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Post by doctorice on Jun 21, 2015 8:19:59 GMT -7
Setting: small bar that we play in regularly; room is pretty live and bright; set up near a wall, creating a lot of reflected sound. Music: mix of blues and rock. Band: Guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, vocals. Beer: 20+ craft brews on tap Crowd reaction: "You guys are awesome" (They had been drinking) Bandmates reaction: "You should turn up." Wait, that's all anyone on Z Talk has to read End of review.
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Post by simpleton on Jun 21, 2015 8:40:45 GMT -7
How can you pick a beer with that many options....did the ZLux help?
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Post by KeithA on Jun 21, 2015 8:44:47 GMT -7
How can you pick a beer with that many options....did the ZLux help? You try them all
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Post by doctorice on Jun 21, 2015 8:47:53 GMT -7
How can you pick a beer with that many options....did the ZLux help? You try them all I went with an IPA recommended by my beer aficionado son.
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Post by ME on Jun 21, 2015 9:09:23 GMT -7
You try them all I went with an IPA recommended by my beer aficionado son. Mmm... IPA a touch of hops... ME
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Post by doctorice on Jun 21, 2015 15:18:00 GMT -7
Serious thoughts, now.
The amp delivered in spades. My settings were: V at noon, T at 10:30, Mid at noon, B around 9 and Master a little shy of noon using the 20-watt power. (Master had started around 10 before I turned up.) I had the 'verb on, but in that room it was really hard to tell how much it was adding. In addition, I was, as usual, forced to stand within a a couple feet of the amp, which is never ideal. However, I know from home use that these settings are pretty loud overall. However, with V and Master as set there is not a lot of breakup, although there is some with LP knobs dimed and digging in on the attack. I did that on purpose since I wasn't bold enough to go sans pedals for the first gig. (I did hit the boost during set up, but with these amp settings the bypass was producing a pretty big jump, so I used my RYRA Klone for solo boost as needed. I could see having the bypass "always or mostly" on and relying on guitar volume knobs even more than I usually do.)
What's great is that the gamut of tones you can get without touching amp knobs is really wide. A lot of it comes from working guitar knobs, since having a pedal on or off is a binary thing. Interestingly, with our material last night I think I only used the neck pickup for one short solo. But the neck/bridge mix (middle switch position on the LP) got a workout with many blends from the volume and tone knobs.
No tremolo used with this material. I have a July gig that will tap it.
Even though Master is not a "true" master volume, like the ones in the Therapy and Remedy, tone at lower volume is still fine. I won't need a Brake Like to gig this amp. (Could change my mind on that if I use the eq bypass/boost.)
Finally, loading weight with the amp in a Studio Slips clamshell and including its footswitches was just shy of 45 lbs. My Ghia 10" combo (Red Fang) is about 37.5 lbs.
I believe this amp will cover pretty much all my gigs. The exception would be one needing low volume where something smaller and lighter would cut it, like a 5E3.
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Post by BritInvasion on Jun 21, 2015 18:16:56 GMT -7
Thanks for the review Mike! This amp is on my radar screen.
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Post by doctorice on Jun 21, 2015 19:11:01 GMT -7
Thanks for the review Mike! This amp is on my radar screen. You would really like it, Frank.
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Post by brayks on Jun 21, 2015 20:57:55 GMT -7
Glad to see "Beer" as one of the prioritized set-up criteria to the gig. Great info as always Mike, thanks. I keep thinking about this amp but I had just picked up a JAZ, which I was coming to terms with. Then Matt had to go an post his Grosh on the Buy Sell. You guys are KILLING me!
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Post by doctorice on Jun 22, 2015 4:55:05 GMT -7
Glad to see "Beer" as one of the prioritized set-up criteria to the gig. Great info as always Mike, thanks. I keep thinking about this amp but I had just picked up a JAZ, which I was coming to terms with. Then Matt had to go an post his Grosh on the Buy Sell. You guys are KILLING me! Steve, The JAZ is quite similar tonally when run through the same cab/speaker. Lacks the boost feature, of course. What sealed the deal for me was the synergistic combo package with the new cab and speaker -- and 20 lbs. lighter! Now that I've gigged the Z-Lux, I've started thinking about selling the JAZ but I'm not there yet.
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Post by Sean on Jun 23, 2015 16:05:00 GMT -7
Hoping to try one of these soon. Thanks for the info.
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Post by nicholas on Jun 23, 2015 17:37:36 GMT -7
Sounds like a cool show Mike and killer amp. I love my JAZ. Its a great amp. I'm sure the Zlux is at least as good. And that says a bunch. The boost function is intriguing.
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Post by doctorice on Jun 23, 2015 18:25:55 GMT -7
Sounds like a cool show Mike and killer amp. I love my JAZ. Its a great amp. I'm sure the Zlux is at least as good. And that says a bunch. The boost function is intriguing. I think if you added a boost/eq bypass to the JAZ you'd be mostly there as far as functionality and tone. Not exact, but really close.
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Post by Shannon on Jun 24, 2015 21:39:33 GMT -7
I did that on purpose since I wasn't bold enough to go sans pedals for the first gig. (I did hit the boost during set up, but with these amp settings the bypass was producing a pretty big jump, so I used my RYRA Klone for solo boost as needed. Did turning the eq up to compensate for the boost not work for you, Mike?
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Post by doctorice on Jun 25, 2015 7:36:55 GMT -7
I did that on purpose since I wasn't bold enough to go sans pedals for the first gig. (I did hit the boost during set up, but with these amp settings the bypass was producing a pretty big jump, so I used my RYRA Klone for solo boost as needed. Did turning the eq up to compensate for the boost not work for you, Mike? I didn't have time to dial that in pre-gig, Shannon. It's the obvious solution, one I've used in the past. I took a "conservative" approach to the first gig with the Z-Lux.
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Post by Shannon on Jun 25, 2015 10:52:33 GMT -7
Did turning the eq up to compensate for the boost not work for you, Mike? I didn't have time to dial that in pre-gig, Shannon. It's the obvious solution, one I've used in the past. I took a "conservative" approach to the first gig with the Z-Lux. Gotcha. I definitely think all avenues need to be explored in the name of science. Pedals, no pedals, etc. This is the first amp I've ever played that I didn't feel like I was sacrificing by not having pedals. It's quite liberating!
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Post by Faze on Jan 9, 2016 6:28:33 GMT -7
That's the beauty of a really good amp. You don't need pedals with it. Some of best gigs where I achieved the best tone was plugging straight in No pedals. Going Old School. Dialing in the amp and using my guitar volume and tone controls to go from clean to slightly crunchy to complete overdrive.
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