Rockman X100 Tom Scholz SR&D Vintage Headphone Amp Multi Effects Processor + PSU

History

Scholz Research & Development, Inc. was the name of the company founded by musician and engineer Tom Scholz to design and manufacture music technology products.

Scholz is an MIT-trained engineer who developed many of his skills as a product design engineer working on audio-production equipment at Polaroid in the early 1970s. Originally a keyboard player in his off-time and guitar player from age 21, Scholz built a recording studio for himself in the basement of the rented apartment building where he lived, utilizing many home-built devices including a 4-track recorder and mixer. Demo recordings made in his home studio years later became the debut album of the band Boston and proceeds of his success were used to found a company to further develop and market versions of his inventions. Many of the devices were marketed under the Rockman trademark.

Rockman X100

A new series of Rockman products was introduced in 1984, which included the X100, Soloist and Bass Rockman headphone amps. These continued to be produced until 1994 when a 10th anniversary X100 was released to commemorate the event. The X100 is very similar to the original Rockman in its feature set, but uses a LED-based “hard clipping” stage in the distortion circuitry.

Random piece of rock-n-roll history

Here’s a random. piece of rock-n-roll history, these tiny little belt amplifiers were used by the guitar player from Def Leppard to record the Hysteria album.  That album was one of the highest budget, highest selling rock albums of all time.