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Post by pcns on Aug 23, 2015 5:48:44 GMT -7
My Z drive is going to church with me this morning. Details to follow
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Post by pcns on Aug 23, 2015 6:55:07 GMT -7
Just came back from Sound check. Pretty easy integration into my board.
It's nice because it's not coloring my tone. It gives me more gain and more tone control but it doesn't sound like I have a pedal on. Some pedals have a "sound" to them, for example, we can all spot a tube screamer a mile away. The Z Drive sounds like I cranked up my amp.
So far my favorite thing about this pedal is I can turn up the gain knob and NOT send the volume thru the roof. It does get louder but it's not crazy.
I need to spend some time dialing it in but I am going to use it during service today.
Thanks Doc for making these available yesterday at Mini Z fest. Made an already cool day that much cooler!
More to come!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2015 7:12:58 GMT -7
Looks awesome! Congrats Todd!
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Post by limenine on Aug 23, 2015 8:29:21 GMT -7
Jealous! For the pedal, and mini Z-fest!
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Post by Paul (TRANE) on Aug 23, 2015 8:55:10 GMT -7
Looks great Todd. Looking forward to hearing more.
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mmb
Junior Member
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Post by mmb on Aug 23, 2015 9:32:12 GMT -7
Just came back from Sound check. Pretty easy integration into my board. It's nice because it's not coloring my tone. It gives me more gain and more tone control but it doesn't sound like I have a pedal on. Some pedals have a "sound" to them, for example, we can all spot a tube screamer a mile away. The Z Drive sounds like I cranked up my amp. So far my favorite thing about this pedal is I can turn up the gain knob and NOT send the volume thru the roof. It does get louder but it's not crazy. I need to spend some time dialing it in but I am going to use it during service today. Thanks Doc for making these available yesterday at Mini Z fest. Made an already cool day that much cooler! More to come! Todd, That is music to my ears hearing you say that the Z-Drive is not coloring your tone of your amp but giving you more gain and tone control! Doesn't sound like a pedal is on is exactly what I was hoping for with this pedal running it through my "THERAPY"! Doc when are we going to be able to buy this pedal at the dealer's and who will get them first! Please let us know! :-) Mac Baker
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Post by mangoman on Aug 23, 2015 10:15:01 GMT -7
Where'd you buy it?
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Post by pcns on Aug 23, 2015 10:38:22 GMT -7
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2015 10:47:43 GMT -7
On the edge of my seat for an update on this one, Todd. Thanks.
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Post by jammergreg on Aug 23, 2015 13:36:13 GMT -7
Man!!!!
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Post by doctorice on Aug 23, 2015 13:59:58 GMT -7
Doc brought 20 or so to Z Fest. I think most of them were purchased. He mentioned that he got a large shipment of the pedals at the end of (last) week, so they likely will be getting in dealers' hands fairly soon.
Todd is spot on: The boost-oriented side ("germanium") can be set to be very clean and transparent. There was some great tone coming out of Dave's (premiumplus) Z-Lux that the Z Drive just lifted onto higher ground. The pedal even plays well with the amp's eq bypass.
Doc shared several tidbits about the pedal's development.
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Post by limenine on Aug 23, 2015 15:20:40 GMT -7
Doc shared several tidbits about the pedal's development. It might make sense for the mods to start a section for the Z Drive since I'm pretty sure you'll be interested. Heh- this is the Z-Drive section
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Post by doctorice on Aug 23, 2015 15:37:15 GMT -7
Doc shared several tidbits about the pedal's development. It might make sense for the mods to start a section for the Z Drive since I'm pretty sure you'll be interested. Heh- this is the Z-Drive section Yeah, Lefty told me too! That's what I get for just jumping to the Recent posts section and not bothering to look at the location of the posts.
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Post by BritInvasion on Aug 23, 2015 16:00:42 GMT -7
Really cool Todd , congrats and thanks for the review!
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Post by southmusic70 on Aug 23, 2015 16:20:29 GMT -7
So:
What is Miss Turpentine?
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Post by pcns on Aug 23, 2015 17:53:53 GMT -7
So: What is Miss Turpentine? It's an analog delay from Oldschoolfx
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Post by southmusic70 on Aug 23, 2015 17:58:58 GMT -7
I had to ask because my grandfather was in the naval stores business (pine tar, turpentine, rosin, etc.).
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Post by Darasick on Aug 23, 2015 20:16:49 GMT -7
Excellent! Thank you for the review!
So how much gain is on tap?
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mmb
Junior Member
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Post by mmb on Aug 23, 2015 22:10:24 GMT -7
I wonder what ever happened to the "DEMO" that gearmandude was suppose to be doing with the Z-Drive that Doc sent him 13 days ago! Mac+
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Post by DRZ on Aug 24, 2015 4:02:37 GMT -7
I wonder what ever happened to the "DEMO" that gearmandude was suppose to be doing with the Z-Drive that Doc sent him 13 days ago! Mac+ Yeah no ****. He's been real busy..... Hope to get to it Wednesday of this week.
Z
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Post by mangoman on Aug 24, 2015 4:27:45 GMT -7
Good morning Doc!
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Aug 24, 2015 5:57:07 GMT -7
Excellent! Thank you for the review! So how much gain is on tap? Way more gain than I need, for sure. The Mosfet side gets really huge when the gain is cranked up past about 2:30, and the active tone controls are very powerful. I found out fast that there is a lot of magic in the midrange control. You can really shape the overdrive character with the eq on this pedal. It's very effective and as expected, Doc did a great job designing this one. The bass control lets you get really thumpy without turning your tone to mush. It's very well behaved, and misbehaves beautifully if that makes any sense. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, they do play really well together when stacked. I bought two of them (I was going to give one to my son, but I might have to buy another one for him!). There is a lot of experimentation to do yet, but so far I am really loving this pedal. So far, I've only used it with my Z-Lux, set fairly clean (volume 10:00, master 12:00, half power). I'm getting such incredible tone that I haven't been able to unplug and try another amp yet. The active tone controls put a terrific amount of tone shaping power at your feet. Depending on the amount of drive you use, they really change the character of the distortion. Doc did a great job selecting the cutoff frequencies for the Treble, Mid, and Bass controls, and the place in the circuit that he chose to insert them into the circuit gives the player powerful options. You can get a sweet, mellow drive or you can go over the top if that's your thing. To use an over used term, they are transparent when you want them to be, and they are in your face if you want that. They respond to other pedals well, and I tried putting one at the beginning and one at the end of my pedal board. The thing that stands out is the range of control that the 3 band active eq gives me. It's really cool. The only thing I'd change if I could would be to change the order of the level/drive controls. As it is, they are from left to right Drive, Level, Level, Drive. I wish that they were Level, Drive, Level, Drive. More intuitive to me...but that's nit picking. It's a great overdrive/distortion pedal. Get one ASAP. EDIT: After a couple of weeks with the Z-Drive, I changed my mind about the volume/drive layout. It's intuitively better the way it is, like others have pointed out, it's easy to see the volume of either channel at a quick glance. Makes it simple!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2015 6:58:52 GMT -7
Thanks Dave.
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Post by 6strang (aka Paul) on Aug 24, 2015 8:58:50 GMT -7
I will not shout in all caps but YOU will NEED to own a Z-DRIVE PEDAL. I used mine all night at the Brayks Zfest jam and absolutely loved it.
I was a bit hesitant to purchase to be honest.. I needed another overdrive like a hole in the head. BUT, this pedal is incredibly versatile and really becomes an extension of the amp you are playing. It doesn't produce ANY artificial tones or unpleasing sounds. Low gain to gained out it's all in there. It stacks well with other pedals. What do you expect from the Doc? Excellent sound and build quality. This pedal is no exception in my opinion.
So happy that I made the purchase. You will be too.
Thanks Doc for the early release on my B-day!
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Post by pcns on Aug 24, 2015 9:36:09 GMT -7
I want to second Dave l's comment about the mid range knob.
Adam and I were playing the Z drive in Mike ' s basement thru a Z Lux and I just started turning knobs max to min to see what would happen while Adam played. When I grabbed the mid knob and opened it up all the way we both looked at each other and then up at Doc and all three of us just smiled because it sounded great wide open.
Sunday morning I did the same thing. I cranked the mid knob wide open and really liked what I heard and that was thru my Therapy. I backed the treble knob off below noon and then the bass at around 11 o'clock and played my set. Sounded good!
I mostly used the Germanium side for church with a nice crispy crunch boost.
Next Sunday we will be playing Reaching for You by Lincoln Brewster so I will get a great run with the mosfet side cranked up!
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Post by markT on Aug 24, 2015 9:42:40 GMT -7
Thanks Doc for making these available yesterday at Mini Z fest. Made an already cool day that much cooler! Cool deal. Sounds like a great device. I know you guys probably got a special pre-release price, but what's the going rate on these things??
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Post by purpletele on Aug 24, 2015 9:51:02 GMT -7
Is there anywhere for Harvey to insert a nice custom piece of Z wood on the new pedal?
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Post by doctorice on Aug 24, 2015 11:41:18 GMT -7
Thanks Doc for making these available yesterday at Mini Z fest. Made an already cool day that much cooler! Cool deal. Sounds like a great device. I know you guys probably got a special pre-release price, but what's the going rate on these things?? Whatever amount was in the pile of cash one of the guys threw down in front of Doc about five minutes into the demo
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Post by djcakadave on Aug 24, 2015 12:20:38 GMT -7
$275 I was quoted from Brent at Guitar Riot last friday.
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Post by DRZ on Aug 24, 2015 12:33:03 GMT -7
$275 I was quoted from Brent at Guitar Riot last friday. That is correct $275.00 each. And BTW that is what the attendees of Z fest paid .
Z
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