Board Talk: VINTAGE Marshall in a Box!

[@hounddogjonny]

Excellently done video, I used to have a ZVex Box of Rock (which I used as part payment to buy a Matamp 1224) and I think I might just go and get me another one...really versatile piece of kit. I remember it sounded bloody brilliant into a Marshall head that had just started to 'grumble' and break up. Products available to guitarists these days are amazing

[@frantisca]

Peach has got an invaluable asset with Jack. Armed with a versatile axe such as this Suhr, he can certainly make even a crappy pedal sound good. Obviously, they all do, with a preference for the Dirty Little Secret that has got him quite inspired with explosive riffs. Well done Jack once again !

[@ILuvJazzNJava]

Zvex Box of Rock for me. It sounds the most harmonically rich. It also has some grit to the sound.

[@shredgd5]

The Charlie Brown was the clear winner for me. Authentic Marshall tone growl and oomph!

[@stanislavmigra]

same for me. Also it sounded like stand alone marshall. The other pedals sounded more like Marshall pushed by OD pedal.

[@michaelcraig9449]

Linus!

[@TheJonRuth23]

Just wanna warn you that unity gain for it was definitely past noon (when I had one). Since you have to turn it way up, you get more noise. I found that it I didn't like it on high gain that much, either. That said, the cleaner side of the Charlie Brown is great.

[@glennevans5824]

Love pedal....purple plexi...is a nice pedal...as mentioned I use the keeley 62 ...is a great pedal for Bluesbreaker tones

[@Timmlyboy]

hey you put the wrong subtitle on the screen between 11:05 and 11:56 it says the Box of Rock instead of the Golden Pearl

[@musicplaylists59]

the J Rocket 45 and OCD were my favorites, they seemed to sound clearer and not as nasal as all the others

[@chrischamberlain2168]

Regarding the Catalinbread DLS, it also has a super bass mode which you can switch between internally. I think this does the 60s Marshall sound as well.

[@elbik95]

I didn't know about the switch man! That's great! I knew about the presence trim pot but not about the supper bass mode

[@UnremarkableMarx]

The Superbass mode is great because if you run the pedal for a lightly dirty/ british timbre clean sound, that Superbass is a touch cleaner from the get go! And if you want to crank the preamp for full Johnny Ramone in seconds.

[@dagr8nico]

I have and love the Xotic SL Drive and the Ramble Marvel Drive 3... The Marvel 3 IS SO GOOD!!!

[@luisgoregonzalez7394]

4:00 Jhs charly Brown and 6:07 j rockett and zbox o rock 8:23 for me!

[@bobilly]

Definitely prefer the JTM45 styled offerings, and would throw the Zvex Distortron in the mix so you have more control over the Box of Rock styles massive low end.

[@InspiretoVictory]

I have an older OCD. The famed Ver 1.3 signed by Rico that for some reason is more sought after. On it's own, the OCD is OK. It has a distinct midrange push and gain that is useful. Especially when using 18 volts. More clarity and headroom vs 9 volts. But recently, I stacked a Greer Lightspeed Organic Overdrive with it and that really brought the OCD to life. The frequency response, I feel, is more open and more dynamic. Just a better sound overall.

[@dagr8nico]

Yeah I have a Lightspeed and honestly it just makes most things better LOL!

[@dingusfuzzklonnkt2755]

I've run through all these pedals plus others. The charlie brown v4 with a fuzzface into a good clean valve amp is the best jtm 45 replication I've played. The snouse bb2 has to be on the list for best marshall in a box pedals on the market as well. It stacks with a fuzz, a tube driver or whatever else you throw at it.

[@frantisca]

The MIAB concept is very relative: to the amp, the guitar and the way you dig in. Other 3 that do a good job are: CmatMods Super Signa, JAM Lucy Dreamer and Mad Professor Loud N Proud. Cheers !

[@Mark254-TX]

Jack,... thank you for what you do.... great topic , great tones, and great playing.... however, the true kings of Marshall in our modern era are actually George Metropolous and Greg Germino... their knowledge of Marshall history and circuits have led to them producing world class Marshall recreations and beyond... look them up, you'll be glad you did ! :-)

[@robertmayne7484]

Lovepedal has a bunch of pedals designed to replicate famous amps both Marshall and Fender. They’re all great, the Les Luis has a tweed twin and a deluxe, there’s a JTM and a Jubilee pedal too.

[@AuntAlnico4]

I had three super lead, didn't like it but I love the les Luis.

[@skaboosh]

I like to hear demos of pedals through clean clean clean, to me, that's well into early stages break up rather than on the edge of breakup.

[@Sissiosissio1979]

Hi Jack, gorgeous playing and tones as always!!! ...now that you have done jtm45 in a box...it’s time to compare the JTM45 with some of his “clones”!!! ...friedman dirty shirley, maybe suhr badger 18 that is tube rectified...what else??? 🤘🤘🤘

[@greggalbraith2842]

One thing missed here is the Super Bass side of the DLS. Yes, it does the Super Lead thing quite well, but if you wanted to sound a little earlier in the Marshall lineage, the SB mode works quite well. Yes, you have to take the back cover off the pedal off to select it, but Holy $#@! it sounds really good at that cleaner, Hendrix-ey, AC/DC thing.

[@j.rozman7016]

Pal 800 Gold overdrive from Venezuela rocks!!

[@HiHello-ku1fl]

My fav is the Charlie Brown because it was the most open and just had it but I also really liked the Box of Rock and Dirty little Secret. I liked the Rocket 45 calibur too but after flipping back and forth between them all I found the midrange was a little different and more of it. Could be good or bad and I wouldn't really know until I sat down and played it. I'm now interested in the Charlie Brown. I have owned a Box of Rock and enjoyed it. Can't remember why I sold it.

[@steveburroughs7343]

Shame you didn’t have a Revival Drive Compact on hand, that does a pretty good Marshall too. The OCD is great though.

[@wecanonlywish9194]

Jack is a VERY tasteful player. It's refreshing to hear a great player demonstrate great pedals. (there are many that aren't as good as the product being shown)!!

[@sneifert1968]

XVive Golden Brownie. Designed by Thomas Blug. (Blu Guitar Amp 1) under $50 and sounds fantastic.

[@logen99999]

would have loved to see the dirty shirley pedal there. it's absolutely fantastic.

[@guitar_hobbyist]

I'll take... one of each, please !

[@TheBedroomRocker1]

Awesome sounds! Awesome playing!

[@francois007jeremiah]

Great thanks! Next up tweed pedals!

[@gitarbangsatchanel8036]

Pedalpalfx and origin revival drive is one of the best marshall crank in a box

[@goodknight37]

Everything is so dependent on the amp /cab your playing into.

[@emcg.9655]

Exactly. Pedals don't have a "sound" as such, they are sound alteration devices.

[@VMV8622]

Totally right bud

[@PendelSteven]

Starting off, you need a good clean channel. But then again, you can experiment even with a JCM800 on low gain settings. There's no right and wrong in the order of pedals. Okay, for how it's meant to use you want these pedals in the clean channel. You could even try to run these - or some of these directly in the effect return / power amp in. And yes, your 1 x 12" doesn't sound like a 4 x 12", but that's why Wampler for example has a switch in it's Plexi Drive Deluxe to compensate for that....

[@stanislavmigra]

Im always intrigued by labeling OCD as "Marshall in a box" pedal ... Ive played couple modern and vintage Marshall, but the OCD (its great pedal, dont get me wrong) never reminded me sonicaly or feel wise any marshall. Otherwise, great video with great pedals

[@mightyjb5261]

The Xotic Effects SL Drive is great for AC-DC tones.

[@GraniteSoundtrack]

What about Fender Twins in a box, or Deluxe or Super Reverb. I haven’t seen many of those types of things.

[@Fox-86]

'cause it's all about the overdrive /distortion. It's possible to colour a clean amp signal but you're not going to get a typical orange or Marshall amp to sound like a twin reverb

[@brian91145]

The Xotic SL drive does the trick for me if I need that Marshall tone or my old Rat

[@gusmc01]

You could use the DLS, Charlie Brown, Rockett .45 and ZVEX interchangeably for that JTM45 sound. The Friedman and the OCD had a whole different thing going on.

[@telecasper]

Awesome comparison! Personally tend to prefer the Charlie Brown and J Rocket 👍🏻

[@gideonk123]

Headroom considerations (the dynamic range of input volumes into the pedal to go from overdrive/distortion to cleaning-up): the Dirty Little Secret mkiii, which I have, can be operated from 9V up to 18V, where 18 has a very noticeable improvement to headroom, so I strongly recommend doing that. Before I bought the DLS, I compared it in the store to the ZVex Box of Rock which had very little headroom, in my opinion, and was on the verge of being a fuzz pedal - both pedals in the store at 9V.

[@slapmiki]

Hi, Thank you for your video, for you which one is best to sound like you in jeff beck video ? 😊

[@imanalien2222]

From a lot of experience the Dirty Little Secret run at 18v (a must!) in the Super Bass mode (internal switch to the right)…into a cleanish BF/SF Fender amp is a fantastic early “faux” Marshall Plexi I’d put up against any of these boxes… and can be had used for little scratch. These settings ARE the dirty little secret of using this box that wasn’t shown here (no offense good video!). Takes a ge fuzz and treble booster like a champ as well. The only MIB pedal that’d get my $ at this point would be the Revival Drive but I’m in no hurry.

[@tomireunanen8033]

For the vintage Plexi-tones, the Mad Professor Loud'n Proud is the closest one I've tried. Such an amplike pedal that responds a lot like the amp it is designed to replicate.

[@beatlejuice5951]

Pedal pal effects makes THE BEST Marshall in a box. I promise. I own the pedal pal 800 and its a direct clone. Don't believe me? Check it out.

[@dver4624]

Big Wreck! Nice.

[@cbappa2]

Caught that too

[@plexilespaul1956]

Only the guv'nor marshall can fill that title marshall in a box.

[@katman11]

What speakers are in that amp?

[@michael_caz_nyc]

Check out the Plexi Breed from Colombo Audio in Italy = Amazing. I preferred the J. Rockett Pedals .45 Caliber Overdrive & the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret MKIII.

[@AuntAlnico4]

What amp did you use in this video ?

[@fabinho.kisuco]

Wampler Pantheon is great too.

[@kosmicwizard]

Ramble fx Marvel drive v3 is missing

[@RandyFricke]

I've tried lots of Marshally-style pedals. I've narrowed it down to 2 that please me. The Carl Martin Plexitone Single. And the Tone City Golden Plexi.

[@mike_lowndes]

Should really have had an original Guv'nor in the mix as the gold standard but I guess its main focus was JCM800. For low gain, I'm disturbed by your lack of Tumnus. Otherwise great!

[@WatchesnguitarsDK]

Tumnus is a Klon clone-ish pedal, isn't it?

[@mike_lowndes]

@@WatchesnguitarsDK yes. In this review they say 'Marshall in a box' but the review was much more low-gain than I expected, which is klon territory. To me they are complementary sounds.

[@Ivayloi123]

Best copy of jtm circuit in a box is Baldringer Dual Overdrive 2. With or just with jtm almost no difference.

[@AliKiani7887]

Which pedal has better tone with clean amps like fender twin reverb?

[@nicolapasquale8115]

JHS pedals sound great on clean fender but try them out first, they tend to have a lot of hum noise. I owned a 65 twin for a decade (and spent another decade regretting selling it) and my experience is that it is very difficult to produce nice distortion with the twin reverb. Mainly because the cones don’t support very well distorsion. That’s probably also why pedals like the JHS morning glory or the Charlie sound good with it: because they don’t have such a wild aggressive gain as some of the other pedals.

[@andreaferrero6533]

Other good pedal doing the job is the Keeley 1962: I have it in the Tone Workstation and rocks!

[@billgreen3629]

How do you like the Tone Workstation? It’s been on my list for a while.

[@andreaferrero6533]

@@billgreen3629 it's great. Versatile and powerful, with the compressor, 62, boost and tube screamer type Red Dirt. Only two minor minuses: switches are very small, and you can't change the order of the pedals. Would have liked the possibility of having the red dirt into the 62

[@billgreen3629]

@@andreaferrero6533 Admittedly that has been a sticking point for me. Ideally I would have it in reverse order - Red Dirt into 1962 into compressor.

[@Clockeman]

What happens...if you plug a Marshall in a box pedal...into a Marshall amplifier whoa

[@rogerYT69]

a good and relatively cheap pedal is the tone city golden plexi!

[@cjscala87]

You guys have the Freidman labeled box of rocks

[@TheRealCAPerry]

That DLS is very interesting.

[@therealdavidleong]

11:05 whoops

[@johnbuell8035]

I see a couple of mentions of the Marshall Guv’nor, here. Does it really hold up with the boutique pedals of today? Somebody educate me...

[@InGrindWeCrust2010]

Maybe the original, but I never considered it to have a JTM45/1962/1963 tone. I have V2 and it's unusable on most settings due to the overwhelming and unfocused bass. A more similar pedal would be a V1 Marshall Bluesbreaker, but that and similar circuits have become more popular in recent years as boosts/overdrives (e.g. King of Tone, Morning Glory) rather than as amp-in-a-box pedals.

[@jebusgod]

stupid question but if i want to make my amp think its a marshall should i run one of these pedals through the effects loop and leave it always on?

[@MackTheKnifeSlowly]

You can run them either way. If it's in your fx chain, leave it on near the end so it colors all the other fx

[@plantagenant]

Interesting but I actually think the amount of gain on show here is higher than would have been typical in the late 60's/70s .

[@srh361]

The Friedman was mislabeled as the Zvex.

[@RonnyBGoode]

loudnproud missing.....

[@katman11]

Geeze Jack I'm uttery deflated...so much so I may sell my 1971 Super Lead. It's very disconcerting that that that old head can be replaced by an effect. Ay yi yi...

[@clicheguevara9917]

how about the marshall bb2 bluesbreaker?

[@SimpleManGuitars1973]

I used to have one and used it with a Fender Blues Deluxe and thought it was a really great pedal and I'm actually not a Marshall fan at all. I've really always been a Fender amp fan but recently have fallen head over heels in love with Vox and am dying to get an AC30. I have the AC10 that I run with a Deluxe Reverb and that thing is absolutely awesome. So I would imagine if I paired it with an AC30 it would be even better. You have any experience with an AC30?

[@darrenc8776]

@@SimpleManGuitars1973 i used an ac30 for a few years. Lovely sound but my god it will take your head off if you want it to sound good. Definitely a large venue amp i tried an attenuater but all the life seems to go as you attenuate it down unlike a Marshall. I switched to an vox ac 15 brilliant amp i run that with a marshall origin 20 watt all the break up at more frendly volume

[@SimpleManGuitars1973]

@@darrenc8776 Are the AC30's bad about feeding back when you're close to them at high volume? I'm in a small room but live on 40 acres and when my wife and kids are gone I can really crank it. I just would love to be able to get that sweet Voc tone for fun. I don't even gig anymore but would just love to get that sound.

[@darrenc8776]

@@SimpleManGuitars1973 tbh mate there's nothing better sounding at high volume than an AC 30 is you can turn them up. yeah they will feed back if you are too close any valve amp will at full volume but the trick is to ride the volume control on the guitar. If your not facing the amp you should be ok. Buy one there great but you will need ear buds they are loud.

[@darrenc8776]

@@SimpleManGuitars1973 and don't forget the treble booster

[@marker4986]

That charlie brown. Oof

[@jeffs.3533]

Weehbo makes some great MIAB pedals.

[@simply3141592654]

I'd take one not there: Keeley El Rey Dorado

[@raoulduke2103]

"Let me dial out the point of a Marshall..." Regardless, DLS for the win.

[@pedrova8058]

Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret is a copy of the BSIAB II, a super popular circuit, designed in DIY community forums (GeneralGuitarGadgets, freestompboxes, diystompboxes, etc)

[@SimpleManGuitars1973]

Great playing but I have just never been a Marshall fan at all. I love hearing them played by others but I've just never been able to do anything with them myself. Although I did use to have the Bluesbreaker 2 pedal and thought it was pretty cool.

[@eyedunno8462]

That's kinda like saying "I don't get the idea with muscle cars, why do you need so much horsepower" That's the whole point. Excess.

[@GibsonVOS58]

I hate Jack, he is not human, he is a God on guitar, damn hahaha

[@p6x2]

I don't get it... if you want to sound "Marshall", how about purchasing a "Marshall", or purchase one of these amps. that gives you the option to install either 6L6 or EL83, such as the Mesa Boogie Lonestar? I think those pedals work best with a good amplifier anyways. So it would defeat the purpose to have a cheap amp. plus a "Marshall" pedal, to sound "Marshall"?

[@odgeUK]

I often wondered this, but it seems that there are a ton of people who play Fender amps and just want a Marshall option, within their existing rig. In fact, I think I read that The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is one of the most commonly owned amps right now!

[@ajlsrv5490]

Because many Marshall style amps are one trick ponies (and often single channel), whereas having a great clean platform gives you a platform for all sorts of sounds, which is a must for many people, especially people who gig.

[@bobilly]

We can't all be Eric Johnson and lug around a Twin and a Super Lead, haha. Also Marshalls usually have to be quite loud to get the sound that these pedals are approximating.

[@TCMx3]

Most people don’t want an actual Marshall or a copy of one of the good ones (ie NMV). Far better to click on a pedal that approximates what they sound like on the record for most people, than to deal with such amps

[@shaunduffy3912]

I suppose for 99% of players its not practical to buy half a dozen different valve amps and lug them all about when they are playing gigs or recording where as you could get a clean amp with a tonne of headroom and hit it with any style of overdrive you want to get you 97% of the way there

[@Teller3448]

None of them sound anything like a JTM45.

[@ionobelisk]

Too many mid-roll ads

[@RNFORLAW]

To my ear none of these sounded like a Marshall. Nice tones but not "the sound" I know and love.