Effects Bay

I received a sweet email from Mark at MI Effects, and he let me know that he’s got a give away going on at MI Effects. This is a special give away in my opinion because this is a MI Effects Crunch Box, but with 5 modifications in them. They’re giving away 3 pedals with these mods, so they’ll be unique for sure.

Here are the details from Mark:

We have just launched another giveaway, which finishes 12pm AEST June 17th

We have jam packed 3 Crunch Box pedals with 5 cool modifications, some of which may be used on production models in the future if a new version is ever released.

The mods include:

1) Start with an internal voltage tripler to run at the pedal at 24V for the punchiest, most amp-like tone.

2) The presence trimmer is now external for on-the-go adjustments.

3) A 3 position clipping switch for >> traditional CB sizzle, a more organic softer clip, or an open sounding ‘volume boost’ mode.

4) A switchable filter mode for a fat, ‘fixed wah’ tone

5) A switchable lower gain mode, with improved guitar volume sensitivity.

There are 3 ways to win a modified Crunch Box. Basically 1 Crunch Box will go to someone who has subscribed to our newsletter. Subscription form can be access on our Facebook page or the MI Effects website. A 2nd Crunch Box is Facebook related and a 3rd Crunch Box is Twitter related. All the details can be found by guitarist at http://www.mieffects.com/giveaway.htm

Good luck everyone!

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Since I’ve been talking and looking for different overdrives and potential distortion pedals for myself, I came across a fantastic comparison video by ProGruitarShopDemos featuring the Fulltone OCD, MI Audio Crunch Box and Barber Direct Drive. In the past, I talked about the Fulltone OCD and the MI Audio Crunch Box, so it was nice to see in the mix with the Barber Direct Drive. I wasn’t too familiar with this pedal, so I had to check this out. It’s clear they they all have some different nuances that each lacked, or gained. Overall, the Barber Direct was ‘darker’, but to me sounded the most natural. The OCD, which I think is a great pedal, had some nice sparkle. I also like the MI Audio Crunch Box, I think you could get that pedal really growling with the amount of gain it can pump out. I didn’t think there were any winners or losers in this comparison, but it’s great to hear the differences between them.

Fulltone OCD is available for $159.00 at Musician’s Friend
MI Audio Crunch Box is available for $129.95 at Musician’s Friend
Barber Direct Drive is available for $119.95 at Tunnel Vision Music

Remember, if you like reading about these pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

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Today, I’ve been interested in distortion boxes, and I came across a very cool one. This is the MI Audio Crunch Box. This is a great little distortion box that gives you that cranked British tone (which I’m a big fan of). Lots of punch and crunch, and reacts nicely with your guitar’s volume.  Interesting there is a presence pot inside the unit, which is cool to add some additional sparkle to the top end.

Here is the official description from Musician’s Friend:

The MI Audio Crunch Box Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal brings you high-gain British amp distortion in a stompbox. MI Audio did a careful study of the way that modern British style amps get their overdrive and found that there was a very big concentration of the frequency information in the midrange. The Crunch Box distortion pedal captures the huge crunch of a Marshall amp on steroids and has become one of MI Effects most popular pedals. The Crunch Box is of the fastest selling boutique distortion pedals in the world.Simple and straightforward, with just gain, tone, volume and an internal presence control, the Crunch Box is based on a multiple clipping architecture (the signal is clipped 3 times. In the lower gain range, the pedal’s tone is very punchy and throaty. There are some great classic rock rhythm sounds to be found in there. As the gain is wound up, the Crunch Box develops a beautiful singing lead tone. Pinch harmonics are a breeze. The tone control has a wide sweep with a lot of top end. I have put in there more gain than anyone should need, but due to the way I handled the pre-overdrive tone shaping, the pedal always stays tight and each pickup retains its character, including single coils. The Crunch Box has a lot of volume up its sleeve. You will find though that 12 O’clock is close to ‘neutral’.An Internal Presence Control helps control the ‘shape’ of the pedal. By winding up the presence control, the lows won’t feel as powerful, which some people might find to be a bit too much. Also, this creates the effect of giving the pedal even more top end. So with the new Crunch Box, there is no chance that the pedal will be too dark. The Internal Presence Control is very useful if you wish to match the Crunch Box to your amp because some amps can be a lot brighter/darker than others.

I found a great demo that shows the features of this pedal with a Strat and a Les Paul. I love demos that can switch between these two guitars. I wish the demo featured a gained amp and using this pedal as a overdrive for leads, but rhythm tones sound really good, and the notes are sounding great.

The MI Audio Crunch Box v.3 Distortion pedal is available at Musician’s Friend for $129.95

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