The Box of Rock is a great Marshall sound in a pedal. It includes a boost section also. Box of Rock is pretty amazing and sounds great. J. Mascis likes it so much that he had Zvex put two in one enclosure.
But what if you wanted something more like an Orange amp?
Here’s an old Box of Rock without the boost. I did this years ago on perf board and wired everything by hand. I never want to do that again! Using a PCB with the pots mounted to the board saves so much time and avoids lots of potential mistakes.
It’s good to look back on old projects and see progress, and I see a lot of progress!
Looking carefully I see that I used a single pin socket with 9 pins for the three transistors. Better to stuff and solder one part than three separate parts!
Looks like the board is stuck to the back of the pots with double sided foam tape. Everyone was doing this at the time. I never thought double-stick tape was a good idea, and still don’t.
I give myself credit for using Switchcraft jacks. These are the best. They work well and provide a positive click when inserting a plug. These last forever and never have problems with the contacts becoming loose or deformed.
I’m using a battery here. I can’t remember when I last put a battery in a pedal. I just don’t use batteries any more. It sure makes planning and assembly much easier, and you don’t have to leave room for the battery and add extra wiring for the battery snap. Leaving the battery out gives you a little more room in the box also!
The original Box of Rock uses a single tone control which is a variation of the tone control used in the Big Muff. I used a James tone control. Similar to the Baxendall tone stack. It provides two controls: Bass and Treble which provide boost and cut. You can get a range of sound from these controls, from mid-scoop to mid-bump and everything in between.
You can play around with the Tone Stack using the Tone Stack Calculator here.
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