Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

[Christopher Caruana]

So after watching many demo videos and reading many good reviews, Im really thinking about getting the Crunchbox and using it as a boost for my 800.

Anyone have good/bad experiances with this pedal?

-Chris

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

The Crunch Box is more of a stand alone distortion pedal than it is a boost...sort of a use it into a clean amp and get all the crunch from the box.

I wouldn't use it as a boost at all...

If you want a boost for an 800 I'd be looking at somehting like a TS-9, SD-1, Fulldrive...something along those lines. If you want to stay away from the TS camp of things something like a King of Tone or Klon would be great or even a Treble Booster depending on the 800 in question and what you want to hear in the end.

[d1dsj]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

I have a Crunchbox and it's great into a JTM45 or similar but not very good as a boost for an already dirty amp. I recently got a Raptor pedal made (by Ratherdashing) in a trade and it's great as a boost or a stand alone overdrive pedal. I also have a Keeley T.M.B pedal which is probably the best pedal I've ever used for boosting a clean or dirty amp... awesome although quite expensive.

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

Ok if not for a boost, the other one I was thinking of was a keeley modded DS1

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

Ok if not for a boost, the other one I was thinking of was a keeley modded DS1

To me a DS-1 and a Crunchbox are pretty similar...I wouldn't use either as a boost...

[d1dsj]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

Hey Chris, where abouts in the world are you?

[mrfunnyman]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

CC, I was just thinking about you and your search for the ultimate tone fri night lol. You need to get one of those Wampler Super Plextortions, Plexitortion, or the Pinnacle pedal, they are a little bit more spendy than the MI Audio Crunchbox but it suit your needs way more and also will give you more options in the long run. I was home this past weekend and visiting a buddy and he had the exact Marshall JCM 800 combo in his shop that you own. We played that amp for about an hour and both the high and low inputs sounded great. I remember you were saying the amp is too loud for home use. After playing the amp on the high input I see what you mean, we were in his work shop and we plugged into the high channel put the preamp vol on 5 and the master on 7 and rocked it out w/ a Les Paul and a EBMM EVH, amp sound awesome! If I were you I would plug into the low input, dial in your tone and vol, then run a distortion pedal thru the front end, your still gonna get a great tone pushing it with a pedal, I just think one of those wampler pedal's I recommended would suit your needs alot more than the pedals that you've been asking about. I mod my own pedals and have used other peoples mods out there, and every modded boss ds-1 I have done or played has still been a disappointment. Now the Tube Screamer, if you buy one get the TS-808, and buy a true bypass kit off ebay for $10. I just recently true bypassed a TS-808 and after removing the J-FET switch, and the few diodes and resistors that you have to remove to true bypass it, it took this pedal to a new level, basically it went from being a TS-808 to a TS-808 Handwired. Here is another pedal I would recommend also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is4sFNZeuwQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntepQvucDfY&feature=channel

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

^ tldr.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

My true bypass tone is awesome when I engage the pedal......I hear friggin angels...
doh

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

the Crunchbox is the pedal people always compare the Box of Rock too, when they're talking about things that the BoR does better than every other pedal.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

Most of the green overdrive pedals from MXR, Maxon, and Ibanez work very well with JCM 800's. Into my Marshalls, I've been using the MXR Classic OD, which is the same thing as the GT-OD. Maybe the Zakk Wylde model would work for you?
Maxon makes a bunch that are good too. I'm particularly interested in their new Organic Overdrive....an updated version of the good old 2 knob style, with true bypass as a modern feature.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Maxon-9-Series-OOD-9-Organic-Overdrive-New-Box-/380262602264?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item58896ad618

If you've got a bigger budget, I agree with the suggestion for Wampler pedals. They've managed to build that British sound into the design pretty well.

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

I think love carries it a bit too far. I enjoyed my Crunch Box for several years and I still think it's a bargain distortion box ...... one that sounds best when the gain is set under half. That said, I used it only to add some hair and ran it into an OCD and then into a clean channel.

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

Is the MXR 10 band EQ a good option? it has a Gain band on it in addition to the EQ bands.

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Any love for the crunchbox from MI Audio?

Is the MXR 10 band EQ a good option? it has a Gain band on it in addition to the EQ bands.

You've got to realize that there's no clipping going on inside an EQ pedal. It won't make the sound crunchy on its own. It will be like a clean boost with 10 tone knobs. A lot of people like to run these in the loop with the gain set a bit above zero to get a volume boost and/or frequency shift for solos.