Marshall Blues Breaker

Very easy operation.
year us circa 1991
Original and 100% Functonal

Perfect ten for BLues, funk til you drop, fusion of differant styles. seperation of chords is very nice. The King Of TOne Pedal is like this pedal but offers more options . you get the idea. very vlose though and if your looking to run this thru a Non Master sort of vintage amp i.e Fender, Marshsall it is wonderful. Does not change the sound of the Marshall

If running through a vox, fender,etc it will impose its Marshall insignia. not to say thats bad , its good. very very good

bo problems yet. spryed a rtiny bit of wd on the pots and so on. works fine

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I recommend in the end running dual NON master Volume Marshalls whether PCB or PT to PT get a stereo spliter pedal preferrably your last pedal i.e reverb or delay of sometime and run them thru bvoth amps . Super glassy tone ala SRV, Jimi Hendrix and so on. More SRV. If set right the stereo vblues funk fusion can also be accompanied by your loveable Marshall Shredmaster , Analogman King Of Tone or other pedal(s) for drive you like and switch this out when not needing it. no probs. slight boost of vloume. I use either my Volume pedal ala Visual sound or one of my guitars. I LOVE THIS PEDAL AS MUCH AS MY SHREDMASTER. Next up. KING O TONE ! I hear this is the end all be all of pedals and does it all.

Lot of gear to carry. Just plug the BB1 into a 40 watt boutique amp with no preamp knob and go for it. you got gain and clean . know go gig!! If you push it hard it will give up some harder edge rock to! But remember what this pedal is for music wise .

Using through a 1977 Non Master Volume 100 Watt "Home Tag" Superlead mint head with 100% mint cond . NOS TUBES . Mullards , etc.

I use a Marshall SHredmaster for lead and smooth over the top gain , then switch to the BLuesbreaker #1 ed. for blusier tone. I also use a Teese WIzard , an H2O Dleay, CHorus with NOS BBD Ed#1 only again and an AB/Y box. I go into a dry 1981 Marshall JCM800 "Home Tags" again. Got lucky. I think thye make these special for the guys at the plant or ase the name implies they want them in eng but even a notch up for why would they put "ENG." on the second tags then Imports onthe others to the USA cept for the Polarity.

For me I love the SHredmaster and the Bluesbreaker for the NMV older Marshalls. FOr the first year JCM800 I have a Modified BOSS OD1 with Symmetrical and Assymetrical clipping ( One off pedal ) cant be got anymore unless you make it yourself. Had the original 3403D 14 prong chip installed again. The more you tuen this amp up through my huge Cabled BOgner Vintage 30s (pre ch. const. ) super heavy tranconductence wire they used them for curent into the head and again 100 % NOS tubes MULLARD , SIEMENS and SYLVANIAS , JAN PHILLIPS , etc. plus Hand wound p/ups.

THis way I have to totally differant tones . I heavy thick yet incredibly tubey tone and then the MV offers a \softer yet still very aggressive tone again .

Both amps have that mid thick gain. but diff. BOth very organic. The less pedals the better. Try an get true bypass or buffered for any Wahs . Which i like the TEESE WIZARDS for humbucking heavy Mahgony guitars.

The sound is second to none. I can get 110% insane BLues, Over the top smooth all tube tone lead, beautiful clean yet with a tiny bit of edge m, aga9n inanely wonderful, also thick and tubey. From Vioilns to Madness to thick mids to smooth mids to cleans to WET/DRY comdinations of the two amps . One being N.M.V. and one being M.V.

I love the tone.

Ill get one more Marshall . A point to point just to say I have one . Have had a pt to pt before. I will go original , preferrably a 1972 due the aggressive nature. Mustards and originality inall these amps whether pt to pt or pcb are essential including NOS TUBE , SPKRS, GTR p/UPS. gtrs you use , what tone your looking for , etc. MANY MANY FACTORE> I also am geting a KING OF TONE ala Analogman who modded my OD1and one of my TS9s i use as backup on the JCM800 mint circa 1981.

Altogether iwouldnt change anything ..

Last thing

GET A POWER REGULATOR and a power conditioning unit . I got the PS 45 pedal floorboard which has a conditioner . 8 9V inputs 8 loops , 3 multi volt inoputs etc. also a furman REGULATOR which keeps the heads all at 120 Vlts condistent. EOuls you trust a crusty rehearsal room to ive off / or even a club to give you a constant 120 VOLT .

Not me

Good luck.

tone is tone

whther a 12000 series , 1972 Superlead 100, 1977 Superlead /BAss or 1981 JCM800 2203 MV.Just know what your surrounding it with.
cheers

100% original 1991 MARSHALL BLUES BREAKER B series not the BBII yikes !!!

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PErfect setup , ook me yrs to get it. ands in the end after racks tons of pedals . you have to go back to less is more and undertand the tone gameas a whole .If it sounds good it probably is good .

IHAVE TO TELL EERYONE This ! There are two of each ofthe SHredmasters, Drivemasters and Blues Breakers. The REAL 1st EDITIONof all three hasthe INDENTED SERIAL NUMBER at the top. NOW I heard one guy say he looked inside one of his 2 DRIVE MASTERS (ONE being a sticker serial number and second ed. and one being 1st ed, uindented at thtop of the back serial NUMBER.. he said it had a diff. chip i nthe second one. WHAT RHE???I tried the 1st editon at my buddies thru his 1972 pt to pt Marhsall WITH THE EQING OFFUNTIY NOEQING DONT DOIT . Use your amp Duh. JUST the gain and level! youll get there. I use mainly my shredmasters and LOVE THEM. ALso getting a Blues Breaker and bidding right noe on a drivemaster . probably will gend up with 2 of each one . I LOVE HTME OTHER THAN ATTENAUTION@@

SOund Quality of the BLues BReaker was A+ . SOund of thr SHredmaster was an A+ sounded like the Marshall just more gain and level. NoEQing from the pedal remember. jst heamp use ! havent tried the drivemaster but im sure it is great like the others . I WANT TO KNOW if THE INDENTED SERIAL NUMBER 1991 and 1992 1st edition versions of all three of the MARSHALL BLack pedals have the same internal parts i.e chips resistor placement , caps ,and there is even a mini filter cap(s) in the originals !!@@ ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING I AM GOING NUTS OVER THIS !!!!

no probs yet

havent called

PLEASE PLEASE PLEAE< ANYONE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE info about the 1991 and 1992 MARSHALL SHRDMASTER, MARSHALL DRIVEMASTER, and BLuES BREAKER WITH THE INDENTED SERIAL # at the top AS OPPOSED to the 1993,1994,1995,1996 and on SAME THREE MARSHALL PEDALS (NOT THE 2nd editions but still the first editions) ARE THEYRE ANY AND I MEAN A N Y differances INTERNALLY between these two pedals for each sperate unit . please advise ? I think A lot of you have your mouths gapped open just reading this. Were many of you even aware about the serial numbers and the 2 versions of the 1st editionand 2nd edition of the BB1 SM1and the DM1? thanks soo much

EMAIL ME AT
jameshenderson30@gmail.com
or just reply on the boards with anything that helps . CUrrently I only own 1st edition versions of these pedals. I want a Blues Breaker bad. I have even seen a $200+ and rising sticker SERIAL VERSION going up up up??????? are thye the same then or are all ofg us geting DUPPED@!!!

The previous review on this pedal while slightly confusing but undertandable from the stand point of running a FIRST EDITION ONLY 1991 Marshall Blues Breaker pedal thru a mid to late 1970s NON MASTER VOLUME ONLY ( RUnning it thru a half disorted JCM800 or anything that puts out gain alkready I just dont find pleasing and now that I have had one for a bit the best it sounds is thru a clean NMV MArshall, Hiwatt I would think since they are are also clean initally at lower levels until your ijto 70% RANGE VOLUME WISE SAME AS THE 1977 jmp mki maRSHALL THE GUY WAS talking bout.

Look , I am a Marshall guy myself. I have thought of purchasing a 1966 Pro reverb in clean original condition or close to it anyway. I hear he earlier cones actaully sound best . I fprget which these were. anyone remember let me know!

Now running the 1st Edition Shredmasters which i one few now, just bought number three and number one on the BB 1st edition not so many a month ago or was it overa year. whateer, NUMBER ONE >DO NOT USE THE E Q on these pedals . Im not saying they suck BUT You should have a glorious tone from your Marshall IF your using the right NOS tubes preamp and poweramp, the ight speakers, right pickups , guitars ,spkrs, cabs, etc, use a good power regulaor. surround your tone one piece at a time . IF you start out with crap and think your gonna all of a sudden turn crap into a glorious thing think again. Its like putting masking tape on a tire.

Now this tone is NOT for everyone. YEs it is not a treble booster. but useyour EQing correctly on your amp and youll find love with wither a blues breaker 1st edition or even th shredmaster 1st ediion. I have to admit the shredmaster reminds meuch of he eighties tone a;lmost dead on ala RATT or DOKKEN, LYNCH and even Eddie Van Halen if you throw your THD attenuator in their then disconnect the blues breaker or not . use it asa very loe gain device still and youll see ehat i mean. I love these pedals . Someone I really thought was a close friend who turned out to be something to the contrary, sad really but thats life we all interpret and move on turned me on to these pedals and I Was hooked. HE is a good tone searcher! At least the same tones I like

SOUND WISE :
RUnning thru a mid seventies ENGLISH version mint codntion Marshall 100 watt head and matdhing cab and the right ingredients surrounding it you will be a happy camperIMHO. REMEMBER start with one piece at a time. regulate your voltage find the right cabs . USE NOS POWER TUBES IF POSSIBLE OR at least some reputable new EL34s. I cant go with out a nice NOS MULLARD 12ax7 in V! and a COuple JAN PHillips 12AX7WA in the V@ and V3 but really not essential as the V1 position for obvious reasons. I also recommend running your BIas arounde 36-38 dependent on tubes. I use solely NOS SIEMENS EL34s quads in all my Marshalls .Im either grabbing a 1973 or before point to point Marshall or grab a Metroamp 68 12000 series EVH amp with all the nOS stuff he puts in it along with the some Mustards I recently saved up for. Im seriously thinking of going that direction.I have listened to MANY a Marshall Now and know what I like aggressive sounding Marshalls overthe kind of bluesy soundign ones. But not always,sometimes funky pr bluesy is right up my alley and ill make the adj. thru my volume knob or switch from shrdmaster to blues brker. thats me. Im just sold on these pedals. WHY DO YOU THINK MAyer is buying up all the bb1s it sucks. and thats why the price os going nuts.

none yet. a cap a tube normal for any amp

no opinion

In the end if your looking for a an organic thick and fat tone with a Non master volume Marshall which i have and LOVE IT !! I also run a 1981 JCM800 original mint Marshall TOTOALLY differant tone with a Analogman BOSS OD1 3403d 16 prong chip . The fastest picking tone I have ever heard in my life . again to compensate the mahogany guitars i run which tend to lend themselves to heavy tones . I run 8.7 to 8.9 and similar pups and run a BOGNER VINTAGE 30 all super heavy birch super heavy wiring in this thing and the symmetry of the differant ingredients was like a happy accident . so there ya go. sometimes you get lucky. The internet is a wonderful thing . THats why we all have are opions and have heard these sounds and all of us are looking for something. Not all of us want the same tone by any means ....but for me. I have found bliss. I just want more of it. Who doesnt .

The ist edition or so im to believe youll find with simply by turning over the pedal and seeing gh serial nuimber located at the top ingraved. Parently and similiar to the shredmaster the second dition is wquite diffent and not as organic and will color tone. not this puppy., remember the formulaic approach?

All i can say is if you run it thru a Non master volume CLEan amp and start out with say i odnt know 1977 Marshall MKII NMV with HOme tags minty fresh 100% original head and matching baclback cab with thick monster wired to parallel. (DOnt ask bout the wiring thing.) sltn cab . then perhaps throw in a 72 0r 73' original Gibson les Paul CUstom with WCR Darkbursts hand wound and oh my!
set the pedal unity for the middle tone knob. I like the drive kikcked in th ears a bit with the level sown a bit for my funk, blues and other styles. I also switch it between a shredmaster for more aggression and another amp I a.BY
anyway. This pedal will NOT noodle with your already geargous sound im sure by now yoiuve tweaked endlessly! but onto other things . just run a it of ambient delay . and i mean smidge . I like the ist ed. H20 and for clean ill use the BBD chips for chorus . Wonderful i can go oin but htis aint bout that
its transpearnet and WONT COLOER TONE like the shred doesnt either so i put them side by side!
thats it WICKED. Just remember the formulae. good spkrs, good gtr, good pickups,good cab, good head biased, broken in, on and on and youve got it, THis pedal is the way !
Im convinced love it ! what more testimony do you need

nothing yet

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Think ive said that. Igrab too they are from the early 90s of courwe . I have three of each of my shreds and blues breakers just in case because i tour . dont ecommend it unless you wanna shekl out $1,000 for all the pedals. Ive shreds getting $300+++ a piece YIKERS! good luck to you .

Very easy. Getting a good tone took no time at all.
I brought this from ebay so it came with no manual, not needed though.

Mine is a BB1. I used to own a BB2, it was ok but a bit harsh. The boost worked well with the amps i has at the time.

I've recently made the switch to using OD pedals as i thought i could nail a number of tones with a couple of boxes. I was right. Now i use a Les Paul to Tuner, crybaby wah, TS9, bluesbreaker, aramat Green machine OD, aramat fuzz, boss delay and tremolo to a 1973 Fender pro reverb. It's a great set up and i change the pedals to suit the set.

The overdrive is warm and transparent. It's ballsy and most important for me it sounds like an amp's OD rather than a pedal. It's never harsh. I used to own a reissue Bluesbreaker and although it looked great it sounded rubbish. It was really loud and the OD never matched what i thought it would be!! This thankfully does at 1/100 of the price. I only paid ??15!!

Good so far. Although the LCD does'nt work. I'm having it replaced.

No dealt with Marshall. Althoug i have in the past and found them to be very good.

Exceelent. If you want a great straight up overdrive buy one.

3 knobs, tone, drive, and volume, need more???

I give a 10,...is there a 20 instead of just 10?????? I play rock/blues with vintage strats into a Marshall 100 watt plexi head with 2 Marshall cabs, a Fender blackface Super Reverb, and a Fender blackface Vibrasonic.

The Marshall Blues Breaker pedal stays ON all the time, I set the volume at 1 o'clock, tone at 11 o'clock, drive at 1 o'clock. It sounds like you're not using any effect, it's just real natural. John Mayer use this pedal too. Listen to Albert King and SRV. Sounds like SRV when he's not using a Tubescreamer. It sounds just like a cranked up tube amp. I would use the TS9 for boost, I can't describe the sound into words, I don't know what I must type here. Great pedal!

Yes, very dependable!

Never deal with Marshall.

I play rock/blues, my effects chain is strat to Vox Wah to Roger Mayer Octavia to Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face to Jim Dunlop Univibe to TS9 to Marshall Blues Breaker to amps. The Marshall Blues Breaker pedal is the key of the tone. Great pedal!

A Three-knob-pedal, pretty basic stuff.

I already had the chinese made version (BB2) of this pedal, which I love, and had the chance to buy this pretty cheap and took it.

I must say that I prefer the new version over this one! Through my JCM 800 it sounds a bit lame, it somehow eats up the natural crunch of the JCM. So it's not the ideal thing to use to boost up solo's.

The amp sounds better without this pedal, but maybe it can give a cheap solid-state amp a boost?

The BB2 on the other hand gives a fat, rich overdriven sound perfect for solos through a slightly overdriven tube amp. That's why I prefer it.

Pots were in terrible condition at purchase, but it's an easy fix.

I wouldnt use it without a backup, it doesnt seem trustworthy.

Never dealt with the company.

Havent had it long enough to give it a fair judgement, but I don't think this one is a keeper. It doesn't add any desired dimension to my sound. Sorry Marshall!

easy to use, but what pedal isn't?

I've got an Ibanez TS7, and a Boss Blues Driver. I like them all but prefer the distorted overdrive of the Marshall.

Heavy, appears to be built like a rock. No plastic anywhere on the outside

Don't know

I play blues & rock, mostly with a Gibson SG thru a Fender Concert (Rivera) amp. It has tone, volume, & drive knobs (all chrome). It also has a switch that's just pure level drive (very hot!) which bypasses the tone & drive controls.

No harder to use than any other pedal. Just have to dial in your tone. Maual gives some good starting points.

Now here's where I get critical ...
I was dissatisfied with the sound of this thing from the get go, and wound up returning it. The blues drive channel sounds soulless, muddy, and just plain dull. The booster channel offers a good dose of gain for non-master volume vintage style amps, but offers only a muddy full-range boost that I would NEVER use at a gig. I am a religious user of treble boosters and this is NOT a treble booster, but rather a full-range booster and a BAD one at that! It is made in China and it sounds it! My biggest problem with this pedal is that it sounds nothing like an overdriven Marshall Bluesbreaker combo! I should know. I use one in conjunction with a REAL treble booster. It is my main amp. And for ANYONE to say that this pedal sounds anything like it is an insult to me and an embarrassment to Jim Marshall!

I suppose it will last long as long as it is not abused. Good strong metal housing.

NA

For the aforementioned reasons I would suggest looking into other better pedals.

Work with it. Good setting is drive at 3 o'clock, tone at 11 o'clock, volume to match the volume of the pedal off.

Regarding the Tone Viking's review: Easy now, dude. It's just a pedal! :-) Some of your observations are sort of correct, in the sense that your needs are not suited by this pedal. This pedal is really best suited to blues applications and jazz-blues appplications where warm saturation/tube overdrive sound is desired - not high gain. It's not a very "Marshall" sound in the more prominently "Marshall" sense. It does however capture the Marshall Bluesbreaker amp of old quite well. I bought mine before they were discontinued and even then I thought I was robbing the place because it sounded so incredibly rich and good, if properly EQ'd. It's not a screaching shredmaster pedal. It's really, really fricken good at what it does. I've heard no other solid state pedal like it. Even the tube pedals and tube amp preamp sections of amps I've owned can only match it. It's a great pedal if you understand what it's for.

cheap inputs. but a handyman can sure them up from the inside.

This is a follow up to my past review(s) on this pedal. I'm sorry Tone Viking finds his BB so worthless. It just goes to show that each person is unique in what they like to hear and gear requirments...and not every pedal/guitar/amp is for everyone. I hope you have found a pedal or two that provides the tone you require. TV, if you ever want to sell or trade that BB, let me know! I'll be glad to take it off your hands.

While it is what it is and perhaps not the most versitile pedal on the planet, the inherent tone and drive capabilites fit my needs better than many of the high dollar, botique offerings I've used.

The past few weeks with the Bluesbreaker ( remember, we are talking the original, English made black box/blue letters here..not the RI ) has taught this old dog a few new tricks.

I usually play clean and stomp on a few overdrives for various stages of dirt. That has changed recently. While I still have several overdrives set for stun, I have taken to leaving the Bluesbreaker engaged at all times. With the gain around 3/4 of the way up, the tone control barely cracked and the volume control set to taste, I can access a wide range of stellar clean/crunch/overdrive tones using my guitars volume and tone controls. Yesterday was perhaps the best tone I've had in quite a while doing it this way. With the guitars volume rolled down, the resulting clean tones were stunning. Fat, lush, warm and crystal clear. I realize those tonal descriptions are a bit redundant, but I am truly amazed at what a minute vol/tone adjustment can do for the tone. If it really came down to it, I would have been happy with my tone using only my guitar, amp and BB.

Where it really shine is when the ol' pinky starts raising the volume knob a bit and that glorious, fat, harmonically rich overdrive starts making it's presense felt. WOW!!

The moral is, you are never too old to try a different way of doing things. The old way had served me well for 35 years, but the new way is fun, fun fun!

I don't want to give this a rating, just suffice to say this is a special pedal for me. The fact it was a gift from a very good friend makes it all the more special. I found another one recently in pretty poor cosmetic condition. It works fine however and using the two together is the akin of sonic nirvana for me. I don't require megadeath amounts of distortion.....just great, on the edge blues tones to fat, singing lead tones. I get all that and much more with the old Marshall pedals. Love to find a Guv'nor, Drive Master and Shred Master to complete the set. From BB, Albert & Freddie, to Gary Moore & Brian May, these little gems do the job.

Just three knobs, you will find the sweet spot within minutes and the leave it alone.

Using a 1981 Ibanez artist with Di Marzio PAFs, a Mex Strat and a Peavey Bandit,
just low volume bedroom widdling at present but have gigged in the past.
Years ago I mistakenly traded my original black box Bluesbreaker for the then new Boss Bluesdriver, so it would fit in my boss carry case, big mistake. The Boss version is just a "Fuzzbox" when compared to the Marshall version. Got shot of the Boss imediately. Recently decided to go for the Marshall Bluesbreaker II, an even worse "Fuzzbox" than the Boss to my ears. Boxed it up and sold it on. Finally got the original Marshall Bluesbreaker mk 1 back 6 or 7 years after trading it. It really is the best for that mild bluesy creamy drive tone, you can't call it crunch its far too smooth. I firmly believe you need 3 or 4 drive pedals, not just one that you try to make into a "jack of all trades". I have the afore mentioned plus a Boss MT2, and a Boss OD1 Overdrive. You cant get a mild overdrive like the Marshall BluesBreaker by winding off the drive knob on a standard OD pedal as the sound breaks up into a crackling mess long before you reach a mild enough setting to match the Marshall. Get one while you can

Built like a tank, you dont need to stomp on the switch, just a gentle tap with your toe.

Tone, Volume, Gain. Simple, needs some tuning to find the sweet spot

This is the last part, I finished my tonequest.
I use a Gibson Customshop '59 RI Les Paul and a Bogner Shiva amp.
I used some other pedals (Modded TS9, Maxon OD808, Tech21 DD) on my board. Now the Marshall is on the board, the others are removed. This is the 1 pedal I need for this rig.

It's for players who want to make the sound withe their fingers. No high gain shredding. Just tone. It;s responds great at you playing and volume setting. The Shiva get's that nice just to breakup sound at the clean channel. Not harsh, very natural. At the OD channel of the Shiva it realy roars with a big fat tone full of harmonics.
When kicked in it seems the strings have a double thickness.

Not for everyone, but when it's for you, you will love it.

Old school build. Like a tank.
Lost the plastick cover from the battery compartment.

Dunno

I play classic rock and blues. This pedal is great for that with my rig. I have been playing for 35 years and finaly found the last part of my rig. I tried a lot of other pedals including custom made and boutique. It realy let you make your tone.

I'm talking about the old style Black and Blue version here.

Very simple, three knobs - volume, tone and gain, although you may wonder whether they're working!

Sounds like Marmite, it's a love it or hate it pedal because it only really has one sound. The basic sound has quite a middly honk to it and a fair amount of top end.

Not really loud enough to be used as a pure booster for a valve amp so it's better used with the gain up. There isn't that much distortion available, but thats because it's supposed to sound like a blues breaker amp which doesn't have much gain so that's ok!

As said before it's very toppy so the tone control needs to be backed off to near minimum and as mentioned by others the controls don't do a lot in the middle of their travel. EXCEPT that the gain setting influences the tone quite a lot so you eill need to do some twiddling.

The bypass is quite poor withh a noticeable loss of treble.

The knobs are prone to crackle so keep it clean and the battery lid is rubbishy plastic, the casing itself is rock solid - Stomp away!

No need yet - its discontinued anyway so don't expect much.

For me this is a fantastic pedal, used with a les paul and a clean amp it gives a great subtle grind to my sound that I love and I would be very sad if it was half-inched.

Most important - make sure you try it first!

This review is for the original Marshall Blues Breaker pedal (black with blue letters).

Sure, it's easy to use -- most pedals are. It is about the only thing right about this pedal.

I'm absolutely shocked by the positive reviews I have read here. THIS PEDAL IS A JOKE! We use to laugh at the guys who would pull this out at a gig. It hits your front end with almost nothing, has no gain, and colors your distortion with a pseudo-tubey quality. It's amazing how discontinuing something suddenly makes it valuable. Have at it.

Can you depend on it? I haven't a clue. Stomp on it a couple of times and you won't want to stomp on it again -- so I guess from the perspective that you won't use it much -- it will hold up fine.

Marshall amps are classics. That said, I have never dealt with the company.

I have been playing guitar for 35 years -- some of it professionally, some of it just for fun. I love classic Marshall based guitar rock. I have owned many great guitars, amps, and pedals. This pedal is an absolute joke. It doesn't do much -- and what it does do ain't good. Marshall obviously was embarrased by this crappy pedal because they changed it drastically. If your looking for Marshall tone, I suggest you look elsewhere. I absolutely guarantee that this pedal will completely underwhelm you and will soon gather dust. Might make a nice paperweight however.

I have two of these beauties. What a great, great pedal. Not a ton of gain, but enough to pummel the front end of a tube amp or give you that elusive "Beano" tone. Perhaps the best pedal at aping one tone ever made. As you can tell, I dig these pedals. Ther respond very much like an amp when used in conjuntion with your guitars volume pedal. This is one pedal I'll continue to search for as I'd like all my guitar playing friends to have one. It is a great sounding, responsive, fun to use pedal. Nice to have a differnt tone than your garden variey ( not that there is anything wrong with that )tube screamer clone. I'm certain there better quality pedals out there that will do much, much more than this one, but few re as responsive at getting that killer, snarkey, touch sensitive blues tone.

Only 3 knobs, easy. what can I tell more about it?

I bought it because it was very cheap, and I would give it a try. In the beginning I was disapointed, because it has very less gain! If you're looking for a distortion pedal, leave it.

But now I've learned to use it. I put it in front of my Fender tube amps (begin seventies SF Vibrochamp and Vibrolux) and with my Fender 57 RI strat I get real nice overdrive bluessound. If I set the Fenders at going-to-break up-level (little bit crancked), it can be very nasty when I set volume and drive of the BB at 10. Just like old Marshalls. Think of old Deep Purple and AC/DC, and all the other classic rock bands. WIth my Gibson Les Paul, it can be very rough!

I've compared it with an Ibanez TS-9. With the gain of the TS-9 at 5 it sounds allmost the same as the Bluesbreaker.

I can't give it a 10, because perfect doesn't exist! And it should give a little bit more gain. Now I'v to cranck up the amps for old school hard rock (and than it's f*cking loud).

Never had a problem .

I use it for blues and for classic rock. And it suits. Its should have more gain, than it would be easier to sound real nasty (now I've to cranck up the amps).

Quite a variety of opinions on the board regarding this old black box bluesbreaker. Just goes to show you, one mans tone dream is anothers nightmare.

If you're a fan of great blues tone, that beautiful kinda clean / kinda dirty tone that purrs when one picks softly and screams when a harder tact is used...then this pedal is for you. Of course, good luck finding one as they have been discontinued for quite sometime. From what I understand, the current BB ll offered by Marshall is no where near this one in terms of tone and feel. If you want clean boost however, this ain't it. The newer model would be your cup-o-tea.

What can I say? I love this pedal. It is perhaps the most amp like pedal ( in terms of how it responds to ones guitars volume control and pick attack ) I've ever used. Many overdrive pedals ( some botique, some stock ) have come and gone since I got this beauty. Guess what? It ain't going nowhere!! Used by itself, or with another overdrive, it kicks major ass. Not only does it sound good, it FEELS good. It's hard to stop playing when you have this thing on since it responds to every nuance in your playing style. If you're sad, happy, pissed off, the mighty Bluesbreaker can sense these things and bring that out in your playing. So, it can at once be sweet, sassy, ugly, beautiful or just plain nasty. The controls are virtually worthless til near dimed, or dimed...but good Lord almighty, when they are, look out.

I would say this is a pedal for the seasoned blues/rock player. Inexperienced players will probably deem it "Crapola of the highest order" since it won't do those ultra death metal tones. However, if you're a player who relys on your fingers to get your emotions across in your playing, you will love this pedal. A big 10+ in my book for the stellar tones it produces in the blues idiom.

3 knobs duh

its very transparent adds the character of a cranked vintage marshall amp when turned up but it does not have a lot of output and gain (a bit weak IMO) you have to turn up the knobs at least 3 o'clock 2 get a significant effect...
its a great pedal coz it is the most sensitive and best sounding pedal i've ever tried... use it with a cranked amplifier and you cant go wrong.
what i dont like is that it should have a bit more gain and output. It does sound great and it is very transparent... but a little more gain could do wonders for this thing. it does killer blues to die forl on its own but thats about it..
maybe there's a mod out there that can add gain and output and not alter the pedals sound character and transparency... then it would be perfect

crappy knobs but chassis is built like a tank... does not chip or scratch easily... and i know how to clean knobs so no problem

cleaned the knobs myself, i guess i'll never know

great pedal to add to any collection definitely a keeper... it's not as versatile as i would like but the blues tone it kicks out is unbelievable... but needs a bit more gain IMO

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.

Takes a bit of tweaking before the right sounds are coming out of your amp though it has only three knobs. The tone and drive settings have to be in balance.

Sounds pretty good with my Marshall Jubilee 2553. This is a very mild overdrive unit. It brings out the pinch harmonics and when used right it can be good ad to your sound. I could get pretty damn good results with the TS-7 and this huge black thing together.

It's like a goddamn tank. You could drive a truck over it and fry it with a flamethrower and it would still be in working condition.

Can't say anything about that...

I play mostly metal but I like this pedal very much. With the TS-7 I Could get some smooth lead sounds. Tubescreamers tend to eat the bass out of your sound but this baby can bring it back. If you want gobs of gain in one pedal then this isn't it.

this is not a distortion...it is an overdrive. with that being said this is an awesome overdrive. when you set the gain on max you get a real nice creamy overdrive. it goes perfect with my amp, b/c i have a 70's push pull master volume Fender TWin REverb. it has an incredible clean sound but the overdrive is shotty at best. the blues breaker is the perfect fit for the amp. this pedal i have found has awesome compression in it. it is a real full creamy pedal. the tone knob is highly reactive (i love that). and you can get real good crunchy overdrive if you turn up the volume. i use this pedal in unison with the fulldrive 2 and or big muff to get my distortion which ever i feel the song needs. this pedal accentuates other overdrive or fuzz pedals incredibly well.

it looks to be built like a tank. i really like the ascthetics of boxy pedals like these (Electro harmonix looking pedals)

have never ever had to deal with any customer support for any of the goods i have bought.

incredible value here. if you are looking for a distortion pedal, this pedal will not cut it, but if you are looking for an honest overdrive, wow, you will not be disappointed. for its price range it blows the od-2, and danelectro daddy-o, away. this pedal does not take any of you guitars tone away, it adds to it. incredible sound for an incredible price. if it were stolen, i would replace it immediately. when i play, i find myself with this pedal on at all times.

I compare this pedal to a boss O/D i have been using for the past few years. you can get a similar sound out of most good O/D units, if you try. alongside the boss, which is also a good pedal, i believe this pedal to be smoother and a bit more transparent- to my ears anyway. it doesnt have an overabundance of gain available, but it has enough for an O/D unit, it produces a good quality sound IMO. it will probably stay in the chain from now on. it gives a pleasing result in all my pickup settings also

havent had it long but its at least several years old and looks sturdy

its just right for the blues that i play mostly, as you would expect, and also rock. its a top pedal really, and even better,its made in England.theres nothing about it to dislike cos its a simple unit that does its job well.

Well first off this is a review of the older, 80's version of this pedal. The big black one.

It's only got three knobs: gain, tone and volume. Easy.

First off this is a very subtle overdrive pedal. The gain knob does essentially nothing until it is turned up about 3/4's. Then it blends some fairly tubey-sounding overdrive into the signal. It also adds a touch of compression when up this high. The tone knob, as someone else pointed out, almost seems to work by taking treble away rather than adding it. What I mean is that when on "10" the treble is at "unity" and when you turn it down it kills some treble. So if you want to preserve your present amount of treble when engaging this pedal keep the tone knob all the way up. The volume knob adds volume of course but it doesn't add much. You really have to have it nearly all the way up to get any usable volume out of this pedal. This is not a pedal that would work well as a clean boost since it doesn't do much boosting.

The overdrive is fairly natural sounding and pretty decent though not mind-blowingly amazing. It is not transparent but I don't think that was the point of this pedal. It adds some mids and some lows (a fairly dark sounding pedal overall) and a touch, maybe more than a touch, of compression. But the point of this pedal is to emulate the old JTM45 and in that sense it does seem amp-like (crank a tube amp up and you get compression and some boosted mids). I've never played through a cranked up JTM45 so I can't really make that comparison but the pedal sounds good.

For the price these are going for on ebay I think they are worth it. Not the greatest OD pedal in the world but certainly up there with Tubescreamers and even high-priced boutiques. It does it's own thing and offers a different flavor of overdrive from most of the TS-clones out there. Definitely worth checking out if you're sick of Tubescreamers and want something slightly different.

Nothing to add here

It's the best overdrive pedal I've ever had. It gives the most natural, clear, just breaking up sound I've ever had. It's punchy and clear and doesn't cut the bass. Works with all guitars. Blends perfectly with a tube amp.

Always works. Built like a tank.

Superb for blues. Very musical. Don't expect much gain. It sounds like a clean amp which is fattening up as all its bits and pieces start to saturate. And that's very hard to emulate. This pedal does just that very very well.

Simple as it gets. Three knobs Gain, Tone, Volume. Most activity starts at about 2 o'clock on the dials.

This is the original black box model. Made to sound like an overdriven tube amp. Does it's job perfectly. Best clean sound I have found out of a pedal. No decernable change in tone when in bypass which is just what you want. Depending on the type of guitar used you get great response and this shapes or boost your tone in front of the amp. Get a great early Clapton tone with strats, good ZZ-Top, George Thorogood with LP or 335.

Solid construction, sholud hold up better than most.

One of the best ways to push the amp a little on the front end. Adds realistic overdriven tube sound to solid state amps and when playing at low volume with tube amps. You don't have to use a power soak, brake ect. to get overdriven sound at low volume. It is not the most elaborate pedal you can find but it works as designed.

Fine and simple, just three knobs, gain, tone and volume. None of these go to any extreme and work quite smoothly so it's no problem.

I use it to get some overdrive at relatively low volumes on a solid state battery powered amp. Mostly I use it for wilder blues stuff. It's great for that. It doesn't get fuzzy or sound too much like a distortion box but stays true to it's name and sounds very much like an overdriven amp. I like it because it goes from no overdrive at all to a good overdriven sound and everything in between (which is the area I usually listen for). It's pretty subtle if you compare it to many pedals out there so if you want lots of distortion this is not for you unless you use it as some have suggested to boost an already overdriven amp. All in all it's a great pedal and the only thing I don't like about it is that it says Marshall on it and the dumb name of a band I don't like but I can live with that.

It's a rugged stomp box. What could possibly happen to it?

What can I say. I play blues and when I need a little overdrive I use this and it works great. Nothing exciting happening but just what you want when you need it.

It's a pedal. Pedals are easy.

The moment you turn it on, you get the blues! Responds very well to the different mics on just about any guitar.
I'm currently using it with a standard Ibanez RG570 and a very old Peavey Classic (tube, of course).
Sounds great all the time, no particular noise on ANY setup I've tried.
I'm not trying to sound like anyone else, hence...

This pedal is very ROBUST and RELIABLE. I've had it for quite some time now, it's starting to look the worse but there's nuthin wrong at all.
You won't need a backup, unless you're on low battery!

If you need a new pedal, go for BluesBreaker 2. If you're buying used, know that this is a fantastic blues pedal with lots of different sounds. Just change your mic and notice.

This pedal is very easy to use, 3 knobs can't be hard to figure out. A good sound sound can be achieved on all settings, 1st match the volume to the guitar, 2nd match the tone, 3rd set the gain to whatever level of grit you need. Simple.

I use a Roland J-120 (jazz chorus) amp, and a Washburn MG-30 guitar.

The effect isn't noisy, apart from the obvious noise created using an overdrive pedal of any kind! The effect is that of old Marshall amps and that's just the sound it makes. The effect is very sutble and produces a rather natural sounding overdrive, this is exactly what it is meant to do. People often compare this effect to other overdrive units and say that it is too subtle, but this is not what it was made for. It's a natural amp overdrive.

Built like a Tank, (the army borrowed the design to help build a new prototype war machine).

n/a: Bought 2nd hand.

I play many types of music but rock is my stable diet.

I haven't long been playing guitar. I'm a bassist but I do know what I'm talking about.

I think I would buy another one if it got nabbed. It's something that you could take for granted. By that I mean it's very simple and might be in the frame of mind that it doesn't contribute to your sound much but if it were gone you would certainly notice a gap in your sound.

Update to previous post.

If you read my previous post I was using Strat Vox setup with this pedal and was not impressed. I have bought a Tubescreamer which is far more suitable. I lent the BB to a friend who uses PRS GT5 JTM60
setup. He tried it front end of the multi fx and the sound engineer said thats brilliant, whats that? I havent got it back yet.
My opinion-if you are using single coils try the guvnor.

Used with a PRS this better is much better. There is a real break up to the sound. Whatever program is selected on the Boss the bb can provide more edge. Top stuff.

When I first got this pedal, I didn't much like it because it really didn't give the amount of kick that I was expecting. It took a long time for me to get the controls set for the sound I wanted, but now the damn thing wails!

Unbelievable! I play a Les Paul DC through a 65 Twin Reverb, and all of my friends think I'm a moron for playing a Gibson through something other than a Marshall amp. That's where this pedal comes in. I can get a fantastic lead sound without being noisy and offensive. When used in conjunction with a Wah, you can get a much stronger sound though.

Don't bother with a backup. It doesn't kill batteries either.

My favorite guitarists are Garcia, Allman, and Hendrix. Duane can be almost perfectly emulated (but only if you can play a mean slide), Jerry doesn't really count because he usually sounds best with a clean sound, and if you use a Wah, then when you play Voodoo Child everyone will think that they're really listening to Electric Ladyland. I'll never use another overdrive pedal.

three knobs no waiting....

does exactly what it promises an affordable approximation
of a mid 60's bluesbreaker amp

has never broken in the years i've used it
and i use it from gigs where i just plug into a pa head
to using it as a pre amp for my 65 fender deluxe reverb
or 65 fender twin

never needed it

i have a hi end digital recording studio and this device
is quiet, efficient and versatile, the range of tone goes
from squeaky clean to distorted and allows a great deal of
tonal purity, i prefer it to the tube screamer and other
such devices

Marshall have made two series of pedals. To get technical series 1 is black, series 2 is silver. Which is better? dont know, dont care. This pedal is called an overdrive(hope the trade descriptions people don't see one) There are 3 knobs to control gain tone and volume.

I am using a Strat and Vox setup which has a great cleaninsh sound but not much dirt. I bought this to dirty the sound. I thought this pedal would give instant Marshallisation .Wrong.I was weaned on Boss. Boss make great pedals and every one I have tried or owned sounded great at 12 o clock . This marshall does not. The gain has to be on max to get od and the tone has to be in the last quarter. Re-think time. I have found that if you set the amp for slight OD and then set the Marshall to make that sound slightly more dirty with a slight treble boost and medium volume boost.... whoah! what a lead sound.

Never broken down

n/a I used to work near the factory so I went next door to get a free calender as advertised. There was no one in reception so I asked the first person I saw he got me a copy and as he was Jim Marshall he signed it next to his picture. What a bloke!

I have toyed with electric guitar for 18 years and have recently collected equipement so I can record at home. I thought that one pedal would give me all od sounds, another distortion etc. No No NO. This box gives me blues lead. It doesnt do what it said on the tin but it does supply a useful sound. The advantages of pedals over multi-stuff is that you can mix manufacturers products and choose various pedals for various uses. If someone was desperate enough to ask me to play at a blues gig I would take this pedal, no problem.It didnt cost me much so I will expand my meager collection. moral of the story always try to use your rig when buying pedals I know it's a pain but I learnt the hard way.

Ease of use is somewhat subjective. As others have said, this is not an all-in-one pedal. It does a fairly specific bluesy thing very well. 3 knobs- Gain, Tone, & Volume. I got mine cheap, used, & beat-up. It sounded good as soon as I plugged it in.

Great unobtrusive gain, without artificial midrange additions. Placed between my Strat & Twin Reverb, it doesn't seem to color the tone perceptibly. Also, this might be the only overdrive pedal I've owned which I didn't have to turn down the tone-knob almost all the way to match my clean sound. If anything, the opposite seems true.
My Twin (a '68 or '69 SF, no master volume) Is a gorgeous-sounding clean amp. But I like a little fur on my sound, as if I was playing thru a Deluxe instead. Honestly, amongst all my OD pedals, this is the most natural-sounding in this combination. I would probably drive the front end of it with my TS-9 if I wanted a thicker more distorted sound. But for most rhythms it's perfect.
Better solo sustain can be achieved with a compressor in front of it too.
This does that Stevie Ray Vaughan-a-bee thing very well, especially with a compressor or another OD pedal in front of it, but that's not really what I'm after. It gives a real sweet gain thickness to single-coil pickups, which is great for melodic passages. It DOESN'T add a lot of fuzzy distortion. It DOESN'T add a lot of treble. It DOESN'T add a ton of volume boost. Some adjustment between gain and volume is necessary. I think someone mentioned that previously, too.
Even though it has a mechanical footswitch, it doesn't make any noticeable noise when being engaged or disengaged.

Seems reliable. It's missing the battery cover (this was so when I bought it), so I guess these can get lost or broken. Otherwise, it's solid- a nice metal case.

I went to the Marshall website about a year ago to try to get a replacement battery cover. The site was too multimedia oriented to be tolerated on even a 56k modem, and required some browser plug-ins to enter. Even on my office's T-1, it was dismally slow. I didn't find any way of contacting customer support. Maybe this has changed since then.
I suggested that they "dumb down" their site a bit, and left a message which was never answered.

The style of music I play is constantly changing. I'm mostly influenced by the late 60's, and prefer to think in terms of arrangement than technique. Been playing 19 years now.
I compare this to the OD/distortions of my Boss ME-5 (OD-1, OD-2, Metal Zone), TS-9, Daddy-O, and Original SansAmp. I had a Boss Blues Driver until I got the Bluesbreaker. I sold the BD soon afterward. I would definitely replace it. It definitely lets you get right to work, without hunching over to twist knows or flip switches for hours on end.

It has the traditional 3 control layout (gain, tone, volume) as you find it on many other overdrive pedals. The handling is straight forward and you don't really need a manual for it.

This pedal was designed to simulate the sound of an overdriven 1962 "Bluesbreaker" Combo as the young Clapton made it famous back in 1966, when recording the "Beano" album with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. And it does this very well. I use it together with my Heritage H150 SD (Les Paul with two Seymour Duncan '59 SH1) and an old "silverface" Twin, which is equipped with original old "Greenbacks" (...like the Bluesbreaker Combo...). I use the pedal to boost the lightly overdriven tubes and this works very well. You can control the overdrive with the volume control of the guitar, this allows you to go from clean to fat warm crunch. Clapton Gibbons, Perry and Allman...you can realize all these trademark sounds with this pedal.
Together with my ESP Series 400 Vinatge Strat (Fender Texas Special PUs) the sound is more like SRV.
This pedal is something for Blues- or Vintage Rock players. It's nothing for the Heavy Metal axeman.
It's not noisy. Although it's a solid state pedal it doesn't spoil the tube sound. I never used it together with an solid state amp, so I don't really know how this will be, but I would recommend to use this pedal together with an tube amplifier.

It's absolutely dependable and its construction is solid as a rock. It has a jack to plug in a 9V DC power supply to make you independent from the battery.

I had no problem with it and never needed any support.

I play Blues, Rock'n Roll and Vintage Rock and for this style it's perfect. Except of my Crybaby Wah it's the only effect I own!!! Before I bought it I tried out many other overdrive pedals (Boss Bluesdriver, Ibanez Tubescreamer, Vintage Rat...) but this one I liked best. I would buy it again. As I mentioned before it's no allround distortion pedal, so you should consider this before you buy it.

This is an update of my previous review (see below). It's always a breeze to dial in a good sound. Just be careful how you set the amount of distortion if you are using an already distorted tube amp. If ya don't watch it, it'll get too muddy.

The reason for this update is because I've used this thing in bizarre circumstances and it always sounds good, at worst - usable. I plugged it into an old Kasino 4-10 cabinet with a built in 100 watt transistor power amp. Since the Kasino has no controls, I also plugged in a cheapo 6-band EQ. I managed to get a real good sound out of it! I recently went to a jam session and was too lazy to pull my amp out of the trunk. So, I just plugged the Bluesbreaker straight into the PA (a Peavey six channel powered mixer) and with a little tweaking it sounded OK. Not great, but pretty good. I've also tried it out through various transistor amps set clean. It sounds almost like a good tube amp cranked. I used to go to the jam nights with my amp in the trunk because you never know what you'll wind up playing through. Now I just take this pedal. I think it would sound great even if I plugged into the refridgerator!

I've had it for several months now with no problems. The battery compartment door keeps falling off, but that's it. I've since sold off my backup - a Tube Works Real Tube. So, obviously I have alot of faith in this thing.

I'm still using it with my old Rat pedal in front of it if I need a little more gain. I recently tried the Drivemaster and was not thrilled by it. My ear tells me that the Bluesbreaker sounds better with something else in front to boost it as opposed to just getting the Drivemaster for the extra gain. I'm using this setup for Blues right now but would feel comfortable using it with any kind of music.

The only thing that stops me from giving this no-brainer pedal a 10 in this category is that you have to be VERY careful how you set the pedal volume and amp volume as this will make a HUGE difference in tone. Otherwise plug in and put the gain on 10 and control it from the guitar volume.

Sounds great with all of my guitars. I'm running through a Sovtek Mig-50 head and a 4-10 cab. I'm playing a Telecaster and G&L Legacy. Seems to be very touch sensitive like a good tube amp should. Just for kicks I ran it into the worst transistor amp in the shop and it STILL sounded good.

I've been using it for several months now with no problems. I've since retired my old Tube Works Real Tube II. Anybody wanna buy it???

Haven't had to deal with them

I use this pedal for every gig I play. Mostly blues but, when the blues gigs get slow I'll occasionally take a country or top-40 gig to pay the bills. I just leave the pedal on full time and control it from the guitar. If I need more gain, I'll stick my old Rat pedal in front of it with it's volume maxed, tone about half way, and distortion about a quarter the way up just to boost it a little. Sounds very smooth and natural that way. The Rat usually stays off though.

Very easy to use. Only 3 knobs: gain, tone, & volume.

My main guitar is a Fender Foto-flame Strat (which has great tone) and my amp is a Fender Vibro King. I needed an overdrive/bluesy box that would not change the tone of my guitar when I kick it in (so I could play the Vibro King at lower volume) and, the Blues Breaker is the only box I could find that would fit that bill. When set properly there is no tone coloration. I previously used an Ibanez TS-9 reissue and it always seemed to thin out a little when I kicked it in but it was the best I could find at the time. The Blues Breaker is definitly not a "heavy metal" box but it works very well for it's intended purpose. A great blues tone seems like it's the most difficult to find and the Blues Breaker nails that sound and it also seems to react to your touch, depending on how you "lean into" the guitar. SRV & Albert would love this. Great for rock also.

I have only had the box for a short time but it is a heavy box and seems well made. Electonics can be unpredictable so I always have a backup. The best laid plans of mice and men . . . . . . .

No problems yet.

I have been playing guitar since I saw the boys on the Ed Sullivan Show. I guess I'm giving away my age but I play mainly for a hobby now, in a trio that does a wide variety of music. I think we all have a tone in our head that we are always trying to recreate with our gear and, 30 years later, I think I finally found that sound I kept hearing in my head. The Blues Breaker pedal with its sweet, uncolored, touch sensitive tone has my vote as the best overdrive I have ever heard. This is also why I have been playing a $450 Japanese Fender Foto-flame Strat through a $1700 Vibro King for the past 3 years. This is the sound I hear in my head and the Blues Breaker pedal was the last peice to my 30 year puzzle.

This is very straightforward and the controls operate over a fairly narrow range. Basically, a natural sounding overdrive 'crunch' box. The manual is superficial, but there really isn't much to it, gain, tone and volume.

I have used this into 3 amps I have owned, Peavey Classic 30, Peavey Duel Classic 120 and now Fender Custom Vibrosonic.In each case, into a clean channel, this gives a modicum of drive, i.e. Stones type sounds, blues. It works in harmony with the amp and used to add extra drive to the dirty channel of the Peavey Classic 30. It is not noisy. This is a basic, but very good sound.

Built like a tank - unlikely to fail. Seems easy on batteries.

Never needed it.

I have used this in blues and general rock. I am always glad it is there, but it is not a spectacular sound.I have far more exotic things available, but this is the one which always gets used. I might go for something like a tube driven box if I was looking for something now, but this has to be an excellent buy and I'll probably never get rid of it.

It takes a bit of tinkering to get the precise sound you might be looking for, but I wouldn't go so far as to liken it to brain surgery. I mean, it's not like a 1968 model guitar synth or anything.

This unit ultimately does a terrific job of emulating a tube amp driven at different levels. To date, it's the only pedal I've found that can achieve one of my favorite sounds, the late-period Beatles John Lennon tone, as from "Come Together" or "Don't Let Me Down".

I've had this one for about five years, and have yet to see a problem with it.

Definitely a winner for home use; I feel the Blues Breaker is terrific for recording a "big" sound in a little apartment.