JHS Crayon
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 | Versatility | Tonal Reproduction | Live Application | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5/5 | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 11/20 |
Complexity: Simple
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.