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.

Pretty easy. But it doesn't lend itself to turn everything to "eleven". One have to take care of which output to use. There's six knobs.

Main guitar is EMG-equipped Strat (single coil). The unit is prone to picking up RF, and noise from other stuff. A giant 50-60 cycle hum can be detected. But it shure does emulate a marshall. It is good at producing half cranked amps too. The Master volume turned up all the way reduces pick attack and "thud". So it is best used with the line volume at max, and Master set to half, and gain 75 %. Bass control at full. Clean sounds are not that good, but decent. It lacks a bit of pick attack. However in the long run, the sound doesn't last like a real marshall, one seems to get tired of the sound, and there is very little versality. It is Ok for occasional solos or metal riffs during a recording session. Passive single coils on your guitar makes this box a noisy SOB.

Had a little problem with knob (the pots really) scratching, due to that once you've settled your favorite sound, you don't have to tweak it, but if you do, it will scratch. But tweaking all of the knobs to extreme ends back and forth will fix this problem for a while. Used it on a gig, very reliable. Tip: Get rid of the battery, use adapter instead. This one is one of the few boxes that immediately shows a drop in sound quality (and gets flukey distortion!) should the battery drop only a little voltage.

Good, decent Marshall simulation. Could do better with further speaker simulation...a ambient type room or cabinet reverb...However, a little bit limited.

Gain, master volume, boost channel switch, bass-mid-treble and line out level....pretty straight-ahead. The "manual" just shows you what each jack on the back does, by and large, so you might be tempted to ignore it. The one thing in there you need to know is that the bass tone control is active, while mid and treble are both standard passive.

Some hiss in the headphone output, but other than that it's reasonably quiet until you get into ultra-gain. The non-boost channel is reminiscent of the old "no master-volume" marshalls and sounds best with the master maxed-out from the git-go. Crank the gain all the way up...and stick an overdrive in front, too. Boost channel is more like modern marshalls, and will roar with authority. Speaker emulation is pretty darn good, and if you get the bass tone knob up to about 3 oclock you actually get some of that good ol' marshall "thud." It's hard to get the thing to sound really good through headphones, as the line out(headphone out) volume has to be up a bit for the beast to develop full tonality...and then it can be a little too loud for comfort...your mileage may vary, etc.

No problems in the last year or so....nicely built.

don't know.......

This box is a joy. Very "tube-y" sounding for a solid state device. Direct to tape it SOUNDS LIKE A MARSHALL!! Much more authentic "marshall" sound than sansamp, etc. It won't replace a JMP-1, but it costs less than 25% of the JMP-1's price. It does a good job of "marshallizing" the front end of an amp, as well. And awhile back I ran an fx send from the console to a 50DB pad and thence to a transformer and into the DRP-1. Cranked up all gains to max and used it as a snare drum effect...with the right balance it nicely livened and "trashed up" a pretty boring snare drum sound. No reason it has to just be a guitar preamp, eh?

There is a pamphlet with you that shows you how to set it up as just a preamp, or for direct recording. No indications of good settings for specific sounds, which is a shame, but it is fairly easy to use and experiment - just tweak the knobs. Have yet to work out if it can be used as just as speaker emulator (might be handy for gigs, putting guitar into the PA without troublesome mics - guitar amp DI->DRP1->PA?).

There is some hum if you crank things up to maximum, and there are sources of eletrical noise about, such as computer monitors.
The basic sound goes from clean to quite crunchy. You can get a great early Neil Young sound out of it.
Turn on the boost as it is more traditional sounding Marshall territory, up to really quite high gain with some additional sustain. Definitely has a tube sound to it (a friend commented on this), and goes right up to fuzzy sounds with a hint of speaker break up. You can get some good early Led Zep sounds.
The speaker emulation seems to work. Not as good as actually miking up a 4x12 (it claims to be a 4x12 emulation). Slightly fizzier, although Marshalls can sound a bit fizzy (I'm more of a Fender man really, but Fender don't make anything comparable, and it is nice to have a Marshall sound for when you need it).
My criticism is that it can sometimes sound a little thinner than I'd like when playing solo, but that having been said, it sits well in a mix. Great for early rock sounds like Young and Led Zep, both of whom used fairly thin guitar sounds at the time.
I have used it on its own, used it during recording a CD demo, but I mainly use it in the first effect loop of my Zoom 9150 to give better speaker emulation, and an expanded range of tones (and if needed completely over the top square wave distortion). It emulates speakers better than the Zoom does.

I have it for direct recording so I don't annoy the neighbours, so I wouldn't gig with it (I'm a bassist anyway), but a friend used it to warm up his amp live, and it worked. Used it for recording when two guitar amps blew up, and did basically all the electric guitar with it, and it sounded fine. Mine has worked perfectly.

I would buy it again. It is compact, cheap, and does the job. A Sansamp is probably better, but twice the price.

As far as gear goes...it doesn't get much easier than this! Anyone who as used anything by Marshall will be instantly at home, but for the rest of the world... a gain to set the drive level, a boost channel selector micro-switch (not footswitchable), a master volume, bass middle and treble and a line out volume. The back panel consists of input, line out, pre-amp/FX out, stereo FX return and phones. It's easy to use, but you need to know exactly what sound you want to really get the best out of it! The manual may as well be in Dutch for all the good it is. It only shows the use of each control and socket with no suggested settings. Perhaps not for beginners would be a fair statement.

The unit works better with the line-level set low, and the master volume cranked to about 75%. The tone section then gets a much better signal to work with. These DO need to be set very carefuly to get the best out of it...don't walk in, set it all to 80% and expect it to sound good...it won't. On the clean side, things are very usable with some great sounds from country through to jazz/fusion. Switch the channel onto boost and things just get better! The gain covers everything from Fender twins to full-blown stacks! I found the gain on about 60-70% is about right...anything more and the Duncan's in my Eggle just overloaded the thing! Be careful when you try this in a shop...I used a Epiphone SG and was very near to not buying it. The assistant suggested I try an Explorer Custom Shop with DiMarzio's, and that sold me. As with most Marshall stuff, you DO need good pickups to get nice rich harmonics and a chunky distortion. The DRP1 is supposed to be used as a direct recording preamp...no waking up the street with your 4x12 when you put down a killer solo at 3:00am!!! All I can say is that it works! No fizz, and using the Line Out puts in the 4x12 emulator (not switchable) and there's very little hum and buzz except on monster gain settings, and then what do you expect!

I've only had it for a week and can't say. I've never had any trouble with Marshall stuff before. It's a nice chunky metal case. The boost switch is a bit small, but as it's designed for home/studio use it's not really a problem. I wonder how long the battry lasts?!!

Never had bother with Marshall...Jim's a nice bloke though!

I got this for about half price in a sale (RRP 105 Pounds sterling) and I think I've got a steal. Brilliant for home recording, no cabs to set up and although the emulators basic, it's about right. Plug your rack FX into it and use it as a practice amp, or on it's own anywhere (it's battery powered!) or even carry it as a spare pre-amp in case your rack goes down (it's 6" x 4" and weighs about 12 oz!) Every guitarist should try one, you'll probably end up buying one! I wish it was a stereo unit, but then that would push the price up a bit but it would be worth it. I'll certainly be taking it out as a back-up pre-amp in case my JMP-1 ever fails (god forbid!) and would have no qualms about using it in a home/small studio environment where it's just impossible to use a miked cab.