Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:35 pm Post subject:
Got the Zendrive in time. Thanks so much Alf. The gig in the quiet room got double booked and we got bounced. But I stuck it on my pedal board Friday night just to give it a try. Ended up using it instead of the Fuchs OD channel almost all night. This is fabulous! We had volume issues Friday and I was able to use the Zen in front of my Ernie Ball volume pedal and eek out just what I wanted during the solos. The awesome thing was that the Zen sounded great even when the volume pedal was turned down and the Zen couldn't push the front end of the amp. Tone in a box! Especially for the slightly more compressed sound you need when trying to keep the volume down. My Fuchs is tweaked to be very dynamic. In some situations this can cause trouble. The Zen is the perfect answer. The band's former guitarist was there and having never met or heard me before, the first thing he said was "you really got that Robben Ford thing going on with the bridge pickup on the solos". LOL! The Zen is perfect for when I can't get the Fuchs opened up. I'll try it in series with the Fuchs OD at this Saturday's gig, which is in a bigger place. I will be able to get three levels of overdrive with a similar character. Too wonderful.
Realisticaly, it's not quite the same as the Fuchs OD channel. There's still a touch of FuzzFace midrange centered snarl. Which the Banzai has much more of. Backing off the tone or voice controls gets rid of most of this but loses a bit of openess and transparency. When I pulled it out of the box, as Alf left it, it was almost perfectly transparent. (Gain, tone and voice all around 6) That is it altered the basic tone very little. A bit less bottom end warmth and a taste of that midrange thing that reminds me of an overdriven alnico speaker. But basically, it very much sounds like the guitar, and almost as if there wasn't a pedal in there. Gain settings less then half are just about indistinguishable from the amp being overdriven. Unlike the Klon and Banzai, the Zen would probably sound great through a SSPOS if you could find a good clean sound. I'll try it though the Roland I leave at the cover band rehearsal tomorrow.
Alfin Magic, from a hollow tree in Florida. Love it! _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
Yes Steve, Zen's a magic box. That Fuzz Face disappears when the clean sound is a bit crunchy, don't know if the Fuchs can do this at low vol. When I played with that Blues Band (as I mentioned earlier) the guitarist (using a Fuchs OD amp) said to me: I can hear some RF out of that ... and I played that farty little Cube60...
To make things short:
I ordered a second one, for my second rig... or as a back up... one to always carry around with me.... just in case something terrible should ever happen to my first one... whatever this might be... God beware... what's live without a Zendrive
I knew would just love the ZD, as you love the Fuchs sound so much.
You may now know why I have been so enthusiastic about this pedal.
Alf has created a masterpiece! I could have (possibly would have) spent a fortune on gear to get somewhere near the quality of tone and dynamics the ZD produces through the clean channel of my Boogie. I cannot sing the ZD's (or Alf's!) praises enough. This has changed my whole enjoyment of playing guitar, because I can now really feel that the tone I achieve is very musical and warm, and I enjoy pushing the dynamics and tonal range of my rig (oh, and I can get the RF type tone at a push , which is really cool!).
I haven't tried it through a SS amp yet, so I would be interested in how it sounds through the Roland.
cheers,
DD _________________ Music is the universal language; speak it with emotion, listen with a passion.
Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Posts: 234 Location: Hartlepool, U.K.
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:24 am Post subject:
I ordered mine on November 17 and I still don't have it ... Bah!!! _________________ "Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were only thought up a little more than a century ago?" - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon 1894-1982
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 249 Location: the Netherlands
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:30 am Post subject:
I ordered mine in oktober and received it today. So it took 3 months. And I can say it's really worth while to have patient. It's a little box with a huge sound. Can't wait for the next gig.
Henk
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:17 pm Post subject:
Marin, you'd have a lof of fun with it. The Zen is much less agressive and fuzz box sounding than the Banzai. The Banzai sounds more like your Engl, the Zen sounds more like a Dumble. A Zendrive would give you another voice to play with, and as mentioned, get you into that Dumble/Fuchs thing for much less than the cost of the amp. Okay, Robben hasn't sold his Dumble for backline Twins and his Zendrive. But if you want to play something with a timbre and feel in that direction, the Zen will do it for you. The differences are on the order of those between a good Dumble and a mediocre one. Pretty good company, especially for a little gadget you can plug into any decent amp.
Really funny chain of events. HAD developed his amps after hearing Robben in the 70's. Alf developed his pedal after hearing Robben playing one of HAD's amps more recently.
Whos going to develop something cool after hearing Robben playing through the Zen? _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
I must say that the official samples don't sound THAT special. They sound lika a mild overdrive combined with a compressor.
None of them sounded either like Larry or Robben tones.
Actually, I'm begining to think that the "Dumble in a box" sound is: "mild overdrive" + "compressor" + "EQ with a lot of bass".
I could bet my morning doughnut (which I am now eating) that both Hermida and Fuchs use a compression stage and some bass boost somewhere along their signal chain.
If you think about it, the Banzai has the "dumble" sound when the compresor is active. Bytheway, the Banzai ain't that bad, it just needs to be set well. THe midrange is overwhelming at it's default setting, but the internal knob allows you to modify that. Also, the Banzai gain and volume knobs are very powerful. Keep the gain low and reducing the midrange will get into some kind of Robben tones (of course, the compressor has to be on).
Just off the topic: what I find entertaining at times is the quest for a dumble sound (which is compressed) but, at the same time, the "dynamics" are appreciated.
What I hear in these dumble sounds is an overall compressed sound on the low and lower midrange frequencies and less compression on the highs (especially in the range where the upper harmonics are).
Of course, I would never die for any of my opinions because they could be all wrong, so I wouldn't mind hearing a representative sample of the Zen in the "Dumble" zone.
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 4:19 am Post subject: Re: again
Bluelobster wrote:
I ordered one today . I think i have to be Zen now.
Ha Ha!! Blob you have succumbed to the draw of the ZD
You will now eat your hat with respect to your mocking of my ZD praise. The wait is worth it! Until then, select your favourite RF tones, fill your conscious mind with these, and wish for these through your rig. When that little box turns up, the magic of the Zen will do it's stuff, and "hey presto" "RF tone in a box"
Marin, I never take clips as being a fair representation of what I will achieve with a particular OD pedal. There are too many variables in the pot. All you will really hear is a plethora of players interpretation of how the pedal sounds best to them through their rig. I will say this, however, you can/will be able to dial in a remarkably good (no make that incredibly close) RF Dumble sound for sure. The number of people I have shown/demoed the ZD to and their months have dropped surprised me (well maybe not!)! Their comments, usually referenced RF (at least in the quality of tone capacity, and not the playing ).
The Banzai is a great pedal in it's own right. As someone once said, all these OD's are like spices. You have to use them sparingly, and they all add their distinctive flavour to the mix. Do yourself a big favour, keep the banzai and get a ZD!
Cheers,
DD _________________ Music is the universal language; speak it with emotion, listen with a passion.
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 4:32 am Post subject: Re: again
diatonicdude wrote:
Bluelobster wrote:
I ordered one today . I think i have to be Zen now.
Marin, I never take clips as being a fair representation of what I will achieve with a particular OD pedal. There are too many variables in the pot. All you will really hear is a plethora of players interpretation of how the pedal sounds best to them through their rig. I will say this, however, you can/will be able to dial in a remarkably good (no make that incredibly close) RF Dumble sound for sure. The number of people I have shown/demoed the ZD to and their months have dropped surprised me (well maybe not!)! Their comments, usually referenced RF (at least in the quality of tone capacity, and not the playing ).
The Banzai is a great pedal in it's own right. As someone once said, all these OD's are like spices. You have to use them sparingly, and they all add their distinctive flavour to the mix. Do yourself a big favour, keep the banzai and get a ZD!
Cheers,
DD
Steve,
I appreciate what you're saying and similarly I believe that a good OD is a good OD. Sooner or later, I'll try out a Zdrive since I always appreciate a good one ;)
However, what I am trying to say is that this pedal, like others, been classified as a "Robben/Dumble in a box" pedal but I haven't heard and Robben or Larry tones with it yet.
If you have a clip of yours with that Robben sound, I'd like to hear it.
Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 1504 Location: Methuen, MA
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 9:41 am Post subject:
3 months seems to be the current lead time. I ordered mine somtime in November, and about 2 weeks ago when I inquired about where it was in the queue, Alf replied that it's a month away...
Joined: 09 Feb 2005 Posts: 197 Location: San Jose Ca.
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 10:37 am Post subject:
Back when Robben picked out his cherry sunburst Les Paul at GC I told him I loved the tone and note selection on "The Work Song". He looked at me quizzically and said, "you really liked that"? Seems he used Garth Webber's rig for that (blackface Super,Garth's Japanese amber RF, Boss overdrive pedal). WTF? Just goes to show.........
Back when Robben picked out his cherry sunburst Les Paul at GC I told him I loved the tone and note selection on "The Work Song". He looked at me quizzically and said, "you really liked that"? Seems he used Garth Webber's rig for that (blackface Super,Garth's Japanese amber RF, Boss overdrive pedal). WTF? Just goes to show.........
Robben has recorded with Garth's rig several times, and always sounds amazing with it (check out Sahara Moon). Of course, Garth get's some killer tones out of that rig too!
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 3:21 pm Post subject:
Marin, my computer with the ProTools in it is screwed up at the moment. When I get to back up and running (incompatiblity between Windows updates and the HP bios (WTF!)) I'll record some bits.
More comments from last nights gig. One of the problems I've had with this cover band is soloing with the Strat. I'm so used to the big sound and limitless dynamics of my 335 that the Strat just keeps giving up and I can't get comfortable. Of course the Fuchs reproduces the sound of what is plugged into it, instead of homogenizing things. Which would let the Strat have a big distortion tone. With the Fuchs, it sounds very much like a Strat. Same hollow biting tone. Great for sometime, but not for others. Keep thinking of putting some hot humbucker in the bridge, but I'd like to keep it a real Strat. Zendrive to the rescue. I turned the tone knob down to 10:30 or so, and the voice knob up to 2:00 and was able to get this wonderful thick overdrive sound. When I put the guitar in positions 2 or 4 you could still hear that quacky Strat character, but it sounded big and thick. Compression is very mild. Either compression setting on the Banzai sounds really squashed to me. The no compression setting is great to play, but has a really agressive sound to it. The Zendrive has just a taste of compression, like a tweed amp just starting to break up, but with the amount of distortion of a tweed dimed (where the tweed is in total saturation and compressing like mad). This is the magic of the Zen and Dumble/Fuchs amps, fairly high levels of distortion with very mild compression. As opposed to a Boogie or modern rock amp which squashes everything with 6:1 compression ratios. The Zen is more like a 2:1 compression. Just enough to be noticed, but not saturating and pumping wildly.
The other thing I tried was turning on the Zen and Fuchs OD at the same time. My god what a wonderfull singing tone! Rich, thick, playable, and sustain for years. Again, it wasn't the squashed sort of saturated overdrive we're all used to. The degree of distortion was similar to that saturated sound, but very smooth and still very responsive. And this with a Strat with Kinman's down low to the pickguard. An otherwise very open and vintage sounding axe. Daved, someday when you have time, just for giggles, you ought to try convincing Robben to play with chaining the Zen into the Dumble. A very interesting sweet sound. Remenisent of his OD+bypass+humbucker saturated sound, but with more character of the guitar and hands coming though.
Now I really love this box. It's coming with me every night. Sometimes just into the DR for small gigs or jams, but otherwise it's living on my pedal board. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
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, which is really cool!).
I think i have to be Zen now. 
-> my stuff
