MXR Rockman pedal video review, with Cali appearance

[Jimbilly]

 

[Tortious]

Wow. Interesting. I wondered why they haven't done much of anything with that brand for 30+ years.

[RobB]

Sounds like an X-100. A safe and generic ZZTop tone. Makes you wonder why they didn’t include the echo/reverb. 

[bry4321]

[santellavision]

Mine is on the way. Can't wait to get it on Saturday. Some days, you just need to crank up some Boston and play along. 

Edited January 23 by santellavision

[tbonesullivan]

I really like Pete Thorn's review / demo. Sounds like he had one of the OG headphone amps back in the 80s.
 

 

[tbonesullivan]

3 hours ago, RobB said:

Sounds like an X-100. A safe and generic ZZTop tone. Makes you wonder why they didn’t include the echo/reverb. 

I wondered that myself. The OG headphone amps, I think they were usually both on, and you could turn off one, or the other, but not both. Would have been nice if they could have somehow added both, with buttons for both.

[Biz Prof]

Sounds great.  I'll wait for V2...the one with echo and verb. 😎

[HSB0531]

19 minutes ago, tbonesullivan said:

I really like Pete Thorn's review / demo. Sounds like he had one of the OG headphone amps back in the 80s.
 

 

Makes me wish I played guitar

[santellavision]

I always wanted to check out this box. It came out a while ago, but was hailed as a great Rockman copy (But, no delay or chorus)
 

 

[tbonesullivan]

13 hours ago, Biz Prof said:

Sounds great.  I'll wait for V2...the one with echo and verb. 😎

I'm not super well versed on the originals. Did any have both Echo and Verb, or just one? Or is the Echo / Verb pretty much the same thing? Just thinking of how done right, a delay effect can pretty much sound like reverb.

[Jimbilly]

16 hours ago, tbonesullivan said:

I really like Pete Thorn's review / demo. Sounds like he had one of the OG headphone amps back in the 80s.
 

 

Pete makes everything sound so good, "but what would it sound like if I were using it??"

[cmatthes]

1 hour ago, tbonesullivan said:

I'm not super well versed on the originals. Did any have both Echo and Verb, or just one? Or is the Echo / Verb pretty much the same thing? Just thinking of how done right, a delay effect can pretty much sound like reverb.

They never had Reverb.  Just Clean 1, Clean 2, Edge and Dist.  Then, "Echo Off", "Norm", and "Chorus Off".  There was also a Volume slider with "Max", "-5db" and "-10db".

 

 

[RobB]

3 hours ago, cmatthes said:

They never had Reverb.  Just Clean 1, Clean 2, Edge and Dist.  Then, "Echo Off", "Norm", and "Chorus Off".  There was also a Volume slider with "Max", "-5db" and "-10db".

That’s right. The X-100 was a very important to me in my formative practice years. I’d use the headphone out of my stereo into the Rockman to mix the music/guitar and hit the front with an original TS9. It was a great way to transcribe songs. It seems so primitive now but it worked well.

 

 

Edited January 24 by RobB

[velorush]

The thing I remember most about my Rockman was the loads of white noise.

[Jimbilly]

I bought this Korg PX1 headphone amp new, the paperwork is dated '95, I probably bought it in the late 90s.  I used it a lot, then started using it again around a year ago, almost daily. It's gets a passable 'rockman' tone (very programmable, 20 presets that can each be tweaked or completely reprogrammed and saved), with ping pong delay too. It was making some big white noise a couple of months ago, I took it apart and checked for cold solders, De-Oxit on some parts, it's working well again. I saw one at a pawn shop around 8 years ago that had been discounted to 99cents!  - I should have bought it!, but I wasn't playing much at all at that time.

 It was very impressive to me at that time, I think I paid full retail!, around $160 iirc?  It's still a very fun and useful practice tool for guitar or bass. I probably wouldn't choose an original Rockman over this Korg for headphone practice. 

[mathman]

Anyone who is in to the digital amp sim process, Ik Multimedia has a Joe Satariani collection that has some great amps but it includes a rockman 100. I definitely enjoy jamming with it.  It can be had pretty cheap during one their sales.   The other amps sound great in a good computer setup.

 

 

 

Edited January 24 by mathman

[Jim85IROC]

On 1/23/2025 at 4:39 PM, RobB said:

Sounds like an X-100. A safe and generic ZZTop tone. Makes you wonder why they didn’t include the echo/reverb. 

This is an exact copy of the original X100.  The chip used for the echo is no longer available, so they chose to omit it instead of use an alternative.  I can understand the decision, but I would have liked to see a bypassable alternate included.

 

I want one of these so bad.  I don't even know any Boston, Def Leppard or ZZ Top songs that use this pedal, but I need it anyway.  Just the chorus and the treble boost & compression on the clean 2 channel could be very useful.

Edited January 25 by Jim85IROC

[Disturber]

13 hours ago, mathman said:

Anyone who is in to the digital amp sim process, Ik Multimedia has a Joe Satariani collection that has some great amps but it includes a rockman 100. I definitely enjoy jamming with it.  It can be had pretty cheap during one their sales.   The other amps sound great in a good computer setup.

 

 

 

This makes so much more sense to me. A plug in. Why on earth would I want this sound in a pedal? The Rockman in itself sounds kinda like sh*t. I remember playing it withe headphones back in the 80s. It was never satisfying, but it was all we had to be able to practise with headphones. All recordings that used the Rockman in the 80s used loads of processing  in the mix to make it sound good.

To me it's a very dated sound. I can not for the world understand why anyone would want to sound like this in 2025. But that is just me. When Roger Linnn came out with the Adrenalinn pedal 20 years ago, that was more groundbreaking for me. That was a unit that actually sounded great. I wish I'd kept mine. 

[hamersandstrats]

10 hours ago, Jim85IROC said:

This is an exact copy of the original X100.  The chip used for the echo is no longer available, so they chose to omit it instead of use an alternative.  I can understand the decision, but I would have liked to see a bypassable alternate included.

 

I want one of these so bad.  I don't even know any Boston, Def Leppard or ZZ Top songs that use this pedal, but I need it anyway.  Just the chorus and the treble boost & compression on the clean 2 channel could be very useful.

This seems like a piece of gear that will make you want to learn some new songs. Like when I bought my Martin, I had to learn some Neil Young tunes. 

[Dasein]

I was just modding my original X100 last night so I could use a regular 9 volt adapter. I wired up a buck converter to give me the +6.0v/-6.4 volts the pedal requires. The old adapters out there are all garbage and failed (drifted from spec) so this was the best way forward.

 

 

[jisham]

Mine landed yesterday and two hours of aimless noodling ensured — it’s a total blast and sounds great to me. I’m running mine stereo into a Boss SDE-3 Delay then its stereo outs straight into studio monitors.  Tons of fun. 

[hamerhead]

Fucking Pete Thorn. Hell yeah!

The clean/chorus would be great for home recording - like Pete said - underneath other parts. I'm already hearing it in my head on some stuff I need to record. I think the way it compresses is a big part of it's charm. I've never chased the 'Boston tone' (other than the old cocked wha trick), but this thing definitely has some useful possibilities.

I don't need another pedal. I don't need another pedal. I don't need another pedal. I don't need another pedal. I don't need another pedal. I don't need another pedal......

[Jakeboy]

I will def get one. It will be perfect for recording DI into a Neve or API  style mic pre.

[jisham]

Perfect combo IMO  

.

Edited January 29 by jisham