Despite being out of production for a number of
years, the Marshall Shredmaster
pedal has always enjoyed a rabid and enthusiastic following. It effectively
emulates the sounds of overdriven Marshall amps, but it has great range and
allows for subtle and nuanced changes to be made to the level of distortion a
guitar player wants.
The Shredmaster is a high gain pedal. As its name
indicates, it was aimed at the shredding audience but some of the famous
guitarists to have used it are not exactly known for shredding, like Jonny
Greenwood of Radiohead, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, and Graham Coxon
of Blur.
Controls
The Marshall Shredmaster has six controls: gain,
bass, contour, treble, volume, and switch. The gain controls the intensity of
the drive, allowing a player to achieve sustained lead sounds as well as strong
crunch rhythms. With a full gain setting, you can achieve a more saturated
attack, while dialing it down is great for bluesy rhythms. The bass is
important to adding lower frequencies, crucial to tightening the response or
allowing for deep rhythms.
On the other hand, the contour control is a little
less obvious, but it is the real heart of the Shredmaster. It can add some
weight for fat blues rock, or be increased to enhance the treble and bass
simultaneously, which creates a ferocious attack that evokes the feeling of
lightning striking – think the “K-chunk” sounds Greenwood makes in the song Creep.
The treble control deals with high end response, while the volume acts as a
boost. Then there is a switch that activates or bypasses the pedal.
The Shredmaster is truly one of the first “Marshall
in a box” pedal. With proper setup and plugged in a good tube amp, it can
really do wonders. It can cover almost any type of sound from blues to classic
rock and 80s shredding alike while retaining a true Marshall color.
Watch the demo of Marshall Shredmaster below.
Here’s a video of Radiohead playing the song Creep
live in 1994. Jonny Greenwood used a Marshall Shredmaster on this.
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