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.

It is really easy to get a good sound of of this pedal. The only hard part lol is finding and sticking with the sound that you want.

This is a sick pedal, I play a Ibanez Talman with PRS HFS and Vintage bass humbuckers / Schecter Omen with EMG HZs into a Red Witch Moon phaser, into a zvex machine pedal, into a effector 13 truly beautiful disaster and that sends out to a boss ph3 phase shifter into the drive master, into the Way Huge Swollen pickle. the drive master the ph3 and the pickle are in the truly beautiful disasters feedback loop range. It sounds great but it can be noisy sometimes. I use this pedal mainly as a treble boost as I use the Swollen Pickle fuzz as distortion and its low end can kill something, so I boost it with the drive master to get an insanley high gain rock / heavy metal tone.

This is a very very solid pedal not going to break ever I dont think.

Never dealt with them.

I play melodic hard rock, and this is very good and an extremley versatile pedal for any needs just a great pedal overdrive, treble, mid or low end boost, or just for some big gain lead tones, you name it.

real marshall drivemaster with black metal housing and 5 knobs. turn knobs and great sounds will amaze you if you have a decent TUBE amp. if you need manual do not breed!

woowie after dozens of pedals this IS my favorite transistor pedal. NOT NOISY and full of articulated tone. through my 50-watt ptp marshall artiste' head, 100-watt artiste' head and a few other tube amps this pedal kills. gary moore's shapes of things distortion assault can be duplicated easily as can other great sounding toneful overdriven madness sounds.

this pedal could be used to crack open a boss pedal. when marshall comes up with a decent product they discontinue it. pedal still works 100%.

marshall is decent while korg usa sucks ass when it comes to supporting marshall here in usa. don't believe me look on there website or get put on infinate hold on a toll call with korg and feel the frustration of a distributor that does'nt give a crap about supporting marshall products or marshall customers. usa customers must go through korg (aka: A BRICK WALL WITH 1 FOOT OF STEEL IN THE CENTER) so korg is customer support for me and deserves a -99999999 for my toll cal where i was put on hold till the fat lady sang.

a very high quality sound without the boss grainyness of transistors. this drivemaster has risen to the top of my distortion pedal collection and has caused me to sell most of the others. through a real amp should a real sound emerge with this dm.

Real easy. Just twiddle the knobs.

I play a good quality les paul copy into a JCM800 4212 Combo. The drive channe on the amp never sounded that great so I only use the clean channel.

The drivemaster is simply the best pedal I have ever owned (and I have owned 20+ pedals, half of which have been overdrives or distortions). It is really flexible, covering a wide variety of sounds from a very slight overdrive to a heavy, mid scooped sound.

My favourite way to use this pedal is as an overdrive. I can get a really good knocking on heavens door sound. No really. Every other overdrive I have tried has sounded lame in comparison. This one sparkles, retaining note definition while still having plenty of gain.

Bought it second hand but appears to not have been played at all...come in the original plastic bag within the orginal box.

Haven't had the pedal long so we will see but it looks strong.

Awesome pedal. No regrets.

It's easy to use. Gain, 3 band eq and level.

I chose this pedal for its 3 band eq. I play bass and most overdrive and distortion pedals are awful with bass. Those with eq generally don't have a mid control. This one can get very glassy and crisp with the gain cranked up, but that's not how I use it. I turn the level up to maximum, the mids up to maximum, and adjust gain, bass and treble accordingly (gain about 1/4, bass and treble about half mostly). In this mid-boost capacity it's excellent. Nice honky picked tones, with just a touch of dirt (with the master level on full, you only need a small amount of gain). It works a treat with the Boss OD-3 before it too (see my review if you're interested). I've just bought a Marshall Blues Breaker which sounded great in the shop, so I'll add that review soon.

They seem pretty good. Solid steel. Don't leave them anywhere moist though - they rust pretty readily.

I imagine it'd be useless. Marshall support in Australia's pretty crap, and you wouldn't take a pedal you can only buy secondhand to the manufacturer.

I like this pedal. I'm sure there are other nicer sounding pedals around - richer, warmer. However, I'm using it for a honky grunty middly sound, for which the eq's very good. With another overdrive (Boss OD-3, probably Blues Breaker) before it, you'll be guaranteed to raise some eyebrows and annoy some guitarists. If you find one cheap, snaffle it before some gear head does.

At first I had a hard time looking for that hard rock lead sound and after researching in the net, I finally got it!!!. It will require much of your patience to get the tone you want at first. But just wait fairly enough fiddling with the knobs and you will arrived in your final destination to a superb tone you?ve always looking for.

I would give it a 10 though you really have to push the gain knob to max. to get the fantastic mild compressed drive a marshall company would deliver. My setup is fairly simple( TELECASTER guitar--Boss CS3 compression sustainer--Marshall Drivemaster--reverb from my Marshall MG15cdr fdd amp) and lastly my fingers do the rest!!!(A good lead guitarist need not many fx pedals. Only crappy guitarist will require a lot of fx pedals to hide their bastardly way of playing!!!)

My setting is as follows

Hard rock lead sound
gain: max
bass: 4 o clock
mid: 10 o clock
treb:10 o clock
volume: 12 o clock

Fuck!! Boss overdrive pedals!!.Marshall Drivemaster will definitely eat them all to scrapmetal!!

This is built like a panzer tank, except the battery cover which comes-off easily and in turn I ?d lost it.!!

Overall I will still give it a 9!! I think more thick compression tone is needed in their future drive pedals.

Gain, 3-band eq, level, what could be hard. Plus, they all do pretty much what they say they do. True, you have to dial in what you want, but if you didn't you'd be looking at a Tubescreamer, am I right?

This is not a "best of breed" pedal, but unlike most "best of breeds", it is also not a one-trick pony. It is a very flexible pedal that actually does a lot of things quite well. (It isn't drop-dead gorgeous distortion, but, honestly, if that is what you need then go plunk down a couple'o'grand on a Dr. Z Route 66, or whatever flavor purebred tube amp you prefer, and get some cotton for your ears. This is a pedal, that's all.) By adjusting the controls you can get a pretty damned good tubescreamer impression (better than my TS-9 reisue, and quieter, too), or a scooped heavy rhythm sound, or an all-out pedal-to-the-metal Marshally grind. I doesn't quite get the spanky, live sound of an XXL, but, again, it gets fairly close, with less noise. Unlike some other pedals, the DM also adjusts well to different amps and guitars--it plays well with both my Fenders and my Traynor, which not many other overdrives do. I especially like using it together with other distortion pedals as a lead boost. Here the eq really gives you what you need, from a big mid-range boost to a Rangemaster-like treble boost, and the gain ranges down to clean boost. When used this way you can get a decent amount of harmonics and pick effects.
My signal chain, currently: Guitar (Pro Tone Strat, Dillion TT72 or Ibanez AS-120)>>Boss TU-2>>Boss AC-2>>Tech21 Comptortion>>Crybaby>> Ibanez PH7>>Drive Master>>Tech21 Double-Drive>>DOD 460 Mini-Chorus>>Dan-Echo>>Amp (SF Deluxe Reverb, Fender Champ 25 or Traynor YSR-1).
The distortion character of the DM is not exactly smooth, but that's fine, since I get that from my Tech-21 Double Drive, and the two work quite well together. It is fairly transparent, as distortions go, meaning that different guitars, pickups and settings remain distinct through it. At moderate gain settings with single coils it cleans up fairly well from the guitar. It is also not very noisy (quieter than, in my collection, a BD-2, TS-9, SD-1, Rat II and Tech21 XXL, all of which it has knocked off the board). I don't know if it is true bypass, but it doesn't appreciably tone-suck, at least not after a buffer (I keep one or more Boss pedals at the top of the chain). Maybe for recording you might want a specialized pedal to get that special sound, but for gigging, the variety of useful sounds this thing can deliver and its ability to play well with others are the ticket, IMO. BTW, I also have a Guv'nor pedal of roughly the same vintage, but for me this has a more useful range of distortion, plus it seems to have less IMD and better bass (not farty).

Well, I got it used, and I'm pretty sure they haven't been making it for probably 10 years or more, so I'd say it's pretty reliable. The enclosure looks solid, and the pc board is well mounted, IIRC. The only problem I have had with it is a scratchy treble pot, which is only to be expected in a pedal this old. I would (do) gig without a backupo, but only because I have two other OD/distortions on my pedalboard, so if any one of them craps out I can make do with the others.

I play a mix of '60s-70's pop, alt-country and bluesy stuff. I've been playing for 30-odd years, and I have a motley variety of vintage amps, pedals (mostly collecting dust) and guitars that are more players than collectable (like my ProTone Squiers--I'll take that ash body any day). If this pedal were stolen or lost, I probably would look for another one, since it is such a useful tool. I love its flexibility, the slightly coarse quality of its distortion, which is a nice contrast to my other pedals, and the way it works with amps and pedals. I can't really say there is anything I hate about it, although the way the PC board is mounted to the pots is annoying now that the treble pot could stand to be replaced. This pedal was in direct competition with four pretty good pedals for its spot on the pedalboard. It covered all of their respective grounds tonally, sounded as good or nearly as good as each of them, and was quieter than any of them. 'Nuff said.
More features? Only this (and I think all distortions should have this): A second output jack, so that you can have the option of feeding the affected and bypassed sounds to different fx chains or amp channels. But the truth is, there is at least enough room in this enclosure so that I could do that myself.

it is very easy to use. it has 5 knobs - gain, bass, middle, treble and volume. you can get a wide variety of sounds from it. you have to use it very often to get the sound you are looking for. i bought it used so there isn't a manual anymore but i got it with the original box.

my band covers weezer songs so i have to simulate the distortion sound they use. and the drivemaster can pull it off. i crank up the treble, gain and volume knobs, the middle knob halfway and the bass knob at a low setting (around 8 or 9 o' clock). when you set the bass knob a little higher, you'll get a 70's rock overdrive effect. and it can even do a metal effect, when you eliminate the bass and middle options completely. right now, i'm using it with just a 1w marshall ms-2r micro amp in my room, but i've used it with a jcm900 and you know how it sounded...also, it doesn't feedback on cue unless you activate the overdrive on your amp.

very dependable. i was supposed to buy a used ibanez tubescreamer ts-5 but someone else purchased it before me. i'm thankful i got this one instead because this looks more reliable than the ts-5 (which is made of plastic). and even (even) if the ts-5 sounds better than this, i'm sure it's not THAT superior, so i know i got the right pedal. i will use this on gigs/practices without any back-ups. i have the battery cover taped though.

since i bought it used and it looks pretty old (which is a cool thing), i doubt having to deal with the people at marshall. the previous owner plays guitar for one of the most popular bands here in the philippines so i know it's a good pedal and he even let me use it for a day before i decide whether i'll buy it or not. i also doubt that it'll require any repairs. ever.

this is the first effect pedal i've ever purchased and i'm pretty satisfied with it. i've been playing guitar for over 12 years now but only the past 4 years have i been using electric guitars and pedals. i use it with my vantage strat copy (i also made a review of it) and a marshall micro amp (well i really should get a REAL amp). i'm not really a gearhead but i can easily tell that i've found the right pedal for my type of music (read above). if someone steals this i will not hesitate to kill the theif, but seriously i will try to find another one because it's getting pretty rare. actually i don't think marshall makes them anymore. my friend owns a century distortion and a ts-5, this totally blows the former away, and the only advantage the latter have is that it feedbacks on cue (but as i said, it can be done on the drivemaster too). i also read reviews here on harmony-central so i pretty much scouted both products before i decided what to get. i want to buy a few more effect pedals, but i don't know which ones to get first, seeing that i only need a distortion/overdrive pedal for weezer songs. as chris berman would say it, "marshall, marshall, marshall".

Features : 5 knobs for Gain / 3 bands Eq / Volume.
It took 3 minutes for me to dial in the sound I wanted.
I set the gain cranked or almost cranked, the bass around 11 o'clock, the mids around 9 o'clock, the treble around 11 o'clock and the volume around 1 o'clock. I like scooped mids because the amp I bought the pedal for is pretty midrangey.

I play Telecasters in old Fender tube amps. My guitar is currently a 1969 Tele with great tone.
I play mostly blues or rock'n'roll, and nothing but an old Fender can deliver good crunch tones. But sometimes I get mad and wanna play with huge high gain. For that I use a Keeley modified Boss DS1, it works great with my 69' Super Reverb, but is not made for my 62' Super, because like any Brownface, it has loads of honky mids, and distortion pedals don't work with that. That's why I wanted a pedal with an effective eq section, which the Drivemaster has.

Playing at low volume, the pedal sounds crappy (IMO any pedal sounds crappy at low volume). But when I push the amp into crucn territory (around 4 at the volume dial) the Drivemaster shines. It turns my Super into an old 70' Marshall JMP ! Hey, I got all those great 70' hard-rock / punk tones now !

BTW, this pedal is just as bright as an old JMP, and the 3 band eq reacts just the same.

if I would dexcribe the tone in a few words ? edgy, grainy, bright... blahblahblah...

no problem yet, but I don't like the way it is built : the pots, jacks and switch are soldered into the circuit board, which makes any fix tough to do. I don't like that.
However the case looks sturdy. It is made of bent steel and should last an eternity.

way too old !

Great stuff !
Turns any good tube amp into an old JMP !
The 3 bands eq doesn't gives a lot of tone, but (and that's what I like) make the pedal useable with any amp, even with my old Brownie which I thought was 100% pedal-allergic !!!

Doesn't look so sexy though... who cares ?

Easy to use. If you lose the battery cover, it's even easier to put batteries in.

I used it with a Marshall valvestate head and a crap SG copy. It sounds class - not valvey at all, but a nice, harsh tranny sound.

Stamp on it too hard and the switch will break. I know.

Also, there's a slight gap between the change from clean to distorted when it comes on.

I use a grunge/punk sound, which the pedal was perfect for. Until it broke.

With the the 3 tone controls you can dial in any sound from really warm clean sounds to scooped metal. The range of distortion is the best I've ever heard in one pedal.

I play Teles and Les Pauls straight into a Boss TU-2 Tuner, then a Tubescreamer, the Drivemaster, and into my Peavey practice amp. Added noise is slight to non-existant. On a very low overdrive setting with the volume boosted it gets the warm tube sound from even a little solid state amp.

It's a reliable box. The switch is a little sticky sometimes. When you turn it on sometimes it will take a second for it to pop back out. That my only complaint. I would and have used it without a backup.

N/A

I play alot of things but mostly bluesy rock n' roll. This pedal is great for it because I can get so many sounds. I been playing for 4 years and was never really satisfied with the distortion sounds I was getting. I bought this pedal for $25 from my friend about 6 months ago cause he needed the money and didn't really know it's value. I didn't either at the time. If I lost this pedal I would try to find another one, but I've only seen a few on E-Bay and none anywhere else.
I guess it's getting pretty rare. If anyone has anymore info on this pedal I would appreciate it.

It's easy to use if you're a guitar geek. Otherwise, feel free to experiment. During gigs, I just made some adjustments on the drive and mid.

I immediately put it in my signal chain - samick strato into a dunlop crybaby, dunlop univibe, mxr flanger, dod st. chorus, the drivemaster, arion tube mania and finally, a noname solid state amp. Settings: gain at 6-8, bass at 8, mid at 4 or 5, hi at 4 or 5. This setup gives me a fat overdrive sound without fuzz. I hate fuzz. With the tube mania level at 4, tone at 4 and dist at 8, and the samick pickup set at bridge+middle, u get a sweet sustaining lead sound, like santana on supernatural. When used alone, u get nice rythmn crunch. Excellent for Clapton sounds, too.

The switch's metal cap fell off on first gig. Finished the song just fine. Glued it back and its back in shape. Its body is built like a tank, but input jacks are suspects. they're made of plastic. I always carry a backup pedal (mxr dist+) just in case.

My band basically plays rock and roll, but here in the philippines, u must play all types of music when giging,e.g. rock, waltz, swing, cha-cha, fusion, tango, pop, blues. The reason why the tons of effects!
I used the drivemaster when rocking, or playing blues and fusion. When taking the lead, I usually have the tube mania and the drivemaster for added sustain and fattening the tone. Been playing gigs for seven years, playing the guitar for 22 years. Ive been through boss bluesdriver(great for crunch), and hyperfuzz(sucks). I still wanted to add a delay.

If you find one, but it! its a rare comodity.

5 knobs, no mystery. If you can play guitar you can handle this thing. Just great.

My setup is Gibson Marauder -> Jim Dunlop Wah Wah -> DOD Flashback Fuzz -> DRIVE MASTER -> Chorus -> Fender 25w Amp. That?s the sound I've been looking, just turn the amp on and play it loud! I'm thinking about buying a reverb just to make it sound even better. Pure vintage rock!

No problems so far.

As I've said before, pure vintage Rock! Gov't Mule, Cream, Zeppelin...I've been playing for more than 10 years and this box makes my Marauder sound really good. If you want to rock, buy it now, it's a Marshall and it sounds like Marshall....

5 knobs, and i was searching my sound really long, not because this is a bad pedal (and it's not), it's because i didn't know much about gear
it has manual

i play with gibson the paul deluxe, and marshall 50w solid state amp, and it has pretty natural sound, dirty marshall sound! it takes out the best from my amp! from easy overdrive to hard rock, sound, great for rythm and leads! gibson-jh1 wah-drivemaster-marshall

it's build like a rock, i heard switches are not very dependive.....i didn't have any problems......yet

never dealt

i have guv'nor plus which is also a great pedal and boss DS-1 taiwan production and i like this pedal most! guv'nor plus is a story for himself, but i don't like DS-1! It's a great overdrive pedal a i would buy it again

5 knobs, frustated me for the last 3 years, since i bought it, just now i have found the sound i looking for. Just basic overdrive marshall tone (but took me 3 years(i must be dumb))

SG Special, ms-2 mini amp, a bit noisy but unnoticable noise. I get the sound of white stripes(not my favourite band) but that the sound i was hoping from a marshall pedal.

I can depend on it, solid metal bring a lot of confidence.
the battery cap missing, and i takes a lot of abuse by former owner but i hold up well.

Dunno

I play rock and noise pop, its good for the rock songs. I been playing for 6 years, other pedal is Sovtek Big muff. If it lost i buy something else because in Indonesia this is a litlle hard to find(of course i look for a better one).
This pedal are good for those looking for an almost vintage overdrive pedal but not for modern metal(Korn, etc). Not very vintage either but enough.

The same as the majority of stomp boxes on the planet. Its simple to use! The added bonus of the Drive Master is its equalization includes Bass, Mid, and Treble with Gain and Volume controls.

I use a PRS Santana SE guitar, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp, Marshall Bluesbreaker II pedal, Vox Vintage Wah (w/ mods) and my latest pedal aquisition the Drive Master. The pedal is moderately quiet. I notice some hum, but it is standard. I bought this pedal to get back some of the vintage Marshall Plexi tone I lost after selling my JMP-1 preamp. This unit sounds great! It does very thing from a mild crunch stype overdrive to saturated Marshall glassy distortion tones.
Surprisingly though, my Bluesbreaker II is more over-the-top than the Drive Master, and I expected the reverse. This is a very cool pedal and I recently purchased this as New Old Stock off eBay based on the reviews from H-C.

Have not owned long enough to give make much comment. I have noticed that lots of owners of these pedal have lost the battery covers, and I see why. The cover design is a bit cheesy. Due to this I will rate as a 7. But other than this design flaw, the case and control knobs appear to be very sturdy.

Have not had to use them for this unit. I attempted to have some warranty work done on my JMP-1 and it seemed like it was going to be a hassle after I finally found an Authorized Repair Center who was familiar with the unit. The problem was not critical (setting control ofter skipped between patches). Based on this I will rate as a 7.

Overall, I think Marshall pedals are great. I have tried numerous OD and distortion pedals including: Vox 830, Big Muff, Vintage Rat, Visual Sound Rte 66, and Tube Works Real Tube. I don't care for the HRD's distortion channel, and so I experimented in a quest to find good classic crunch and distortion. The JMP-1 was good, but I can get most of the tones and flexibility I need from from the DM & BB2 pedals.
I have played for 2 yrs in my early teens and 2 years as a "middle aged" adult.

easy to use...five knobs
basic pedal

I have epiphone les paul standard, yamaha strato, crate 15r little amp and laney tf200 tubefusion. this pedal is really good. It sounds so natural. It sounds like distornation should sound.

i have had it for a week

first i bought boss od-2 turbo overdrive. it was really bad, i didnt like that fuzzy sound. I went back to the shop and traded it to this one. I am so happy that i traded that shit for this one.

this is really good all-a-round pedal. it has enouf distornation for me (i play music like slayer). GET THIS ONE . Good for all kinds of rock and roll

it's analog with five knobs, so what could go wrong?

setup: ibanez telecaster thinline with gibson pickups - drive master - yamaha g50-112. little noise. a typical transistor overdrive, with a good sustain. a little weak with single coils. can be used with both the clean and overdrive channels of the amp.

haven't used it long enough, but looks rugged and dependable

the best transistor overdrive i have used so far, but does not make my solid state amp sound like a tube as some comments indicate. a little weak with single coils on the clean amp channel, can be used as a treble booster for the overdrive channel, my main application. due to its low noise it can be used in any combination with other effects and amps.

It is a bit harder to use than a boss i spose, it's got more adjustables- lows mids highs gain etc. 5 knobs. It is still pretty simple.

I am using this with a Marshall superlead head which originally was 100 watts, converted to 50 (for tonal reasons and also because it was so frickin' loud).

My rig is- Superlead head through Mesa-Boogie 2 by 12 box into MXR phase 90 into no name delay pedal into Boss CE-2 Chorus into Ibanez tube screamer into Marshall Drivemaster into Crybaby 535 into Strat with Kinman Blues pickups. I get a great sound these days, but it took me a while to get things sorted.

First of all this is not a noisy pedal. I bought this pedal on a recomendation from my bass player. He was right. It is great, sounds very organic, natural and smooth. It is basically like adding a gain channel to my amp. It is good to tweak it lots though, to get that sweet tone.

It seems very tough, dependable, besides it lives on my pedal board so it's pretty safe.

Never dealt with Marshall. Probably never will.

This pedal gives you a great marshall 'roar'. Not a hugely high gain pedal but excellent all the same. I dont think they make em any more. If I found another one second hand, I would buy it (to have a back-up).

Very easy to use since it only has five controls - gain, volume, bass, middle and trble. Can hardly go wrong here.

I use it with a Peavey Bandit and an Ibanez humbucking guitar. I use the clean channel on the amp and then the Drivemaster as the only other gadget. It brings the Young brothers from AC/DC right in to my house. It gives you that kind of classic rock distortion with NO FUZZ involved. To me, the clean Peavey and the dirty Drivemaster is the perfect combination if you want to play AC/DC-tunes without buying expensive Marshall tubes.

Very solid and heavy construction. Get a rechargable battery or an adaptor though. This thing consumes batteries in a hurry. Have used it at gigs without problems, just make sure the battery is fresh.

No experiences.

Like I mentioned, I mainly like to play classic rock like AC/DC. I bought this unit to be able to get as close as I could to this kind of sound without buying a new amp. It might be hard to get real over-the-top sounds with this thing alone, you have to use the amps distortion too for that. Haven't tried out much other settings, I just want the classic rock sound with no fuzz distortion, and to me this pedal was the perfect solution.

a piece of cake. 5 knobs and your choice.

I'm play with and customized Tele through a Fender Stage Lead with a ton of effects. I play it through the drive channel(which sucks), but it guve me a darker sound. The pedal still sounds good the clean. I sound just like dirty Marshall Amp(the reason i got it)

never fails

I play experiment rock and i have ton of other pedals(distrotion and others), but if i have had to pick one it will be my drivemaster

Easy Enough to use, keep the bass up around 7-10 and play with any setting. It sounds good. Getting your sound, however is a little bit harder. I like a alterna-mid hump on my sound and I usually use an 8-10-8 setup.

I have a DeArmond M65C - good guitar by the way and don't laugh. I have a VOX wah and a Fender Hot Rod Deville for the best clean and like 60's OD you will ever have. The Marshall scoops, crunches and roars. However, I would like a more out of control sound. It doesn't Feedback much unless you add the tube OD with it maybe I'll get a Dod grunge later. Other wise, it sounds AWESOME! Use it for rock anything from rock to metal to blues. Warning, If you want a fuzzed out wall of sound, get something else. This pedal is way too professional sounding. just as clear and responsive as a bell.

I don't know, i'd say that it is built well enough, I bought it used in pristine condition

Don't know, doesn't matter yet

I am in a ska/alt rock band and this pedal with my guitar is way too fat for that style of music. A better combo would be a Fender sc guitar (take your pick) through the same pedal. But for the styles of music that I actually like, Grunge, Alternative, Punk, Hard Rock. It rules

Simple labeling for simple controls! This pedal has gain, bass, mid, treble, and volume controls, each labeled, and a big metal switch. it is not exactley rocket science.

my current setup is a fender cyclone, into an ibanez WH10 wah, nobels tremlo, marshall drivemaster, marshall guv'nor, soundtank digital delay, sound city 50 top head into kelly 4*12 cab. With this setup I have found that the drive master has a fairly low noise level compared to most of the distortion pedals i have used.my amp is a fairly quiet one and so unwanted pedal hum is not easily disguised! When i first bought the drivemaster, i found that my setup was quite noisy, but with the use of decent patch cabels, my life was far more fulfilling.
The pedal itself has a ridiculously sensitive set of controls, and you really need to experiment to make sure that you are making the most of this pedal and it's possibilities. There are so many varied sounds within this lump of metal that given enough time, any one could find a decent enough sound!
personally, i have found that the pedal sounds at its best with the gain set at 2 o'clock, the bass at 4 o'clock, mid at 1 o'clock, and treble at 3 o'clock, whilst practiceng at home quietly, but for gigs or full band rehersals, the gain needs to be backed off a bit to about 1 o'clock, especialy if you are using a valve amp!

This pedal is as hard as nails. it is not going to break. ever.

This is the only distortion that i have so far found to be capable of covering that bis sounds that i like in a full on distortion. I also use a Guv'nor, but that pedal just doesent quite cut the mustard when it comes down to lifting the hairs on your neck in that big chorus at the end of the song you have just written!
The kind of music i play with my band lays somewhere between tool, sunny day real estate, and depeche mode, so i need a setup that can be ekceedingly flexable, and can change the feel of a section or phrase at the flip of a switch.
if you like marshall distortion, then get one if you can find one, they are seriously worth the money, and can produce nearly any sound that you could ever want. BUY ONE NOW!

Forrest Gump won't even have hard time using this thing. It is a stompbox, alright? Turning knobs and a stepping on the switch - that is all you need to know.

SETUP
=====
I have a Mesa Boogie Studio Caliber (forerunner of the DC-2) and a Fender Sidekick Reverb 65. Using the Drive Master in the front end of a tube amp with good clean tone, such as my Mesa, simply "Marshallizes" the sound. You could hardly tell the difference of a cranked Marshall and the Drive Master, provided you use it through a decent sounding amp.
NOISE
=====
The noise is there, but not really annoying as opposed to what the others say. IMO, noise comes from badly designed amps and pickups, and the pedals just make the noise more prominent. I have no problems with my Mesa amp so I do not get that much noise out of the Drive Master.
SOUND QUALITY
=============
Ballsy Marshall JCM-800 distortion in a box... I swear! At high gain settings, I can get JACKYL, GUNS N' ROSES, and some SPIN DOCTORS overdrive tone. At medium gain, I can really nail that TOM MORELLO tone with a Telecaster or any other twangy sounding guitar! Very versatile!

Perfect for people who want to nail Marshall distortion without getting another Marshall JCM series tube amp. I guess this is one of the most underrated overdrive pedals. It sounds even better than most Boss and Korg pedals I have tried. I recommend this for the serious guitarist who wants Marshall amp overdrive in a pedal. Of course nothing beats a real tube amp, but given the right amp to be matched with the Drive Master, you get absolutely ballsy Marshall distortion.

treble,bass,mid,volume and gain controls fairly easy to get the sound you want in conjunction with your guitar and amp im renting this so i didnt get a manual

im using a les paul copy into a fender silverface twin reverb its noisy noisy or anything like that for me the only problem i have with this is that it is kinda too trebly and cuts out a bit of my low end i usually have treble on 3, mid on 5 and bass on 10 and the sound is still kinda trebly but its bearable.
i play shit like the stone roses, oasis, the verve, ride, sloan....so on and so forth this pedal does a pretty good job I suppose, i might end up buying it but first id like to take a look at the fulltone fulldrive 2

yeah ive used it at a gig and its fine id use it again without a backback i use an ac adaptor so i cant comment on how it eats batteries

its a good pedal to compliment the fender twin but i am going to try out other options i can definately see myself buying this pedal though

Great overdrive tones out of this pedal. It sounds like a Cranked Marshall.

I M using this pedal with a Peavey Classic 30 with the 112 extension cabinet and stock speakers (a blue marvel in the combo and a sheffield in the extension) and only use it for a bost when I solo generally speaking. My guitars are a heavily modified Ibanez 550 (tone zone in the bridge, Air Norton in the neck) an Ibanex PGM and an ancient Hamer Vector (with a triple coil humbucker. I don't push the drive channel that hard and the unit is quiet when on. The only other effects I have are an Ibanez delay running through y effects loop and a cry baby that is placed after the Marshal in my chain..
Despite the guitars I play I don't go for a thrashy metal tone rather I get a really sweet smooth tone with the aid of the pedal. I tried the Shredmaster and found it to dirty. I can nail Gary Moores tone from his "Still Got The Blues" albun with the Hamer and can dial in a perfect Michael Schenker tone. When used on the clean channel with the coils split on my Ibanez guitars I get a real nice fat strat tone. Even with the gain way up chards are still transparent which is really nice.
I have been trying to find the right drive unit as long as I have been playing (15 years)and this is it. Fantastic tone great unit. My only nit is that this pedal sounds bad when using an ac adapter, so use bateries.

Very dependable EXCEPT for the cheap battery cover, I lost it and am now using tape. I don't think I would need a backup and if I lost it or it got stolen I'd buy another right away.

never had to try.

I have used Tube screamers, DS-1's, Pearl overdrives (that was a great pedal that got ripped off!!) and various Boss and DOD pedals. The Drive master is in my opinion the best OD pedal out there. I play a little of everything but consider myself a rock player first, this padal can take me from UFO to Zappa to Pearl Jam and farther...buy one.

I agree with another guy's opinion that it's hard to find your sweet spot, but I found it. I bought it used, no manual. Just mess with the bass, mid, and treble knobs until you find your sound.

With this pedal, I'll probably mostly use my Les Paul Custom, with Fender Hot Rod amps (Deluxe and Deville). My Strat sounded good with it, too. I mainly use Fender amps, because they have the best clean sound there is. I've always been in search of the distortion pedal that could more closely emulate the "Marshall overdrive" with a Fender. I have been using a Boss Turbo Overdrive for this purpose, and that's a great pedal. The Drive Master beats it.
I am very fond of early Aerosmith overdrive, AC/DC, just kind of a raw overdrive. Also Guns n Roses. At low gain settings, I thought the Drive Master was a little weak. But once I got it to about 10 o'clock and higher, it was very impressive. I have the bass on 8, mid dimed, and treble at 6 or so. I compared it at home on a test drive side by side with Boss Turbo OD, Bixonic Expandora, TubeScreamer, and it had the most "complexity" as far as tone. That's a good thing. It just seemed more present than the others. I messed around with it on lower gain settings for awhile, and then turned the gain up to about 6 and didn't want to turn it off. Wonderful sustain, harmonics, fluid leads. I probably won't use it like that often, but it's nice to know it's there. That definitely got the Slash/GNR and even Billy Gibbons tone. I don't agree with earlier review that you can get SRV sound out of it, no way.

This one's pretty beat up, battery cover missing, scratched. Switch seems solid, and built from solid steel. Looks like it'll hold up.

No idea.

I have tried the Ibaneze Tube King to try to get this sort of overdrive on Fender amps, and it was okay. I thought it got too heavy too fast. I think my quest may be over with this pedal. I may not ever need that Marshall amp I've always wanted.

Getting a good sound took about 10 minutes of fiddling and fine tuning both amp and peddle... now if anyone touches my peddle THEY DIE!!! The sound can be as big or small as you need and it has an absolute KILLER middle range

The sound quality is excellent. I use it with a real shit Honer Wave and it sounds bastard huge!! The peddle cuts through the rest of my band and sounds great for rhythm.

Well... I've only had it a few weeks, but it seems like it could last!!

Mmm........ don't know....yet!

My band is a heavy Rock n roll band and this peddle is perfect. I love the amount of different tones you ca get from it.
Before this peddle I had a DOD FX69 Grunge peddle, which broke before its first year of ownership was up... I brought a Rat, but that SUCKED!! so I brought this and am WELL CHUFFED!!
The amount of new insperation I have found from plugging this baby in is amazing! It is strange how altering your sound can breath life into composing!!

I'm a big fan of the Marshall distortion boxes for many reasons, and this is one of them. Hell, if you can dial a tone into an amp, you can dial it into this box. The controls are modeled after a marshall amp, straight laced and simple: gain, bass, middle, treble, volume. And just like a Marshall amp, it's got sweet spots that require some tweeking to get just right, but overall, it's pretty simple. Just take it out of the box and play with it. I wish the manual showed more examples, but that's the only complaint I have with it's use, and not worth a penalty as it shows what each does and if you can't understand the controls, maybe guitar playing isn't for you.

We come to another reason I love these Marshall distortion boxes: they sound great. I like a real distortion sound, not some over the top, ultra smooth, bass heavy Metallica sounding cyber distortion. This is rock distortion, and PERFECT to compliment a marshall amp. It sounds like an old JTM head like Jimi and Page play. With the gain all the way, Eddie is yours, and turning it down a bit, classic rock and SRV are yours. Versitile as a pedal can be. It responds well to my playing and really sounds like you are playing out of an amp. I've used it on both my solid state and tube amps, and it sounds great with both. Coming out the clean channel of my JTM combo, it sounds like a better version of the amp's dirty channel. I like it better! It's a great overall distortion sound. My one complaint is that it can be VERY trebly, I have to turn down the treble on it to 3 0'clock as well as limit my amp's treble. But it's got that classic Marshall mid-range down to a science. I'd like to see it with a little more gain, but it's perfect if you don't need a screaming distortion, just a fat, perfect emulation of a marshall tone. The only thing I don't like is that it sounds rather flat on the lower gain settings. You've got to crank it up for it to sound good. But that's just another way it's like a Marshall.

It's a metal box, that's always good. But I have a feeling that if you don't treat it well and gently, it would break. The electronics are fine, except for the battery solder, I've had to repair that (from the wires coming off the circuit board), but I use the AC out anyway. The stomp switch isn't very strong, and prolonged heavy stomping will cause damage. But it's built well, and will survive a long time if not abused.

Never dealt with them.

It's my main distortion pedal. I love the clean sound of the JTM, but the lead channel sucks. Too nasally. I wanted a distortion pedal that sounded like Marshall distortion. I wanted it to sound like an amp. This emulates it. Emulates. It's not an amp. It's nice and raw and fat, just like Marshall distortion should be. It sounds like an amp. It's not an amp. It's a pedal. It's got sweet spots like a real Marshall amp, and if you are willing to mess with it's and your amps settings, it will sound great. But you have to realize what it is. It's meant for rock, and has got alot of gain, but it's got drive, not shred (there's another pedal for that). I'm very happy with the pedal, it sounds great, and if you need a pedal that sounds like a Marshall amp, this is for you.

Easy to use. As guitarist magazine recommended near the time of release roll the high tone right off otherwise you lose your hearing - really bright.

sound quality is great once you set it up. I use it with gain on max and harmonics (even with the high tone off all the way) just leap off the guitar. nice crunch for rythmn, nice sound for lead just cool.

I have had this 7 years and it still works and sounds great...but This is why I wrote the review, the box is strong, the pots are strong but the sockets at the back are plastic. I broke the input socket...nothing superglue couldn't fix but still. Also the footswitch occasionally switches half on with almost no signal but you can just hear the distortion coming on. Again another stomp and its fixed and it was a very rare occurance but again it shouldn't happen.

Dunno

Rock/metal great for the job. I've played it for 7 years and its still going. I would probably get it again if I wanted just a distortion pedal rather than multiFX though I use the Zoom 505 at the moment . I chose it over the shred master cause backing off the guitars volume cleaned up better.

Not hard to use, you just adjust the knobs and hit the button with your foot. One of the easiest pedals I've used. The switch doesn't stick and you don't screw up the knobs if you hit it without looking.

I didn't like the sound quality very much. When I had this pedal (olny for about a month before I sold the thing) I had a peavey envoy amp and an american standard strat. I liked the distortion on my envoy than the drive master. I thought it was a little weak. The olny reason why I gave it a five was because my amp was crappy. I guess it would be O.K. if you got a decent amp, like any Fender tube, and your into cool over drive and not distortion (good for lead terrible for rythem)

The things built like a tank. In case of a nuclear war just wedge yourself between it and a crybaby wah.

I don't know

I used it jamming with friends (we like to play alternative, hard stuff a and more of a power pop). Didn't like it except when playing to the tunes of All-Star united (a christian band) and I used it for our youth groups praise and worship team. The drummer even told me it sounded bad.

This unit is one of the best drive pedals i've ever used. Just plug it in and you can't get a bad sound. With a little practice, you can adjust the knobs with your feet.

It's a Marshall it better sound good---- and it dose. I have tried most pedals and this one just gets pluged into my JCM-800 (with a cry-baby wa) and i'm done, from clean to crush all without going near my amp. A friend of mine has a Peavey Bandit that I use when i'm at his house, I bring the Drive Master and use the clean channel on the lame amp and I blow his doors off (he uses some Fender amp).

I've dropped it, kicked it, spilled beer on it, and left it outside for two days(no rain)and have no problems.

I love that it is a great sounding pedal that can make a crummy amp sound great. Take your guitar, take the Drive Master and plug into anything.

5 knobs: drive, bass, mid, treble, volume. The manual gives four excellent settings but its easy to find others.

Sounds fanatastic. This pedal is very versatile, because of the 3 EQ knobs. This pedal can give you the same sounds as the Marshall Blues- Breaker and then some. It has way more gain. I play a Stratocaster through a Fender Hot Rod tube amp. The Hot Rod has three channels: clean, drive, and more drive. It sounds great for crunch, but I wanted a boosted lead sound that could really scream and sustain. This pedal was exactly what I was looking for.

I've only had it for a short time so I can't say how reliable it is. It appears very sturdy and holds up to heavy stomping.

Haven't dealt with them yet, hope I don't have too.

I would definately buy it again! I compared this thing to the Marshall BluesBreaker and the Ibanez Tube Screamer, and it was superior to both in sound quality and versatility. At $99 bucks this great pedal is a steal!

This is one fine effects pedal (especially compared to the lousy Marshall Bluesbreaker, see my review there). It has controls comparable to many amplifiers--gain, volume, treble, mid-range, and bass. With these you can get a wide variety of great sounds. The manual has recommended settings for differents sounds, from Blues to overdrive to hard rock lead to Southern rock rythym. Overall, the sounds are fantastic, especially the Blues setting, which is the reason I bought the box. I had been using a Tube Screamer, but the Screamer, with its one simple tone control, had too much midrange for my taste. The Drive Master allows you to take it or leave it. I like to get a brittle tone with my telecaster and this box gets me there. Also, if you crank up the gain and the bass, this box will take you into 1970s heavy metal land--before Tom Shultz came along and destroyed it (IMHO). You want that Zepplin, Sabbath, B.O.C. tone, this box will do it. How versatile do you want be? Stones to Sabbath, this is it.

You get a slight buzz when this box is turned on. Er, I mean you HEAR one, anyway, but it is no big deal. The sound is fantastic, but I have had a little trouble getting feedback when needed (this is easily solved, however, by switching to the distortion channel on the amplifier itself while the Drive Master is still on, and it is not an issue anyway when you have it cranked).

Boy, it feels like a solid hunk of metal--big and wide and easy to click on or off--and the on/off switch has a very solid and stable feel to it. I don't anticipate any problems with it. Then again, I have not even had it long enough to need a new battery yet.

Would I buy it again? Yes--it is simply so versatile. I had been using a Tube Screamer TS-10, and really liked it too, but the Drive Master lets you cut out the mid-range. Also, the Drive Master only needs a little over half of its gain to emulate the Tube Screamer cranked. Thus, you can turn the gain up a few more notches on the Drive Master when you need a tone that will cut people in half a la Albert Collins. Trust me--forget the Marshall Bluesbreaker, which is nothing but a poor imitation of the Tube Screamer. The Drive Master is simple a better buy. Note, I showed the price purchased at $110. This was the price the store was selling it for, but I happened to walk into a guitar shop I had never been in before that was in the final day of a going out of business sale. I got the Drive Master for $70!!!