Rockman Sustainer (half rack)

OK.....new trick.

Like many of you I was a little disappointed when I purchased and heard my first Sustainor. I thought "Is this it?". And, like the rest of you I found the "secret" was in purchasing at least 3 EQ's (and an exciter) to get your Sustainor to sound even close to Tom Sholtz's setup. Even then, the darn thing lacked the gain I crave.

So........is your Sustainor not gainy enough for you? Does it sound a littel dull and lifeless? Forget buying all of those eq's, and exciters. Take a Model 200 and run it into the clean (NOT Clean2) of a second sustainor (Model 100 or a Model 200 ok). Voila!! Magic! Instant "Walk on / Third Stage" sound without all the extra crap you normally need to get that Boston tone.

Try it. You won't beleive your ears!!! Just make sure the first unit generating the distortion is a model 200. The second unit can be either a model 100 or 200. Also make sure you run it into "Clean" and not "Clean2".

You can now list all of your EQ's and exciters on eBay!

Model 200 (later#15382) Very easy, especially if you have fingers.
I'm not sure if this is a lead-leveler model. I don't feel like cracking my rack open to find out, though. The ability to switch between two Rockman (DIST & CLN2) sounds is cool. I used to use two split/buffered X100s on an octopus loop switcher, but this is more flexible, not to mention WAY more convenient.

What can you say? It's a Rockman. It doesn't sound like anything else, and nothing sounds like it. A good tool for its own sounds. I would seriously recommend an EQ and an exciter/imager/aural enhancer/whatever. It's got a thick, meaty sound, but no high end sizzle at all. It's almost polite ditortion; so I use it for harmonizer leads that hate spiky, glitchy asymmetrical distortion. It's got nothing above 6KHz when distorted, but an exciter would add that all for you. The clean sound is great - it's smooth and glassy and makes your picking sound more consistent than it actually is. The SmartGate is cool, but it should be tip/gnd switchable, as it's not really needed for the clean sounds. I also have a HUSH unit that is in a switched loop for exactly this purpose.

No problems. Keep a can of Cramolin handy for the switches - as they are open, they get kinda cruddy and oxidized.

Sorry - nada.

This is a fun unit that definitely has a home in my rack. I put a ton of grease on it, but I can't stress strongly enough how much it needs an exciter - especially if you're going to use guitar cabs. Exciters have a way of producing harmonic and subharmonic frequencies and time-aligning them so that they are very pronounced. My Sony HR-MP5 has an exciter, and it made this Rockman usable for me.

Easy to use. No programming, just slide the sliders to get your sound. Mine is the model 200, and I gotta tell you, there is a HUGE difference in the sound. The model 100's sound harsh and buzzy in comparison. This sounds far closer to the "Boston" sound, so close in fact that you almost don't need an eq with it like you do on the model 100's. Main features are as follows: This is a two channel footswitchable preamp with direct line drivers, which allow you to go straight into a mixing board, computer, or amplifier. The effects loop can be assigned to both channels or just to the dirty channels. You can select one of four sounds for each channel, Distortion, crunch, clean, or the infamous shimmering clean 2. Unit has a built in smartgate which can be turned on or off via the front panel. There are gain and compression settings a treble filter, volume settings for each channel, and a "rythm" volume setting which is footswitchable as well. This 20 year old preamp has more features than most modern pre-amps of today. Manufacturers would be wise to look at the feature set this little wonder has to offer, and duplicate it. If Tech 21 had a modern version of this I would buy it in a NY second. Dunlop made a huge mistake discontinuing the rock modules. Morons!!!

One word. Orgasmic. Absolutely the BEST lead tone I could ever hope for. Buttery smoooth sustain, violin-like tones.

Here's the interesting thing. I have owned 3 or 4 model 100's. They all sounded prety horrible to my ears. I kept asking myself how Tom Sholz got such a wonderful sound out of this unit. You DEFINITELY have to eq the model 100's radically to get a nice tone. About 2 years ago I owned 1 model 200 which sounded identical to the model 100's. I owned a model 100 at the same time as the model 200, and actually went through substantial a/b testing. I kept hearing how much "better" the model 200's sounded.......but could never understand why guys were saying that. I recently purchased another model 200. This model 200 sounds VASTLY better than my previous model 200, and all of my model 100's. Now I'm wondering if the previous model 200 I had was bad......or just a model 100 with a model 200 faceplate screwed on it. Either way this model 200 kicks major butt.......so good in fact, I would NEVER sell it.

Now on to the specifics: If you are in love with the Boston sound this is the only way to go. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to get a modern scooped heavy sound out of this unit. It's a very 80's sound. Very pretty and "harmonicly correct" sounding. Not much bottom end. I play in a cover band, and would prefer this unit over my Triple X head.....but I can't get those modern tones that the triple X can deliver. Just doesn't sound right when you are doing a Blink 182 or a Fuel cover. So I use this unit (along with the Rockman EQ, Chorus, and Stereo Echo modules) at home as a practice setup, or when we go to a gig that I don't want to drag my Triple X and huge cabinet to. Even with the smart gate active there is still some noise. My setup is a little different. I'll try to explain here. When I use my rockmodules with the band I go from the back of the last rockmodule (in stereo) straight to the mixing board. The sepration on the stero chorus and stereo echo through the mains is un-friggin believable! Then I do one of the following. If I'm really lazy I just use my floor monitor as my "amp". Or sometimes I will take my "monitor out" signal from the board and plug it into a carvin power amp that I have in my rockman rack which then feeds a cabinet with FULL RANGE speakers. Using full range speakers is the trick with these pre-amps. It will NOT sound good through a regular guitar cabinet. If you were to take the speaker covers off of Bostons stage cabinets, you would find full range speakers underneath. Standard PA speakers with a horn will work just fine......but they've GOT to be full range.

I've had a few problems with some of my rock modules. The smart gate is going out on my current Model 200 sustainor, and my stereo echo went on the blink about a year ago. Fortunately Dunlop will still fix these for a flat fee of $50. How can you beat that? I gig without a backup amp because we don't have the room and I don't have the back to lug two amp setups around (nope.....we have no roadies). All in all........it's pretty sturdy stuff considering it's age.

I wrote Dunlop a few days ago about my Sustainor's smart gate problem and haven't heard back from them. Hmmmmmm. You think they could answer an email within a few days. As of last year Bob Cedro still fixed rockman units. As far as I know he still does. He was on the SR&D engineering team when SR&D still had it's doors open. The guy really knows his stuff....and I wouldn't let anyone else work on my rockmodules.

Although I play all styles of rock, I am still a huge Boston fan. As a matter of fact when I was a kid, the first time I heard "More than a Feeling" on the radio (back in the 70's) I knew I wanted to play guitar. Currently in a cover band in Central California (see our website at http://www.stoneriverband.net). I've been playing about 20 years now. Owned more gear than I care to admit in that time (I'm a huge gear slut), and I still love these little units.

Have you seen what Rock Modules go for on eBay lately? Almost the cost of the units when they were new. In some cases (stereo echo and smart gate) MORE than the cost of new units. "Dumblop" doesn't know what they have. They should modernize the tone with some different filtering, and come out with a new version. It boggles my mind that they were stupid enough to kill the product line.

It's a guitar preamp. Also good for keyboards and bass guitar at the very least.

Well, it's a Scholz product, so the controls are very straight forward, and well labelled. Sliders feel a tad delicate, but if you are reading this, you are a guitarist and should _not_ have fists made of ham.
See www.rockmancentral.com for full spec's and manuals on the unit.
As for ease of use... well, it requires some tweaking with a couple of banks of eq's to make full use of the unit. For this I have to give it a 8 because it's not obvious to someone new to the unit and will be disappointed. Otherwise, I'd give it a 10. (I think it's a fair expectation for someone buying a preamp be able to get at least some good sounds without having to buy more gear, even if it was conceived as part of a modular amp system.)

It totally kicks ass that there are NO menus to wade through at all. Also, Tom Scholz had the unit engineered so as to eliminate a lot of superfluous controls. E.g. The sustain switch automatically balances the output gain when you increase or decrease the compression. The net result is you don't have to fiddle with seperate compression and gain dials as you do on other pedals/effects, and makes changing settings easy and quick. I know I was always fiddling with knobs on my dynacomp trying to balance my levels. This is so simple of a concept that I don't know why others haven't followed.

Oh yeah, I have one of the (supposedly superior) later 200 models.

Warning: This is a long ramble of thoughts.

Pure analog creamy, buttery violin lead tones. This is THE sound for my lead guitar work. So much oomph in the right spots. I can't believe how much sustain I can get with this little blue wonder. The default eq voicing _can_ sound dated depending on your application/style. It obviously excells at getting that late 70s guitar rock sound. The distortion gains are not overly high compared to todays quadru-pent-sept-octorectifiers preamps (which I think sound like mush anyways). At first it sounded a bit wierd when practicing by myself, but when when I played with the guys, it really cut through while not stepping on the sonic toes of the bandmates instruments. Needs at least a 12 band eq after the unit, and it helps to stick a channel of eq in the pregain fx loop.

The reason why I give it an 8 is that I'd love to be able to get a clearer distortion. I have an ibanez s470dxqm (quilted maple top with the new ZR trem system) and it's a fat, boogie type sound. Lots of harmonic crunch. When I plop it over to bridge and middle pickup for that phased tone, and put it on cln2 setting, I get that AWESOME compressed funk guitar sound that is on so many 80s and 90s RnB tracks. Dis wizzle has da sizzle. It's so cool to be able to has this almost acoustic sounding clean tone, with shimmering chorus and a dab of delay (from rockman stereo chorus and echo units controlled by midi octopus brain), then to punch up with thick juicy slab lead tone.
I have a programmable digitech midi eq unit, so when I use a midi controller to change patches from clean tone to dirt, my eq is adjusted, and all is just right. Like Scholz's setups, I also use a dbx stereo eq to perform global tonal adjustments to tweak for the venue. The midi controller stores my patches as I've programmed them and the extra banks can tailor my sound 'on the fly' without disturbing my carefully tweaked eq programming.
Noise, yup the compressor at the beginning is the major culprit, but it's still remarkably quiet for analog. It's only when I crank the sustain switch, all the gains are up on full that there is a noticable noise. The built in noise gate is SOOOOOO good at getting rid of the most noticable high end hiss... and it works extremely smart about not chopping off notes. Only when I have the edge mode with autoclean on, and lower my guitar vol that it starts to get confused, but that will happen to ANY gate. (Tangent: With similar settings on my guitar podXT, I can get a nifty volume swell effect as the gate works hard trying to detect my playing.) The gate only chops off high end hiss, not a full spectrum gate... nice touch.
This box IS the later boston sounds, but also the sound for ZZ Top Eliminator era guitar tones... which is why I bought it in the first place years ago.
My advice is, the scholz analog stereo chorus unit is a must have with this puppy, and a good reverb unit. The stereo echo is top (see my review for it) but is optional depending on your application. With echo, you get that schredder 'space rock' sound. Scholz's recordings are always dripping with reverb, hence I say use good post reverb if you want to record with it. As for recording straight into the computer or deck, use a proper cab sim, like the Behringer GI-100. Much better than the phase notch alone or some other eq hack. Speaking of which, the phase notch and slider are very useful for adding some oomphf to an amp'd and cab'd setup, but it can limit some harmonics. Its sounds like a cutting parametric q filter to me. When using the proper cab simulators, and good dose of eq, it's possible to get an interesting 'modernized' tone. Careful scooping of the bands can get some tones that current preamp offerings are not capable of. Something to do with having that boosted wah effect in there.

Oh ya, finally, use a stereo power amp. You can use 4x12's with this, I have also tried with full range cabs. Both sound good but have to tweak the eq's to accomodate

Totally reliable. Built to kill but with dainty sliders and switches. Never have to worry about this unit kakking out electrically. (My old marshall poweramp otoh was a bundle of worries.)

I always keep an old Fender85 (which I turned into a plywood head) handy, for when/if something goes south in my rack. Not the exactly same sound, but hey, it's my spare tire!

SR&D, for them - nil... since they are kaput. For dunlop, never dealt with them.

But, I never needed it.

If you do need it refurbed, Dave Accromando of the Boston BBS will do a refurb for 50 clams. Haven't done it yet, but everyone speaks highly of his work. He is apparently the man for all things rockman these days. He is very knowledgable, and active member of the BBS. For his advice, I give a 10.

I play funk, fusion, reggae, pop metal, skajazz, flamenco, etc. It's a good distinctive tone after I tweaked the eq's and cuts through a mix, or can be burried nicely for rythym. I am the only geet man in my group, and this fits nicely into my allocated sonic space. Plus I dig a good midrange-y distorted tone. Loved the classic wah and tube screamer setup.

If it went missing... I'd get another. Easy decision.

Doesn't beat a real tube preamp when trying to play that game, but that's the wrong way of looking at it. It has it's own distinctive voice and should be treated as such, there isn't as much of the tubey compression dynamics, although a late model 200 on edge with autocln and gain boost can do a lot of it). Remember, PHAT leads. If that's all you use it for, you can't go wrong. Not so hot for playing modern scooped thrashy type rythym work. (Move along if that's your bag.) But if you play cleanly, you will be rewarded with a violin. Back off the sustain switch, and get more finger nuances. When I'm playing through this unit on edge with gain boost and autocln, the neck of my guitar almost feels slippery good. This puppy does have tone, just different.

It's not perfect, hence the overall of 9. But I love playing through it, and how it feels musically. A wonderful piece of equipment that is so worth owning, even at least experimenting with.

For a half-rack preamp, there's a lot crammed into this thing: a guitar-optimized compressor, a noise gate, 4 voices (Distortion, Edge, Clean, & Clean 2) assignable to two channels, a handful of other eq and distortion-tweaking controls. There are three footswitchable items: Channel, Bypass, and a configurable volume attenuator called "Rhym Vol".

So is this easy thing to understand? You can get good sounds without knowing every nuance, but there are a few bizzare, unintuitive things about it. For example, there's one effects send with an "all return" and a "dist/edge return". If you're using the "dist/edge" return, it only effects the distortion and edge voices. And, in this case, the "all return" applys only to the clean channels. To do this, you need a Y adapter coming off the send. There's a control called a "phase notcher", which has only a barely-audible effect on the tone. I still don't know what it is supposed to do.

I love the Harmony-Central prompt that says "Can I get the sound of my favorite artists?" Ha! When I bought the thing, I asked the store owner, "Can I get the Boston guitar sound with this thing?" His reply: "This *is* the Boston guitar sound."

I bought this new in 1987 when Third Stage was still flying high. Of course, the Boston sound is still cool, but my preferences in tone have evolved a bit in 16 years. With a separate EQ unit (I use the Rockman EQ module), you can get a bit more tonal variety, but distortionwise, it's hard to get away from the highly stylized Rockman (read "Boston") voicing.

But let there be no doubt... The sounds it makes, it makes very well. Clean 2 is awesome. Take a guitar with dead strings and turn the tone down most of the way. When it goes through Clean 2, it still sparkles brightly! It's great for finger-picked parts. Like another reviewer said, the regular clean channel is more usable for leads.

The noise gate went out on my unit, but I'll leave it on "N/A" since this failure seems to have coincided with someone backing a station wagon into my rack. I've been using this unit since 1987 and there have been no other problems that couldn't be fixed by a good cleaning.

I like it. Its good for recording or live. It needs no speaker simulator because it sounds the same direct into the board or before your guitar amp. (There's an EQ slider that goes from PA to Gtr Amp that seems to magically fix up the output for whatever equipment is downriver.)

One last note: it's spelled SUSTAINOR, not sustainer.

Incredibly easy to use. I gave my cat the manual and he had this thing figured out in about 2 minutes. Took me about 5 minutes. I currently own a model 100 and a model 200, and they are very similar in sound and function. This little blue wonder does all of your "pre-amp" chores in 1 sub $100 box. Compressor, noise gate, distortion, foot switchable volume boost, two effects loops, and the best clean sound I have EVER heard.

You have GOT to use this the distortion channel with an EQ, or you will be horribly disappointed. Obviously this excels at getting the "Boston" sound with the 700 to 1K range bosted. As another reviewer mentioned you will not get a lot of bottom end on this, and as such the sustainor does not produce a very modern sound. The Clean 2 sound is to die for and clean 1 is very good for clean lead work (I find clean 2 to be a little too bright for lead work). I primarily use this for recording, however I also use one in my live rig in front of a Roland JC-120. Setup as follows: Gibson Les Paul or Ernie Ball Axis into Rockman Sustainor to Rockman EQ, to Rockman Stereo Chorus, to Boss RSD-10 half rack Delay into JC-120. I sometimes use a second Rockman Sustainor and a second EQ depending on the gig. All controlled via a Rockman midi Octopus.

Rock solid. Scratchy switches and pots are easily fixed with a can of contact cleaner available from any Radio Shack. I've probably owned 10 of these over the years. Never a problem.

Jim Dunlop owns the company now. They purchased it from Tom Sholz in 1995, then proceeded to drive it into the ground. However, they have a tech that will fix ANY rock-module for a fixed fee of $50. How the heck can you beat that??? The tech used to be one of Tom Sholz's main engineers at SR&D, so he really knows his stuff. I have had emails ignored by Dunlop....but if you pester Dunlop enough they will return your email/calls. I've had long conversations with the marketing and engineering folks at Dunlop, trying to convince them to start up the Rockmodule line again. No luck. They don't what what they have, and quite honestly I don't think they will ever figure it out. Idiots!!! I wish Tom Scholz would fire up another effects company.

I play a mix of new age and rock, and lately I have also had some of my work featured in several modules of the on-line PC game "Never Winter Nights". I pretty much still consider myself a hobbyist. You can hear my material (and the sustainor) on my website at http://www.songofthewoods.com. Been playing about 20 years. Owned a gutar shop for several of those years, and I can honestly say I have pretty much owned it all. I still keep coming back to the rockman stuff for the ultimate in sound. The only thing that comes close to the nice tight musical distortion that the sustainor has is the Tech21 Sansamp.....but that's a modeler and really falls into a different category. The rockman is REALLY good at one thing (the "Boston" sound), whereas the Sans Amp is much more flexible.

If you can find a Rockman Sustainer used for about $50, do not hesitate to buy it. This is a very useful device to have.

The compressor and CL2 clean channel are great for guitar. The gain settings are suprising good with analog synth sounds and 808 style drums.

Here is a great clean guitar patch:
Sustainer CL2 setting > Vibrato > Stereo Delay > two tube amps
You won't put down your guitar down for about three hours.

I'll admit I throw a lot of stuff at the sustainer. (For the effects chain above, I use an Ensoniq DP2! ) I do not reccomend this box for someone with $50 to spend on one solution. It is not a great stand alone guitar processor , but it really does sound great when used with your other gear.

very simple to operate, manual is very well written

Clean tones are awesome, simply one of the best - especially if you add a rockman stereo chorus at the end of your signal path then feed it to a true stereo solid state amp. Distortion is sweet for solos ONLY, but can't hold a candle compared to POD amp modelers of today. However, amp modelers clean tone is crap compared to the sustainors clean tones. Can't win. I use to use the sustainor about ten years ago for live shows and it worked great, just not "as good" for 80's rhythm distorted sound as todays amp modelers set for the JCM 800 -- all that being said - I will never sell my sustainor, even though I currently own a POD PRO

never had a problem onstage

never needed it, but since Scholz sold it in 1994, you can't get any - at least i don't think you can

Still an awesome product and can't be beat for clean tones, even with todays newest amp modelers, however, it loses when compared to todays distortion tones. I still will never sell mine, even though I own a POD PRO - the clean sucks on the POD period.

I bought the Sustainor along with the Chorus/Delay new way back in the early-mid 80's. I beleive I paid around $500 for both including the rackmount that holds both half rack units. But I remember this being the big dog for processing units of it's day. It is very easy to use, pretty self explanatory on the front panel. It's features are as follows.
At the guitar input, it immediately goes into the pre-amp, then on to the compressor (fat), then to the adjustable noise filter (works wonderously), and then to the clean/distortion section. There are 2 channels with 4 settings for each. The settings are Distortion (way big fat distortion), Edge (nice crunch with a brighter sound), Clean (for me this is the least used setting, kinda semi clean, semi muddy), and last but not least, the Clean 2 setting (which is the most awesome clean setting around). This thing is almost acoustic sounding, but there is enough electric vibe going on to really make some jangle. I have a PODxt which I really do love, but the Rockman has the clean to die for. Along with these 4 settings are 3 buttons labeled Gain Boost, Auto Clean, and Semi Clean. The Gain boost button puts the distortion over-the-top very sweetly, the Auto Clean I believe cleans up your signal when you back off the guitar volume while in the Edge setting, and Semi Clean I believe keeps your signal at the same volume level when you back off your guitar volume.
There is a Distortion/Edge eq trim slider (which I have never got to work) and then the signal goes into the Phase Notcher, which was an early form of Speaker Cabinet simulation, which actually produces some really great tonal variations. Next up is the Treble Booster slider, which you set for either running through the P.A. (direct) or through a guitar amp. After that is the rythm level (another setting I have forgotten how to use) and the channel level sliders (one for each of the 2 channels).

I have used this thing for recording for many, many years. It has always been the old reliable standby. I had a Line6 AX2 which I adored for recording, but sold it. I now have a Line6 PODxt, which I really like alot too. It has much better distortion settings for my particluar needs, but you guys who crave that FAT, SMOOTH,FAT,CHUNKY, FAT distortion sounds will want to latch on to one of these bad boys. It's quiet, thanks to the bypassable noise gate. Many tonal variations are available, but the modern units have this one beat when it comes to variety. As I said above, the Clean 2 setting is still one of the best direct clean sounds you will get. It DOES NOT sound like anything else, but it is soooooo sweet.

Tough as a rock for 20 years an shows no scratchiness in the sliders, no clicks on the buttons, no real signs of wear or use at all. Built the way they USED to build things. Performs as well as it did the day I bought it all those years ago.

I don't think there is any anymore. I wrote Jim Dunlop for pricing on a manual and got zero response.

For you analog freaks, this is the puppy you want. Built like a brick s**thouse and sounds like the old days. I would not hesitate to buy one off ebay or anywhere else because I think they are pretty much indestructable. It may be someones Holy Guitar Grail. For me it is a trusty workhorse who is usually out to pasture, but sometimes needed to pull it's weight from time to time. You can still get a helluva bargain on these units. If you see one...BUY IT...you won't regret it.

Easy

Not alot of noice. unless 60 cycle is nearby.
I love all the sounds. It has it's place definetly.
Lotsa sustain, very tewakable.
Using it thru T. elliot tube amp and crate tube amp.

Where?

I got lucky and won't part with this.
Oh, almost forgot, that price also includes the chours/delay!
So keep that in mind with the ratings. Sorry.