MusicRadar Verdict
Marshall JCM flavour in a versatile dirt-deliverer for a more than reasonable price
Pros
- +
Good value for money. Excellent crunchy rhythm and harmonic lead tones.
Cons
- -
Not exactly an original idea.
MusicRadar's got your back
It's interesting to see a pedal labelled Crunch rather than overdrive or distortion, but that's explained by the fact that this is based on the MI Audio Crunch Box, which ranks alongside Kylie and AC/DC as one of Australia's finest musical exports.
"The pedal doesn't come alive until you start turning up the crunch for chunky riff and rhythm sounds"
Both acts have built a career on Marshall amps (well, maybe not Kylie), as has the Crunch Box in delivering Marshall-like high-gain tones - and the La' Charger does that, too.
While it will do a slightly dirty boost, the pedal doesn't come alive until you start turning up the crunch for chunky riff and rhythm sounds right the way to a full-on harmonic-laden raunch that's tailor-made for lead playing, all cleaning up very well with your guitar's volume.
Okay, it's another Marshall-in-a-box pedal, but we think it's rather a good one for it's less-than-50-quid price.
Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.

“I’ve often wondered if it was the Devil grinning up at me, or God smiling down on me. I still haven’t figured out who had the final say”: How a feat of spontaneous creativity resulted in one of Pink Floyd’s most majestic moments

“It's transparent when not in operation, crisp when looping, and handles high-gain and complex audio sources with ease”: TC Electronic Ditto 2 Looper review

“Instead of pairing a new booster inside this new pedal, think of it as changing lanes inside the pedal”: Mythos and That Pedal Show team up for the Argo Boost Deluxe – an octave fuzz with a switchable boost