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Post by Pete aka shouldb on Nov 11, 2018 12:25:23 GMT -7
Hi everyone, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been active up here..........trying to restrict / control my social media “addiction” without much success Anyhoo.............I’m seriously thinking about a trading up to a Z Plus Studio but am concerned about how bright they are? Every video I’ve seen sounds pretty “present” at the very top end...........lots of high sibilants, if you will? Now I know highs are great in a band situation, but can they be tamed for more intimate settings? I’ve loving the idea of this amp, and will head over to John’s place one of these days and have a play, but it’s now a 3 hour drive, so not easy, hence my question.......... Cheers me dears! I still love you all, dahlings! 😜
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Post by shiner51 on Nov 11, 2018 16:14:49 GMT -7
A lot depends on what guitars you use and the type of music you play. I have a Maz18NR and a Z-lux and I find the ZPlus to be in between the two. The Maz is very Bright. I play Teles and usually run my treble right below noon and run the cut at 10;00 which tames the bright tone. The Z plus is great for intimate settings! Sometimes I play a 3 piece restaurant gig where we have to keep the volume down and the 7 watt setting sounds nice and full. It also breaks up nicely at less than ear splitting levels when you crank the volume and master. Right now the Z-plus is my #1, I haven't found a venue yet that it wouldn't work in for classic country and classic rock. It probably won't keep up with a loud drummer but usually if you're going to be that loud you are going to mic the amp anyway.
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Post by doctorice on Nov 11, 2018 17:49:56 GMT -7
Pete, first off, good to see you posting here. Welcome home!
The amp can be a little bright, but that largely disappears in a band mix as you posit.
I find it pretty easy to manage the high frequencies by messing with treble and cut and the guitar's tone knob(s). I've gigged the Plus with a Tele, an LP and a humbucker-fitted Tele. All worked very well, albeit with different (tweaked) amp settings. The amp is great with pedals.
The tone is very sweet and strikes me as unique in Z's lineup, even though the front end is very MAZzy.
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Post by mudman on Nov 11, 2018 20:15:28 GMT -7
Don’t forget the difference a speaker makes too. You can always go for a hempcone or other darker speaker to knock down the highs. I did that in my drri.
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Post by Pete aka shouldb on Nov 12, 2018 12:23:04 GMT -7
Pete, first off, good to see you posting here. Welcome home! The amp can be a little bright, but that largely disappears in a band mix as you posit. I find it pretty easy to manage the high frequencies by messing with treble and cut and the guitar's tone knob(s). I've gigged the Plus with a Tele, an LP and a humbucker-fitted Tele. All worked very well, albeit with different (tweaked) amp settings. The amp is great with pedals. The tone is very sweet and strikes me as unique in Z's lineup, even though the front end is very MAZzy. Thanks Mike........really must try one of these out! The Studio Combo ticks just about every box I have for combos so here’s hoping I feel the vibe!
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Nov 13, 2018 8:05:01 GMT -7
Pete, first off, good to see you posting here. Welcome home! The amp can be a little bright, but that largely disappears in a band mix as you posit. I find it pretty easy to manage the high frequencies by messing with treble and cut and the guitar's tone knob(s). I've gigged the Plus with a Tele, an LP and a humbucker-fitted Tele. All worked very well, albeit with different (tweaked) amp settings. The amp is great with pedals. The tone is very sweet and strikes me as unique in Z's lineup, even though the front end is very MAZzy. Thanks Mike........really must try one of these out! The Studio Combo ticks just about every box I have for combos so here’s hoping I feel the vibe! Hi Pete, great to hear from you again.
I agree with Mike, it's capable of being quite a bright amp but it is very controllable. I'd call it shimmery. The tone is sweet with the even order harmonics that you can only get from a true single ended class A amp...and it's got plenty of power. I've been gigging mine at various venues and I can quickly get the tone I need. It's got a good range of clean to mean; it's a great amp. I bet if you try, you buy!
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Post by vanceen on Nov 16, 2018 14:50:09 GMT -7
I'm glad to see this thread.
I've found the Z Plus to be quite bright as well (I've got the Z speaker). And I've been having to work a lot with the voicing to get some guitars to sound like they should with it.
It loves my Tele and my Les Pauls (a 68 Custom reissue and a 1973 version of a 54 LP with P90s). I can't find a bad setting with those. Which is interesting, because the LP's don't get along with all my amps. The Custom in particular has usually got a narrow zone between muddy and trebly-snarly that takes a lot of tweaking, but it works great with the Z Plus from clean to way overdriven.
Oddly, I haven't been able to get my I-35 (Collings version of ES-335) or my Campellone archtop to sound as good as they should with the Z Plus (yet). This surprises me, because the Campellone sounds fantastic in the single-ended mode of my Lone Star Special, and I thought the additional headroom of two 6V6's would be even better than the single EL84.
Well, much to learn still.
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Post by nicholas on Nov 16, 2018 19:53:50 GMT -7
I don't know. IMO I didn't find it overly bright at all. I just turned down the cut if it did. Between 9-10:00 worked for me with it gained up. Noon-1:00 when cleaner.
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Post by Pete aka shouldb on Nov 26, 2018 5:52:04 GMT -7
So how does it compare with say a Vox AC15?
I’m guessing by all the shimmery bright, harmonically rich comments, it must sit in that spectrum?
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Post by nicholas on Nov 30, 2018 18:21:56 GMT -7
So how does it compare with say a Vox AC15? I’m guessing by all the shimmery bright, harmonically rich comments, it must sit in that spectrum? I didn't really hear any AC15 in mine. It sounded more sparkly like a Fender than chimey like a VOX. The videos on Z's site are a fair representation of it imo. It's a really nice amp.
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Post by chesterbrown on May 19, 2019 10:38:12 GMT -7
Hello all, new Z owner and forum user. IIMO the zplus is bright but I agree that it sounds great in the mix with a band. When I gig out I run the Z plus with a Bad Cat 20 R (a 5e3 sircuit basically a Fender Deluxe Clone). I set the Z on top and the combination is really killer. I get alot of low mid growl from the BC and the Z rounds everything out perfectly. I currently use a PRS custom 22 and a 1960 RI Les Paul w/lollar el Rayo pups.
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jmg
Junior Member
Posts: 53
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Post by jmg on May 19, 2019 18:04:28 GMT -7
I installed a Scumback Scumnico in mine and that gave the amp lots more bottom. (I have the LT version, which also is a bit bigger sounding than the studio, IMHO.) When I had the stock Z speaker in, I didn't find the amp too bright. It has top end, for sure, but is easily controlled via treb and cut controls, not to mention bass and mids. I'd say it's no brighter than my Princeton Reverb. Just more versatile.
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