- Build Rating
Yesterday I finished up my Crunch Captain Deluxe (based on the MI Audio Super Crunch Box v2). I had the PCB (mostly) soldered up for a few weeks now, just waiting on time to do the enclosure. I'm taking a few days off for the holidays, so yesterday turned into "finish the Crunch Captain" day. And it took several hours to get it all finished. No problems, I guess I'm just slow. (Well, only "problem" was that I thought I had a relay bypass board already soldered up and ready to go, but couldn't find it, so that took some time.)
I spent a little more time on the enclosure than I normally do. I took a black case and sanded off the top layer of paint. Then I applied a waterslide decal with the "crumbled rock" background, as an homage to the actual Crunch Box. I think it turned out pretty good, although I left the decal in water too long which resulted in some crinkling, which in turn resulted in the blemishes you see around the main font. No biggie, I'm still really happy with how this turned out.
It fired up perfectly on first power on, and wow! I haven't been this excited about a pedal build in a while. Maybe it's because I've been building too many low/medium gain overdrives, and this is the first high gain drive? Or maybe it's just because it sounds awesome? The goal of the original Crunch Box was to be a MIAB (Marshall in a Box) pedal. I never owned the original (or a clone, such as the JHS Angry Charlie). But I love a lot of music that was made with cranked Marshalls, so I figured I ought to try at least one of the original MIAB pedals. The Super v2 version supposedly retains the core tone of the OG, but also adds mode and clipping switches, along with a very effective 3-band active EQ. I haven't even explored all the tones this thing is capable of yet - I quickly found something that sounded great, and just rocked out for a while.
Does it actually sound like a cranked Marshall? I dunno! My good friend has a JCM900 and 4x12 cab, some day we'll get together and compare. Regardless of how true it is to its inspiration, it's fun and tweakable!
See also this build report by @Chuck D. Bones, it seems he has similar feelings about this pedal as I do.
I haven't figured out what knobs I want to use. I'm going to have to mimic Chuck's big-and-small combo layout, as my drilling wasn't quite perfect, so if I use three full-size knobs across any row, two knobs end up touching (enough that turning one causes the other to turn).
I spent a little more time on the enclosure than I normally do. I took a black case and sanded off the top layer of paint. Then I applied a waterslide decal with the "crumbled rock" background, as an homage to the actual Crunch Box. I think it turned out pretty good, although I left the decal in water too long which resulted in some crinkling, which in turn resulted in the blemishes you see around the main font. No biggie, I'm still really happy with how this turned out.
It fired up perfectly on first power on, and wow! I haven't been this excited about a pedal build in a while. Maybe it's because I've been building too many low/medium gain overdrives, and this is the first high gain drive? Or maybe it's just because it sounds awesome? The goal of the original Crunch Box was to be a MIAB (Marshall in a Box) pedal. I never owned the original (or a clone, such as the JHS Angry Charlie). But I love a lot of music that was made with cranked Marshalls, so I figured I ought to try at least one of the original MIAB pedals. The Super v2 version supposedly retains the core tone of the OG, but also adds mode and clipping switches, along with a very effective 3-band active EQ. I haven't even explored all the tones this thing is capable of yet - I quickly found something that sounded great, and just rocked out for a while.
Does it actually sound like a cranked Marshall? I dunno! My good friend has a JCM900 and 4x12 cab, some day we'll get together and compare. Regardless of how true it is to its inspiration, it's fun and tweakable!
See also this build report by @Chuck D. Bones, it seems he has similar feelings about this pedal as I do.
I haven't figured out what knobs I want to use. I'm going to have to mimic Chuck's big-and-small combo layout, as my drilling wasn't quite perfect, so if I use three full-size knobs across any row, two knobs end up touching (enough that turning one causes the other to turn).
