Ugly Truth About Getting Your Pedal Modded By JHS

If you are up on your pedal, then you are familiar with JHS pedals, they started offering a service to mod popular pedals for those that are so inclined. They started developing custom circuits and offering a line of pedals. Some of these pedals are very highly respected and sought after. I've been a DIY guy for the most part and have done many mods to Boss and Ibanez pedals, so I've never gone in for sending pedal off. Planning mods and tracking down parts has been a fond hobby for a long time, but this mod in particular seemed like a solid candidate. Now, on with the truth!

Here's what I got back form JHS

It's Uncomfortably Long Process

When dealing with send pedal through the mail, the worst part is the wait. Anyone who has order a piece of gear knows that it hard to wait. They have your money, you've made your decision, but you have days before you can play with your new piece of kit. Unlike an order from a retail web-store, The modding process is a service. So you mail your pedal, in this case, it took three days to arrive at JHS. Then they have to process your order in the order it was received. I was alerted that since I had mailed it just before the new year, then there would be a delay. The website stated that a typical order could take up to three weeks to process. So, I wasn't stoked. It ended up taking right up to the three week mark to receive my pedal, so according to the website, it was quite timely. If you were a active musician with gigs, then you would be out an important part of you rigs for weeks.

There A Hidden Fees

The enticing point of all of this mess is that you (yes, you!) can have a boutique-quality, professional-grade piece of gear for the price of a popular, mass-produced piece of gear. All you have to do is get these wizards to do their special brand of voodoo to it first. All for a nominal fee, of course. But that is to be expected. Nothing is free, but you probably already have one of the massively popular pedals that they offer a mod to, so its not like you are spending more money on your pedal, you are investing in an upgrade. So you come to accept the seemly exorbitant cost or changing a few part that total to a couple of dollars, but you rationalize it to yourself somehow. Then you come to find that they stick you with the cost of shipping it back to you. (not only that, but it's twice as much as you paid to ship it there...) In all I nearly doubled the price of my Soul Food, but it was all worth it, right?

It Might be worth it

Of course, I was excited to receive my pedal back from JHS. It just like getting new gear, expect that it was yours to begin with... So I spent a fair amount of time playing with my newly modded pedal, as I do, and I'm happy with it. That is, in the since that it was any worse than way I left it. Also the bass knob made a considerable difference when rolled all the way up. The switch that controls the clipping diodes made a very minute difference. I'm pleased with the changes made. I didn't have to lift a finger to do them, and everything looks great. 

Conclusion

Is it worth it to get your pedal modded by JHS. I think we already know the answer to that question. No. It is absolutely not worth it. Do I think that my $60 dollars (yes, all told I spent $60 on the mod plus shipping both ways) would have been better spent toward another pedal that already accomplished what I was trying to do the the original pedal. Unless it is directly related the the functionality of the pedal (like adding addition modes or settings) then a mod is mostly that special incantation that only those practitioners of the dark arts know. Or you know, google and soldering... 

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Top 5 EHX Crayon Rumors

There has been a lot said about this pedal since it was teased by EHX a few days ago. Forums and blogs have been abuzz about how it shares it's name with a JHS pedal. Personally I am excited to check this pedal out for myself. There is a lot of speculation about what this pedal might have in common with other pedals. In other word: What kind of clone is this pedal. As exciting as it would be to have a inexpensive pedal to do the job of a pedal that might be financially out of reach of some player, other look at copy-cat pedals as rip-offs that are just attempts to make money off of other peoples work. No matter wear you fall on the issues of clones, new pedals are exciting. Lets look at what is being said about The Eletro Harmonix Crayon

It's a JHS Color Box Clone

Yep, this one is a little on the nose. JHS has not only put out a pedal of the same name, but they are similar in function as well. Some have mentioned the differences in the two, such as the toggle that is missing from EHX's pedal. Although they have added internal switches that match other clones. The Soul Food pedal has internal buffer switching. Maybe this is a little surprise they are waiting to expose closer to it's commercial release. EHX hasn't really been this spot on with a name before. The TS clone is almost entirely green, but it was named East River Drive. The Klon Centar gives clones lot opportunity to riff on the name, my favorite being the Tumnus from Wampler, but EHX went with Soul Food. Still don't really 'get it', but hey...

Mike as he hints that the Crayon is a Fulltone clone...

It's a Timmy Clone

This is a little more simple to unpack. The Crayon has four knobs. The Timmy has four knobs. The Timmy is a popular pedal. EHX has a habit of copying popular pedals. This one isn't as much reserch driven theory as it is process of elimination. Whats the most popular four knob, light-to-medium gain pedal on the market... That must be it. The Timmy is based on the Tube Screamer with more control over the EQ. It's a great pedal. It might, in fact, bear more than a passing resemblance to the Crayon. What I've heard so far doesn't really lead me to think that, but I'm wrong a lot.

It's an RC Booster

This one is a little bit of a stretch. The circuit could share some similarities, but the reasons the comparison has been made in the first place is just mind-blowing. So, people other than my self have stated that the link between these pedals are the names. Crayon begins with the letters C and R. Turn those around and you get RC. There you have it. Rock solid proof that the Crayon is a RC Booster. The RC is a popular four-knob pedal, so there is that as well. But like I said before, word play is not one of EHX's strong suits. Nor naming things in general. Muff, Cock Fight, Glove... eh, I guess we'll buy anything that we think sounds good.

It's a Soul Food With a JHS Type Mod

Jeez, I hope so. I would buy two if this was the case. The only thing is, this would be utterly stupid for EHX to do. Why put out a pedal so closely related to your other pedal, but better. The Bass Soul Food is just that, a four knob Soul Food, although the fourth knob with a signal mix. The pedal went form transparent overdrive to just transparent to the point you can't tell if it is on. But you'll notice that the extra feature came with extra cost. Again we have extra features with the bass knob, but no added cost this time. It looks like they are able to assemble these pedals for no more that the other affordable clones they've been putting out.  What makes this hold a little bit of water is the fact that they are marketing this 180 degrees from the Soul Food. The Soul Food is a "transparent overdrive" where as this is meant to "color" your tone. Now they can sale you two pedals to do the job that normally one pedal has done. Sneaky...

It's a Robert Cray pedal

This is fun, Robert Cray is a blue musician. I have him playing it the background as a write this right now. Fun fact, it been said that Mr. Cray doesn't use pedals. Although I hear delay on his guitar right now... anyhow. I have not been able to confirm and use of drive pedals in the video of the live set that I am playing currently. He does have a Fender and Matchless amp among other accessories (none of which are pedals) on stage to shape his tone. Why would he. He is employing overdriven amps to make his overdrive. Why use a pedal that emulates an amp when you can just use a cranked amp. Robert Cray's tone is awesome and I would buy just about any pedal that could make me sound like that. Why have people said that this is true? The name, and the fact that his tone is mostly clean, much like the Crayon. Cray...Crayon... just too close to not be mentioned...

What do I think about all this... well, in a few days it won't even matter. We will have all the answers. But it's fun to speculate in the meantime.

Is The KLON The New Tube Screamer?

Most of us that have peered behind the curtain of our guitar effects have noticed a trend that seems as old as the electric guitar (and its little effects buddies). People have been 'cloning' gear before 'cloning' was even a thing. Before the commercial success of the electronic effects industry, guitarist have been emulating one another in a myriad of ways. In the time before solid-bodied electric guitars, modified arch top guitars plugged into amplifiers were stuff full of rags to eliminate feed back. Amplifiers were modified with 'master' volume knobs to push the unit into situation. Beer bottles were used to emulate the sounds of a African folk instrument call the 'diddly bow'. These ideas were popularized and improved upon. We now owe solid-body guitars, overdrive and slide guitar to these trends. As we think back to a time when the lowly Tube Screamer was introduced, before the host of modifications were made common. One of the greatest guitarist famously used the Tube Screamer to shape his legendary sound. Fast forward thirty years and we see the trend again, only with a new name.

The Klon has an epic back story. Back in the mid 90s Bill Finnegan built the first Klon Centaurs. From there the popularity and mythos behind the pedal blossomed. Many popular players picked up on the pedals lure. The used value of the pedal skyrocketed when production of the centaur stopped. In the following years Bill, in partnership with others, developed the KTR to have the same effect while using surface mounted components. The trajectory of the klon follows that of the Tube Screamer. If we apply the same logic, what does this mean for the Klon? Well, if history serves: clones, mods, and and reissues.

Clones... There are tonnes of clone of the Centaur. A list would be academic, but makers have been producing these since the original has gone out of production. The replications haven't stop since the introduction of the KTR either. Wampler just released the Tumnus which puts the Centaur in a tiny package. Mods are common as well. The originals are still too sacred to tamper with (they are also covered in epoxy). But many mods have become popular for the clones and facsimiles. Reissues my just be an inevitability. At the moment, Finnegan seems unmotivated to produce any more Centaurs in any large amounts.