[Marcel Furlanetto]

I sold my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50 and already miss that marshall sound.

Can anyone recommend a very good/high quality pedal that will give me that marshall distortion (at least 90% accurate).

I'm not looking for anything cheap...will spend about $100-250 (new or used). So far i'm looking into the Kaden Brown Creeper, MI Audio Crunch Box & a Keeley modded Boss ds-1 distortion. I also ordered a tech 21 sansamp gt2. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[david henman]

...the sansamp is great, although i find it lacking in sustain.

i tried the crunch box and was seriously underwhelmed.

have you tried the tonebone hot british?

-dh

 

[Kenmac]

If you look around you may be able to find a Boss HM-2 pedal will fill your needs quite nicely. I have one myself and it really does have that Marshall sound to it. (And no, I'm not selling it.) :smile:

 

[Marcel Furlanetto]

The tone bone hot british sounds like a winner but wouldn't you have to change the tubes once in a while. And, I dont think I'd be able to keep my cables plugged in (even when the power supply is turned off)...wouldn't that waiste the tubes' life.

I'm also intrigued by the Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n. Any thoughts?

And I was literally JUST about to checkout and pay for the MI crunch box. The reviews all seem really good. What was wrong with it?

 

[Marcel Furlanetto]

Nah, I find the boss od's/distortions to be quite saturated and 'fake' sounding.

 

[GuitaristZ]

the dsl is a great amp....sorry to hear you sold it I dont think you will be able to match it though....its pretty sick.

 

[iaresee]

ZVEX Box of Rock, perhaps? From Zack's description:

The Box of Rock (TM) is Z.Vex Effect's first "distortion" pedal, highly specialized to simulate the "everything on 10" sound of a classic Marshall ® JTM45 non-master-volume amplifier.​

 

[Budda]

thing about the marshall crunch is, its a 12AX7/EL34 into G12T-75's setup. a distortion pedal might get close, but i dont think any of them will really nail the sound as well as an amp.

marshall guvnor?

 

[Marcel Furlanetto]

Wow, the Zvex sounds great. And I probably would have been sold but the switches and knobs are too close together...my feet are somewhat clumsy.

 

[torndownunit]

A guy on another forum I use posted a sample of his MI Audio Crunch Box. Sounds pretty darn good:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=761668

 

[adamthemute]

I should be getting an MI-Audio Crunch Box in a few days, but their description is a "Marshall in a box" plus a whole lot more according to others.

I hear the Marshall Guv'nor is good.

 

[The Kicker Of Elves]

I have a Guv'nor and a Hot British, I like the latter more but...I had it first and have spent more time with it

The Zvex is supposed to be great, as well as the King of the Britains.

 

[PaulS]

That old Marshall Drivemaster sounded rather good.. I picked up a crunchbox a while back and found I like the sound but keep the gain down. There is a ton of gain in this pedal but I like it running around the 9 or 10 O'clock position. Also I haven't tried the crunchbox with single coils yet but works well with HB's.

 

[Mooh]

Marshall Guv'nor, Jackhammer, Compressor, or combination of them.

I use the Guv'nor and Compressor in tandem and sometimes add amp distortion, and recently the Seymour Duncan Lava which I really dig. Tube amp helps.

Peace, Mooh.

 

[Marcel Furlanetto]

I must say...the drive master out performed the crunch box in those audio files. Good thing I checked back here right before I clicked (pay now) for the MI audio.

I may get both the crunch box & the marshall drive master (then get it modded for true bypass)...its a very cheap alternative but it sounded exactly like what i'm looking for.

Edit: turns out the Drivemaster isn't so cheap..or available. Theres only 1 on ebay for $130 (145 buy it now). I checked harmony central for reviews and the majority spent $25-60. If anyone comes across one for sale..please let me know, thanks

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I have the CB. Good pedal, a little fuzzy/crunchy on the lower strings though. It needs to be played loud to sound its best. Would work the best if you have an amp just dirtying up and then hitting the front end with the CB. On its own, any pedal will sound a tad anemic compared to its counterpart, a real amp. Solution, save up for the used version of the amp you sold. Why did you sell it?

Box of Rock won't have the gain you need. they were suposed to devellop a Box of metal though. Also i would suggest looking up a pedal called the brotech fat pipe pro. Can find those used easily for 80$, it sounds really nice. Check it out.

 

[Marcel Furlanetto]

The distortion was great but the clean wasn't spectacular. I couldn't use the distortion with my pedal board as it was loaded into the front end. I couldn't go through the fx loop because I have fuzz pedals that would damage the head and/or pedals. It ultimately came to 2 possibilites:

1) Suck it up and never use pedals with the dist.

or

2) Buy a really clean amp (getting a silverface fender twin reverb by the end of the week) and build pedals up onto it.

 

[Chito]

I have the MI Audio Crunch Box and it is the pedal I use for when I play songs where I need some high gain. I also run it using 18volts which from what I hear, gives it more gain. There is also an internal trim pot that you can adjust. It is supposed to emulate a JCM800. I also boost it using a BBE Boosta Grande in front of it, the harmonics get crazy.

BTW, the Box of Rock is also a "Marshall in a box" altho it is voiced towards emulating the JTM45s.

 

[Warren]

Check out the Blackstone Appliance. I really like mine. Comparing it to my 1976 Marshall JMP 2203 it sounds pretty good. Not exact but has the right flavour, it does a really nice Malcolm Young sound through a clean 6L6 amp. I actually like the brown channel better than the red. The Brown is a little darker. But it's not distortion in the traditional sense, it's only the crunch not the gain.

 

[a Pack of Wolves]

i'm currently using a marshall guvnor plus for the 'marshall' sound
(that's what they claim it does)
and a it's really good sounding inexpensive pedal