A box has the simple definition of being a cubic or rectangular receptacle used to store items. Now, a stompbox, in simplified music speak, is a box that contains an effects circuit and is laden with one or more switches and control knobs. Popular among guitarists, stompboxes expand the tonal arsenal, and while they exhibit various sort of shapes, they still are essentially boxes. Tone Box, despite bearing the term "box" in their name, wanted to move away from that boxy nature effects pedals are known for with a rather visually intriguing effects unit called the Tone Box Skull Crusher.

The aptly named Skull Crusher exhibits what its name says: deliver that crushing sound while giving the player an experience of crushing a cranium likeness. Tone Box founders Kasha and Shawn Crosby wanted to have that visually engaging effect pedal onstage and hence this effect pedal is like a sculpture out of those cliché horror movies, a skull. Skull Crusher is very big on aesthetics, having been hand sculpted by select artists with red and blue LED lights that illuminate the orbital foramina -- er, eye sockets in simplified language. This stainless steel casing is available in gun metal, stainless steel, aged, and ancient. For the more glamorous, custom finishes such as 24k gold and sterling silver are also available.

Now, does the esthetically extravagant pedal have a sound that would merit serious music making? If you consider Phil X's word for it, the sound is as serious as it looks. This pedal is claimed to be able to create a total of eight voices from slight dirt on your signal that is on the borderline of breaking up right to in-your-face heavy tones. If you can recall the Kasha Amplifiers Rockmod sound, this pedal's got a dose of it too. Voicing, Tone, and Gain controls at the back of the skull gives adequate sound shaping options. Four presets from the voicing knob called Clear (3dB up), Ice (11 dB up), Chains (15dB up) and Body (18 dB up) give that variations to the Rockmod sound; add in the 10-dB Boost and they're right. You are getting up to a total of eight sound varieties.

Rockmod sound with the flashy appeal of that metallic skull of the Tone Box Skull Crusher provides the guitarist with impressive stage presence both audiologically and visually. If you manage to pair that up with the Zakk Wylde's Graveyard Disciple, you're probably going over the top. The base models are priced starting from 399.00 USD; custom models are manufactured on a limited basis.