Pedals

We sent a team of sonic scientists deep into the arctic circle on a secret mission: to capture bits of the Aurora Borealis so we could transmute them into a pedal. What emerged was Luminous, equal parts phaseshifter and swirly glowing haze machine. It dances and hovers with the utmost mystery, occasionally imperceptible while frequently vivid. And it glows in the dark, because of course it does.Pedal art by Sergio Monfort

Tired of your fuzz getting lost in the mix? Wish you could just pour molten sonic gravy from your speakers? Imagine classic Muff-style fuzziness with the punch of a classic overdrive, and you have Shigeharu™. Using a cascading hybrid of the op-amp and BC184 transistor gain stages, Shigeharu provides all the sweet singing sustain and massive flamethrower gain you crave, but with unprecedented clarity, improved punch and definition, and consistent performance wherever it sits in your signal chain – even after buffers or wireless units. Combine that with the parallel octave-up voiced fuzz available on-demand with the Havoc* stomp and you have a whole lot of nasty right here. Two extra controls reside inside the pedal – a bias/gate control for dialing up broken, spitty sounds, and a slide switch that locks the octave-up “on” and converts the momentary to a kill/mute switch. Shigeharu™ was designed in collaboration with our friend John Snyder at Electronic Audio Experiments, because this thing was fearsome enough to compel us to seek a second opinion.

In 2012, I had a crazy idea for a tone shaping device that had never been done before in the world of guitar pedals. I wanted to create an effects pedal that replicated the hard-to-achieve sounds of "direct-in" electric guitar recordings that I loved.  Bands like the Beatles, Spoon, Wilco, and Steely Dan had used this technique for years, but it was nearly impossible to recreate live. I wanted this pedal to transform my guitar rig into the tonal equivalent of a Neve studio console, and that was no small task. After lots of trial and error, experimentation, and re-works, this concept evolved into something far beyond what we had imagined. In 2014 as we filmed the first demo videos at Abbey Road Studios in London and this idea had evolved into the most unique product we had ever made. The Colour Box was a full-fledged studio-grade preamplifier, EQ, and distortion generator with multi-instrument compatibility. It did what I had always wanted it to do, but it did so much more! On its release day, I wasn't quite sure how it would be accepted, but I knew that I loved it. As a few months went by, we saw something amazing begin to happen; this pedal was showing up in all types of environments. Producers, engineers, and artists were emailing us, tagging us on socials and showing how they had put the Colour Box to use. Studio vocals, live vocals, kick drums, acoustic guitars, bass, keys, overhead drums, stereo buses, room mics, synths, re-amps, and some incredibly large stage setups had it on almost every instrument! This unit can be heard on dozens of recordings from U2, Wilco, The National, Spoon, Collective Soul, Muse, the War on Drugs, and Phantogram amongst others. As proud of this pedal as we were, we wanted to make it better, so we did.  VERSION 2 EMERGES The Colour Box V2 has all the same functionality of the V1 with many new and improved additions like expanded EQ controls, a Hi/Lo switch for massive clean headroom, and the ability to pass phantom power to your condenser mics.  The most significant improvements are: Addition of an Output transformer Safely Passes 48V Phantom Power EQ Shift Knobs for precision EQ control Hi/Lo Switch for ultra clean headroom 100% available clean signal even on acoustic guitar Silent switching, aka no "switch-pop" Runs on standard 9V DC Neg power FEATURES & CONTROLS The Gain section in red has three controls: Master, Pre-Vol, and Step. The Master volume controls the overall volume of the unit. The Pre-Vol controls the amount of gain between the two internal gain stages. This acts as a "drive" or "gain" control, adding more grit, distortion, and even fuzz as you increase the gain. The Step control increases the gain of each preamp stage in five stages. Rotating the Step knob from left-to-right will increase the gain by the following: 1st is +18 dB, 2nd is +23 dB, 3rd is +28 dB, 4th is +33 dB, 5th is +39 dB. The Colour Box V2 has a new Hi / Lo switch to control the amount of clean headroom you have available. In the Lo mode, you will easily be able to get ultra clean sounds without breakup. Lo Mode is excellent for tone shaping when distortion is not needed. In the Hi mode, the Colour Box V2 will distort much more readily, giving you a broad spectrum of overdrive, distortion, and fuzz sounds. In addition to the Hi / Lo gain switch, there is a -20dB pad switch on the right side of the Colour Box V2. This function only works when in XLR input mode and can help tame the volume for high output microphones. MOST POWERFUL EQ YET The EQ section in blue has three new Shift controls correlating to its standard Treble, Middle and Bass controls. The classically labeled EQ knobs adjust the amount of frequencies that get boosted and cut, while the Shift knobs adjust the range of frequencies that the Treble, Middle, and Bass knobs control. EQ Functions Treble Knob - Cut/Boost Control     +/-15dB  flat at noon.  CCW cuts, CW boosts. Middle Knob - Cut/Boost Control    +/- 10dB  flat at noon.  CCW cuts, CW boosts. Bass Knob -   Cut/Boost Control   +/-15dB  flat at noon.  CCW cuts, CW boosts. Frequencies controlled by EQ Shift Knobs: Treble Shift - 2kHz to 30kHz –  CCW lowers the center Freq, CW raises the center Freq. Middle Shift - 150Hz to 2.4kHz –  CCW lowers the center Freq, CW raises the center Freq. Bass Shift - 20Hz to 440Hz –  CCW lowers the center Freq, CW raises the center Freq. The Hi-Pass section is enabled by the toggle switch below the Hi-Pass knob. Just flip it up to engage the Hi-Pass knob. The HPF is a 2nd order 6dB per octave highpass filter. The -3dB cutoff freq (the frequency at which the filter starts to act) can be adjusted from 160Hz to 650Hz. XLR AND OUTPUT The Colour Box V2 has a combination XLR and 1/4" input jack to use either an instrument or microphone. Select your input with the input selector switch on the right side of the pedal labeled INST/XLR. VERSION HISTORY V1 = Smaller enclosure; no “shift” EQ knobs; seven knobs total. V2 = Larger enclosure; ten knobs total; added Hi/Lo Toggle; passes phantom power. Output transformer addition.

  MODERN DISTORTION The JHS Hard Drive is the first attempt in our company’s fifteen-year history at a full-blown and respectable modern distortion pedal that is not based on a previous circuit or classic topology. In 2016, Josh had the idea to develop a circuit that covered the best high-gain distortion tones of the ’90s and 2000s, a sound that embodied the post-grunge alternative rock movement. We started by looking at pedals, then amps, and after exploring the typical paths of circuitry, we took a sharp turn and started from scratch. Eight years later, the pedal is finished and ready to take you to the next level. The Hard Drive goes harder and further than any gain or distortion we’ve released so far. A FRESH APPROACH A fresh approach to achieving high gain distortion in a pedal format, the Hard Drive includes cascaded gain stages and a hard limiting circuit, followed by a class AB amplifier section that drives a “sweepable midrange” EQ and Baxandall bass and treble controls. With its generous external controls, the Hard Drive lets you dial in everything from grinding tube amp crunch to a bona fide wall of distortion that can easily cut through any stage or studio mix. HONORING CLIFF SMITH The Hard Drive holds a special place in JHS history as the final design work of our former head engineer, Cliff Smith. The prototype and design had been finalized just weeks before he passed away in 2021. “I don't know that there's ever been a JHS circuit where we experimented more. It was always a loose and casual approach to getting this right. I knew something great would come of it, so we just let it simmer…Cliff would call the Hard Drive circuit a mutt, and I agree– meaning this circuit is not a clone of anything in particular but rather an original iteration of tons of different inspirations and ideas, kind of like the Colour Box that he and I developed years earlier. I have vivid memories of Cliff spending entire weekends and nights tinkering and experimenting with this circuit. He would message me notes on the weekend when he got excited about something he stumbled into. This pedal was his hobby for a long time. He truly loved big, complicated gain staging and the challenge of making solid state circuitry respond like a valve amp. As a passion project that became a real product through Cliff’s consistent work, I can’t think of a more fitting last release from us as a design team than the Hard Drive. Cliff loved learning and this was his last masterclass. It’s an honor to finally put it out and let people enjoy the idea he brought to life.” - Josh Scott CONTROLS Volume - Controls the overall volume of the pedal. Left is less, right is more. Mid Freq - Controls which mid frequencies are boosted or scooped by the Mid control. Drive (Distortion) - Controls the amount of drive (distortion). Left is less, right is more. Bass - Controls the bass frequencies level. Noon is flat, left is cut, right is boosted. Middle - Controls the mid frequencies level. Noon is flat, left is scooped, right is boosted. The frequency range is set by the Mid Freq control. Treble - Controls the treble frequencies level. Noon is flat, left is cut, right is boosted. Silent soft touch switching with a buffered bypass. THIS PEDAL REQUIRES STANDARD 9V DC CENTER NEGATIVE POWER, CONSUMES 78mA, AND MEASURES 2.6" X 4.8" X 1.6".   

The Data Corrupter is a monophonic analog harmonizing PLL with modulation. It takes your input signal and brutally amplifies it into a crushing square wave fuzz tone that is then multiplied, divided and modulated to create a wild, yet repeatable, three-voice guitar synthesizer. The Master Oscillator is the central nervous system at the heart of the Data Corrupter’s cyberpunk hive mind. It feeds your input to the signal harvester in its original octave (Unison), one octave down (-1) or two octaves down (-2) for maximum compatibility with your preferred instrument and frequency register. Once you’ve chosen your input octave, then the Data Corrupter will perform its calculations and spit out an analog synthesized frequency, which can be pitch-bent for portamento or vibrato sounds by the Frequency Modulator! From there, you can blend in one of eight Subharmonic intervals up to three octaves below the input and mix in a square wave fuzz tone for maximum data corruption.

The Echopark Dual-Harmonic Boost This is our 2nd version of the Dual-Harmonic Boost.  The same legendary “Dual Stacked” OD, but modified with OD Boosters on each circuit for the “Maximum” OD. The center tone pot has been replaced with a “Master Volume”, allowing you to crank both OD’s  for maximum distortion, at lower volumes. Because of the insane overdrive, the DHB2 has a 3 Way “Tone Control Switch” ranging  from (Far Left) Low, (Center) Med, (Far Right) High. This switch can be used to filter out unwanted frequency feedback at higher volumes, or a tone cut for playing certain styles of music. Far right knob is OD Gain BOOST 1, Far left knob is OD Gain BOOST 2. True Bypass, 2.1mm 9VDC power in, - Center (Internal 9V Battery Mounts on side).Powder coated aluminum enclosure. HAND MADE IN USA.

Limelight is a dual channel overdrive developed in collaboration with LA-based punk band Touche Amore. The distinctive bright, clear tones of guitarists Nick Steinhardt and Clayton Stevens form the foundation of TA’s impassioned brand of post-hardcore, letting their riffs morph effortlessly between serene clean passages and cacophonous blast beats. This pedal was originally developed to commemorate the release of their 2020 LP, Lament, but since earned its place in a wide variety of guitar rigs spanning genres. In preparation for the recording of Lament, we worked with Nick and Clayton to create a new op amp overdrive with equal parts aggression and chime. While loosely based in the “breaker” lineage, we made significant changes to the circuit for superior articulation and a much wider range of gain. An independent front-end boost rounds out the package, perfect for adding power to clean tones or pushing the overdrive side into heavy distortion. While the primary goal was to help the band sound like their best selves, Limelight has a tone for everyone.