Marshall ShredMaster

just like a marshall amp. i max the distortion, max the bass, contour turned to between 4 and 5 o'clock to make a seriously thick distortion, then edge it back to bleed in some of those raspy, biting mids until, when i put the treble to around 2 o'clock, i have the most defined, crisp, crunchy chug i could wish for, but read on, because my relationship with shredmasters has not always been so rosy...

my problem with this pedal goes back about a year. i got a shredmaster because i had switched from bass in a band to guitar in a rock/noise duo and was learning about guitar sounds and how i could use them. shredmasters get a great right up, so i thought i'd try a few good pedals, and see what i liked. i was playing a gretcsh sparkle jet into a marshall solid state, and was impressed, but it was always a bit muddy. i didn't understand the hype. these are easy to sell, so i flogged it on and tried some more things. thren i got a tube amp, and cos i was always looking for a better sound, i saw a very cheap shredmaster on ebay and got it. it was better with tubes, but still not that amazing, so i carried on buying and selling to find the right sound. recently i got a very nice epiphone les paul which was heavily modded with very good pick ups and and entire set of new hardware, wiring, tuners etc to bring it up to near gibson spec, and an orange tiny terror which is one of the best sounding little amp heads i've heard. i then saw another shredmaster on ebay badly listed and going cheap, and thought if i still don't like the sound, i'll sell it on for a profit. HOLY ****. good tube amp plus fat gibson guitar sound plus shredmaster is THE BEST DISTORTION OUT THERE. bear in mind i do heavy, heavy rock, noise, metalish stuff with distortions, and this is by far the tightest, rishest, thickest, most defined sound i've ever been able to make. i've tried everything you can think of - boss, mxr, blackstar, zvex, amt, ibanez etc, many o/ds, distortions, tube screamers etc, and now, after possibley between 60-70 pedals, this is it. it is THE BEST, no questions. if you want the tightest, edgiest, thickest, most defined sound, pick up one of these as cheap as you can. if you don't like it, sell it on for a profit, but if you have good gear, this will repay you.

20 odd years old, solid as a rock.

absolutely amazing. i've tried them with bright guitars (single coil) and they sound good, but, as is the case with most marshall equipment in my opinion, if you match marshall guitars to marshall effects and marshall type amps, you get the best sound you could possibly wish for. simple stunning with so much bottom end, awesome mid and treble control and plenty of head room.

It is VERY EASY to get an INCRDIBLY ORGANIC Tone out of without sacrificing your Marshalls inner tone already (If you run it thru a diff. amp likea fender it will sound like a cros between the two. Not a bad thing wither actually. ran it thru a 66 pro and it sounded really good . cleaned up the notes andthe nswitch of for killer clean . Ultra portability and 40 watts of tone heaven @! would bring my 1991 Marshall Blues breaker for funk and blues fusion and such , chords as well. !
1st edition diff then 2nd edit.
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First I ONLY USE THE SHREDMASTER & BLUESBREAKER thru Non Master volume amplification.If you dont . youll get a slightly muddied tone running it thru an already beefed up amp with internal gain. not good ! YOu want killer gain from the pedal (w which this is one of the4 rare ones that has it and then go to clean on the drop of a dime ! I run the 1991 Marshall shredmaster and a 1991 Marshall BLues breaker for differant tones from dhredding ,fusino, funk, r&B, soul, instrumental playing, chod work, originals , covers all styles it handles with ease thru my beautiful 1977 Marshall "HOME TAG" 100 watt Superlead with 100% NOS QUAD SIEMENS and my V1 V2 & V3 positions holding original NOS MULLARD 12ax7 G.Britian 1960s . AWESOME TONE ! YOu MUST START WITH YOUR GUITAR ANDYOUR AMP FIRST ALWAYS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>THEN set up the Shredmaster after youve gotten optimal tonefrom the amp and guitar .Im my case I use a couple of 2001 minty PRS Single Cuts with #7 P/UPS (Great Tone and PRs;s finest moment IMHO in pivkup history so far also my prize and glory which is a well done 1973 GIBSON LES PAUL CUSTOm. I had hte neck painted . XJ tall and thin mnd you frets installed and the serial number burned in a litle better just mainly aesthetics. Ithink thats why people go forthe ESPs they have the big ars Fret material but the bodys are not very welll made. IMHO

ZERO issue

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Overall If you runa 1970s or an NMV (NON MASTER VOLUME amp I would at least TRY the Shresdmaster or the Blues breaker depending on what type tone your looking for . If you want death metal you may wish to look else where but the SHREDMAStER can be Eqd to give you RECTIFIER tone. I dont usethe SHREDS EQ at all! 0% I use the amplifications EQ!. ultra cool to go this way. The LESS OUTSIDE EQING the better i always say ! IT makes sense think bout it .

5 buttons, 4 are usual (gain, bass, treble, volume). The 5th is unusual, called 'contour' : cuts or reinforces the mediums, with a really strong action. As easy to use as any other stompbox, and a real plus with the contour, hence 10 (what could be easier ?).
True Bypass.

Here is the real matter !
I mainly play on a Peavey Classic 50, full tubes 4 x 10" speakers. My axe is mainly a US strat, or sometimes an old tele (1977). This setup is wonderfull for clean sounds, but not for distorted sounds. Here comes the Shredmaster, as a 3rd channel for the amp.

The Shredmaster is an incredible overdrive / distorsion box.
Whith the gain between 7 and 12 o'clock, it is an overdrive. Very subtle, but really there, with "that" grain we are all looking for. Much better than the Peavey lead channel, because the ShredMaster has loads of bass and still a very precise sound !

Gain between 12 and 16 o'clock it becomes a distorsion unit. The trick is that you can play at low or high volumes, it still sounds as good. I just don't understand how they manage such a sound in such a single box ! That sound is among the best I ever played on, even at low volume.

Passed 16 o'clock, it sounds like if you got a full stack of amps behind. The box becomes noisy depending on your stuff before it. I use a Shure UHF wireless transmitter, and its own noise is clearly audible at that point. With a cable there is less noise, but still some. At high volumes, this noise causes feedback, depending on your playing it can be wanted or unwanted. I just like it !

I'm in love with that unit. Through the years I used to play with different boxes : a boss SD1 and a DS1, a DOD FX100 (try one !), a Banzai Fireball II, a MT2, a Bad monkey and lately a Maxon OD9 Pro+, and a boutique tone bender (fuzz). The Shredmaster, with a rangemaster treble booster before it, does the same job plus a lot more tones. A real heaven, it is all the sounds I ever wanted at low volumes as well as at very high volumes !!

I should by a JCM - but the clean channel is not that good !

Mine came old, with a lot of scratches, no battery cover, but working fine ! A heavy unit, the only issue could come from the dust : the box is not really waterproof, and the dust quickly goes inside the pots. Old units could need an anti-dust spray inside the pots (I had to clean mine. No more problems since).
Otherwise, seems very reliable !

No idea, never dealt with them.

I Play since 25 years, and got a lot of boxes and some digital multieffects racks over the years. But finally the axe, the human and the amp are the only good parts for a good music !

With that little box, the link between the axe, the human and the amp is better than ever! Really amazing how such a little box can sound good.
Very reactive to the volume pot on the guitar ! I generaly put the gain at 16h o'clock on the unit (no more because of its noise), and manage the amount of distorsion with the guitar pot. Very transparent - remember, I play on a strat and the subtle harmonics are still there !

I mostly play blues, rock & metal in a local band, and the shredmaster is OK even for metal (thanx to the 'contour' knob). Really helps making a better music, because its sounds so much 'organic' and interactive.

Of course I would immediately by another one, should I lost mine !
But they becomes difficult to find, and prices are quickly increasing !

Very Easy: five knobs, selfexplaining.

Great.

To refer to the last two reviewers: unwanted feedback is not a matter of the shredmaster but rather of cheap humbuckers or single coils. When I bought my Epiphone Les Paul, it was also euqiped with cheap pickups and it squeaked like hell. After replacing them with semour duncan 59 humbuckers I never had problems like this again.

(Other possible reasons for feedback are: (semi-)acoustic guitars with too much gain, very loud playing in very small rooms)

Outstanding. Built like a tank, as the saying goes. Got mine for 8 years, now. Never had any problems

Never had to deal with 'em.

Superb. Great distortion - a real classic.

Well...five knobs. Not that difficult to handle! Didn't ever need the manual at all. I just leave bass and treble at 12:00; no further adjustment needed. I once tried to crank treble all the way up, to get a "mean" fuzz-sound, but that`s not what it`s made for.

Then to fix the amount of gain. Actually it doesn`t really start to distort below 12:00. So you could also use it as "clean" boost. At noon it`s still a bluesy kind of distortion. But the more you crank it up, the more it unleashes the beast inside.

Contour is brilliant, since you can vary from classic Rock to Metal with a little turn of the poti.

I`ve been playing guitar for twelve years now (since I was 14), always collecting good stuff and doing a lot of internet-research, checking out youtube for soundsamples - so I`m comparing all the time. I`m very much into boutique and vintage effect pedals.

When I bought this pedal, I actually wanted to buy the drivemaster, but it was sold out. So I decided for the shredmaster. It was definitly a good choice - it gives me a good complemantary distortion sound to my smooth overdrive (Fulltone Fulldrive2) and it has become one of my all-time favourites.

I`m mostly using it with my Roland Jazzchorus (stage & rehearsal) and my Fender Champion600 (home practise), to switch between sweet fenderish clean and rough marshall sound. Of course, I could therefor just use my Marshall DSL401 or my Marshall El84-20/20-halfstack (which are both great, too), but to me the sweet clean sound of the Jazzchorus is indispensable.

I once was a big fan of Guns`n Roses, Metallica, Monster Magnet, Black Sabbath and especially Slash, trying to mimic his rig as good as possible. Of course I`m still a fan of Rock and still love and play sounds like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Lenny Kravitz, Ten Years After, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Gary Moore and so on, but I also discovered other styles of music (Reggae, Rocksteady, Dancehall, Ska, Funk, Jazz, Blues, Beatpop), . So I sold my former Marshall JCM900 Sl-X halfstack and kept the Shredmaster.

Other effects I use:
Crybaby, H&K Rotosphere, H&K Tube Factor, H&K Replex, Marshall Supervibe, Marshall Compressor, Marshall Guv'nor 2, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Fulltone 70 & EHX Little Big Muff (both ordered, but not yet received), VoodooLab Tremolo (one of the best tremoloes out there imho), Korg DT-10 Tuner (forget Boss TU-2; imho)

My setup:

Gibson Blueshawk --> Korg DT-10 --> Crybaby --> Fulldrive2/Shredmaster/Guv'nor
--> (sometimes) VoodooLab Tremolo --> Replex (Delay) --> Roland Jazz

It differs from time to time; let`s see if it changes again with my two new fuzz pedals ;-)
But for distortion I will always choose either the Shredmaster or the Guv'nor.

It was the first pedal I ever bought (right after I got my Zoom505; but I wouldn`t count this as a pedal) twelve years ago and it`s still in a splendid condition. Solid metal-casing, the knobs give you a good grip and on top there`s a good ol`metalswitch (important to me, since I don`t like the boss-type footswitches).

Just what you call "Built like a tank". And nope, I would never play with a backup, because I doubt it, that it could ever break. It`s built for eternity.

No need for this unit.

Although it doesn`t quite fit the music I play (as I mentioned it`s mostly reggae with my Band & 60ies style Rock and Beatpop for my own joy) it provides for all contingencies. And who said, that Reggae music can`t come along with rockstyle solo parts? Besides; even musicians playing "light" music, need to flip out from time to time!

I wouldn`t replace it, if it was stolen; instead I would hunt down the thief and then take back what is mine!

One thing that`s very important to me is: this thing has a true bypass and a standard 9V jack (unlike the fuzz face, the Schaller Tremolo and the old MXR Phase90). Ya know, I hate running my effects on battery.

It's not as easy like a two knob pedal, but it's fun to play with those 5 knobs. The contour is owesome!

I'm using a Fender Super Six amp.
My chain is USA Fender Strat- BOSS PW10- Whammy- UE400 Comp-UE400 Phaser- UE400 Overdrive- (on an external loop)ShredMaster- EHX LPD1- Visual Sound H2O- (back to the UE400)UE400 Chorus/Flanger- BOSS Spache Echo- BOSS DD20- Line6 DL4- BOSS RV5
I had a TS808. It's a nice overdrive, but since I have that vintage analog Ibanez UE400 I sold it. I wanted a real distortion next to my overdrive. The ShredMaster is a masterpiece. :)
First, when I bought it used, I was afraid, because it was very quiet even when I'm turned the volume all the way, but I brought to my friend who fixed the volume knobs. I was so excited when he said it was wrong as I thought and he fixed, so I went home and turn it on. WOW!!!!!! The best distortion I've ever had!!! Of course you can do terrible sound out of it with the contour knob, but that's just a plus (if you ever want something like that on purpose)

Well, the plastic battery cover allready missing, the foot switch allready has been reinstalled, the jack input is loose......but, it's an old, old pedal and it's still around us! :)

have no idea

I play indie, shoegazer. This is what I wanted!
If it were stolen I'll be in big big trouble, because not many around here, so if you find one, buy it!!!

Very easy... For children :)

GREAT SOUND!!! Shred Master is the BEST of the distortion pedals. It is REALLY THE BEST!!!

Also I use Gibson Les Paul Custom, Tech21 Tri-A.C. and connect it to mixer console.

Didn't try...

I play from rock'n'roll of 50's to hard and heavy of 80's.
Playin' guitar from 1974.

Easy to dia lin a sound with this pedal. I use it wiht either my 1977 Marshall MKII 100 Watt Jmp or my 19722 Marshall 100 watt w/ laydown mains ( marshalkl actually haad put this laydown mains into this 72' as verified by a top tech of ours. The 72' is a Superbass while the 77 MKII PCB is a superlead. BOth amps are with "HOME TAGS" and as close to MINTW as possible and very original incuding trannies, caps and such. onto the pedal.No manual needed! THis is the 1st edition with the serial number engraved in the pedal. I canttt confirm but ie owned both t he first & second ed. and they have just a slight diff. cap layout so??

10++ This is a VERY OREGANIC sounding pedal. What more can i say. Depending on what head your using ( Marshakk that is) youll know whether t o jump the channels or not. I run the EQ unity (strt up) and run the level at 55% while thee gain is at 65% to 95% depending on the sonic im tryin to achieve. If you start with a great amp this pedal only shines that much more with it. It has a wonderfully tubey and very marshal ycrunch to it without any overbearing or unwanted freq. what else can i say. dial in you r heads/ combos eeq forr 100% of the tone shaping. my left handd is injured temp. so please endure my typin.

no problems yet. slight loosenewss to the plug in jack. quick fi and nothing otherrrrr than that..

?

IVe t ried OCD, Tube SCreaamer and most other more conventional overdrives, distortion pedlas which IMHO are made for MV smps. This is THEE one for anNMV marshall unless your an attenuator junkie.

This pedal is great! I found the contaur hard at the start to find where i wanted it but after i found out how to use it properly i LOVED it!!

I first bought this pedal for the signature Jonny Greenwood sound, but after i got it i tried his settings and wasn't into it, After playing around with it for a bit i LOVED it to bits! With the right settings you can get Jonny's sound. This pedal is the sound of many 90's bands! This pedal has BALLS! and doesn't create extra buzz. I play into a Vox Valvetronix and it sounds brilliant!

It has already lasted over 15 years! and i am sure it has many more to come! its solid, built like a tank! I wouldn't need a backup!

When i first got it i got new pots because they were a bit scratchy from dust, But what can you expect from such an old pedal!

I play many genre's of music with this in a few bands, one is hardcore and this Pulls off the Marshall sound brilliantly! In another band i use it for lead, with slightly altered settings and it sounds brilliant, not just a wall of noise.

I was extremely lucky to pick this pedal up right before they raised in value! from the day i bought it i have never regretted it! and if this ever did die i would defanately buy it again!

Very easy get a good sound of it. No manual. I bought it at vintage guitar store in Brazil. Only five controls - Gain, Bass, Contour, Treble and Volume. No secret!!!

I??ve looked for this pedal drive a long time ago. My amp Fender Deluxe Reissue needs of a drive pedal very hard to obtain my preferred sound, even I using Les Paul.
I was trying Fulltone OCD and Ibanez TS9 together... It didn??t work.
Both are great pedals but I prefer to use it separate although I think them very seemed.
Yesterday I bought the Shred Master. I arrived at home, plugged it into my Fender, took my Les Paul, I enjoyed, enjoyed, enjoyed and enjoyed!!!
My amp Fender sounded like a Marshall JCM 800!!! It is serious. The Shred is everything I dreamed.
It is not noisy... It is not weak.

No opinion!
It seems very sturdily built.

I never had to deal with them.

If you want to hear your amp Fender sounding like Marshall, like Slash, etc... Buy it! You won??t regret! Channel drive, of course!
I wasted very time of my life to trying several pedals. Right now I found the real drive! I kept my TS9 to play other style music; Blues, Country, Classic, etc... OCD is a great pedal, but sounds like the TS9, of course, slightly differente.

I??ve been playing for twelve years, so I can advise you - Buy it!