Marshall in a Box Pedals

RocknRollDave · September 2013

Apologies for derailing this thread with my rubbish 'joke'..

Just as an aside, as someone who sort of knows what a Les Paul through a Marshall sounds like but equally has never really played through a Marshall in anger...how would one define the Marshall "sound"..?

(And yes I know Marshall have made more than one amp during their many years, but generally speaking here I think there is definitely a Marshall "sound"...)

monquixote · September 2013

RocknRollDave said:

(And yes I know Marshall have made more than one amp during their many years, but generally speaking here I think there is definitely a Marshall "sound"...)

Actually I'm not sure there is.

The BoR for example is a JTM45 type sound and the Crunchbox is a JCM800. They are as different from each other as they are from a Riot, or a RAT.

RocknRollDave · September 2013

Well there you go, shows what a Marshall noobie I am!

EricTheWeary · September 2013

I guess just what you have in your head as your favourite Marshall sound - Kossof or Hendrix or Slash or what ever. Of course half of them will turn out to be Fender Champs on the original recordings...

ICBM · September 2013

monquixote said:

RocknRollDave said:

(And yes I know Marshall have made more than one amp during their many years, but generally speaking here I think there is definitely a Marshall "sound"...)

Actually I'm not sure there is.
The BoR for example is a JTM45 type sound and the Crunchbox is a JCM800. They are as different from each other as they are from a Riot, or a RAT.

To me there is very definitely a 'Marshall sound', although not all Marshalls have it as much as others. I would be amazed if a BoR sounds as close to a JTM45 and a Crunchbox to a JCM800 as a JTM45 does to a JCM800. (Assuming you're running both in the same overall gain range.)

not_the_dj · September 2013

Well it all boils down to me buying a new guitar (of the big G variety) and going for the cliched 'Classic Rock' sound...but via pedals that I can easiy sneak into the house rather than a new amp ;-)

I'm dead happy with my amp, no plans at all to change that, but for my own enjoyment I like to have a few different sounds on tap...even though I know that joe public down the boozers I play won't actually care.

swlabr · September 2013

Crunchbox and BoR are very nice. The CB basically makes any amp sound the same (not in a bad way) and I prefer the BoR into a dirty amp.

On clean channels I've had very nice results with Wampler SuperPlex and Tech21 British. Loads of marshally tone out of these two.

OilCityPickups · September 2013

The Joyo American has got a permanent place on my pedal board these days ... and I've been playing with a Joyo 'British' borrowed from a mate. Stupid cheap at £30 but very good sounding indeed. There are those who will shy away simply because of the price ... however try one!

Dave_Mc · September 2013

ICBM said:

I was going to say it can't be because they're about as completely different as two pedals can be, but I didn't realise Carl Martin do a small battery-powered Plexitone now...

The original big mains-powered one is fantastic - about as close to Van Halen in a box I've ever heard - but is, er... big and mains-powered , which will put some people off. The one I had leaked dirt into the bypass signal very slightly as well - which is something that annoys me, although it probably only matters if you want your clean sound strictly clean. Surprisingly it gets very close to sounding like a Marshall amp even though it doesn't have a full EQ, which is something I usually find a requirement. They much have just voiced it exactly how I like inside.

I haven't tried the bigger one but the joyo clone version of the smaller one (assuming it is a clone) does sound very marshally to my ears. It's a bit of a one-trick pony (it basically sounds like early van halen too), but it does that one trick really well IMO. But yeah if he wants earlier hendrix sounds there are likely better options (that I haven't tried)...

johnhe · September 2013

I have several Marshall in a box pedals, and several of them are excellent. The best/most Marshall-y of them all through is the DLS mk3 - absolutely outstanding. My other favourites on my 2 boards are the OCD and the Menatone King of the Britians. The Rothwell Hellbender is also fantastic. I haven't owned the Wampler stuff, but the Plexidrive and the Pinnacle have sounded superb when I tried them out. Lots of great choices. However, I don't think you can get better than the DLS mk3. It does sound very different than the mk2, which I briefly owned. The full tonestack is a great feature. Plenty of bass, plenty of output. Very adaptable and authentic sounding.

TimmyO · September 2013

Tech21 British

Mindbogglingy convincing, v powerful EQ, and does various Marshall eras all from one unit.

I say def try one - maybe 2nd hand (MkI without the speaker emulation switch go cheaper and just as good) and flip it if you don't get on with it.

Budget option: used Mooer Cruncher

exocet · September 2013

For AC/DC style Marshall tones I found the Rocket Flex Drive to take some beating.

Foolishly I sold mine.

neilrocks25 · September 2013

I own a wampler plextortion and a catalinbread DLS MKII superbass prototype. I have also owned a marshall gov'nor plus and used to borrow a friends original gov'nor. My favourite is the plextortion, great JCM800 crunch it nails it pretty much. The DLS is also great and much better for lower gain applications (it also gets a good Malcome young tone) The gov'nor plus is good but gets a little muddy if not set up right, if you are on a budget the gov'nor does a good job. The original gov'nors are better though IMO The plextortion is the one I would keep above all else for a Marshall in a box tone.

Catthan · September 2013

Xotic have a new small box out, the sl drive iirc.

From the demos I've heard it doesn't sound as full as the plexitones I had (both versions) but seems many people like it and find the small footprint to be an advantage. I'd be interested to try that. I think it has some switches inside to change between super bass and super lead.

The one that I've seen get the best reviews was the vertex-modded 2-channel plexitone.

iirc, the signal bleed was fixed, EQ was added and the hard-wired cable was removed so it could get an ordinary adaptor, with a voltage pump inside so it could still operate at 12V internally.

Unfortunately vertex don't mod them anymore but iirc the may be getting their own dirt box out which should be marshal-y

re the 2 plexitones, i found the 2 channel one to work better with SC pups in the first channel (Hendrix) and the 2nd gain stage better with HBs. The 1-channel one was based on the 2nd channel of the old one with some mods suggested by Pete Thorn which made the pedal a bit more versatile. My understanding is that they added some of the improvements of the 1-channel to the recent 2-channel version too..

Haven't tried any of the other boxes mentioned here but tbh with the plexitones I always felt I was pretty much covered.

The BB is supposed to be based on a JTM (BB Blues Breaker) but when I had it I thought I was more of its own thing.

For JTM sounds the 1st channel of the 2-channel PT was fine indeed.

Brgrds,

not_the_dj · September 2013

I've only gone and clicked that "buy me" button for a DLS Mkiii ;-)

Rehearsal on Thursday should be fun to see what it can do, then gig on Saturday.

badlydrawnbanjo · September 2013

Rothwell Hellbender.

Catthan · September 2013

I'm resurrecting this thread 'cause I found 2 very interesting boxes today.

With my limited knowledge in fx electronics, I find the concept behind each very intuitive.

1st is @juansolo 's STM 800 in the add here

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/2950/fs-2x-new-klones-some-old-bits-and-pieces-all-diy-stuff#latest

It looks very tasty with the tubes glowing.

I'd be tempted in a JTM 45 -ish version personally.

the other is this one

http://www.ramblefx.com/#!marvel-drive/cee5

I think the jumpering concept is really smart.

No affiliation with the builders.

juansolo · September 2013

Catthan said:

I'm resurrecting this thread 'cause I found 2 very interesting boxes today.
With my limited knowledge in fx electronics, I find the concept behind each very intuitive.

1st is @juansolo 's STM 800 in the add here
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/2950/fs-2x-new-klones-some-old-bits-and-pieces-all-diy-stuff#latest
It looks very tasty with the tubes glowing.
I'd be tempted in a JTM 45 -ish version personally.

This is the latest version of that:

It'll get tidied up and tweaked a bit for the next.

hugbot · September 2013

RocknRollDave said:

Apologies for derailing this thread with my rubbish 'joke'..

Just as an aside, as someone who sort of knows what a Les Paul through a Marshall sounds like but equally has never really played through a Marshall in anger...how would one define the Marshall "sound"..?

(And yes I know Marshall have made more than one amp during their many years, but generally speaking here I think there is definitely a Marshall "sound"...)

It goes: grrrrr

Actually it depends on the amp, I think theres a big difference between the JCM800 sound, which is "raspy" and the plexi sound, which is "clangy" to me, the plexi has a lot of bright upper mids wheras the 800 has it more going on in the presence/top.

Catthan · September 2013

that looks like a serious piece of work @jualsolo, any clips?

You mean this is a jtm-ish one or the JCM running 12ax7s?

Any possibility to incorporate the 2-channel blending idea (like the marvel) into a build like that?

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