MXR Rockman X100 review – it’s the 80s in a box
£249.99, jimdunlop.com
Let me break this to you as gently as I can. The MXR Rockman X100 is, broadly speaking, an ‘amp in a box’ pedal. But the amp in question is not a Marshall JTM45 or a Fender 5E3. It’s not even some quirky garage-rock underdog, like an old Watkins or Silvertone. No, it’s… a portable headphone amplifier from 1984.
READ MORE: Boss GX-10 review – this guitar effects processor swipes aside barriers to creativity
You might be thinking, how has this happened? Where, as a civilisation, can we go from here? But you know, it really isn’t as daft an idea as it sounds. Because the original Rockman X100 has been hailed as the secret weapon of arena rock.
Designed by Tom ‘Boston’ Scholz – yep, the fella who wrote More Than A Feeling – that little black box was plugged directly into studio desks to provide the heavily distorted tones – complete with built-in compression and stereo chorus – that fuelled numerous hit albums of the era, including Def Leppard’s ultra-massive Hysteria. And now it’s back, in stompbox form.
Image: Press
What is the MXR Rockman X100 for?
That’s an easy one: it’s for sounding like Def Leppard. If that idea fills you with excitement, you’re in luck. If it fills you with horror, this might be a wee bit more complicated… but stay with me.
Designed to be plugged into an amp just like any other dirt pedal, this fully analogue device has a distinctive control set that stays true in spirit to the original X100 but updates it for modern pedalboards. You get sliders for input gain and output volume, a button for flipping between the four modes – two clean, one crunchy, one full-on distorted – and another button for engaging the chorus effect.
You can also use an external footswitch to cycle through the modes (via the ‘ctrl’ input), and the chorus can be set to full stereo lushness by flicking an internal switch and plugging in a TRS cable.
Image: Press
Does the MXR Rockman MX100 sound good?
Whether you consider it good, bad or somehow both at the same time, this pedal certainly sounds correct. The clean settings are extra-crisp and noticeably compressed, with two distinct but equally usable EQ profiles – both better suited to humbuckers than single-coils – while the distorted ones are brilliantly nasal and cutting, with proper high-gain heroics available in the fourth mode.
Now switch on the chorus, and you find yourself immersed in an utterly authentic mid-80s timewarp. The modulation is slow and sinuous, and gives an odd sense of distance to the two high-gain modes. You can see why MXR didn’t feel the need to replicate the old X100’s echo circuit: the chorus really adds space enough.
It all sounds extra-huge through two amps, although it’s a pity you can’t move between mono and stereo rigs without taking the back off the pedal: use a TRS cable in mono mode and one amp won’t work; use a standard TS cable in stereo mode and you’ll lose the bypass signal.
And there’s one other negative to all this gloriously nostalgic fun: the level of background hiss, even in the clean modes, is hard to ignore.
Image: Press
Should I buy the MXR Rockman MX100?
Look, it is what it is. If you want those 80s sounds, then yes, this is surely the easiest way to get them. And if you don’t, it’s a mystery why you’ve even read this far. Morbid curiosity?
But, snide jokes about mullets and leather trousers aside, it would be wrong to dismiss this pedal as a gimmick. Because the guitar sound of Hysteria is also, more or less, the guitar sound of the first Slint album – and if that’s ‘arena rock’ then Never Mind The Bollocks is ambient electronica. So maybe the lesson here is to focus on the tones themselves, rather than any associations that you may or may not like… and if that still doesn’t work, just remember the chorus has an ‘off’ button.
MXR Rockman MX100 alternatives
MXR’s parent company Jim Dunlop still makes a whole range of Rockman headphone amps, including the Guitar Ace (£118). Other shortcuts to the sounds of the 80s include the AllPedal Steel Panther 1987 distortion and delay (£199) and, for chorus alone, the Jackson Audio New Wave (£325).
The post MXR Rockman X100 review – it’s the 80s in a box appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
