Discontinued Greats: The Marshall Shredmaster

Back in the 90s (circa 1993), I had been playing for a few years and had spent all my summer job money on a vintage Vox AC-30. It is truly an amazing amp and still is today but being a one channel non master volume amp, the only way to get some overdrive out of it was to crank it. And believe me, a cranked AC-30 is pretty loud – as in bandmates covering their ears the fist time I did it.

Anyway, I decided to buy a distortion pedal and back in those days there was not the choice we have today, especially in a pre-internet smallish student town in Eastern France. So I went to the local store and the guy said: “we have these new Marshall pedals, pretty cool to get a Marshall tone out of a clean amp”. So I bought a Marshall Shredmaster and it was my main distortion pedal for a good 10 years.

Marshall Shredmaster
My 17 year old battered Shredmaster

The Shredmaster was not the first pedal Marshall had released. In the 80s, they had one pedal on offering, the “guv’nor” which is still coveted by some players today. In the early 90s, they released three pedals aimed at different publics: the Bluesbreaker, the Drivemaster and the Shredmaster.

The Bluesbreaker was a pretty light overdrive, the Drivemaster was supposed to sound like a Marshall JCM-800 (think classic rock) and the Shredmaster was a high gain pedal. It would not qualify as very high gain nowadays but at the time it was. The Shredmaster has been replaced in the Marshall pedal lineup by a much higher gain model: the jackhammer. As its name indicates, it was aimed at the shredding audience but the most famous guitarists to have used it are not exactly known for shredding, I am talking about Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Actually, once it was known they were users of the Shredmaster, the prices for the pedal on the second hand market rose considerably.

The Shredmaster has a lot of fans but also a lot of detractors, I know that a lot of guitarists who have tried it or owned it think it does not live up to its reputation. Quite frankly, I think the Shredmaster was truly one of the first “Marshall in a box” pedal: properly setup and plugged in a good tube amp, it really does wonders. Mind you, as I have mentioned earlier, it does not have that much gain depending on your perspective and this is where people get disappointed if they expect a “death metal” kind of tone, although it can probably do it with the right type of guitar and/or a boost.  That said I think it does cover everything from blues to classic rock and 80s shredding alike while retaining a true Marshall color. Moreover, the equalisation section featuring bass, treble and a contour knob to scoop frequency is pretty efficient. It is completed by the classical gain and volume knobs. I find the gain most efficient between 2 o’clock and the maximum setting, the first half is frankly a bit useless. The volume will give you a nice boost but nothing over the top.

I have recorded several videos of the Shredmaster plugged into a little 5 Watt all tube Fender Silverface Champ. It is a fairly bright amp so I had the following settings:

  • On the Champ: Volume 2.5, Bass 10 Treble 2
  • On the Shredmaster : Gain 3 o’clock, bass 1 o’clock, contour 8 o’clock (minimum), treble 9 o’clock, volume 2 o’clock

The Shredmaster is plugged directly into the Champ which was miked by a Shure SM-57. The reverb was added in Cubase 5 afterwards and I used the Reverence 3s Plate Reverb setting.

With a Gibson SG 61 Reissue, here is how it sounds:

And with a 1978 Telecaster equipped with stock pickups:

And a last one with the SG that shows a more “classic rock sound”:

I have improvised in these videos so pardon the mistakes.

The Shredmaster is not made anymore so you will have to look on the second hand market to find one. You might also want to check the Hellrazor from Pure Analog Effects which is a very reasonably priced Shredmaster clone. There is also word that the distortion side of the  Jekyll and Hyde from Visual Sound has a circuit close to the Shredmaster but I must say that the samples on the vendor’s website sound a lot heavier than a Shredmaster so I am not too sure about that.

Whether you find a real one or get a clone, happy shredding!

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9 thoughts on “Discontinued Greats: The Marshall Shredmaster”

  1. Hi, stumbled across these looking for Marshall pedal reviews. Great tone & playing…. especially the first two clips, Gary Moore meets Gilmour – brilliant. Gary.

  2. Just found one of these knocking about in my room, my dads friend gave me one when I started playing as he gave up at the same time… Took 6 years to realise its true worth as a guitarists dream! (Yes, it also took 6 years to find it in my room) Also, love your style of playing!

  3. Hi, I’m from mexico … I would like to know the values ​​of amperage and voltage of the pedal. excuse my English:)

  4. Hi, in terms of voltage and current consumption, it is similar to a BOSS distortion pedal. You can even use the same adapter.

  5. Actually I have to disagree with you about needing to use it with a tube amp. Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead plugged used it with a solid state Fender amp and that was his signature sound for a long time. It really is a Marshall in a box.

  6. Very nice indeed.
    For a very cheap clone, I’ve heard that the Joyo JF-04 High Gain Distortion is the Shredmaster with a fixed Bass resistor instead of a pot.

  7. Great read, ty!
    I just figured it seems I have lost my shredmaster and found this site by googling the pedal.
    I used it in a more heavy sound band.
    ’73 Marshall 100w top with a 90%clean, crunchy basic setting

    ’66 Gibson SG Junior

    Shredmaster

    32 band Equalizer (as the guitar pick ups made some bad noise which I tried to cut with the EQ)

    Eventually used a classic vox wah with it.

    I felt the sound was fantastic for this simple old school setup. Loud, heavy, brilliant if beendet, still very dynamic and warm, had even a wooden touch.

    Want my pedal back!!

  8. Thanks for the info. I find the SM to be the greatest “nostalgia high-gain” unit I have ever played. I first bought a Shred, then swapped anoter pedal for a DriveMaster, was blown away one more time, and I had to complete the trifecta. These pedals are like nothing else. BTW I also have a 78 Telecaster!

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