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Now that I've got my muff dilemma pretty well sorted (well, almost), I'm looking at my non-fuzz dirt. I have an Elements and I love it to pieces, but want something decidedly Marshally. I know the Elements can do that, but I like dem saturated chugs, so that's where it's usually set.

I've never had a Marshall in a box, but from clips and random lurking at different forums, the initial list includes: Catalinbread DLS mkiii, Wampler Plextortion, Barber Direct Drive, and the MXR Badass 78. Any opinions on these? How about the Caroline Wave Cannon? I realize it's not a MIAB, but I'm pretty interested in them.

I'm looking for something that gives me a clear, tight, mid/high gain sound ala every classic rock song ever and maybe higher gain sounds from the jcm800s.

Rig is Les Paul or SG Classic through an Ampeg GVT15 or an Earth Original 2000 and closed back 2x12s

Any suggestions/direction is appreciated.

I've always thought of an OCD as a Marshall in a box. I can't really say how accurate that is but I run an OCD into my V-4 (which I'm hoping is *somewhat* similar to your GVT) and on a cleaner setting and the V-4 is a good platform for that "every-tone" classic rock crunch that you can get out of an OCD on low gain-high volume settings. And gotta love that the tone knob works as a "high cut"/absence control, tailoring just the high end.

I thought the Caroline Wave Cannon sounded quite weak, it lacks the punch and dynamics to be a great distortion in my book.
Wampler is said to not stack well, Barber is quite modern and more useful for chugga than for the real Marshall grind.
I'm a Marshall guy when it comes to drive and my favourite drive pedals so far are the Homebrew Electronics Big D (also not always the greatest one to stack though) and the Fulltone OCD / Mooer Hustle Drive (I prefer the latter soundwise).
The Zvex Box of Rock and Box of Metal are pretty good too and I hear lots of people say good things about the Catalinbread DLS.

Diamond Cornerstone, emulates preamp and output tube distortion separately, in compact box with top jacks, looks like a gold bar, sounds cool

Crunchbox is a classic standby. My Rat Tail sounds good *into* my Marshall. I might build up a GGG Brown Sound in a Box. I'll report back if/when I do.

Oh yeah, I built a WIIO clone and it worked really well for 80s rock with a LP.

The Joyo Crunch Distortion is a damn good JCM800 in a box, or whatever the original pedal is based on.

ramonovski wrote:The Joyo Crunch Distortion is a damn good JCM800 in a box, or whatever the original pedal is based on.

Crunchbox!

I'm a Marshall dude through and through and I spent some time trying to find a perfect Marshall dirt tone. Basically I would set my amps for a good clean tone and then try to use a dirt pedal to get the sound of the amp but way more dirty. So I had Marshall and a foot switch for more Marshall. I owned a crunch box for a while and it was alright. I had an ocd and it was really good. One of my very favorites was the suhr riot. It's not really marketed as a Marshall in a box, but it pretty much nails the shit out of it. Great pedal that gets little love these days it seems. I eventually traded it out for an elements, which can do basically anything. If I was back in the market for a "Marshall sounding" pedal and wasn't going to buy an elements, I'd probably get another riot with an ocd in close second place. Really I'd probably get the ocd since it's just such a good stacking tool to have around. But I think the ocd excells at at the "more of your amp" thing, so if I wasn't playing an old Marshall I wouldn't necessarily expect it to bring that. The catalinbread sounds really good, but honestly I don't think it has all that much gain available and I think it wouldn't be enough for what I want from a dirt pedal.

But the Riot is also a bit compressed I find, it's a bit weak.
The Crunchbox is super weak, it just doesn't hit you in the gut at all like a Marshall should, it completely misses that explosiveness for me.

waltdogg wrote:I've always thought of an OCD as a Marshall in a box. I can't really say how accurate that is but I run an OCD into my V-4 (which I'm hoping is *somewhat* similar to your GVT) and on a cleaner setting and the V-4 is a good platform for that "every-tone" classic rock crunch that you can get out of an OCD on low gain-high volume settings. And gotta love that the tone knob works as a "high cut"/absence control, tailoring just the high end.

You've got that backwards - I'm the one hoping my little Ampeg is similar to a V4! I've never actually tried an OCD either.

Tristan wrote:I thought the Caroline Wave Cannon sounded quite weak, it lacks the punch and dynamics to be a great distortion in my book.
Wampler is said to not stack well, Barber is quite modern and more useful for chugga than for the real Marshall grind.
I'm a Marshall guy when it comes to drive and my favourite drive pedals so far are the Homebrew Electronics Big D (also not always the greatest one to stack though) and the Fulltone OCD / Mooer Hustle Drive (I prefer the latter soundwise).
The Zvex Box of Rock and Box of Metal are pretty good too and I hear lots of people say good things about the Catalinbread DLS.

It's cool when a pedal stacks well, but that's never been a deal breaker for me. Didn't realize the Barber would be so modern, that's kind of a bummer. The Wave Cannon being weak is a pretty substantial bummer too - I expected it to be really good (which was based on nothing at all). I had a v1 DLS way back when, but sold it because it didn't have much gain and I was playing it through a little Blackstar HT5, which isn't the best pedal platform. From clips of the mkiii, it seems to have gobs more gain on tap.

gaussgunn wrote:Diamond Cornerstone, emulates preamp and output tube distortion separately, in compact box with top jacks, looks like a gold bar, sounds cool

That sounds pretty cool other than looking like a gold bar.

misterstomach wrote:I'm a Marshall dude through and through and I spent some time trying to find a perfect Marshall dirt tone. Basically I would set my amps for a good clean tone and then try to use a dirt pedal to get the sound of the amp but way more dirty. So I had Marshall and a foot switch for more Marshall. I owned a crunch box for a while and it was alright. I had an ocd and it was really good. One of my very favorites was the suhr riot. It's not really marketed as a Marshall in a box, but it pretty much nails the shit out of it. Great pedal that gets little love these days it seems. I eventually traded it out for an elements, which can do basically anything. If I was back in the market for a "Marshall sounding" pedal and wasn't going to buy an elements, I'd probably get another riot with an ocd in close second place. Really I'd probably get the ocd since it's just such a good stacking tool to have around. But I think the ocd excells at at the "more of your amp" thing, so if I wasn't playing an old Marshall I wouldn't necessarily expect it to bring that. The catalinbread sounds really good, but honestly I don't think it has all that much gain available and I think it wouldn't be enough for what I want from a dirt pedal.

Thanks, dude. I had actually considered pming you about this since I knew you were very much in this camp and had substantial knowledge to drop. I'll look into the Riot. When you say that the DLS is lacking in gain, does that mean it doesn't approach 800 levels of gain? Or it's just not good/useable gain for heavier stuff?

Here's some other options you could look for:

Blackout Effectors Mantra (OCD with different tone stack apparently)
Bogner XTC Blue, XTC Red (might be exactly what you're looking for)
Earthquaker Devices Monarch, Talons, White Light (also have a Marshall type thing going on for me)
Ilitch Electronics Heavy Metal DDO (Disarm D'Arcy has one in B/S/T for a good price)
Monte Allums OD-308 (tweaked RAT apparently)
Rockbox Boiling Point
Rothwell Hellbinder
Weehbo JCM Drive, Plexdrive (great stuff)
Wilson Lotus Drive

As far as MIAB pedals go, the custom badass 78 is NOT the way go. Instead, I would look at the ZVEX Distortron, which is designed to be a cranked JTM45.

Tristan wrote:Here's some other options you could look for:

Blackout Effectors Mantra (OCD with different tone stack apparently)
Bogner XTC Blue, XTC Red (might be exactly what you're looking for)
Earthquaker Devices Monarch, Talons, White Light (also have a Marshall type thing going on for me)
Ilitch Electronics Heavy Metal DDO (Disarm D'Arcy has one in B/S/T for a good price)
Monte Allums OD-308 (tweaked RAT apparently)
Rockbox Boiling Point
Rothwell Hellbinder
Weehbo JCM Drive, Plexdrive (great stuff)
Wilson Lotus Drive

Oh wow, that's quite a list to look into. I didn't know the Mantra was based on the OCD, pretty cool.

tuj wrote:As far as MIAB pedals go, the custom badass 78 is NOT the way go. Instead, I would look at the ZVEX Distortron, which is designed to be a cranked JTM45.

Care to elaborate on the MXR? To be honest, the price (especially used) is just as appealing as the praise it's received - of course, that could be because it's cheap. Distortron and Box of Rock are pretty similar, right?

Anybody played the BAT Witchburner? I know it's not really supposed to be a miab pedal, but seems like it might have that vibe about it from the clips I've heard.

Anyone mentioned the Zvex Disortron? Very Marshall sounding, imo.