Marshall-in-a-box?

professorben

johnhe said:

HOWEVER, I view anyone with a religious leaning very suspiciously indeed

This is the kind of direction of some of the comments, which I felt was starting to become discriminatory, and seems to have nothing to do with music.

Yep. 

johnhe

Maynehead said:

Ah well, lucky I just bought an SL Drive off our very own @Norwegian_Blue then isn't it!

How about an update? How are you getting on with the SL Drive? What amp are you running it through? It's a great sounding pedal for sure.

Jonathanthomas83

I'm interested in your thoughts on the SL Drive too, I'm picking mine up today and interested to see how good it is in comparison to the Marvel Drive v3 I had, that was a beauty!

bingefeller

monquixote said:

johnhe said:

It was the religious stance that I was objecting to. I fully understand people's reservations about JHS history in using copied circuits. For what it's worth, I'm pretty certain that the Crunch 
box is copied from the Governor circuit. I know that JHS are very open than the AC is based on that circuit, and have never ( that I'm aware of) made any bones about it.

just to be clear - my intention was ABSOLUTLEY NOT to defend the business practices of JHS. But I deeply object to the anti Christian sentiment in the other post. I'm quite happy to accept that JHS are islamophobic or homophobic, but in order to accept that, I'd like to see more proof before writing them off in that way.

It's not that it's cloned off the Guvnor it's cloned off the MI Audio Crunchbox (which is based on a Guvnor) who are a smaller manufacturer who sell the same pedal, but better made and for less money. When MI updated their pedal to have an extra presence control so did JHS, when MI release the Super Crunchbox with a clipping switch JHS release the AT pedal with a clipping switch.

It's just so blatant it takes the piss.

I wonder why Andy didn't go with the Crunchbox to begin with?  Do you think JHS got their foot in the door first and maybe gave him a pedal to try, he liked it and so it began....

Maynehead

johnhe said:

How about an update? How are you getting on with the SL Drive? What amp are you running it through? It's a great sounding pedal for sure.

Well, not played it in anger through my live rig yet but running it through my practice amp (Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket), I like what I'm hearing.

Compared to my EHX Soul Food which I was using to get the classic rock tones, it has a lot more bite and top end, just like a Marshall would. Also, the crunch I get with the Soul Food's drive at around 2 o'clock, I can get with the SL Drive at 9 o'clock! The thing has tons of gain, but as you turn the gain up past about half way, the sound starts to really thicken up, which is great for leads.

Compared to my amp's lead channel, the drive from the SF cuts through on the low mids, whereas the amp's natural drive tone has a higher resonant peak. The other difference is that the SL, with the drive turned up, has a very spongy attack compared to the lightning quick attack of the amp's lead channel.

One surprising discovery is how great it sounds boosted with my Soul Food. With the drive on the SL set up for a classic rock crunch (around 9 o'clock), I can boost it with the SF infront set with level at around 2 o'clock and drive around 9 o'clock, to get a really authentic and aggressive 80's metal tone. 

I've also tried all the different microswitch positions, and settled on the superlead mode with high/mid cut. The default superlead mode sounds a bit too bright and in-your-face for me, and while I like the superbass mode on its own, the bottom end flubs out once I boost it with the SF.

All in all this pedal is definitely an upgrade to what I was using before and not only is my base tone improved, it has opened up more options for boosting and creating new tones. In the spirit of objectivity, the only criticisms I can think of is that it has a little too much gain on tap for my needs, and unboosted, it has a bit of a mushy attack at high drive settings.

english_bob

bingefeller said:

I wonder why Andy didn't go with the Crunchbox to begin with?  Do you think JHS got their foot in the door first and maybe gave him a pedal to try, he liked it and so it began....

The common tale with full-time professional guitarists like Mr Timmons is that they get way less time to keep abreast of whats out there than the rest of us do, so I suspect that's exactly what happened.