Valeton La' Charger Modern Crunch review

MI-style Marshall-aping stompbox

  • £49
  • $55
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La' Charger takes its cues from the MI Audio Crunch Box

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.

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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

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.