Which "Marshall in a Box"??

[IvIark]

Hi Guys

I've had a Crunch Box for years and still really like it into a clean amp (or modeller) but want to try some other options.  I recently got a £15 clone of the Suhr Riot - yes I actually bought a dirt pedal  but in my defense, only because it was in a 1590A size box.  I do like that, it sounds really good, but want to weigh up all the options.

Unfortunately with the layouts I didn't add a "Marshall in a Box" tag so I don't know which layouts are suitable.

So come on please guys, give me a list of what you've tried and liked

[Frank_NH]

Some suggestions...

* Wampler Plexidrive
* Catalinbread DLS Mk. III
* Friedman Dirty Shirley
* Ramble-FX Marveldrive
* Bogner LaGrange

I haven't built all of these, but they have a good reputation for Marshall tones.

However, my current thinking is that you really have to match any effect to both your amp and guitar.  What sounds great on your Les Paul may sound bad on the Strat.  Or what sounds good on your Fender tube amp's clean channel may not sound so good on a solid state amp.  

So many combinations!  That's what makes this fun...

[Frank_NH]

Oh, I forgot to mention the ROG Thunderbird.  It's very Marshally and I built mine using the 1776 Effects PCB.  The only problem it had with it is that it's a little noisy when the gain is up, and actually sounds like a tube amp in that regard!   Of course, the vero build may be less noisy... using shielded cable etc.

[IvIark]

Thanks Frank, that's given me some reminders of a few!  The Marvel Drive was the latest and greatest at one time I seem to remember.  Will give a couple of them a whirl.

[Pavlos]

+1 for the Marveldive

Menatone King of the Britains is really good too, like the Marveldrive it responds nicely to picking dynamics and tweaking the controls on your guitar

Rockett Animal is quite Marshall flavoured as well
could also try the Dyna Red

[balazs.bencs]

I know that it's not exactly a Marshall tone, but the Friedman pedals are great.

[Blackboarcult]

My current go-to marshall is the layout I did a while ago for the 5010. Those SS marshall from the 80s are stunningly good, I'm surprised they didn't refine them or reuse them in the 90s and 00s. This one nails the 80s hard rock tones and loves boosts and ODs to goose it up. The 3005 is also wonderful for lower gains.
Depends on which Marshall flavour you're after of course... Marvel Drive is still better than the Plexitones and Plextortions for that classic crunchy tone IMO.
Rockett 45 Calibre sounds great too, but i find it a wee bit lacking in top end. The Caline Englishman sounds also neat provided you have a 6-band EQ before it to tweak some frequencies

[Sphere80]

Since you like the basic Guv'nor type circuit (same as me!) with the Crunchbox and Riot, I'll go back to them. I built these three, and all offer something a little different.

This one has a charge pump and clipping/gain options:
http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Super-Crunch-Box-td18811.html

Recent addition. The original Riot was very close to the Crunchbox, but this updated version is higher gain and more mids focused:  
http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Suhr-Riot-Reloaded-td45067.html

This last one is my favorite, with an effective 4 band EQ (sub bass)
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/10/barber-dirty-bomb.html

That one is probably inspired more by the Shredmaster than the Guv'nor, but they're in the same family.

[rocket88]

Just going to throw this one out, but on the main page I posted 3 different Marshall preamps that I converted from tube to FET. I think I did the Superbass, Superlead, JCM800, and one more but can’t remember. I actually just make the Marshall Superbass preamp for another one of my mini 100watt amps. Sounds really good and pretty bang on, for obvious reasons. I’m not sure how different it will sound running into an amps preamp, but if you want a Marshall in a box, you might as well make an actual Marshall in a box. Lol

[Travis]

I liked the Menatone PiG. It goes after the Mick Ronson kinda Marshall sound. It’s a little fatter and more throaty than some of the other emulations which can sound strident in comparison

[HamishR]

While not really a Marshall in a box the BJF Baby Blue sounds amazing with a Les Paul.  I thought it was a bit crap until I got a Les Paul - now it makes sense!

Otherwise I would recommend the Rockett Calibre 45 or Majestic.  They're almost identical - the Majestic is just a tad fuller and has a slightly more rounded off high end.  The 45 is more typically Marshall.

[Frank_NH]

Let me also mention the Bajaman projects from FSB, particularly:

Baja JVM Overdrive
Baja Mars Hall 59 Plexi

I have partially built the 59 Plexi vero and should finish it up so I can try it out myself.  All of the Bajaman projects that I have built to date have been great.

[Sensei Tim]

i'll vouch for the thunderbird and the laGrange.

I haven't built the lagrange here, but i had a legit one come to me for repairs a few years ago. at first i thought it was going to be all hype but it sounded *great*

[Sensei Tim]

btw here's what hte jcm800 preamp sounds like (18v)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgjMYsJuX1E&t=4s


and the thunderbird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpHdiKPvlY&feature=youtu.be&t=5

[IvIark]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.  I'll have a listen to a few youtube vids and make a few I think.  It's been a while since I made anything so about time I dusted off my iron

[Silver Blues]

There's also the Keeley 1962/1962x which I've looked into a bit and they sound really good.

[Willybomb]

Here's something I wrote on the Madbean forums in regards to recommendations for dirt pedals:

"As far as high gainers go, I've built the BE-OD, BSIABII, Crunchbox, jfet JCM800, Mudflap (triple wreck clone with modified boost), Dr Boogie, Boneyard (dual and single channel), Superjudge, Purple Plexi 800, None More Black, Plexidrive, Sovereign, Big British Distortion, Seventh Heaven, and probably a few more too.

I still haven't quite found anything I like as much as my HT-Dual. Even the LT-Dual didn't come up to it. Funnily enough, jamming with the cover band sees me using the Zendrive 90% of the time and the HT-dual stays at home.

A quick rundown of of a couple opinions would go like this (these are just the ones I can recall right now):

- Mudflap: (Triplewreck clone) Insane amounts of dirt. There is no mid or low gain on this, just slightly less dirt. Pretty noisy. I'm going to use it with a gate.

- BE-OD: Nice, but I think mine suffers from 4148/914s in place of the Bat46s. I have two more of these to try out. Didn't think it did low gain that well. Bit dark too.

- Seventh Heaven: Cold? Sterile? Doesn't have the "edge" of other pedals but does have it's own thing going on. Almost like a high gain blues pedal, if that makes sense...

- Marshalls in a box: In order of lowest dirt to highest - Superjudge, Plexidrive, Boneyard, Crunchbox. All these do a nice plexi but you can do metal with the crunchbox... The Superjudge really needs a buffer in front of it, but kicking it with a boost makes it magical. The plexidrive is a good allrounder, the Boneyard takes that a little further, but the crunchbox tops these but is a little woody imo. The BSIAB is similar to the Crunchbox in terms of gain, but does the lower gain thing better and is less woody.

- Purple Plexi800: had a farty note decay in my build. Seems to be an issue with the 386 based builds. Was a bit noisy too.

- Big British Distortion: A bit bass heavy for my tastes. Basically a 3 knob jfet marshall layout (gain, tone, vol).

- None More Black: I really liked this one, but it seemed to have an undercurrent of noise that I'm putting down to the charge pumps I had (I had a really bad run of noisy pedals using charge pumps). Going to try it again.

- Sovereign: If you have a single coil in the bridge, you need to try this out. It ca have a strange spongy attack with humbuckers, but with a tele it really is fantastic.

- Jfet JCM800: The eq on this doesn't really work that well at all but you can clip a capacitor to fix that. However, this rendered the High/Low input mod unusable in my build when I couldn't one of the j201s to bias correctly after clipping the cap. Fixing the cap meant the High/Low inputs worked.

- Dr Boogie: Pretty similar to the Mudflap/Triplewreck soundwise if different in topology. I think the Mudflap might have a more cutting distortion though."

I've also build Baja's JVM410, I have a video up of that in the thread at freestompboxes, but if I was to make that again I'd just put a single tonestack at the output, not having one each on the crunch and OD channels.

I've also got an @t drive, which may or not get boxed.  It's ok.

My current high gainer is a Brown Betty with switchable gain pots.

Willy.

[Strassercaster1]

Hey good too see you stopped in . I want to thank you for this website . I have made over 270 pedals and used about 80 dif layouts from this website .

What marshall did you decide on ? I really like the thunderbird it’s worth the time to make it . It can get a little squeally with everything dimed. I have a 1976 fawn JMP 50w marshall. I can plug the thunderbird into the clean channel and match the dirty channel to the T with the thunderbird . It’s an excellent marshall in a box . I also use a crunch box and a zendrive . The zendrive into the thunderbird is a nice combo as well with settings not to extreme .

[Marbles]

I just finished the Barber Direct compact drive (after loving the Gain Changer so much) and absolutely love it for Marshall tones.


What I did not expect to like for Marshall tones is the Zvex distortron. What a great pedal that turned out to be. Distortron is my Clapton, Compact Drive my Angus.

[HamishR]

Well it depends on gear of course, but my pick for "Angus" tones would be the 45 Caliber.  It's a simple circuit and the layout is on this very board. If you want slightly more mids and a smoother high end try the Majestic, also here under Contributions.