Marshall Drive Master

It can?t get any easier.

It sounds very Marshall -like. It is aggressive, but in a most enjoyable way. I used to have a ShredMaster, but it was so dark sounding I thought there was something wrong with it. Anyway, I like DriveMaster soooo much more. It?s great to have 3 -way EQ. I can?t understand why so many od/dist boxes have just one "tone" pot. The mids are the most important frequencies anyway. I have and have had many od/dist boxes. I sold a Rat to buy this one and I?ve been very happy ever since. This is by far my favourite od pedal. It must be said though, that this is not what you would call a "transparent" overdrive. I?ve got a Boss OD-3 and that?s transparent IMHO. But sometimes I need a Boss sometimes I need a Marshall.

It?s made of metal.

I play all kinds of rock, mostly progressive. DriveMaster is a rock pedal for sure. I?ve been playing for 23 years and if someone stole my DriveMaster I?d just get another one. They are usually quite cheap. I don?t buy boutique pedals unless they really have something different to offer. Very few have.

It's not very hard to use, you've got 5 knobs: Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Volume. They really change tone and they're..."clean"? There's nothing like in tubescreamer or MetalZone. Middle is middle, not some part of frequency to move in it.

Sounds very natural. I'm using it with SX LP copy with gibson in the brigde position and solid state Marshall MasterReverb 30wat. Very versatile, from clean boost, through overdrive, to trash or even this heavy nu-<shit>-metal drive. Chuck Berry, Cream, Metallica, Iron Maiden, or Gary Moore- all in one! Noisy only when pushed to the last limits.
IMPORTANT: I've 2 DriveMasters and they sound but different. I checked and they don't have the same chips. The one with TL072CP have more highs and bit more harshy, so I prefer the second DriveMaster .

Brick, tank, Pudzianowski, DriveMaster is thougher. 10 years old, no problems.

no need to contact them

I try to play everything, so this thing is perfect for me. I'm playing 4 years and I owned ShredMaster and Voodoo SuperFuzz(both fanstastic) and now own Tubescreamer TS10 and 2 DriveMaster. It's hard to say what is better, Drive, Shred or SuperFuzz, couse they have different characters but surely DriMaster is most versatile.
It sound fat, got great Middle corection and plenty of gain.

If your're looking for JCM800 IN THE BOX, don't buy ShredMaster, the DRIVEMASTER IS THE REAL ONE. :]

5 knobs, gain,bass,mid,trebble,volume..some people would say easy but the volume changes with gain settings.. not well balances for effect-clean switching.

i use a strat with laces and an es335

i also have a Plexi head with a cab with greenbacks..rock me baby!

By itself, in a clean amp. this pedal sounds terrible. the overdrive is NOT even close to a tube overdrive. it's harsh and sterile..when you turn the treble to soften the clipping, you end up
with a useless tone..
for someone with a solid state amplifier, forget buying this pedal..you will find it does what vacuum cleaners do best..

but when you put in front of an overdriven tube amp, it acts like a DOD preamp 250 or the malmsteen pedal.. but with more control..the 'harsh' clipping slams those heated tubes and you end up with an rockin' tone..but you need to crank it loud..

oh..this pedal has a high output level..

battery door sucks.. loose and easy to misplace..

pretty tough case though.. well built otherwise

never used them..i dunno

this is the old black marshall pedal version.
i play classic rock and a bit of jazz.
i did not buy this pedal..i borrowed it and i am taking it back..
the battery door is very flimsy..very inferior to boss pedals..

i had in my link while comparing it a :

OD-1, TS-9. shredmaster and a SD-1.. this one sounded the worse..yuk ee poo!!

it seems to have a true bypass.. didn't see a difference by itself ( i use a bypass pedal i built to put into a loop the ones that steal tone when off)

save your money and buy an old OD-1 if you have a humbucker equipped axe and you really want to rock!

I had a hard time when i first used it, but after a few hours of tweaking I finally got the sound I wanted.

I can basically get the sound I want. I play mostly blues and a bit of rock. The setup that I have is my Squier Strat -> Drivemaster -> Amp. I would definitely have to say that the sound that I get is very natural and raw. You can go from a clean high gain tone to an overdriven blues sound. It's the only pedal that I use.

It has a full metal top and a small button. I don't think that I can actually break this pedal. I bought it used but in near mint condition. Definitely, very reliable.

Haven't dealt with them

Play mostly blues and rock and if you play this genre, the drivemaster will definitely be a big use to you. I've been playing for almost 12 years and I am not really that big with using pedals or too many effects. Nothing beats good playing and I always try to be better. But this pedal really brings out your guitar's sound. I do think that some people get the wrong impression about this pedal and other overdrive pedals for that matter. I'm still saving up for a nice amp and I'm thinking of getting a tubescreamer but for now my marshall drivemaster is the BEST!!!

easy to use has enough knobs to tweak a good sound.
has a power supply input or use batteries.
also gain,bass,middle,treble,volume knobs.

very good high quality pedal,it can get the ts-9 sound and then
a whole lot more.it sounds like early van halen,old school rock.
i'm using a old silverface princeton amp with japan strat with
fralins.great sound,when you lighten your picking and strumming
it sounds nice and clean,when you dig in you get distortion.
just adjust gain knob to get as little or as much dirt as you want.
sounds alot like some hendrix songs like hear my train a coming
and machine gun.

iv'e had it for a year,i don't play out. i don't use it that much.
it's made out of metal,so i think it should hold up good.
i got a bunch of dirt pedals so i probably would have a few extra
on hand at a gig if this one should crap out.

never dealt with,went to the web site a few times.

i bought off ebay for 25.00 i saw one on ebay the other day for
100.00. this pedal works good for the music i play,probably not
good for hardcore metal,will get you close.i hope it doesn't get
lost or stolen,i don't see them very often.i don't know if i'd pay
100.00 but i'd buy em all day for 25.00.

Using this Drive Master Mk1 pedal into clean channel of Peavey Duel 2x12 6L6 combo.

This pedal almost changes my amp into a Plexi!

The pedal has lots of character, unlike the bland, transistory Guvnor Mk1. The DriveMaster has just enough gain to get to early Van Halen but the pedal excels at the 60's 70's bluesy breakup like Jimi Hendrix Manic Depression and Deep Purple Machine Head with gain on about half way. I find the tone controls roughly in the middle are the best setting otherwise it gets harsh.

With a solidstate amp you can hear the transistory nature of the pedal when the gain is set low, but with a valve amp (even set totally clean) the edge is taken off and the pedal warms up beautifully.

As the bass knob is turned past 10 oclock it breaks up the bass end of the distortion which is great for that old school rock/blues tone but on the flip side loses smoothness for anything modern. I use other pedals for modern tones.

Tonally, the pedal matches the gain channel of my amp, so its like having a 3 channel amp when I am using this pedal.

I have even used this pedal straight into Cubase VST Warp plugin set on the JC120 clean amp model and it produces a totally professional authentic blues tone to tape - again, lots of character. Miles better result than I've ever achieved from Pod, GNX, GT6 etc. devices.

I doubt I will ever sell this pedal although as every guitarists folly I keep looking for something more. No pedal I've tried yet has got that old classic Marshall tone down for me like this.

I tried the Tonebone Hot British and that pedal was more like a Zoom Hyperlead with a valve in it (eg. too much starting gain to cover the area that this pedal does).

I wonder how the Tonebone Classic would compare?

There is nothing esier to use than it. Just set knobs on positions, flick the switch and play...

I`m using Epiphone SG with Dimebucker on bridge and Seymour Duncan `59 on neck. My amp is Custom Mesa/Boogie Mark III with rebuilt clean channel sounding like a Fender. On my setup It sound fabulous. It is very easy to get JCM 800 sound... Guns`n Roses, AC/DC, Aerosmith... Whatever you want. It is my favorite external overdrive now [except my amp`s overdrive offcourse]

Built like a tank... as I said FLICK THE SWITCH AND PLAY

Never used

It is great pedal. I can`t see any other overdrive pedal sounding like that. It is ease to set up and use, proof for any damage and looks fine :]

Easy as any other.

Well, I either use a Texas Special Fat Strat or a Gibson L.P. Classic through a Fender Deluxe Reverb. I don't notice any noise with the DriveMaster. Here's the reason why I thought I would write this review.......It sounds almost identical to a JCM 800. I'm not just making this up either because I own a 2204 head. I became terribly tired of carrying around that heavy halfstack to band practice so I went shopping for a lighter alternative. I saw the Drive Master at a local shop and thought I'd try it out through a Deluxe that was also in the store. I went home with both of them and immediately started to compare the Drive Master/Deluxe combo to the JCM 800. I got amazingly close in tone, not to mention the Deluxe has one of the sweetest cleans on Earth. Needless to say I very happy, although, I'm still not giving up the JCM. Put this thing through a tube amp and you may be amazed at the sound.

It's built very sturdily.

Don't know....I'm sure they aren't going to help me with a $60 pedal that was made 20 years ago.

This is a great pedal for classic rock, 80's hair bands and even some more modern rock. If you can find one of theese I would definitely give it a try if your after the sound of a Marshall.

You have to know what kind of Marshall overdrive you want, then dial it in, or play around with the five knobs. For me it was easy, I wanted marshellesque boost, that means volume cranked, gain low on 3 or 4 (if 10 is max), bass on 5, middle on 8-9, treble on 4-6, deepending on eq-settings of my preamp, this depends on the location...

Killer Overdrive, I like it much more than the old Gov'nor, anyway it is quite similar but more versatile, better defined highend, it is possible to cut bass response either, a bit less gain is avilable, which is, in my opinon, a good thing. I like it more than my tubescreamer, more than my moded Boss SD-1 and even more than my selfbuild Overdrivepedal which is a moded Tubescreamer to be honest...
I'm am sad that my I had to drop the Drivemaster from my current setup, but I had to reduce Stompboxes; I just used it on a few Solos to drive the bottomchannel of my MXR Doubleshot Distortion which goes into my Mesa Studio Pre, so now I switch for these solos to the Mesas dirty channel with the gain very low, and this also gives sweet leeds with a bit of the doubleshots nasty grid.

I always use the drivemaster with humbuckers (Ibanez or Dimarzio) and Valveamps, mostly my Mesa Studio Preamp and an Marshall poweramp with EL34 or my Marshall JCM 800 2210....highly recommended...Rock and Roll Killer

Seems to be very well built, never failed up to now, i use always high quality adapters and everything works fine

Never tried...

This is the best overdrive pedal I've ever owned.

this pedal is capable of numerous different overdriven sounds from blues to hard rock. the manual gives some basic settings but you really need to tweak the knobs to find your sound.

i have a fender strat plus and a decent quality gibson les paul copy made by revelation and an ashdown peacemaker 60 combo. i use to pedal on the clean channel. with the channel gain on full and the padals gain and volume on full, you have a very good heavy metal sound. this is how i use this pedal. i use the amps channel for crunch. Although the pedal will do this and you can get a respectable angus young impression from it. the pedal works very well with valves (i will not use a transistor amp coz they are crap).

yes i do depend on this pedal, you look after it and it will look after you. i gig it with no probs. although the plastic battery cover is annoying cos this is a great pedal

not used it

apart from the plastic cover for the battery this is a great overdrive pedal. it is capable of numerous marshall sounds.