sleepykitty
New member
aiya just whack ah..
M.I. Audio Crunchbox
$199
Crunchbox. Does it sound exactly like how it's name implies? Hmm..
Build/Appearance/Features
The Crunchbox is housed in a sturdy MXR-sized chassis. Owners of crowded pedalboards will absolutely adore its small and compact footprint. However those same people may gripe about the side-located ¼’ jacks, as they would rather have it top-located, so as to save valuable real estate. This however can be easily remedied by using flatheads or something similar.
3 knobs labeled Volume, Tone and Drive, a 3pdt footswitch and an LED indicator sit on the pedal’s face. A 2.1mm DC plug is located on the front. M.I. Audio also claims that the Crunchbox is wired for true-bypass.
Tones
Tested using Cort M200 -> pedalboard -> craptastic SS amp
A decent palate of tones can be coaxed using just the three knobs available. The tone knob is interactive with respect with the overall volume of the pedal. Swing the tone knob between 12 and 3 o’clock and it yields a bright and biting voice that screams with mid-range appeal, coupled with a slight volume boost. There isn’t any significant change in tone after 3 o’clock. With the tone knob anywhere before 10 o’clock, the overall tone is muddy and dark, reminiscence of sleepykitty’s bitter experience with the Toadworks John Bull. The said tone is definitely not usable in sleepykitty’s opinion.
The gain knob churns out an almost clean signal with the knob on minimum. Max it out and you get a very intense and slightly compressed distortion, with a bucketload of noise/hum f.o.c. Sleepykitty finds that the gain’s usable range to be between 10 and 3 o’clock. The mids though, are harsher in the lower drive settings but smoothens out as the drive is increased. Between this range, the tone morphs linearly from a friendly and mild blues-like od, to a crunchy and crispy palm-muting-friendly distortion. Sleepykitty can generate Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Wrong Girl’ and ‘Suffer Some’ easily with the knob somewhere near 1 o’clock.
Sleepykitty’s most preferred setting on this pedal is with both the tone knob and gain knob at 2 o’clock, with the volume knob set slightly above the amp’s unity volume.
Conclusion
The Crunchbox makes an ideal pedal for users looking for a standalone dirt unit with some midrange Marshall flavour. It’s a versatile box to say the least. This pedal has enough gain to suffice up to the heavy rock player. Metalheads need not apply.
What I like:
Small footprint
Simplicity in tweaking (3 knobs only)
What I don’t like:
Midrange presence on the WHOLE tone knob sweep
Volume pot not that linear
M.I. Audio Crunchbox
$199
Crunchbox. Does it sound exactly like how it's name implies? Hmm..
Build/Appearance/Features
The Crunchbox is housed in a sturdy MXR-sized chassis. Owners of crowded pedalboards will absolutely adore its small and compact footprint. However those same people may gripe about the side-located ¼’ jacks, as they would rather have it top-located, so as to save valuable real estate. This however can be easily remedied by using flatheads or something similar.
3 knobs labeled Volume, Tone and Drive, a 3pdt footswitch and an LED indicator sit on the pedal’s face. A 2.1mm DC plug is located on the front. M.I. Audio also claims that the Crunchbox is wired for true-bypass.
Tones
Tested using Cort M200 -> pedalboard -> craptastic SS amp
A decent palate of tones can be coaxed using just the three knobs available. The tone knob is interactive with respect with the overall volume of the pedal. Swing the tone knob between 12 and 3 o’clock and it yields a bright and biting voice that screams with mid-range appeal, coupled with a slight volume boost. There isn’t any significant change in tone after 3 o’clock. With the tone knob anywhere before 10 o’clock, the overall tone is muddy and dark, reminiscence of sleepykitty’s bitter experience with the Toadworks John Bull. The said tone is definitely not usable in sleepykitty’s opinion.
The gain knob churns out an almost clean signal with the knob on minimum. Max it out and you get a very intense and slightly compressed distortion, with a bucketload of noise/hum f.o.c. Sleepykitty finds that the gain’s usable range to be between 10 and 3 o’clock. The mids though, are harsher in the lower drive settings but smoothens out as the drive is increased. Between this range, the tone morphs linearly from a friendly and mild blues-like od, to a crunchy and crispy palm-muting-friendly distortion. Sleepykitty can generate Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Wrong Girl’ and ‘Suffer Some’ easily with the knob somewhere near 1 o’clock.
Sleepykitty’s most preferred setting on this pedal is with both the tone knob and gain knob at 2 o’clock, with the volume knob set slightly above the amp’s unity volume.
Conclusion
The Crunchbox makes an ideal pedal for users looking for a standalone dirt unit with some midrange Marshall flavour. It’s a versatile box to say the least. This pedal has enough gain to suffice up to the heavy rock player. Metalheads need not apply.
What I like:
Small footprint
Simplicity in tweaking (3 knobs only)
What I don’t like:
Midrange presence on the WHOLE tone knob sweep
Volume pot not that linear
