Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 1:40 am Post subject: Daved, please tell us about the Zendrive.
Hi Daved,
I have been keeping an eye on reviews of this pedal, and even posted a couple of times on this board about it. Our great captain (Kirk95) has rekindled my interest in it with a recent post.
Please can you tell me what you know about this pedal, and how Robben uses it sonically and within his rig?
As explained on previous posts, this may be the only affordable way I can find to get close to that Robben/Dumble tone, so all all comments from you will be greatly appreciated.
All the best,
DD _________________ Music is the universal language; speak it with emotion, listen with a passion.
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:44 pm Post subject:
Alfonso called me a couple days ago "just to check in", but I haven't yet returned his call because I am in Toronto, Canada, and internationally long distance charges can be mind bogglingly (new word, Liz??? ) steep. But I'm sure I'll be talking with him again soon.
Guitar, into Zen, into Ernie Ball volume ped, into amp (or, if I am there with Robben, into a stereo delay pedal so I can split the signal into 2 Twin Reverbs).
Robben keeps his original Zen with him for when he travels on his own. I keep his 'original Zen - model 2' with me for when we travel without the Dumble. Alfonso should explain the differences between the two (extra knob, for one thing, I believe).
Robben also has a new 'Zen - model 3' (with preamp tube) at his house, that Alfonso gave us to try out, but we just haven't had the opportunity to test it yet. _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:29 pm Post subject:
I got my "Zendrive is in the mail!" email from Alf today can't wait!
Alf is great to deal with, thou emailing replies to me at 1:30am his time is NOT healthy. Alf, please get more sleep mate
I'm gonna try borrow a mic from my guitar teacher and record some samples for ya's once I've played around with it. _________________ Lawson “Sure you can play a lot of notes, and the audience will probably enjoy the performance, then they’ll go home and forget about you; or you can play fewer notes, with feeling, and you’ll touch their souls forever” ~ Dave Moon
Alf, you have to chime in here. I have the Zendrive and have heard about the Zendrive2 (tube) but a Zendrive3 You have to update that site of your ASAP
I love the Zendrive. It's kind of mid-heavy but run into a BF Fender it's an amazing match. Very musical and sweet sounding still with some bite to it. Low-gain. I use mine with a BFDR and BFSR and it's probably my favorite OD at the moment with my Fender Teles.
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:39 pm Post subject:
Daved wrote:
Guitar, into Zen, into Ernie Ball volume ped, into amp (or, if I am there with Robben, into a stereo delay pedal so I can split the signal into 2 Twin Reverbs).
That's an interesting set up. The volume pedal won't change the gain as it does in front of the amp. Since Robben generally leaves his guitars wide open (you can see him twisting knobs on the Tele in the Paris show but that might have been in reaction to the small room, he usually doesn't do that in the larger rooms I've seen him), there would be one level of overdrive. Although Robben has more dynamics in his hands than any other player I've ever seen.
This is even more interesting as I need a distortion sound I can turn down with a volume pedal for a cover gig I'm doing. I've tried the Banzai but it doesn't sound so good into a turned down clean front end. John Wedemeyer was up last Saturday for a casual and he's started using his Klon as a crunch pedal on his Vegas gig. Never thought I'd see him with a pedal board. Sounded good but the amp was pretty cranked. I remember trying mine though a MiniBrute and not liking it. Better suited to kicking a BF Fender in the ass. Maybe the Zendrive is what I need. Get a sound similar to the OD channel on my Fuchs, but at a level I can do the "Smooth" noodling under the singer without getting dirty looks. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 14 Location: Pembroke Pines, Florida
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:02 pm Post subject:
I'm here. This is the 2nd time I'm typing this since the forum went dead when I was typing it the 1st time and lost all the text. Here are some details about the various pedals that Robben has:
1) Mosferatu (3 knobs)
2) Zendrive (3 knobs)
3) Zendrive (4 knobs, call it the “Gene” version)
4) Zendrive (4 knobs, “standard” version)
5) Zendrive 2 (4 knobs, uses a regular 9 pin preamp tube)
6) Nu-Valve (4 knobs, uses 2 Nuvistor tubes) – This one hasn’t been sent to Robben yet.
Notes:
a. The Mosferatu was the 1st of my pedals that Robben used. From what I recall it has too much gain and it’s a little bit dark for his taste. The current version that I build is slightly different, more controllable gain, an additional Voice knob and inside the small box (like the Zendrive). Maybe I should get him a new one to try out.
b. Item #2 was the 1st Zendrive prototype. I only had 3 knobs because I wanted to get it in Robben’s hands before he left for Japan. I was working on the Voice knob but ran out of time.
c. Item #3 is a 4 knob Zendrive, and its different from the “standard” version in that its focused on being more dynamic/touch sensitive. Not sure if all the effort I put into it really makes it lot of difference from the “standard” version.
d. Item #4 is the “standard” version. Commercially available.
e. The Zendrive 2 is a hybrid version that uses solid state and a tube. You can install any preamp tube: 12A?7, 5751, 7025 etc. It runs at 9V from a DC adapter.
f. Nu-Valve is another hybrid pedal but it has 2 Nuvistor tubes. These are very small tubes .8” tall by .4” in diameter. The sound is somewhat “British”. It also runs on 9V from a DC adapter. Nuvistors are sometimes difficult to get so I’ve been buying a few of these for a rainy day and for repairs. The Nu-Valve will be released in limited quantities. . I sent this one to Mitch Wyman (The Gainster from the various guitar forums) and he plans to do some clips. Here are 2 pics of the proto:
Since I'm going to order a Zen Drive this week and we are all friends, I hope you all won't mind my sharing my pedal experience with you. ( I look forward to the Zen Drive, btw!) My personal experience follows:
I have not tried anywhere near the majority of boutique pedals out there, but I have tried nearly everything Fulltone makes - FD2 (too buzzy), OCD - (not a bad pedal, just not great) Distortion Pro ( too buzzy and shrill for me - pedals for those of us with hi freq hearing loss, perhaps?); the Banzai II (interesting, very flexible, but not as warm as I would like, plus very unuseable volume disparity between off and on - you either won't be heard on rhythm parts/clean playing or you will kill people as soon as you kick it in - I like something just a bit beyond unity, myself, more useful); Barber Burn Unit (again, too raspy - couldn't dial in a warm tone); Analogman TS9, silver mod ( I still have that one - great for strats, but too middy for humbuckers, for me) and numerous off the shelf Boss and Zoom pedals (clearly not boutique, but why not try?) oh, yeah and the V-stack - not very flexible, missing a bit of low end - not eq'd to my taste, but very nice people. (Plus, mine didn't have an LED - why would you build something and not allow people to know if it's on or not? Now it's an option, I guess.)
So far, my favorite pedal of all time is my 18 year old Marshall Shredmaster! With the gain settings in the medium range and the contour controls at around 3 oclock, this pedal gets the best overdrive sound at low volumes through a clean amp of anything I've ever used in 30+ years of playing and gigging part-time, hands down.
These are getting up there now, going for $175 to $250 and beyond on eBay, but I can't live without it - as always, taste is very individual, but if you are into more pedal adventures, try one and let me know. I can give you my control settings to try out, if you would like, but it's hard to get a bad tone out of it... closest thing to a plexi in a box I've come across. The name is misleading, it really is not suitable for metal or over the top gain applications, but it is great for Robben style tones, as well as sounding great with single coils.
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) steep. But I'm sure I'll be talking with him again soon.
can't wait!
