JHS Pedals: Colour Box 500

In our July 2016 issue, we took a look at the Colour Box pedal from Kansas City-based stompbox manufacturer JHS Pedals. The Colour Box isn’t just an overdrive-distortion pedal with EQ; it’s one that was based upon a classic Neve 1073 preamp channel. In a fun twist, it also includes an XLR input for use as a traditional microphone preamp for passive dynamic and ribbon microphones (there’s no phantom power for condensers). Its best trick is its multiple-stepped input, useful not only in front of a guitar amp, but also as a direct preamp for overdriving guitars and other sources like a classic overdriven recording channel.

Next, in our September 2017 issue, we took a look at a new direction for JHS: offering some of their best-loved guitar effects pedals as API 500 Series studio modules. In that issue we looked at the then-new 500 Series versions of the SuperBolt distortion and Emperor analog chorus. This month, we combine all of the above, with a look at the 500 Series version of the aforementioned Colour Box... an obvious choice to be offered in the 500 Series format.