Features

In 2012, I had a crazy idea for a tone-shaping device that had never been done before in the guitar pedal world: to build a pedal that could recreate the sound of electric guitar "direct in" recordings that I love so much. Bands like the Beatles, Spoon, Wilco and Steely Dan had been using this technique for years, but it was nearly impossible to replicate live.

We wanted this pedal to transform our rig into a tonal equivalent of a Neve® studio console, which was no easy task, but after a lot of trial and error, experimentation and rework, the concept evolved into something far beyond our imagination.

When I shot the first demo video at Abbey Road Studios in London in 2014, I knew this idea had evolved into the most unique product we'd ever made. The finished product, a full-fledged studio-grade preamp/EQ/distortion pedal with compatibility with a wide range of instruments, was more than what I had always dreamed of.

On the day of release, I had no idea how the Color Box would be received, but I was very happy. And after a few months, we started to see something amazing happening: we saw the Color Box being used on studio and live vocals, kick drums, acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, drum overhead mics, stereo busses, room mics, synthesizers, reamps, and most of the instruments in an incredibly large stage setup. Producers, engineers and artists of all kinds were emailing us and letting us know how they used the Color Box.

The sound of this unit can be heard on numerous recordings by U2, Wilco, Beck, Mac DeMarco, St. Vincent, The National, Spoon, Collective Soul, Muse, War on Drugs, Foo Fighters, Phantogram, etc. We are proud of this pedal and at the same time we felt it needed to be made even better, so we created the V2.

The Colour Box V2 inherits all the features of the V1 and adds new features such as expanded EQ controls, a Hi/Lo switch for bigger, cleaner headroom, and phantom power for condenser microphones.

Let's take a look at the features and controls of the Colour Box V2.

The red Gain section consists of three controls: Master, Pre-Vol and Step. The Master volume control controls the overall volume of the unit. Pre-Vol controls the amount of gain for the two internal gain stages. It works like a typical "Drive" or "Gain" control, increasing the gain can give you sounds like grit, distortion or fuzz.

The STEP control increases the gain of each preamp stage in 5 steps: +18dB, +23dB, +28dB, +33dB, +39dB by turning the STEP knob from left to right.

The Colour Box V2 is equipped with a new HI/LO switch that allows you to switch the size of the clean headroom. In LO mode, you can easily get a pure clean sound without breaking up, making it ideal for tone shaping that does not require a distortion sound. In HI mode, it easily distorts, so you can get a wide range of sounds such as overdrive, distortion, and fuzz.

In addition to the HI/LO switch, the Colour Box V2 also has a -20dB Pad switch on the right side. This function only works in XLR input mode and is effective for adjusting the volume of high-output microphones.

The blue EQ section features the standard Treble, Middle and Bass controls with three new Shift controls that interact with them. This knob adjusts the frequency range of the Treble, Middle and Bass controls. The Shift knobs have center frequencies of 10kHz for Treble, 1kHz for Middle and 120Hz for Bass, and the Treble, Middle and Bass knobs boost/cut between +/- 17dB. If you want to boost the high mid frequencies, turn the Mid Shift knob above 3 o'clock and the Middle knob above 12 o'clock. If you want to cut the higher treble frequencies, turn the Treble Shift knob above 3 o'clock and set the Treble knob below 12 o'clock. The Shift knobs allow you to precisely control the EQ of any input signal through the Colour Box V2.

The Hi-Pass section can be turned on/off with the toggle switch below the Hi-Pass knob. When the toggle switch is in the up position, the Hi-Pass knob is enabled and allows 6dB change per octave between 60-800Hz.

The Colour Box V2 features a combo jack that supports both a 1/4” phone input for instruments and an XLR input for microphones. The INST/XLR switch on the right side of the unit allows you to select the input terminal according to the source you are using.

The Colour Box V2 runs on standard DC9V centre negative polarity.
W98 × D144 × H65 (mm)