MI Audio CrunchBox

[neuro182]

Yo people,

Just got a MI Audio CrunchBox todae from G77.. So glad to swoop the last piece.. I tried it and it is uber juicy man.. Anybody got any other comments with regards to this pedal or wadesoever, please post them here and share them!!

# High Gain British Distortion at its best!
# 3 external and one internal control

* Gain - from the lightest breakup to insane high gain scream
* Tone - custom taper control which adjusts the high end cut of the pedal.
* Volume - updated taper for a more gradual and controlled volume sweep.
* new - internal presence control for adjusting the 'shape' of the Crunch Box's sonic footprint.

# Professionally powder-coated and silk-screened enclosure, measuring only 4.3" * 2.2"

 

[tany]

wow. how much is it? soundclips pls!

 

[neuro182]

SGD $199.. why need soundclips, when u noe u can come over to try :lol:

 

[tany]

hahaha. i lazy lah.

then ur J&H how? still keeping?

 

[neuro182]

sold to a nice gentlemen le..

 

[rearviewmirror]

Have it, love it. Mine is a 1st generation piece but i sent it in for the updates (internal presence pot and vol adjustment).

3 knobs, simple enough. Do open the thing up and fiddle around with the presence pot, it changes the character of the sound quite a bit. If you are using humbuckers, the default setting might sound a little dark so turn up the presence a lil.

It'll be great if the pedal can be modded to place the presence control outside though.

Cons... Gets noisy at higher gain levels, but with the amount of gain on tap you'll be crazy not to expect noise!

 

[PinkSpId3r]

how does the presence pot looks like? how much does it cost for you to send it over?

 

[rearviewmirror]

Looks like this. The blue square component. That's another pedal though.

Mike charged me USD10 for the mod, and I paid around SGD15 or so for air fare to Australia.

 

[ShredCow]

Note, its not necessary with the mod ifyou like it as it is... the old models that is...

Some say the new models can't sound the way the old ones did... *Shrugs*

 

[neuro182]

i heard from edo83 got some version differential between the new and the older MI Audio CrunchBox..

anybody care to enlighten me more?

 

[imcorn]

It'll be great if the pedal can be modded to place the presence control outside though.

that's quite easy.. get a linear 20k potentiometer and drill a hole on the side of the enclosure.. just replace the trimpot with the 20k pot and you're got the presence pot on the outside!

 

[ShredCow]

neuro, check the MI Audio website, if there's no info, email them. What better than to gwet it from the horse's mouth?

 

[neuro182]

yups i checked the site & cant find much info.. will email them

 

[NanoShred]

Alot of people complained that the original crunch box was too loud and the crunch box really opens up only after the volume is past 9 oclock. But the version is really LOUD. People also never go past 9 o clock for it. That is 1.

The second is too many people complaining its too dark and doesn't cut through.

So, Mike modded a presence trim pot so you can control the brightness of it and he made the volume knob not go up so high. The unity volume is now at 12 oclock he once said. Last time the unity volume is like at 8 oclock.

I am personally using a version 1 and don;t have any problems with it. I have heard many clips of the ver2 online and at guitar77. It sounds thinner to me and a lil more harsh as compared to ver1. Its still a great distortion but I very much prefer the original for my needs.

 

[neuro182]

oic.. so datx the diff..

 

[tany]

is it worth a buy? i'm looking for a brit dist unit as my J&H cant handle it well. but i wont let go of my J&H yet cause i love the ts sound and some nice dist setting.

i'm looking at:

carl martin flexitone
this crunchbox
BB preamp? i dunno if this is brit dist enuff but andy timmons uses it and i want to get a tone similar to his.

 

[neuro182]

:lol: i gave up my J&H for this man.. unless u getting the Radial British ToneBone, that one u gotta ask ChanMin cuz i tink he has one. For me, this pedal gave me the run for bucks.

 

[leecs]

Andy's main tone comes from his Mesa Boogie Lone Star. The BB Preamp only gives in more kick.

 

[skidrow]

My take on the Crunchbox :

1.Lots of mids - when you adjust to cut of the highs you will get a tone similar to one after a boost from a tubescreamer

Therefore you
2.could achieve smooth tones for instrumentals. With the highs in you could do screaming 80s- leads.

3.Very punchy rhythm sound even at low gain levels. (think acdc?)

4.Crunchbox overall quite dark sounding, but very thick and saturated. Notes decay nicely like a nice tube amp. (due to multiple clipping)

5.A very marshall sound, therefore very effective in many genres from 80s' hard rock to modern rock.

HOWEVER

One trick pony, essentially only one sound (but do be assure that it does it very very well IMO )



Look around forums and you can see that some people claim that the MI AUDIO TUBEZONE can do what the CB can do, but with a much wider range of sounds ( 6 knobs on the tubezone ).

OVERALL:

If possible give the tubezone a try, or heck, just get the CB. I love mine a lot.



Sorry very unorganised post, kinda lazy eh :?

 

[tany]

ic. thx for the post skidrow. good enlightenment.

and to leecs: ya i noe his tone comes from mesa boogie, but i saw the BB preamp video and he played it with the BB preamp first, and sounded real nice.