Marshall ShredMaster

5 knobs relative simple to use.

One of the best OD/Distortions I've ever played. When I bought it I usualy played it with gain 80-100% but after a while I noticed its light OD-sounds. Now I prefer the gain at 1-2 o clock and the sound is a real pleasure. Think of Popa Chubby live, SRV etc. (with a strat). But it also works very well with Tele or Les Paul (Standard). The Best thing ist that the Shred Master likes my 1972 Twin and my two JCM800 (one split chanal, one one chanal). I push the SM (set to light OD)with an old black box Bluesbreaker pedal to high gain. Because this setting first gave a lot of noise to the otherwise fantastic sound I changed the two TL072 OpAmps to NE5432AN which are low noise ICs. I think that this ICs also sound a little bit better but the best thing: You get rid of the noise. You can use this setup with all my amps and guitars and it always sounds wonderful.

The quality is good at all but I'd like to have better switch.

Soundwise the best OD/Distortion. It does all the things the Fulltone Distortion Pro promises (but doesn't make) for a fraction of the Fulltone price. Ive been playing guitar since 1972 and tested many, many ODs and distortions. The shred master is a pedal one shouldn't sell. It does all sounds from light overdrive to classic high gain.If you like classic rock or blues give this pedal a try. You won't be disapointed.

Es sencillo de usar. el gain controla la saturacion del pedal, bass y treble son los agudos y medios. y el volumen al final. el control de contour es lo mas "complicado" a?ade medios o los quita a la se?al.

uso una stratocaster del 74 y una epiphone les paul standart, un fender pt-10 - whawha crybaby - ibanez ts9dx - marshall shreedmaster - boss os2 - mxr 90 - danelectro reverse delay y un boss dd6 conectado a un fender twin reverb. la distorsion central es el del marshall y noto un cambio de calidad de sonido al conectar el shredmaster encima de el ts9 (obviamente lo mejora mucho) pero en fin, tienes que jugar mucho con la ecualizacion del pedal hasta encontrar una buena distorsion. creo que hay mejores distorsiones en el mercado, pero si lo conectas a un jcm800 es de las mejores sin dudarlo.

duro como una piedra!!!! pero tuve que ponerle un par de trozos de caucho en la base, resbala del suelo.

duh...

toco britpop desde oasis hasta radiohead, y me compre el pedal por que me salio barato y lo tocaba mr.greenwood, si me lo roban aprovecharia para comprarme otro... y si no tambien, pero es muy interesante tenerlo por el control de contour a la hora de meterte en un estudio.

If you are fammiliar with distortion pedals, then you can work a Shredmaster. 5 knobs:Dist,Bass,Contour,Treb,Vol. Didn't come with a manuel, but who needs one with the simplicity of this pedal? No visable upgrades, this thing is has it's fair share of battle scars and the battery cover is missing, but I don't care cause it still sounds fuckin good.

I Play a reissued Mij Fender Jazzmaster through a Fender Deluxe Reverb II. Before I found this gem, My Rat had a seemingly lifelong spot as the first pedal in my effects chain, this has all changed and am suprized that the Rat could take a back seat to any pedal, I guess I know why Johnny Greenwood and Kevin Shields use the Shredmaster as their main source of distortion. My effects chain is like this, Shredmaster,RAT,Mxr Bluebox,MXR Phase90,Boss Ps2 delay/pitchshiter. Its kinda noisy, not as noisy as my rat is though. I think it uses analog cirtcutry, so noise is to be expected, but who cares when then pay off is sweet fuckin distortion? You can find many tones within this box and may ask your self, "how is this possible?" You may look at your amplifier and wonder why it never sounded so good, then look down at your guitar and then to your fingers with satisfaction. I like artists like Sonic youth, Blonderedhead,Deerhoof,Bjork,Radiohead,My Bloody Valentine, The Fiery Funaces, oh yeah and Melt Banana. You can get distotion that can exisit in the minds of people who enjoy good music, making your life feel refreshing and trustworthy.

I've had this for a day and I dont see it dying on me anytime soon, its made by Marshall in England so I'm pretty sure that it doesn't suck. I'd gig without a backup cause i don't think i'd want to play without it anyways.

Not sure about Marshall, I'm sure they have good support though. If anything I'd like to be able to open the housing of the unit, the thing is so old that my screwdriver cant catch the grooves, the screws are pretty much fused together w/the box. And I would get a battery case if that were avaliable to replace my library card with duck tape that serves as a temporary fix.

I play rock and electronic music. It's the sound I was looking for, honestly my guitar sounds better because of it, especially with higher notes every string is clear crisp. I've been playing for 5 years now and enjoy playing with my synthesizer as much as my guitar. I own a microKorg,Yamaha Qy70,Korg Es-1 sampler (one of my best pieces of gear),Electro Harmonix Bass Sythesizer,Honer Soprano Melodica, Yamaha classical guitar. I really love this pedal,it fits the sounds I have in my head and makes me feel ultimate excitement upon recieveing the spectacular sounds that penetrate my skin cells.

This is a fun pedal, you can get so many types of drive and tone out of it, and it still sounds Marshally! As others have mentioned, the Contour control takes a while to figure out (I've had this pedal forever, and I still like to tweak with it), but it's still a simple pedal to ooperate in today's digital world.

The first time I plugged into the Shredmaster, I was blown away by how BIG it can sound. It's got a great, full sound and has that Marshall thunk that you get with Marshall cabs, without using a Marshall cab. I play rock, blues, etc., and the Shredmaster can fill all shoes easily. I use Strats through a Peavey Classic 50 with 4-10s in conjunction with an old Peavey Bandit with a Tube Screamer, the Shredmaster, a Danelectro Cool Cat chorus, a Boss compressor and an old wah. The Shredmaster will always stay in my chain.

This thing is a tank, it's gone through well over a decade of abuse and still hangs in there. I play just about every weekend, and the only probles I've ever had were a broken wire to the battery terminal, big deal.

Never have had to deal with Marshall.

I've been playing for over twenty years, and if my Shredmaster went down for good, I might try to find another or a similar Marshall product. Right now, I am finally entering the domain of mult-effects, as I have began using a Zoom effects pedal, but as I am an old dog musician, I still love and collect pedals. IT's hard to break old habits.

Easy to use, but like any distortion pedal you need to tweak it. I like the sound a bit mid heavy. I use this pedal to push a Marshall Bluesbreaker reissue combo. Manual doesn't really help. It all depends on your amp and how it reacts to the pedal.

I use many different guitars. This pedal sounds decent with all of them, but so do alot of other OD/distortion pedals. I mostly use my Tele with a 70's Seth Lover humbucker in the neck, and a TexMex in the bridge. Good, but it tends to cut the natural highs of my guitar/amp combination. It is not a transparent OD at all. Also, it is very noisy on high gain settings-> Extremely noisy!! I don't know why this pedal is popular right now, other than rock star hype. Don't always believe the hype. People are paying WAY too much for these now. Wait until the hype dies, then buy one...The hype will die...Hopefully people will snap out of it...nobody else is going to sound like Jonny Greenwood, or Kevin Shields!

I guess you can depend on it. The switch seems dodgey though. Also, the input guitar /output to amp female 1/4 inputs are made of crappy plastic. One false move and you will have to replace one, or the other. I would have a backup, but who the hell can afford it now?

Haven't dealt with Marshall, but an ocean divides us. So, I am not sure there would be any point. Plus, this pedal has been discontinued for a while now.

I play rock music. Good match, but so are alot of other pedals. I have been playing since 1990. I own lots of other gear, including a vintage Boss OD-1, vintage DS-1, Peavey Hotfoot Distortion, Shin-ei Fuzz wahs, Turbo Rat, Big Muff, Roger Mayer Octavia. Try the others. The Shredmaster is among stiff competition.

This is an update to my previous post from 2003.

Still Freakin Awesome!

Into using it non-stop for 14 years and counting... no problems, but I take good care of my gear.

Never had a need, haven?t owned any other Marshall gear.

Still using this thing for blues and fusion, but recently getting into some roots rock and country with a Tele 52 RI, as well as a new LP Gold Top 57 RI and another modified Fat Strat with Van Zandt SCs and a stock Pearly Gates. Since my first review, I have purchased and played a few hundred hours on a VHT ST-50 with 2 x 12 cab, and an Allen Old Flame with a 1x12 open back cab with a Weber 12. I have also been playing with (after waiting 8 months) with a new Banzai Fireball II pedal, and returned a Barber Burn Unit, as well as a Fulldrive FD2 and 69 and 70?s pedals. The Shredmaster is still the most versatile pedal I have ever owned and warms up combos, open back cabs and flat sounding amps with mediocre tubes like nothing else. The name may scare some people away, but I am studying tone very conscientiously these days, and I am still disappointed by the boutique pedal market. I?m currently waiting on a Bi-Comp and a King of Tone pedal from Analog Man and am looking at either a Fuchs OD supreme head or a Mesa Lonestar head, as well as a THD Hot Plate, because it is so difficult to get great overdrive at lower volumes. But the Shredmaster still rules at warm, Marshallesque tone in a box. Think Gary Moore, Eric Johnson, Peter Green, Robben Ford. I guess Gary Moore recorded his entire breakthrough blues album with a Marshall Guvnor pedal through a 50 watt Marshall plexi head (maybe even a re-issue, but don?t quote me.) If you see one, buy it, but don?t get the new silver stuff from Marshall, it?s just not the same. You won?t be sorry!

really easy despite having more knobs on it than usual
but you'll found your tone in a matter of minutes

american standard tele with a twin reverb..
this pedal sounds really nice...as someone said:it's easy to get radiohead dist...
i love this pedal...it makes my kind of sound
i just don't give it a 10 cause it's a bit noisy

no back-up needeed

i don't know...never dealed with marshall

i play for around 10 years..and i think i found my favourite dist pedal..althoug i'd love if it was just a bit less noisy

EASY....more knobs than most distortion pedals, but why would you complain? You get more for your money.

The guy who posted a few down (Jose) is nuts! He did admit to plugging it into a shitty amp, and guitar,...so, his playing was probably shi...anyways,...
Its got great sounds. warm bassy OD, to cold hard thrash by way of contour. Easy to get radiohead sounds.
But, since (IMO) it has a distinct sound its like playing a new type of distortion. It's not the best, its just different. Easy to mess around with and find a sweet spot that you can call your own sound.

I build my own pedals from scratch, and the guts in this are very clean and was put together by someone who was having a good day or took pride in their work. Case itself is indestructible. MAYBE if you jumped from the top off your stack onto the footswitch it would break,...but youre probably not going to do that,... unless your Jose.
no worries.

Never had to contact them, thank God. Dont know anything about their support or tech teams.

Bought this pedal used in a guitar store. It was traded in for a boss SD-1... or so the dude that works there says...so, knowing they go for well over a hundred bucks online, I asked how much it was, and he shrugged (clearly not knowing anything about it) and said $45 bucks ...!!!...i bought it and ran out of the store and jumped in the car and drove home. I had it on my lap, and whlist I petted it, I whispered "my precious".... kidding. Made sure it worked, THEN i did all of the above.
It is a VERY pleasing distortion Pedal. When Ive played it for the band the first time, they all asked what I was doing differently, etc. They just said that it had a beautiful tone. But attacked like a rabid dog. Thats the thing with this pedal. It sounds like it can go from having a good day to being pissed off, all with a touch of a button, or some buttons. Reliable, and just DIFFERENT....get one and youll see. You CANT be dissapointed.

Five knobs, the price you pay for versatility.

Best distortion I've ever used. Of course this is a personal matter, but for me it's indispensable. My setup: fender stratocaster, Q tron, Soulbender, Sansamp GT2, Shredmaster, Vox wah, Boss DM3 Dealy, plugged in a slverface twin reverb. Right now I'm selling the soulbender and the GT2 couse they didn't fit well to my sound. Shredmaster is the only distortion I need (for now at least).

I have this pedal for 13 years and never had a problem.

I play rock and groovy stuff. I really love this pedal (was the first one I got) and recommend for anyone that searches for 70's rock style distortion. Can't imagine my setup without it.

Pretty easy to use, even if it has a few more controls than other distortion pedals: half an hour of fiddling and you have our pefect sound

I currently use: a USA fender tex mex fat strat (with a JB)/ japanese fender jaguar>Boss OC-2 octave > Shredmaster > Boss OS2 overdrive > EH Big Muff USA RI > Boss BF-3 fanger > EH Small Clone chorus > Maxon AD-80 delay > Marshall JCM800 100W stack(re-issue: with all those effects i NEED the fx loop!). Basically the Shedmaster is my main distortion: it sounds simply amazing ,great tone, lots of gain but still clear; I can get it to sound like my big mff if i want to (courtesy of the contour knob) or light overdrive and everything inbetween. At first i didnt like the pedal as at the time I had a fender 100W silver face combo and it sounded muddy and limp (on a big radiohead thing at the time) and my rat2 sounded much better. But since getting the marshall, this pedal has got me hooked (the rat2 incidentally sounds awful through the marshall). Can get everything from radiohead to smashing pumpkins to the pixies. Only complaint is that it is quite noisy in operation, much noisier than boss distotions etc so if i stop for a pause it has to be turned off. Otherwise fantastic pedal.

got it second hand and have had no problems except the output jack won't 'click' in any more: probably just 15 years of wear and needs replacing. no biggie

Contacted marshall about my amp but never the pedal: obviously they were very nice to me but then i spent #1200 on an amp off them. Still me nor any of my friends have ever had problems with them

I play rhythm and sing in an indie rock band and this pedal is brilliant: lots of gain (which is lovely) to play about whilst still being very clear nd warm if i need it to be. my main distortion and id kill whoever tried to nick it. impossible to uy in shops (i tried them all) but they regularly come up on ebay. get one.