JHS Crayon Pedal

JHS introduces the Crayon pedal, a stripped down version of the Colour Box, with the same direct-to-console fuzz.

This is a dirt box inspired by the popular Beatles tune “Revolution 1”, but this one is made more compact, guitarist friendly and with more sonic versatility.

Like its bigger brother, the Crayon pedal mimics the piercing fuzz tone that was employed by the Beatles on “Revolution 1”, which is the slower but equally rocking arrangement of their popular song as heard on their White Album.

It is said that Harrison and Lennon’s guitar signal were routed to two microphone preamps in series, both of which were overloaded to just below the point where the mixing console would overheat. The result is what we heard on the track, a biting fuzz sound that has become as memorable as the song itself.

This “direct to console” distortion sound inspired the JHS Colour Box which was released in May of 2014. As expected some guitarists wanted a simpler dirt box style version without the 3 band EQ, or XLR connectivity, and this prompted the company to design and produce the Crayon pedal.

Instead of being a studio-preamp like the original Colour Box, the Crayon follows traditional guitar pedal designs with a smaller footprint, fewer knobs and more importantly, it carries a more accessible price tag, and it does all this without compromising the tone and idea behind the Colour Box.

For tone shaping, the pedal has three knobs and a switch. You get a Master knob that lets you adjust the output volume, and a Tilt knob that serves as an active tone control for boosting or cutting either the bass or treble frequencies. Giving the pedal its distortion quality is the Pre knob, which lets you adjust the gain setting by emulating the qualities of overdriven mic preamps. According to JHS, they have tweaked this setting to provide a more versatile range of tones from subtle tube overdrive, to classic rock distortion to spitting fuzz. Finally, there is a Hi-Pass switch that lets you activate two different hi-pass filter frequencies (200Hz and 750Hz), which you can choose on the side of the pedal. These will let only the high band frequencies pass through, allowing for interesting tone shaping.

Check out the official video demo:

First unveiled September of this year at Chicago Music Exchange, the limited number of Crayon pedals went on to be sold out. And because of the demand, JHS has scheduled a November 27, 2015 shipping date, this time for the guitarists worldwide to enjoy.

The JHS Crayon pedal is expected to sell for around $199, visit JHS Pedals for further details.

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