Robben Ford Discussion

[Strongpersuader]

Nice review Milibobs!

I guess that all of us tend to expect some supernatural powers out of any piece of gear, specially when it turns ou to be something very difficult to achieve.

PS: Sorry for my last faulty post. I meant to address bilt and ended up addressing kurt1981.

[billt]

Here's my take on it and I'm not one of these guys that can talk about scooped mid range and mid hump all those other catch phrases from TGP.
The Zendrive is smooth, no doubt about it. It does have it's own sound and does color (oh man, I just did it, didn't I?) the amp with it's tone. Instead of comparing the sound to Robben, I hear more David Gilmourish sounds. Think "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" or "Another Brick in the Wall"

The BB is smooth, to me it really reminds me of a JCM 800 sound, but it's not a "distortion" pedal. I play through a Dr. Z Maz 18, when I turn on the BB, I still hear the Dr Z "swampy, warm" (I did it again) sound. It's like Dr Z made a more high gain amp.

I'm a single coil guy and even with the gain on the BB at 12:00 (or higher), that beautiful, nasaly, skanky, single coil sound (must quit reading TGP!) still cuts right through and is clear as a bell.

Like Milibobs said, you won't hear an Angelic choir singing when you open the box, nor when you plug it in and play. I'm still playing with it, and it sounds darn good, so the jury is still out. I could see having both pedals on my pedal board for completely different sounds, but at the same time, as little as I play out, who's going to notice the difference?

I must confess, that it is driving me nuts to see these selling on ebay for $400 and higher. I didn't buy this pedal just to turn around and sell it for profit, but if some dummy wants to give me $400 for it, then the Roadrunner nor The Flash could outrun me to the post office to ship it out.

I hope this rambling review has been helpful, or at least humorous to you.

Bill

[Millibobs]

The person who tries to scoop my midrange and hump my mids will get a firm slap. I am indeed a true ignoramus in all matters to do with tubes, rectifiers, and suchlike, but in common with many players, I will know 'that sound' when I hear it. I hear it in my head all the time - it's just getting my guitars, amps and pedals to agree with me - that's the challenge.....

Meanwhile, the Zendrive continues to surrender its secrets and using my highly sophisticated twin-knob-twiddling-with-an-open-chord-ringing technique, I am developing some sounds that suit both my buckers and single coils. It's steadily gaining ground on the OCD but that is one hard to beat stomper....

I know a few Bassman owners who, like me, share a passion for sniffing the back of the cabinet after its been working a while. You can spot us a mile away by the band-aid on the end of our nose. Just out of interest, I had a sniff of the Zendrive when I was fitting the battery and blow me (fuguratively) if it doesn't just smell of tone....I think this is a fundamental part of the 'tone' argument - how stuff smells. I think that next to the bias adjust on an amp, there should also be a 'nasal evaluation port' designed to prevent burns and electrical shocks to the area in question. Yeah, it's weird, but most of the techno stuff on the various forums sounds just as weird to me - that's part of the attraction!

Anyway, I have some pickup cavities to sniff to take my theory to its next lunatic level......

[Strongpersuader]

Thanks Millibobs and billt for your reviews and thoughts expressing your personal point of view on the Zendrive pedal!

billt, your opinion about the BB is exactly the same as mine. I am also a single coil guy and whenever I engage my BB, even with the gain on 12 or slightly above, I can hear those beautiful " nasaly, skanky, single coil sound " as you do.

I am just a little bit intrigued to know how exactly these two pedals, the BB and the Zendrive, compare. In which grounds each one of them has its strongs and weaks in the sonic realm? That is a question I will have to keep on chasing for the answer till I get that so expected mail from Mr. Hermida....

Anyway, any other take on this subject will be welcome.

Thanks.

[Millibobs]

Guys, please tell me more about this BB Drive gizzmo - maybe another weapon for my sonic armory..........

[PierreL]

The BB Preamp is great, but I think that the Zendrive has a quicker response time, the BB seems softer if you see what I mean. Also the Zendrive cuts through better.

[Millibobs]

Thanks Pierre - in that case, I'll stick to my OCD/Zendrive arrangement. Used them both again tonight and individually or together, they sound terrific.

[billt]

Millibobs,
check out www.prosoundcommunications.com and check out the videos of guys playing the AC, BB, and RC. These videos really are a good representation of what these pedals sound like.
Bill

[StratCat]

I have both a Zendrive and a BB and love them both!

PierreL is right - the BB is a little softer around the edges than the Zendrive, perhaps a little warmer sounding. More Marshallish then Fenderish perhaps?

I tend to set them both on a mild->mid overdrive setting and use whichever one I feel like at any given time, depending on how I feel the tone is going.

Together (both on) they sound great - similar result I suppose to what you're getting from the OCD+Zen. Nice, smooth, saturated... mmm...



Chris
_________________
because I rock, and that's important.

[Millibobs]

Cheers fellers, and I'll check out that link in a little while. Ah, the endless pursuit of life, love and tone.....there is no better way.......

[Aeolian]

Ah, there's nothing like the smell of melting transformer wax in the evening.
_________________
There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com

[JohnnyZ]

[DaveH]

[kurt1981]

Hey all, sorry to be absent from this discussion, I just came off a week of touring around. I used the zendriive and BB preamp both on this little jaunt, and here are my observations. The BB is a very transparent pedal, what your rig sounds like without it is what you'll get with it, just more gain and volume. There is potential too dial in much more bass, and trebble, but your rig is not changed a lot when you add the pedal in. It's a very marshally type sound, as others have said, but it really depends on what you're running it into. I think it works a bit better on an amp where the tubes are cookin' a bit, as opposed to a bone clean sound, like I prefer.
The zendrive is much more midrange driven, and suits me much better, II, unlike some, think it sounds fantastic on a clean amp, it just sounds like a cranked fender, but with that dumble honk to it. I was soundchecking the first night, and happened to turn both pedals on, the zen running into the
BB and holy crap!! I used that combo for most of the gain stuff I played all week, runninng the gain on the BB at around 7-30, just barely on, and the treb cut a touch, while the bass was boosted. It filled out the zendrive so well, it was almost frightening.
Hope that helps, I'm really loving this pedal, and I had folks come up to me all week, commenting on the smoothness of my overdrive, and these are not tone gooroos or anything like that.
God bless,
Kurt

[Strongpersuader]

Hi kurt1981.

Thanks for this nice review. Would mind telling us the adjustments you use in your Zendrive?

Thanks in advance!