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JHS Colour Box V2 Preamp Pedal

Preamplifier Pedal for Guitars, Microphones, and Line-level Sources, with XLR and 1/4" I/O
$449.00

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Vintage Console Sound for Your Pedalboard

From the Beatles’ “Revolution” to Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” to Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl,” some of rock’s most storied guitar tones were created by skipping the amp and plugging right into a vintage recording console. The JHS Colour Box V2 takes that concept and drops it on your pedalboard. With a fully analog, transformer-based design and sweet-sounding EQ section, the Colour Box V2 is a tone-shaping wizard that can re-create classic tones or help you produce unique signature sounds. Not just for guitarists, the Colour Box V2 also sounds great on bass, keys, and vocals. And it’s a versatile studio tool favored by engineers at Sweetwater for adding swagger and personality to any recording.

Subtly tweak your tone or smash it into overdrive

The Colour Box V2 has a buttery, musical, and harmonically complex character, derived, in part, from its Lundahl transformers — a favorite of Rupert Neve. With precise Baxandall-style tone controls, dual gain stages, and switchable Hi/Low settings, the Colour Box V2 can be a scalpel or a sledgehammer. Use it to enhance your tone at low gain settings subtly, push it for crunchy but intelligible distortion, or completely dime it for some of the nastiest fuzz you’ll ever hear.

An impressive tool live and in the studio

The magic of the Colour Box V2 isn’t limited to guitars. In fact, artists such as U2, Wilco, Muse, the War on Drugs, and Phantogram have tapped its unmistakable energy and character to transform every imaginable source — vocals, bass, acoustic guitars, drum overheads, snares, synths, and anything else calling out for a splash of vintage vibe, creamy saturation, or full-on sputtering, overdriven madness. With boundless tone-shaping possibilities, the Colour Box V2 is truly a secret weapon, live and in the studio.

Expanded features for supreme flexibility

For the Colour Box V2, JHS kept all the functionality that made the V1 a modern classic and added a big handful of exciting new features: a Hi/Lo switch for ultra-clean headroom; the ability to pass 48-volt phantom power to condenser mics, active ribbons, and mic activators; EQ Shift controls for detailed frequency sculpting; and an added output transformer for even more console-style mojo.

JHS pedals are handcrafted tone machines

When you plug your guitar into a JHS pedal like the Colour Box V2, you're tapping into care and passion that few manufacturers put into their products. Each JHS pedal is handbuilt and tested by the JHS team in Kansas City, Missouri. Because they design their pedals for specific musical purposes, we're sure there's a JHS pedal that's perfect for any player's rig.

JHS Colour Box V2 Preamp Pedal Features:

  • Preamp and EQ pedal for guitar, microphone, or line-level sources
  • 100% analog signal path, based on the design of vintage mixing consoles
  • Lundahl input and output transformers
  • Dual gain stages with over 39dB of gain give you everything from subtle sweetening to full-on distortion
  • Re-creates the classic sound of plugging a guitar directly into a mic preamp
  • Powerful tone-shaping potential, featuring a 3-band EQ with Shift controls and a wide-ranging variable low-cut filter (60Hz–800Hz)
  • Pass 48-volt phantom power to condenser mics, active ribbon mics, and mic activators

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Guitar/Mic Preamp
  • EQ: 3-band EQ, 3-band Shift Controls, Hi Pass
  • Controls: Pre-Vol (drive), Step, Hi/Lo Switch
  • Inputs: 1 x XLR-1/4" combo (mic/Hi-Z)
  • Outputs: 1 x 1/4" TS, 1 x XLR
  • Features: -20dB Pad, Passes Phantom Power
  • Power Source: 9V DC Negative Center power supply (sold separately)
  • Power Usage: 193mA
  • Height: 1.85"
  • Width: 3.75"
  • Depth: 5.7"
  • Manufacturer Part Number: Colour Box V2

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Customer Reviews

Write your review
Rated 5/5

Powerful tone shaping! Endless possibilities!

I love transformers! Is that so wrong?
Rated 5/5

Flip’n Trip’n!

Just got this amazing pedal from my buddy who bought it from the best music company on the planet..Sweetwater! This pedal is amazing!! Running it through a vintage 70's Sunn Concert head and '69 Sunn 18in cab. Playing an early 70's Ibanez Lawsuit Jazz bass. The Colour Box is the answer, and made this setup complete. Hard to explain it, but it seemed to polish every aspect of sound. I love the bit of distortion I can get out of it. Keep up your exceptional and personable online service. Don't lose that!! Maybe I'm old, but I still like talking to service reps from companies.
Music background: Local club playing, basement jam’n, hobbie’st
Rated 5/5

The Power Of A Neve Console In Pedal

I'm a deep admirer of JHS pedals, and I'm pleased to say I finally own what I think is their Holy Grail of pedals—the Colourbox V2. I had always wanted a Colourbox since the original was introduced, but the hefty price tag was the main deterrent for me. Fortunately I got a brief taste of what the Colourbox could do when I settled on its streamlined cousin, the Crayon, which is by far one of my favorite pedals I use, and is a staple on my pedal board. Anyways, a couple years have passed since then and I've been wanting to add more tools to my arsenal of recording gear as a growing audio engineer, and this time when the Colourbox V2 came out, I happened to have the funds to spring for one, and I'm not disappointed...
I have no interest in using this pedal on my board, but instead as a preamp or D/I for tracking. I'm still experimenting with what this baby can do, but so far I love using it with guitar and bass when I record, as well as vocals. Whether I'm going for crisp cleans, or adding some warmth "colour", to full on fuzz, it seems to do it all without ever being too much for my interface or DAW to handle—I also use it in conjunction with my Rupert Neve Stereo D/I, which I feel like gives me the sweetest sound in all my recordings. I plan to do some tracking for drums as well with the mic running into the Colourbox, which I'm excited to see how that does, which I have no doubt will afford me some versatile possibilities in achieving different sounds.
Overall I'm pleased with the Colourbox V2 for it's amazing sounds, and while it would make for a great pedal to use on anyone's pedalboard, I prefer its use for the studio while I keep my Crayon on my board. My friends at Sweetwater also did an amazing job at securely sending me this pedal in a timely manner. Great product, great company—both Sweetwater and JHS!
Music background: Musician, Songwriter, Audio Engineer, Gearhead
Rated 5/5

If TONE is at the top of your list, you need this pedal

I had been looking for sometime for something that would give me control over my accordion to shape the sound. I didn't know if it existed then I saw this and took a chance. It works beautifully and does exactly what I wanted.

I also sing and tried it on vocal. I was taken back, I thought I sounded much better and enjoyed singing more. I think I read another review that said they loved their voice too.

WAIT, I also play bass (electric and upright). On upright it is a game changer. I can get a much more woody sound and it was CLEAR. It was similar to pressing your head against the neck and hearing the articulation more. I felt my intonation was better and somehow easier.

I did not try it on electric. I have other pedals for that and don't want to change. I'm also NOT interested in the distortion feature. But if you are a guitar player, I'm certain all the claims and demos you find on the subject are spot on. Everything I read and saw was true for me.
Rated 5/5

Hi-qualitizer

Makes all of my old and cheap mics sound amazing and useable.
Music background: knob turner
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