Marshall Blues Breaker

you all know what this pedal is.....i am going to put this down once......i have been using it this way for almost 2 years and went through several configurations of mods..........you come up with your own cap and resistor replacements, but if you put a JRC4558 in one of these, you will drop your chin to the floor when you hear it.......it aint no 808 or a ts9.....its its own thing and if you are looking for your own tone, you should do it.......
i have just went through some bullshit and really dont think im gonna pursue a career in music anymore......the music is what killed a good thing for me........fuck it........
if your trying to come up with a tone through a solid state amp, this aint the answer......this is a machine for coloring a tube tone.......if you play with a non master tube amp or a master with the gain knob set relatively low....this is your weapon......i want to help the next hero find his tone.....because that next hero aint me.......look into it!!!!!!!!!!!

Its pretty easy to use. The gain tone setting need to be set just right for the best sound. Though trial and error, I've made this work.

I run a fender strat into a wah/delay/fuzz/bluesbreaker/ Super Reverb.
The Marshall is very quite unless cranked up to max. Then the tone quality really just is noise. But at just the right settings it has some great overdrive for rock.

Mine is missing the cheap plastic battery cover. I use electric tape to cover the battery.
It has never let me down. I do change the battery regulary. I use cheap carbon batteries.

This pedal was discontinued along time ago.
When It breaks I'll try repair at home or replace.

I bought this pedal back in 96' I think. Through the last 15 years I've owned many pedals and this one does the classic blues rock pretty well. Much better than most. So I've kept it.

This pedal is very easy to use. Select blues or boost mode and off you go. The manual offers useful starting points for settings.

I was using this pedal with the following gear: An SG with Wilkinson humbuckers, a cheap strat copy with Kent Armstrong humbuckers, through a Boss TU-2 tuner and a Morley Power Wah into a Marshall DSL100 and 1960A cab.

I bought this pedal for the boost mode only, just to get some extra level and drive for solos. I was persuaded by the manufacturers claims of a "totally transparent / clean boost". Nothing could be further from the truth. The boost mode is truly awful: hopelessly distorted with a narrow frequency range. The distortion is not at all musical - like turning up a cheap solid state amp too loud. DO NOT under any circumstances buy this unit if you are looking for a clean boost.

The blues mode fairs no better; sounds more like an inferior Big Muff than a Tube Screamer or Boss Blues Driver. Stevie Ray? Forget it, Steve Malkmus more like. Again the sound lacks space, narrow frequency range, totally masking the sound of your guitar. So, you could say it makes my Encore Strat sound like a Custom Shop Strat - nobody could tell the difference with such a muffled sound.

The pedal does have a true bypass, but this is pretty useless when it sounds so bad.

I took the BB-2 back to the shop the day after I bought it.

Never had to deal with Marshall. I've heard they're good though.

This pedal is bloody awful. If you want a clean boost, buy an MXR Micro Amp. If you want a bluesy tube overdrive, try a Boss Blues Driver, or even better, a modded one from Robert Keeley. I was really disappointed with this thing - doesn't deserve to bear the Marshall name.

3 knobs. Turn till ya burn!

Old ( well...early 90's...seems like eons ago now..my, my...where oes the time go...) original bluesbreaker pedal. You know, the big, heavy black ones you could cold cock a few rowdy bar patrons with, plug her back in and now miss a beat. It has a vol, tone and gain control. They really don't do much till the last 1/4 of theri respective rotations, but when they get to the sweet spot, you're in little blues heaven. True to it's name, it does a very commendible job of copping the feel of the amp that bears it's moniker. Not a high gain pedal by anyones stretch of the imagination....no, just a sweet Albert King, Albert Collins, BB King, Freddie King, early EC tone. Like a good ol tube amp cranked. What can I say? I like it. It reacts differently with tube and solid state amps. Seems to prefer the tube amps. Responsive ( more so than most pedals ) to the volume control on yer guitar. Also sounds great goosed by a Blues Driver. Easy to go from that awesome just on the verge of breakup, clean/dirty tone the forementioned blues great are known for to endless Santanaesque sustain where you can wiggle a note till the cows come home. Again, not the most verstile kid on the block, but one of the best at copping the tones it does.

If you are into the blues, get one if you can. You will not regret it.

This is a great little pedal. It was given to me by a friend and i almost never turn it off. I am a bassist and it's the best bass gain/distortion pedal i've heard for bass, barring the wooly mammoth, which is more of a fuzz anyway. I find it incredibly easy to get everything from clean boost to a nice gritty tone.

I use pedals that are voiced primarily for guitars, which, playing bass, have a tendency to lose some low end and sound pressure. My current setup is a Godin BG4 with emg active pickups running into a Boss tuner, then into a Boss RC-20 Looper, then into a Big Muff and then into the Blues Breaker. From there it goes into a Mesa Basis M-2000 running into my SWR 8x10. I leave the Blues Breaker on almost all the time, with only slight tweaks to the over all tone from song to song. I find it retains a sweet low end even with the tone cranked all the way to high, and with the big muff running into it i get a sound i like to call "unleashing the hounds from hell." A huge snarling, noisy mess that hits you right in the gut. I also have on my effects loop a Boss Rv-3 delay/reverb into a Ps-5 harmonizer/ppitch shifter into a PS-3 pitch shifter delay into a danelectro Danecho pedal. I love the sound of noise delayed upon itself over and over, and with the two pitch shifters i have a great control of random noise tones, and the capability to throw notes on the bass up well into the range of very high guitar notes. these effects always seem to pull the most low end out, although the boost from the blues breaker helps quite a bit. The only negative aspect of the Breaker is it's tendency to pick up on high frequency hum, but that may also have something to do with the active pickups on my bass.

One hundred percent reliable, never had a problem besides a slightly sticky knob from time to time.

N/A

I play in a hard, melodic rock band, and i used to play in a hardcore band. This pedal, with the right eqing on my head, gives me the exact, dark, gritty tone that i love. It's simple, straightforward, and if i lost it somehow i would replace it because they're pretty easy to find, it seems, and fairly inexpensive. I would especially recommend it to bassists looking to give their tone a boost, especially over the Boss bass distortion pedals, or as an alternative to a Tech 21 sans amp pedal.

The tricky thing is that the treble gets higher at the last 25% of the gain setting , so you'll need to ajust tone in regards to gain setting.

Very good , try playing the opening riff of "Too tired" and its there.

Been playing this/these ( I use 2 ) for at least 8 years ,
They are on my pedalboard ,and they are always with me ,
get the right Dc-plug and you'll be fine.

I've been playing 29 years mainly as a Bluesrocker.
I like sounds -
This pedal is a workhorse and a basic ingredient of about 4 colurs of gain I use.
I use 2 loops in a Boss LS-2 one in each , in the second loop it works as my rock'n'roll solo sound and as a kick to my otherwise lame
Carl Martin HDB-2 and that is the trick.
Also putting it in front of my Marshall 6100 it will wake that s.... up , preamp gain can be a little too fuzzy , but the bluesbreaker adds the right kick to give you an unbelievably crunchy tone !!

This might be too complicated for people that have trouble operating a toaster-no brainer

Heres the deal-Im a blues rock jazz tube amp guy-Most pedals are crap IMO-This pedal isnt great,but it isnt crap-It really depends on what amp your putting it in-No matter what amp you put it in,say goodbye to your bass and mid range the moment you click it on-with tweaking I compensated and got a decent sound with it through my old ampeg gemini 2-not bad at all-thorugh my friends Gibson goldtone ga15rv there was no tweaking that could be done-it sounded like s**t-Id say if your dealing with an amp that has just a 1 tone knob Id avoid it,if it has a bass knob as well compensation can be done for a decnt sound-

solid

Its better than alot of pedals out there,but its not a prize winner-Better than nothing however the killing of the bass n mid range makes it a manditory tweaking session-Id use it as a back up,but not as the starter

This is one unit that lives up to it's name. BLUES!! Three knobs, vol tone & gain. As others have mentiond, these do nothing until they are in the last 1/4 to 1/3rd of their rotation. But when you get to that magic land...look out! You will be rewarded with an exceptional creamy, bluesy lead tone that rivals the best "amp like" pedals out there. I use three or four overdrives when I play for the various sonic flavors each one adds A Vox Valve Tone, Fulltone Fulldrive ll, Barber Direct Drive, Boss Blues Driver....and now..this gem. This pedal arrived on my doorstep 5 days ago as a gift from my buddy. I recommended he get this pedal many, many years ago. He was kind enough to let me "borrow" it indefinatly. If you're looking for Eric Clapton "Beano" era tone, BB King, Albert King, Albert Collins tones....that killer guitar just this side of clean / dirty with enough balls to hang on a note till you let it go...then this is your pedal. No high gain metal tones. No psuedo Tube Screamer tones. No booteeekee big bucks psuedo TS tones.....just awesome, inspiring blues tones. I have not tried the new Marsahll Bluesbreaker ll pedal, but the orignal is a pure winner. One of these and a good tube amp might make you throw away your other pedals. It's that good.

Thanks Steve! I love this pedal!!

the "tube conniseur" who gave the review that this is a beginners effect will drive away people who are looking for THIER own tone.
i have never owned a solid state amp and have owned a bunch of amps. ive been playing for 22 years, have giged in bars all over my home state and am not a novice in that i know what good tone is (as far as what the masses accept as good)
remember that many proffesional musicians use many different types of stomp and rack effects, some cheapo dano stuff, some high end stuff. the point is that a player should strive to find thier own tone and because a pedal is not a 300dollar piece doesnt mean it cant be used.

i run my blues breaker (old one) through a laney 50 watt head my chain is as follows
les paul into original dunlop wah into blues
breaker into amp. effect loop holds yanmahaEMP100
and a dan chorus. i also run a home made strat copy
with tex-mex fender sc's and the amp runs into a
fender 4x12 cab.
i use a very high rated NOS mullard el34 tube which has a very high break up point. the amp has 2 inputs one high gain (or more gain) and one clean. it just bypasses one of the pre amp tubes. i also use a mix of 12ax7's 2 telefunken and 2- mesa.

i use this pedal and run my amp in the gain channel on the laney and use the guitar volume for distortion. the pups on the les paul are coil tapped and i run the bridge single and the neck humbucker together and adjust the mix of the two for my different tones. i run them together all the time.

the blues breaker is an integreal part of my tone. it is not better or worse than an 808 scrmr, it is different. i dont want to sound like the masses.

its built like a tank but i have put better pots and a fulltone true bypass switch in it. it is a tough pedal but the factory installed components are cheap and i would recommend upgrading them if you find that this pedal is what you want to keep in your chain. i dont have a back up and if it broke on a gig, i would just set the gain on my amp higher and take it out until i fix it.

marshall is in england. across the damn pond. just pay someone in the states to fix it and save yerself some time.

i give it a 10 after my upgrades. i give it a 10 for sound before them but an 8 overall by itself because they sound different from unit to unit. its an assembly line built pedal.

Very simple, 3 controls. The gain control doesn't do much in it's first 75% actually. But it's an overdrive anyway...

Amazing ! This box is the most TS-808 sounding effect. It sounds as tubey as the legendary TS-808 (and TS-9) effects, but more Marshally.
A great blues overdrive effect. If you don't yet know what it does, this is a tube sounding overdrive, which is great with tube amps,
for blues tones (Hendrix, Vaughn etc stuff).

I greatly recommend it to anyone who is into that stuff, again, it sounds as good and as tubey as the Ibanez TS-808, but less grainy, and more smooth.

These two pedals actually rule !!

I opened it up and found the constuction is quite simple, it uses a very simple and cheap quality DPDT foot switch, so I won't say the used quality parts in this box. It also uses cheap potentiometers which tend to make noises when you turn them.

The box is very robust and sturdy though.

The Marshally sounding equavilent to the TS-808,
a very good and nice tube sounding overdrive bblues pedal.