JHS Crayon

Not to be confused with the EHX pedal of the same name, this Crayon was taken out of the JHS Colour Box. Because of many requests, JHS did some surgery on their Colour Box pedal and offered a version that was meant to accentuate the distorted dirt sounds that the Colour Box is capable of. They have done so without needing to include all of the complex tonal controls and various types of inputs. The result is a pedal that guitar players love, but might be missing the exact parts that make the Colour Box so useful for a horn player.

External Control: None
Cost: $$

HornFX Review

Interface:  3.5/5
The Crayon has all the simplicity of a three knob overdrive pedal with the added benefit of a simple hi-pass filter switch. The pedal may be more useful for horns if it had an expanded EQ control.

Versatility: 2/5
This pedal will give you some nice drive and some nice distortion with the gain turned up, but it does not give you the tonal range you would hope for. There is not much outside some really fat, but slightly stuffy sounding distortion that this pedal does well.

Tonal Reproduction: 2.5/5
The tonal controls, although nicely conceived, do not manage your tone as well as one would hope. The pedal has quite a stuffy sound, and cannot seem to nicely accentuate the high end of your tone, even with the EQ all the way high.

Live application: 3/5
This could be a good tool for some beefy distortion. It is easy enough to dial in a few different settings, but the lack of tonal versatility and the stuffiness of the sound my make you look elsewhere.

Product Information

LITTLE BROTHER TO THE COLOUR BOX

The JHS Pedals Colour Box began with a simple idea: create a pedal that sounds like plugging directly into a vintage preamp and cranking it. No amp, no speaker, just DI goodness. Well, the Colour Box became much more as we got into designing it. Thus we decided it was time to pare it down and give guitar players and bass players a simplified version that gives you the distinct compressed overdrive and fuzz sounds you’ve heard on so many classic recordings. The Crayon is just that, a powerful little box that has all the color and characteristics of a vintage studio preamp when cranked.

CONTROLS

The Crayon has controls for Master, Pre-Vol, Tilt, and a Hi-Pass toggle. The Master volume controls the overall volume of the unit, while the Pre-Vol acts as a gain control to go from a gritty preamp drive to over-the-top gated fuzz. These controls work together to create a ton of colorful tones that are extremely useful. The Tilt control is an active EQ where when set at 12 o’clock you have a flat EQ, while turning clockwise boosts highs and cuts bass, and turning counterclockwise boosts bass and cuts highs. This gives the Crayon the ability to be tailored to any rig for bass or guitar. The Hi-Pass toggle cuts your low end with a flick of the switch for the ability to cut through the mix or get lo-fi sounds. There is a dip switch on the right side of the pedal to choose either 200Hz or 750Hz cut for the Hi-Pass.

FEATURES
- Preamp DI tones from low gain grit to gated fuzz.
- Active EQ for the perfect tones on bass or guitar.
- Hi-Pass for lo-fi AM radio sounds.
- Paint with all the colors of the wind.

The JHS Pedals Crayon is without a doubt the brightest crayon in the box that will give your tone all the color you need!

THIS PEDAL REQUIRES STANDARD 9V DC NEGATIVE POWER, CONSUMES 15MA, AND MEASURES 2.6"X4.8"X1.6".

Product info taken from the JHS website.