Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The Janglebox! YEEHAW!!! My wife gave me the black one as an early Fathers Day gift and it is GREAT! I had used an Arion SOC-1 and a DOD FX84 compressor, but as well as they worked, they just didn't have "That Sound". The YouTube vids demonstrating the Janglebox just don't do it justice (although I did enjoy the wonderful guitar playing of the posters!) So far, I've tried it out with a Rick 360/12V64 plugged into a Fender Bronco (Vibrochamp) and a Laney GC-30V (I even tried it out on a Crate Taxi) and it just helped me nail the '60s sound I'd been searching for!

Yup. Sure do like mine.

Everything you watch on YouTube is being interpreted thorugh that crummy 2" speaker the off-shore manufacturer stuffed into your computer for 39 cents a unit.

As Porsche says, "there is no substitute" for trying stuff live.

Plus, even if you listen on headphones there is still a bunch of nasty compression being applied by any or all of the following: video camera, video software, web video hosting sites, playback software...

Best compressor around. Bar none. Congrats.

If you think that's good, you really need to try out the Janglebox 2!!!

Mateybob wrote:If you think that's good, you really need to try out the Janglebox 2!!!

Yeah, we looked at those, but I didn't feel worthy of one! Besides, The "Black Box" fits neatly inside the recess left by the neckpad in my V64's case . The idea of a seperate treble boost switch is great, but for my purposes, the original box does fine. Who knows. Maybe by the time I need a new compressor, they'll have out the JB-3!

I tried four different compressors before I settled on the Janglebox JB2. The onboard compressor on my Boss mutli-effects unit didn't do anything for me, the MXR Dynacomp was just too noisy, the Boss CS-3 was too subtle, and I didn't think much of the Keeley. On the other hand, the JB2 nailed the exact tone I was looking for, with only a few minor adjustments. It really brings out the chime-like quality of my 330/12, and I really love the separate treble boost for solos. It's also nice to be able to e-mail the owner of the company with a question and receive a response the same day. I guess you get what you pay for! I'm sure you'll get years of pleasure out of your Janglebox. I hear they're great for direct recording, too!

Folkie wrote:I tried four different compressors before I settled on the Janglebox JB2. The onboard compressor on my Boss mutli-effects unit didn't do anything for me, the MXR Dynacomp was just too noisy, the Boss CS-3 was too subtle, and I didn't think much of the Keeley. On the other hand, the JB2 nailed the exact tone I was looking for, with only a few minor adjustments. It really brings out the chime-like quality of my 330/12, and I really love the separate treble boost for solos. It's also nice to be able to e-mail the owner of the company with a question and receive a response the same day. I guess you get what you pay for! I'm sure you'll get years of pleasure out of your Janglebox. I hear they're great for direct recording, too!

+1 on both the direct recording and the responsiveness of the company owner. Tom

Tom,

I've never actually tried to record with the Janglebox. Can you give me some of the gritty details of your studio rig?

Robert

Folkie wrote:Tom,

I've never actually tried to record with the Janglebox. Can you give me some of the gritty details of your studio rig?

Robert

For Byrds 12 string sound, I run the 360/12 into the JB2, then into an analog Tascam mixer, then into the 2488 recorder. I've also tried putting an old Distortion+ or SansAmp between the JB2 and the mixer. I use a power supply for my JB2, because IIRC, it functions best with correct power and loses it's edge with weak batteries. My Byrds cover recordings are on http://www.beatbyrd.com
Tom

Tom,

Those are some really nice sound clips. Can you tell me a little about the 2488 recorder? Is it the equivalent of my Yamaha AW16G (16 track digital, with 32-bit internal processing)?

Robert

Great sounding clips, Tom! My Janglebox sonds great with the "Brit" stting on my Traynor YCS-50.

Folkie wrote:Tom,

Those are some really nice sound clips. Can you tell me a little about the 2488 recorder? Is it the equivalent of my Yamaha AW16G (16 track digital, with 32-bit internal processing)?

Robert

The 2488 is 24 bit, with 12 mono channels, 6 stereo pairs (which cannot be recorded individually). So, it's really an 18 track recorder, unless you build a stereo pair by moving 2 mono channels to it (1 left, 1 right). If you do that, you lose the ability to control the individual volume levels, because there's only 1 fader per stereo pair. Hope that's clear. Bouncing tracks would give you an almost unlimited amount of tracks, but at the price of limiting your edits.

The 2488 is currently available for $615, which IMO, is very cheap for the capacity/quality that you're getting. It doesn't gig well (doesn't take well to being moved a lot). Only 8 channels can be recorded at a time. Unless you use midi, mixdown is pretty much faders only. Having listed what you might consider complaints, I would replace mine in a second if something happened to it. I recommend it highly to any other Todd Rundgren/Paul McCartney wannabes.

We're getting away from 'Guitars', the topic of the subforum, so any further discussion on this should be done under "Others" or via PM.
Tom

You've found the Holy Grail of Byrdness Tone. The JB is the sh**. I tried compressors for years and never got the tone right until I got a Janglebox. I have a JB 1. Someday, I'll upgrade to a JB 2, but I'm happy with what I have.