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.