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MXR Rockman X100

MXR Rockman X100

The original Rockman series started life around 1982, and included models both with and without an onboard echo effect. Originally designed as a headphone practice tool, the Rockman X100 offered four preset sounds, plus chorus and echo effects and battery operation. It was designed by Tom Scholtz to recreate his guitar sounds from the band Boston, and was really the precursor to the sophisticated amp modellers we see today. There was no variable drive control so, other than selecting one of four presets, the only control you had was over the output level, and even that was simply switched in three steps. The chorus and delay were created using analogue delay lines, while the guitar sounds themselves also benefited from some compression (again non‑adjustable). The chorus and delay effects could be used together or you could select one or the other (though you couldn’t switch both off, which I recall being annoying!) and, again, there were no adjustments. Despite the limited user control, these pedals had a sound of their own that won them plenty of fans.

Having acquired the Rockman brand, Jim Dunlop set about recreating the Rockman X100 under their MXR brand, but this time in pedal form and with a bypass footswitch. The use of surface‑mount technology made it possible to cram the necessary circuitry into a standard pedal, which now features input and output jacks plus a Ctrl jack for hands‑free stepping through the four presets. A button and four status LEDs are used to navigate through the presets, which are designated Clean 1, Clean 2, Edge and Dist.

While the Rockman sound it delivers is familiar, and seems accurate, the feature set is actually slightly different, and there’s no battery power option or headphone output. The only effect available this time is chorus and, like the original, this is preset, but it can now be bypassed using a button, which is helpful. I asked about the delay, and was told that to recreate the vintage BBD circuit accurately would have upped the price considerably. That’s fair enough, I think; there are plenty of separate delay pedals available if that part of the sound is important to you. Other useful additions not present on the original are sliders to control the input gain and output level, which is again helpful, even if the input gain setting seems to have little effect on the amount of overdrive that’s added.

The sounds have a definite retro character to them, but then recreating nostalgic Rockman sounds is the whole point!

As this pedal is designed to sound like an ’80s unit, it comes as no surprise that the sounds have a definite retro character to them, but then recreating nostalgic Rockman sounds is the whole point! Clean 1 provides a generic clean sound, while Clean 2 is slightly brighter and less full in the lows, and both include a little compression. Edge gives a raunchy rock tone that can be dialled back using the guitar’s volume control, and it responds fairly well to playing dynamics. Dist is a little more aggressive but neither stray into heavy metal territory. As with the original, here you can hear a slight background hiss too, but it’s nothing too obtrusive.

The pedal works fine plugged into a clean guitar amplifier, and in that scenario you can use the amp’s own tone controls if you want more tone‑shaping options. Used for direct recording into a DAW, the clean sounds work well with the integral compression, giving them a ringing sustain, and the chorus sounds sweet too. Both distorted sounds are a little raw‑sounding compared with what today’s modellers can give us, but they’re not unappealing, and they definitely evoke that ’80s Boston sound.

If you hanker after those ’80s Rockman tones without paying silly money for a used original, you need look no further.

Information

Price TBA.

www.jimdunlop.com

Price TBA.

www.jimdunlop.com