M.I. Audio's "Crunch Box"

[soupbone]

Has anybody tried out M.I. Audio's "Crunch Box"?I was looking for a good distortion pedal to run through my custom built rick potter clean amp.(He's a guy from Tulsa.It's basically a fender pro reverb with some of his tricks he did to it.Unfortunately,He's no longer with us .)I was looking a for a good "Marshall'y sounding dirt box.I built the GGG BSIAB 2,and It's sounds pretty darn good.I was pretty amazed though of how good this pedal sounds!The only pedal I've heard that might be better is Brian Wampler's "Plextortion".Anybody have they're own favorite Marshall sounding "Distortion" pedal?Ideas welcome!

[euronymous0001]

this , i assure you is incomplete. in no particular order and depends upon your ears,
these are the following to be reputedly marshall boxes: 

• zvex                  box of rock
• tonefreak         severe
• mi audio         crunchbox
• ed guidry's      bsiab and bsiabII
• tech21         sans amp (classic, gt2, british)
• fulltone         OCD
• suhr            riot
• runoffgroove   thor and thunderchief
• mojotronics   plexizer
• lovepedal      purple plexi 800
• catalinbread   dirty little secret
• lovetone      brown source
• marshall      guvnor?

it is really hard to align the names of the fx 

[slacker]

The Crunch box is good. It's basically a copy of the  Marshall Govnor without the tonestack so I guess it sounds like a Marshall Probably sounds as much like a cranked Marshall amp as anything else.

[Renegadrian]

The purple plexi is all but a marshall sounding pedal imho...and so some other pedals that claim to give you that sound...
You know it's so easy to say "my pedal sounds like a ....(put famous amp name here)" but a lot of times the results are more or less far away from what they pretend to be.

The menatone king of britains is to be added to the list, I heard it sound very similar to a marshall - take a look at the schematic, it's a very close rendition, so it should give you similar sounds...

[Alman]

I use a Crunch Box clone on my board right now. It really fattens up my Strat more than my BSIAB. It also sounds good with humbuckers. I used the Crunch Box schematic that has the prescence control added, but I put it in the box as a trim pot. I really think the prescnce control needs to be there to clean up the muddiness.  I run it almost all the way up. It is a pretty quiet circuit too.

Allan

[euronymous0001]

i forgot

ProTone      Jason Becker Dist

[soupbone]

Cool!Thanks for the replies folks!

[vendettav]

hey does anybody have a PCB layout for crunch box??? i'd really love to give it a try

[MikeH]

hey does anybody have a PCB layout for crunch box??? i'd really love to give it a try

There's one by Mark M in the Layouts gallery called Crunch'd box or something like that.  Although it's not an exact clone; it has an improved (IMHO) tone control.

[vendettav]

cool i was wondering if it really works? i've heard a lot of problems with it?

[MikeH]

Worked perfectly for me

[Renegadrian]

Is there any version 3 CB schematic!?

[Schappy]

check madbeanpedals.com

[Schappy]

actually I couldnt find it on madbeans website. I do have an extra crunch box board I bought from madbean but dont have the layout. If you can find the layout I can send you the board.

[vendettav]

actually I couldnt find it on madbeans website. I do have an extra crunch box board I bought from madbean but dont have the layout. If you can find the layout I can send you the board.

hey how much would you send the board for?

[Michael Weidenauer]

The Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal (1st version) is also very nice in front of Fender-amps. It was my first pedal and I still use it a lot.
I couldn't say if the Box of Rock or the Bluesbreaker is the better, both sound nice although the feeling is quite different.
The BB maybe has less tube like dynamics, but it cuts better through the mix.