Sounds incredible. Nothing sounds like that particular unit. I wish someone recreated this for sale in 2023.

Man I wish they would reissue some of this rockman gear.

Oh man, the Rockman - Given this a like before I’ve even watched it!

An absolute must for a Def Leppard / Boston / Mid 80's Billy Idol Tribute band 😊👍

Man… still love the Soloist I got back in 1989… 🤣 Amazing how much of that Scholz DNA is in every device.

Tom Scholz needs to build these rack units again

That 80’s clean is heavenly!

Man…the XPR really does “those things” incredibly well. Wonderful playing/demonstration. Here’s hoping some type of affordable Scholz-sanctioned re-issue/plugin/etc comes down the pipeline!🤞

For me that's THE sound!

Man, That's so beautiful! I absolutely love high end solid state gear from that era. It sounds heavy processed but very analog and warm. I instantly thought about Gary Moore's Wild frontier album ...

This is all kinds of cool. Thanks for demoing one for us. That snappy, percussive Strat clean is just perfection. So HiFi and clear sounding.

This thing is bananas

wow, that clean sound is amazing! The Shabat guitar is a work of beauty and tone! Nice job

I just bought an XPRa about 2 weeks ago and it had the Ultimatum mod done to it. Paid $2500 and I didn't even realize it was the "a" version of this unit until it was on its way to me. Only 70 XPRa's were made. I've wanted one of these for 25 years. I'm so happy.

I’m in Europe I’ve got one of these.. The cleans are incredible.. The prob is getting it serviced,. It’s a brilliant piece of kit….

What a cool sounding box! Love the chorus/comp clean--Noice demo my man!

I've used these for 25 years plus fantastic units very fun to record with as well.

Still got my XPR that I bought it 26 years ago! At the time it was the only thing that sounded great straight into a desk, way before cab sims and IR’s existed!

Went on a rockman binge and had a rack full of the old gear. Was fun, but had to move on. Everything I did sounded like a Beverly Hills cop solo.

awesome tool for our instruments

that clean direct sound with compression is the sound of endless walks around the high school dance looking for a young lady available for a dance to a slow jam ...with no luck... it's just that sound

You've demo'd this iconic piece of gear beautifully ol' buddy.. thanks for that..

That’s some serious 80’s tone in a box!!!

I'm hitting the thumbs up on this even before it starts! this is going to be killer.

Oh man... making me REALLY regret selling off the couple of the Rockman half-rack units I had back in the early 90's.

That ZZ stuff came out of left field for me and it was just dead on. That's a tone I'd never really sought out but wow, there it was like I'd heard 1000 times. Well done man.

sounds freaking amazing

Had the portable one. Simply amazing

Fantastic video! Thanks!

That clean tone.........❤️❤️

Someone should release a copy of this unit, maybe updated in a few areas, better verb, bigger bass, longer delay, quieter compressor. Be a big seller

Brings back some memories. I was really into the SRD thing as I was figuring out my 'sound'. Had a few of the half-rack modules that they made...not quite as expensive as this beast.

I use mine all of the time. It's amazing.

Instant 80's. I only have a sustainor but I love this thing. I just miss the chorus/delay module and I'd be happy but they are becoming quite pricey.

I saw this device only once in my life in the '90s era.

Oh man, you finally got it!

I had one that I ran into the front end of my '74 Marshall head. It sounded amazing.

When you scooped the mids with the post EQ the sound got very Painkiller era Judas Priest and it was glorious

Dude that Guitar has the Most Beautiful Neck I have ever seen.. Shur Or Fender.. Love the Channel.... That Sounds Awesome..

to be fair, pretty much any of the Fractal products could nail these tones. What’s impressive is that this device existed way back then!

I love that the pre-eq has a mid boost. Like a Rockman doesn’t have enough midrange already! It sounds just as noisy as I remember my half rack distortion unit being back in the day. I forgot how much compression they added to the clean sounds, but hey, it worked! I recorded in a small studio in the late 80s that had one of these and I remember the studio owner letting me listen to a recording another band had made using the unit and he told me “I’m never going to let a guitarist get a tone that sounds like he’s got a mic stuck up his nose in here again.” Don’t think he was a fan.

I’m pretty def leopard used these in their Bradshaw racks for the 1992-1993 tours

Tunoman ♥️ Rockman

Nice!!!

Awesome dude!! I still have my Rockman XP 100 portable amplifier from 1989/1990. It was my first real amplifier. It has the same layout as this preamp but with a built-in solid state power section with Rockford Fosgate speakers but it Jams.

I love rockmans! I have the Sustainor and Delay units.

I can still remember sitting down to test this preamp 30 years ago lol 😆 at the time i wasn't crazy about it .

I wish Dunlop would make Rockman pedals!

My 1st preamp! I wish I didn't selll it ages ago... best cleans ever

C’mon Michael…we need a good Kemper profile pack of this thing!

Damn I’ve been looking for one of these

I have one of these, bought it from a Turkish goblet drum player who had absolutely no idea what it was. True story.

They are nice, but not like I'd use it for a youtube handle... Oh wait :P Seriously thanks for this review, not many people would did this. I collected all of my Rockman gear early 2000's when it was somewhat affordable, XPR, Stereo Chorus, Stereo Echo, MIDI octopuss, 12 band EQ's. I did have a couple of Sustainors but now I'm content with the XPR for the tones. The Smart Gate I did get was the Dunlop pedal version of it since they own the Rockman rights so they used the original design and tweaked it a bit. If I had to pick ONE piece of Rockman gear for any setup it would be the Stereo Chorus. It's lush, organic, and it can be subtle when set up as such. A lot of owners really love it when they use the full range cabs and a Solid State amp to run it, however my best tones came from a standard 1960 4X12 cab and a Mesa Boogie 20/20 power amp. It sounded a lot "warmer" compared to going Solid State route.

I cant believe you made this video today, I was literally JUST hunting YT for some rockman love and holy crap, you just covered everything! I miss my old SRD equipment.... but everything I played on it sounded like Boston LOL. I love it, but not today hahaha I 100% BLAME Tom Scholz for my LOVE of stereo effects, because of him every damned rig ive had since the 80's was full stereo, that $%^# cost me thousands!

I love my XPR's!!! Sound amazing through a VHT 2150 (but so does everything).

Maaaan! The neck on that guitar is GORGEOUS! 😛

Nice intro jam man

Rockman worked for Megadeth! Cool video

Way cool.

I found my preproduction prototype on Reverb years back. I spent the better part of a year looking for it. It cost about $1200 at that time, and that was priced high compared to the 8/900 most of the others were going for. I don’t believe it had been serviced, and the buttons are sticky. But with some patience, it’ll do everything you’d expect. My buddy had the XP100, he was kind enough to lend it to me for a month or so back in the late 80s. And after that I bought the ADA MP1 when it was new. There are good reasons for all of the preamps. The XPR is such a unique sound, you sound great here. But the ADA has its own screaming sounds, and for those who get into other preamps, they all have a unique result. What’s most satisfying is having a decent collection of power amp output sections to pair with these preamps. I am always surprised by adding the Mesa preamp to a Marshall power section with Greenbacks. But going direct to console, that’s always been a great clean alternative to classic Fender sounds. These days, for people who have Fractal and Kemper units, it’s just nice to have a full color palette to paint with. I find lots of reasons to not play, that’s life. But if you have an interesting guitar rig, that can break the barrier and get you to sit down and enjoy some alone time. Another of your outstanding demos, happy jamming.

I had all of the rockman effects wish they would bring them back out again

The holy grail of Rockman gear

I want this as a plug-in

Musical history would have been very different if Kurt Cobain had been given one of these :D

I want that unit man! :0 jealous

Billy used a Legend Combo amp to record Eliminator / Afterburner. It's a rare amp that has tube preamp but a solid state power section.

My buddy used to have the ghetto blaster Rockman amp back in the day

Instant SWTA,Gimme all your lovin‘,Paradise City,Roll the Bones …you name it,i love it-ah!

Oh man bring on the butt rock!!!! Such a great pre!!

I used to run a sustainor mixed with a Marshall back in the 80’s…..I had all the Rockmodules….and they weren’t cheap back then….They were $250 to $300 a piece brand new….that was a lot of money in 1987….I liked them though….instant 80’s for sure…

Rockman is eighties reference! An icon!👍👍👍😁👍😁👍👍👍👍😁

I wish I had that thing nothing but classic tones hy

Good tan you got going on there :D

Hi Michael ! You should try with solid state poweramp

So nice!, I bought the Rockman XP100 amp brand new when it came out and kept it till about 2002 kick myself everyday for selling it they want $6k for them now days in good condition.

Fantastic video. Great demo of this unique piece of gear. Have you been able to squire your own unit yet??

Yesterday, I think, the Professor of Rock put out a video on Def Lep’s Hysteria. One of the things that stuck was a quote from the engineer that went something like this, “The rockman sounded like absolute sh1t and you couldn’t get a good tone out of it but when it was layered and EQ’ed it became something different.” Back in the day I wanted one of these and didn’t have any issue with solid state, as I learned on a Peavey Bandit with a few pedals. Did I want a Marshall stack, oh yes, very much, but that was out of my price range in the 80’s. Good stuff. Love the videos. Thanks!

I think they are great for recording, but they don't cut it live! I had a friend, back in the day, that would do gigs with it going through the PA and it got lost in the drums. It is that Satriani and Def Leppard sound from the 80's. Thanks for the demo, great to watch as per usual Mr Nielson :)

Everyone is releasing reissues of their original gear, please Tom get nostalgic for us. Or whoever ownes the rights, Dunlap I think.

Direct is the ticket!

Nice to have a video of this unit but why are you running the world's first stand alone amp and speaker sim into a 4 x 12?

Any chance for a BHS THU rig player pack on one of these glorious preamps?

I had the XP-100...basically the powered version of this with small speakers. I loved it. SO sorry that I sold it. Big mistake...so many tones

I wish they would repackage this and sell it in a pedal.

It's the Buckethead Rockman x100 sound in a rack space...

Your nutty sustain face at 4:14 made me lose my ☕!!! awesome

So I just found out about all this and I’m a novice to rack mount gear, but you can run all this through tube amps right?

Forgot how good the Rickman gear is. Tom Sholz., Please reissue these gems!!!

Didn't Mutt force DL to use these on Hysteria? I had the rack version of the Distortion Generator and I think the Compressor Sustainer combined? Correct me if I'm mistaken.

+/- $4K is ridiculous

Pretty sure i just saw one on reverb for 849 i think its the same?

Big, spanky clean guitars.

Where i can buy this Rockman kemper pack??????

where can i get one???

Gotta be honest. Tones l like.

Can you fet like ada levels of gain from this?

he played the licc

Fine walk through. I am ready to part with my own listed on Reverb if anyone is interested.

Loving the tones but man, that strat .. the flame is ridiculous.

Is there another product out there that sounds this good?