Marshall-in-a-Box pedal for both lower gain/vintage and modern hot-rodded Marshall tones?

Dave_Mc

Hey everyone

EDIT- New info, read this before reading the entire thread so you don't waste your time

Thanks for all the replies again, everyone. I was messing with my distortion pedals last night... and you know what, I think my Joyo Hot Plexi might just get heavy enough for what I want (at least with a boost in front). If so, that's awesome, because apart from being a bit light on distortion, it's virtually perfect for what I want (plus I already have it so it'll save me money). I need to try it with lower output single coils to be sure (plus I've heard some horror stories about Joyo reliability so it could die tomorrow) but initial thoughts are that I might not need to buy any new pedal. Sorry about that. If it does die on me, though, I have plenty of info to decide on something else. Thanks again for everyone's help.

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I think I've decided that what I really need (!) to finish off (!) my pedalboard is a Marshall-in-a-Box pedal which will do both lower gain and more modern hot-rodded high gain Marshall tones (and everything in-between I suppose). Nothing really wrong with my current pedals, but I'm having to use 2-3 pedals to get those tones, and if I could find one pedal which would do it, it'd save a bit of pedalboard space.

I don't need it to do pseudo-clean boost and/or lower gain overdrive tones (as in overdrive pedal-type tones- I suppose you could describe more vintage Marshall tones as overdrive too and I obviously do want those type of tones!) or the really heavy stuff (as I have my Hardwire metal distortion for that).

Deal-Breakers

- Needs to do more vintage Marshall tones (think Free, AC/DC, that type of stuff) through Jailbreak-era Thin Lizzy and early Van Halen into more modern hot-rodded high gain (80's hard rock and metal, hair metal) Marshall tones. And ideally do them all well )

- Not super-expensive. My budget isn't set in stone, but my current frontrunner is the MI Super Crunch Box, which is £99, so around that kind of money (or less). Another £20 or so isn't a problem if it gets me something much better, but I don't want to end up paying £300 either. )

- Needs to work with a variety of (tube) amps, both set clean and crunchy.

- Small. The SCB is only about 2" wide (and should fit on my board) so nothing much bigger than that.

- Runs off a regular centre-negative 9V power supply at a low current (since I might have to daisy-chain it). If it runs off a different power supply it'd need to come with its own supply (or at least have one available for cheap).

- Needs to take an OD pedal as a boost well (probably Boss SD1 or my Daphon clone of it).

- It's not a deal-breaker, but it'd be nice if I didn't have to do tons of tweaking to dial in those different tones, as I tend to set and forget.



Any ideas? As I said, my frontrunner currently is the MI Super Crunch Box, but I haven't tried it so there may well be far better options.

Thanks for your help

ICBM

Marshall Jackhammer.

I'm not remotely joking.

Its only real disadvantage is that the best settings for the overdrive and distortion modes are so different that you can't switch from one to the other on the fly. Or not without memorising the settings and fiddling with the awkward fiddly little knobs.

RaymondLin

JHS Morning Glory?  It's basically a Marshall Bluesbreaker

jonnyburgo

I have a Wheebo JTM drive which covers a lot of those tones, maybe the JCM Drive might do it for you for the higher gainy things

Richardj

Catalinbread DLS mk3. Should get a decent used one for your budget and they are very good indeed, check out the ProGuitarShop demos. I also used a Diagio in line 9v to 18v converter and it made it even better.

fretmeister

AMT M2

steamabacus

This demo impressed me ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc81IZnLlvk&list=UUZnf3mdsauHpQu7Txmrf8ww

No idea what they cost but they are a British company so postage shouldn't be too much.

Heartfeltdawn

Catalinbread DLS M I to III. I swear by the Mark I version. 

JohnPerry

I've had the Xotic SL, the DLS3, Wampler's Plexidrive and Carl Martin's Plexitone. Buy the Weehbo JTM over them without hesitation. 

Easily the best old-school Marshall tone in a pedal and if you're boosting it anyway it'll take you into higher gain territory with ease.

There's one on eBay with no bidders at a bargaintastic fifty quid

mike_l

I'll agree with ICBM the Jackhammer is a brilliant little pedal.

I'll throw the Hardwire CM-2 into the mix as well, very similar (on the classic setting) to the Mk1 Guvnor, which is (at least to me) a proper Marshall in a box....

The Guvnor 2 is good, but the low control needs to be carefully set or you'll end up with nothing but low-end.

not_the_dj

Catalinbread DLS Mk3

ChrisMusic

Have you checked out JHS' offerings.

Charlie Brown and Angry Charlie may do it for you, maybe top end, or just over your budget, but they do work fantastically.

Andy Timmons was making some great noises with an Angry Charlie at the recent workshop, and he really knows his tone !

http://www.jhspedals.com/products/guitar-pedals/angrycharlie/

Charlie Brown

Duration 7:39

Angry Charlie

Duration 8:28

Dave_Mc

Thanks guys I'll go through the pedals suggested now (I think that's handier than quoting everyone and having a massive post):

Jackhammer: I'd come across that one before, and it was definitely on my list. My only concern was the fiddly knobs and that it might be awkward to get the totally different settings without a ton of tweaking. It's kind of a catch-22- more settings means more ways to tweak (which helps you to get vastly different tones) but also makes it more awkward to get there )

JHS/Bluesbreaker is a low gain overdrive I think? I have the mooer clone and it is, at least. No idea how tweaked the JHS version is, though.

Weehbo- Looks very good (I've heard of them ok and I think they have a good rep) but seems to be very expensive, and also a bit big.

Catalinbread: Again, this one was on my shortlist, but I was under the impression (probably wrongly) the newer one was lower gain? Also it has an internal switch, which I hate. )

AMT: I'd forgotten about them. I'll check the video.

Cornstar: Never heard of them, will check the video.

Hardwire CM2: I already have that ) I'm using it as an overdrive, to me it doesn't sound that Marshally? ) Probably better not to discount user error on my part, though.

Guvnor 2: Similar concerns to the Jackhammer.

slate

You want a zvex distortron

Dave_Mc

It's a bit of a weird shape

EDIT: Ok listened to the videos:

Cornstar sounds pretty good, but I'm concerned it might not get heavy enough (nor that the tone control is wide-ranging enough).

AMT sounds pretty good, but it says it's meant to be connected to a clean channel? Maybe that's just in theory and maybe it works fine over a crunchy tone too, but I'd like to have the option. )

ZVex Distortron again I'm scared it doesn't get heavy enough (and is a weird shape, as I said).

Anyone tried the super crunchbox? I think monquixote had one at one point, but I might be misremembering...

fretmeister

The AMT works with a bit of crunch. Well - I have the P2 and R2 versions and they both do, and a mate has the S2 and the same applies.

JohnPerry

Dave_Mc said:

Weehbo- Looks very good (I've heard of them ok and I think they have a good rep) but seems to be very expensive, and also a bit big.

the JTM's MXR sized

Fretwired

Dave_Mc said:

Thanks guys I'll go through the pedals suggested now (I think that's handier than quoting everyone and having a massive post):

Jackhammer: I'd come across that one before, and it was definitely on my list. My only concern was the fiddly knobs and that it might be awkward to get the totally different settings without a ton of tweaking. It's kind of a catch-22- more settings means more ways to tweak (which helps you to get vastly different tones) but also makes it more awkward to get there )

Guvnor 2: Similar concerns to the Jackhammer.

For the price of these pedals you can have two .. and don't rule out an original Guv'nor ... I might even sell you mine .. wonderful for those vintage Marshall tones. Gary Moore used to use one.

ThePrettyDamned

RaymondLin;415833" said:

JHS Morning Glory?  It's basically a Marshall Bluesbreaker

The blues breaker is more a low-mid gain od - unless modded, it's not higher gain distortion on tap. Apparently jhs quality control is much better these days, though, so maybe they have something else, I've largely ignored them since the ridiculous jhs/devi ever thing and the quality of some pedals they made emerged... I'll check out the current range at some point maybe.

The zvex Distortron or box of rock just wins I think. Hit it with a boost for higher gain. I use a visual sound son of Hyde and it's the only Marshall in a box I'd trade it for. They come up used quite a lot the box of rock is awesome. Boost and distortion in one box that can go from jtm overdrive right up to jcm800 heavy crunch.

The son of Hyde is great, but definitely a much better higher gain pedal than low. Try one if you can, but I doubt it's the right pedal for you.

Unless you're happy using the hardwire cm-2 for od and using a son of hyde for high gain, in which case, you'd be a very happy bunny. Awesome sounding box.

Dave_Mc

^ Thanks. I have the Joyo High Gain Distortion, which I think is a lightly-modded shredmaster, and I didn't really like it. ) Or at least, I don't dislike it, but it doesn't really do a tone which I'd really use much. The SoH is a shredmaster too, isn't it?

Yeah those Zvexes sounded pretty good in the PGS vid I found. Just I'm concerned they're not gainy enough (could be wrong) and are the wrong shape to fit on my board unless I massively rearrange it (and even then).

@fretmeister: Thanks


@JohnPerry: Interesting, thanks. I thought I looked it up on the Weehbo website and it seemed to be big like the other ones. Which one did I look up then? )

@Fretwired: Thanks. Problem is I don't really have room for two pedals- the pedals I already have would do just fine if I did! I suspect a couple of the pedals I already have aren't a million miles off an original guvnor, either (since I suspect they're original-crunchbox-based, which itself was guvnor-based I think).

monquixote

Dave_Mc said:

AMT sounds pretty good, but it says it's meant to be connected to a clean channel? Maybe that's just in theory and maybe it works fine over a crunchy tone too, but I'd like to have the option. )

ZVex Distortron again I'm scared it doesn't get heavy enough (and is a weird shape, as I said).

Anyone tried the super crunchbox? I think monquixote had one at one point, but I might be misremembering...

Indeed I have (don't forget to put an @ if you want to notify someone)

The Super Crunchbox is a really versatile Marshall type pedal and has a very good Plexi and JCM800 mode. It also has another modded mode which I thought was a bit crap, but horses for courses. It would have been my suggestion had you not suggested it already. For the money it's a bargain. The only slight caveat is that the tone controls are slightly confusing and you can't get a lot of low string chug out of it. 

AMT do an M-Drive which is cheaper and closer to what you need if you are going into an amp.

http://amtelectronics.com/products/overdrive-distortion-pedals/amt-electronics-m-drive-jfet-distortion-pedal/

The Distortron is brilliant at vintage Marshall tones (better than the DLS IMO) and it does have a higher gain mode, but I didn't especially like it. If you want more gain out of it it's best to hit it with something TS like which was much nicer. I believe photek used to stack them.