Marshall DRP-1 Direct-Recording Preamp

Controls are based on an old master volume marshall-amp and a small switch to change from clean to lead channel. So no worry about getting lost in manuals.

Sounds quite original. Little lack of this original valve-feeling. Has a very defined sound in a mix, but a little harsh as standalone sound. I use it to play with CDs at home through a small mixing unit and an Alesis Midi/Miniverb. I also tried it as a preamp for my Bluesbreaker Combo. Sounds not bad but with a lot of buzz.

No problems the last few months. After buying it, it took a little contact-spray to wipe away the years.

Yes it's a pocket marshall and your neighbours will love it. I also use the Hughes&Kettner Tubeman for about the same purposes. The H&K is better under live conditions and more versatile, but if you play AC/DC-riffs with an old SG you only have to wear shorts to feel really down under.

Just play with the knobs and there you go. Pretty straightforward. The knobs are a little too, well, little for me.

Good clean sound but a tad harsh if you're using humbuckers, I recommend single coils with this channel. Overall, the clean sound is very transparent. Single coils sound like single coils and humbuckers sound like HB's.
The crunch sound is heaven! Getting that early Beatles/60's brit raunch sound is easy for me. I'm using it with a Les Paul special to achieve this great tone. This is the best tone the DRP-1 has to offer.
Crank the gain and master volume you'll get a nice tubey distortion.
This mode is very dynamic. You can achieve sounds raging from almost clean to full bore by just controlling you pickup volume. Very nice! Distorted sound is great with slide.

Oh those pots! They're a bit on the cheap side. They scratch a lot so beware of this. The body metal construction is good enough. I dropped mine a couple of times and it's still ok. Thank heavens.

Haven't called them yet.

I play all types of rock music and the DRP-1 is a good match indeed.
I've been playing close to 20 years and have gone through a lot of gears, both the good and the bad.
What I love about it is the price to sound ratio. You get some really great tone in a relatively low price. my only gripe is tare the crappy pots. The crunch tone really makes up for all of its drawbacks. Buy this one now!

Anything else you'd like to share?

Absolutely yes !

A long time ago I gave a review on this box, and now some news !

I have been trying to get some more level to the mixer, the basic sound I had was OK but to low I thought, so for the heck of it I tried to max the input and master vol. on the clean setting -
Holy... !
For the first time I can turn both the input and output stage fully up on a Marshall and control the sound from the guitar.
This is very close to the real ear-deafening-deal - in headphones !
My guitar is a Warmoth strat with G&L magnetic field in the neck -
a HS-2 in the mid (singlecoil mode) and a HS-2 in the brigde (with optional split).
I will write the setting, and if the setting is too piercing in the bridge, use your tonecontrol.

Preamp : flatout max.
Mastervol : flatout max.
Bass : none whatsoever
Middle : none whatsoever
Treble : Flatout max.
Line level : 11:00 O'clock

Have a lot of fun !!

This little device is very straight forward (the spec. can be found at the company's website - just look for 'discontinued items'). No fuss: just twiddle the knobs (and 'boost' switch if necessary) and 99.9% of all the 'classic marshall amp/stack sounds' can be had.

Getting it to sound 'good' will depend upon each and everyone's own criteria for what 'good' actually is. For me, it gives me the sounds I want and expect from something called 'A Marshall'. (Not only have I been able to achieve the 'Marshall' sounds, but also very close to a couple of other 'Name' tube amps I have). Quite versatile!

The actual 'sound quality' is quite good, but 'hum' and 'noise/interference' is noticeable when 'cranked up' (less when using battery power).

The DPR-1 can be used either as a 'Pre-Amp' (going straight to an amp head) or going straight to a desk (for direct recording). It can also be used as a 'headphone amp' for practicing.

One thing I should mention is that, just like my JCM800, TSL2000 AND JTM45, when turning the knobs on this thing there's the familiar 'scratch/scrape' sound that I've personally only found on Marshalls!

I've only just got this unit (from eBay) so I don't know how long it's going to last (hopefully for a long time!)

It's in very good condition cosmetically, outside and in. The previous owner assures me that he's had no problems with it in the 10 years that he's owned it.

I'm a 'working musician' and cover all kinds of 'gig' situations (I have 'Stack Amps','Combos' and 'Amp Simulators'. I may well use this little box - if only just for a change.

In nearly 25 years of having Marshall gear, I've only had to call their Customer Support a few times and each time they've been tremendously helpful - even when I wanted to 'hot-rod-mod' an old gig-worn-battered JCM800 their technical guys gave me all kinds of advice!

Like I mentioned before, I've only had this little-big-guy a couple of weeks, but I like it so much I've just bought another one (for half the price of what I paid for the first one - double bargain!)
All I need now is to 'find' another so I can have all three 'set-up' and readily available with my three 'main' marshall sounds!

This is an update as I gained some more experience.
Yesterday I was messin' with this unit , because my duo
records direct from 6100 head and JTM-60 combo.
Generally we get good sounds but our gainsounds are a bit piercing,
so I tried various setups with the DRP-1.
Lo and behold - as my amps are set to lower levels ,I tried to take the line out from the series loop of both amps and feed it to the DRP ,it works remarkably well ,I hate to say it but the DRP is
tighter with a better top end , more like a SM57 miking - which probably is what it emulates , really good even but full tone.

Consider trying this , guitar direct to this is OK ,
but a sound line level signal (tubes) does an outstanding job !!

I find that rolling of 9 db around 2,5 khz is all that
needs to be done on the mixer , the rest of the eq-ing can be done on the unit.

No, all you need is love!
And this marshall makes nice girls flee away, because it's wild!
Very easy to use, clever connections, onboard headphone amp and effect loop(!), it^s as good as it gets.
Fine manual, it's rare nowadays.Low batt consumption, clever design.

I used it with only humbuckers since I can't stand noise(or nu-metal shit).
It's a marshall, no other way to describe it. Etheral low mids, solid lows, biting highs, flexable mids. Always clear, and I found it to be bsolutely perfect when playing with my guitar's volume pot. Full crunch on ten and clean sound when rolling off on one or two. Hats off!
The speaker sim is way useful when going in the normal audio world, aand you can hve it off with an amp.
The not provided chorus is very bad, by the way. But I must say it will improve with the next eprom version, not available since the unit doesn't have internet(Duh, marshall).
In fact the transistor crunch shouldn't scare you because a lot of so-called tube preamps (art, zoom, marshall...) have solid state distortion and only tube clean sound. I have no problems with the sound of this unit, and all my pals swear it's a marshall amp on the recording I made with it...

Buttons fly away after a while, and pots needs some wd40 spray from time to time, no big thing. It is absolutely reliable, this IS the backup!

Don't know, but I've heard big Jim was drinking more than he should so I wouldn't have too big hopes here...

It is a must-have! Genuine marshall sound, forget modelers and buy analog original preamps(or practice amps): it's not more expensive in the end and meanwhile you have something in the hands...
I wish it has reverb, chorus, internet, big tits and Lord knows what.
An everlasting battery of course, and spotlights.

All you need is to add is some air or high end (12khz - 9 db on mixer)- it seems all manufacturers seem to think speakers have no high end , well !
You want Marshall tone,you know the classics ?
You can find them all,also greenback tone (mid fairly low),
boost mode,forget it ! - This beats my 6100 head !(and it's modified to extreme gain)
Careful touching the boost/clean switch when in clean mode the change
could blow your monitors !
Otherwise this is a sweetheart and if you know Marshalls you should have a ball.

Very good - it works like an amp.

This is solid state - treated right , I should never have to worry !

This thing replaces a 100watt head and a heavy speaker emulator and get's the job done for the price of an overdrive box - need I say more ? - unfortunatly no 'verb but a Holy grail might do the job and still fit in your gigbag.
A real amp has an effectsloop - this doesn't , too bad.
The input jack has Dc switch-on/off function which is tricky at high gain especially, getting noise before all the gain spells trouble -
again monitors.
This can be changed by unsoldering the function - easily done -
if you use a powersupply - this will be a sound idea.

Well, I bought it used, came with no manual, but I figured it out in 2 seconds, so pretty easy if you ask me.

Epiphone Les Paul into my computer's sound card, and I get noise, but only when I'm within 3 feet of my monitor. Otherwise it doesn't make too much noise, but it is there. Turned up loud, it just get annoying if anything. Keep it about 65-75% or lower and things will be fine. Definatly could be better, but 35 bucks?

Well, lets see, I've only had it for a day..... But the thing is old, has signs of age on it, or it was just thrown around for a few minutes. Because of its age, and it still works, I'll rate it good.

I play Led Zeppelin, and this does it for me. The sound I get on Black Dog is IDENTICAL to the stdio version. I really mean it, IDENTICAL.

If the knobs weren't so scratchy and have those annoying 'nothing then something then back to nothing' while adjusting, it would be a very nice little rig for basic recording into your home computer (thats why I got it). That and the inadequet sound at higher gain levels, creating wierd never-used distortion. It sounds like crap at high levels of gain, so you can't get the clean distortion like Boston.

it can be hard to get a good non destructive sound

for those who think u can use this as a stand-alone with only your guitar plugged into it and the box plugged into your stereo, forget it!!
This is only good if you already have an combo or a head and you want to record or play without using a speaker. The distorsion (boost) sucks, and the sound isnt very clean at high output so you need to have a good sound before you use this one.
But it gives you that extra marshall touch if u use it right and its pretty good for a speaker emulator.

built as rock with a good metal chassi
as for all marshalls, make shure you bring your deoxid spray cause the noise when turning the knobs can really piss you off

a good direct recording preamp with speaker simulation

Well, it's not like it's a digital processor, is it? Six pots, a gain boost switch and a battery indicator - which is, and this is the best part, also handy for testing out the batteries on your TV remote control.

It's crap. Absolute crap. In fact it emulates an actual guitar amp setup as accurately as your average blowdrier. With the advent of the new digital modelers these old fuse boxes have become rather obsolete in many people's minds. Clean is surprisingly "tube"-ish altough quite uninspiring on its own. Up to the mid-gain range the thing sounds exactly what you'd imagine a transistor blowing up sound like. When boosted It has a lot of pick-attack and at max it can produce some of the most absurd wave distortion known to mankind. But stick even further distortion gear (!) in front of it and you have yourself a monster! It also does pick up a considerable amount of noise. It could even catch you breathing. All in all, very bizarre.

Mine is broken. It crackles, pops and cuts off the signal once a while. But then again, it's already seven years old and was stashed in closet for a long time until I recently re-discovered it.

Never dealt with 'em.

It's a charming little critter. Has dated favourably and what was once just a dubious experiment in the interim has turned into something of an industrial musician's collectible. Unlike the modern simulators, it sounds like an authentic piece of gear (mainly because it IS). Not at all plastic or fizzy. It's an entirely different matter if you reckon it emulates a Marshall cabinet convincinly or not but to me that hardly matters as it's almost like a separate instrument in its characteristic rudeness and downright inapproachability. It can be used also as a tool to color a signal from digital gear in the clean mode or, adversily, to filth up any imaginable sound source of will. I've gotten great results with this thing. What's inside it? I think I'm gonna open it.