episode Booster (Xotic EP) plus I have a retail Xotic EP. They all have their own thing going on.

If you buy into the hype, then selecting the correct JFET plays a role in the sound. But my favorites are the two Clandestines I've built with randomly selected 2N5457 SMD. I prefer the Clandestine and Ares setup as all the tones are right there on the toggle or the position of the gain pot.

Re: running boosts, I use boosts mostly at unity gain or a skootch above. I'm not trying to drive my tube amp but rather provide some coloration to my signal chain.

I've never heard of the Bad Bob, whazzat?

The Bad Bob is Analogmans version of Jack Ormans mu-amp mini booster. I believe he found it in the national semiconductor handbook and there’s been alot of pedals based off its topology. It’s very tweakable but I’ve found that finding the right jfets are paramount.

Remember the BSIAB? Believe it was stacked mini booster along side of several of Wanplers Amp pedal. And of course Mike Fullers Fat Boost. He screwed it up imo though… especially v2.

 

[Rpschultz13]

Been building a lot of PedalPCB and Aion pedals last year or so. Just stumbled upon this. Bad. Ass. Definitely going to have to build one of these. Although the Ambassador has a lot more gain than I need. Diplomat only has the clean channel. Any other options? I'd really like a Matchless DC30 style. Which one is closest?

 

[HamishR]

I haven't played a Sushibox Ambassador but used to gig with a Matchless Hotbox. The dirty channel of the Hotbox is the same as the 12AX7 channel of a DC30. As in identical circuit. And it's also exactly the same as the Bass/Treble channel of an old AC30, but possibly with higher filtering.

One thing I found with using a Hotbox was that I seemed to prefer to have Bass and Treble at around 9.00 for a full midrange response. If I turned them up to noon the sound was a bit thin - not sure if the Ambassador works the same way. Turning Bass and Treble to similar settings seems to just vary the midrange., Sure, if you turn Bass higher than Treble it gets bassier, and vice versa. But turn B & T the same amount and it's the mids which change.

I'm very tempted to try one of these. The Hotbox/Dirtbox/Badcat Two-tone were central to my rig for many years.

 

[Rpschultz13]

Interesting. So I wonder what the difference between the Ambassador and the Kingsley King Nothing is. 2 tubes vs 1, or 4 gain stages vs 2. Comparing the schematics, the Ambassador has a tube stage at the beginning (as a buffer?) that the Kingsley doesn't have. The gain stages look similar although the Ambassador has a distortion knob along with gain knob. But then the Ambassador has 2 cascaded tubes into the tone stack vs just 1 for the Kingsley. I'm a novice at reading tubes in schematics, need to learn about this stuff.

 

[Alan W]

They mentioned it briefly in the long product description. There’s some interesting reads on that site.

The LA-1A is almost impossibly quiet, and I think the parallel operation is a definite part of that. Many years ago, I built a phono preamp, for low output moving coils, that used two gain stages before the output stage, all 6DJ8 variations. This was back when you could actually buy, for not too much $, NOS tubes like telefunken 188 and 288 military versions, so I was able to max out the s/n ratios. After a few years with this, someone in the Glass Audio letters to the editors section ( yes, pre-internet) wrote about how they were paralleling the tubes in the first, (most critical, in terms of s/n) stage, and what a big difference it made. Someone made small boards available, so you could really make a simple plug in to do this. Of course, I got some, and was soon amazing myself with an extra 3 db or so of less noise.