MI Audio Crunch Box

[Marshall]

Just got one of these from Ryan last week and thought I'd post up my thoughts

I've head this pedal described as "Marshall in a box" and it definately delivers on that. Nice and simple with 3 controls, Volume, Tone and Gain. The "Crunch" description is a bit misleading in the fact that it's goes from classic crunch right through to fairly heavy distortion (which is a good thing!! \ /). The tone control has quite a wide range to which is nice and it also has an internal presence control for extra tweakiness. The build quality is also awesome (like any MI Audio product).

I lent it to Some Bozo to try out and A\B with his newly acquired Satchurator and he kindly recorded some sounds clips for me to post up. Settings - AC\DC is gain at 1/3, tone at half. Then gain full, tone full...
All recorded dry with no effects. Judas Priest - Hellion multitrack is two tracks of chords and two tracks of lead.

[Hot_Grits]

Yeah, they are great. Very much an '800 in a box', and about the only true distortion pedal I like. The proguitarshop demo is amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTdoq7FmLhQ

[DarcyPerry]

Yeah, they are great. Very much an '800 in a box', and about the only true distortion pedal I like. The proguitarshop demo is amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTdoq7FmLhQ

He's playing into a 65 amp Soho!

[Trueman]

Nice clips, I like the harmonzing at the end there!

[Some Bozo]

Interesting to compare this with the Satchurator. Both red and high gain but that's pretty much where the similarities end. "Crunch" is a little bit of a misnomer, the crunch is certailnly there but it only covers about the first 1/4 of the gain knob and the rest is high gain lead with a certain mid boost sound that brings to mind 80s - early nineties Priest leads. This pedal completely rules for fat rock tones anywhere in the Priest, Motorhead, ZZ Top kind of spectrum.
The Satch's tone is a little more focused with a touch less mids, and it seems like playing a precision instrument that encourages careful attention to small details of picking and legato. The crunch is more like a magic box that accepts any input signal and outputs 100% rock and roll. I'm definitely going to get one for hard riffin' and wild leads, but the satch will cover everything a bit more subtle than that.

[Jenesis]

Great pedal, best distortion pedal I have yet messed with and will take some beating.

Funnily enough I have also been cranking on plenty of Judas Priest riffs with it. Good times.

[Some Bozo]

I should mention that this thing is insane for harmonics. I was getting wild squeals out of it just by accidentally sounding natural harmonics with the way I was lifting my fingers off the strings.

[Hot_Grits]

Yeah, they are great. Very much an '800 in a box', and about the only true distortion pedal I like. The proguitarshop demo is amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTdoq7FmLhQ

He's playing into a 65 amp Soho!

What do you expect him to use? a classic 50?

[Jenesis]

Yeah, they are great. Very much an '800 in a box', and about the only true distortion pedal I like. The proguitarshop demo is amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTdoq7FmLhQ

He's playing into a 65 amp Soho!

With a G&L Legacy?

[Hot_Grits]

All joking aside, the Soho is one hell of a pedal amp.

[Some Bozo]

Great pedal, best distortion pedal I have yet messed with and will take some beating.

Funnily enough I have also been cranking on plenty of Judas Priest riffs with it. Good times.

Good times indeed, the crunch box is crazy amounts of fun. If the satch pedal was a lightsabre - "an elegant weapon from a more civilised age", the crunchbox would be a flamethrower.