(awesome clip of my man Tom showing his stuff)

Originally they were sold as headphone amps, but the convenience of just plugging a little weird box into the desk instead of micing up a raging Marshall stack proved to be invaluable in the ‘80s, which is why the Rockman tone became so prevalent (trust me, once you KNOW the rockman sound it becomes easy to identify it’s VERY distinctive). I’ll forgo much of the Rockman’s history simply because it’s documented insanely well on wikipedia and at but all you need to know is that it’s the ORIGINAL 100%-analog-no-micing-up-an-amp-guitar-solution. (Can u handle the aesthetic? Probably not bc ur too busy trying 2 find misha’s axefx patch or something lol) I was a pretty, pretty cool guy before I played Rockmans, but I doubt I’d be the suave sensual guitar player that I am if I was playing through an Axe FX. An Axe FX and Kemper might have more flexibility as far as versatility, routing, and durability go, but the Rockman is about 90 billion times more swaggy in the sound AND looks department. If I’m going the hardware route I like keeping things analog, and as far as 100% analog amp sims go, the Tom Scholz Rockman is by far my favorite. (Bias is probably my fav computer amp sim at the moment, gotta love that solid state power option *thot emoji*) In a studio situation, why would I drop over two grand on an AxeFx or Kemper when I can get tone that’s just as usable from Bias, Podfarm, or Guitar Rig at a fraction of the cost? (or in in the case of Lepou, free) I’m not the hugest fan of hardware digital amp simulators.

Rockman amplifier