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Post by asattwanger on Feb 29, 2008 19:28:36 GMT -7
I'm having trouble gettig my hands on one of these. Maybe 2 weeks and a 6 hour drive to test a combo. But what I want to know is.
Would you consider the Z-28 to have a classic tone fender tone or a more hifi tone but with Fender qualities?
I have heard many great things about the tone, but I want to know. How well does this amp cut the mix? How well does it hang with a drummer? Are all these different tones minus the clean clean workable at higher volumes?
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Post by paddywhacker on Mar 1, 2008 7:41:44 GMT -7
...you kinda have to compare it to a Deluxe if your talking Fender ...i have a Z-28 and a an original 65 Deluxe reverb....it can be as clean as the Deluxe at the similar volume...in fact a bit more headroom.....the big diff is in the low end where the the Z-28 stays tight when the Deluxe starts mushing out.....when the Z-28 starts cooking its got more useable overdriven tone than the Deluxe....the tone can be shaped through the whole range of a Z-28's volume but you just kinda get what you get with the Deluxe when you crank it......the forte of the Deluxe is lower to moderate volume where its sweetness comes through...not that the Z-28 doesn't cop some of that too...the reverb and trem are also huge features on a Deluxe Reverb that some players could not live without....the Z-28 will easily hang with a pretty heavy handed drummer and it can be dialed to cut in a mix very well....better than the Deluxe i think in that regard....now if you compare it to a Super or a Twin...no the Z-28 doesn't have that level of clean headroom but that a plus for me....
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Post by (8^D) on Mar 1, 2008 8:58:30 GMT -7
For cleans, old Fender Brown Deluxe Reverb
For dirt, it gets right into old-skool Marshall. Nice warm OD with enough gain for a good rhythm crunch. Would still need a boost or drive of some sort to push it into lead tone.
For 3 knobs, it's extremely versitile. Only issue is 22 watts - what makes it a great club/studio head can also limit its use in bigger/louder situations. It gets gritty around 12:00/1:00 depending on tubes. I used mine for country, then for rock, and with a Crunch Box it copped a very believable 'HairMetal' guitar tone. Great tone bed.
Plug it into a Celestion Greenback/Weber 1225 Pre-Rola for that killer rock tone. Plug it into some American voiced variety speaker (Weber 1250/California, Eminence variety, etc) for some killer country and pop tones.
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Post by taswegian on Mar 1, 2008 9:10:13 GMT -7
For cleans, old Fender Brown Deluxe Reverb For dirt, it gets right into old-skool Marshall. Nice warm OD with enough gain for a good rhythm crunch. . It sure does! It's kinda weird but I hear alot of Led Zep tones in the Z28 which you wouldn't suspect. It's a great club amp. It might be just me and don't hold me to this but in some ways, it sounds more JTM-45 than the Route 66 does. Great sparkley clean and a nice aggressive crunch. Maybe leaning slightly to the fender side but definitely it's own thing too. It sounds like a Dr Z.
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Post by Curt on Mar 1, 2008 9:51:07 GMT -7
For cleans, old Fender Brown Deluxe Reverb For dirt, it gets right into old-skool Marshall. Nice warm OD with enough gain for a good rhythm crunch. . It sure does! It's kinda weird but I hear alot of Led Zep tones in the Z28 which you wouldn't suspect. It's a great club amp. It might be just me and don't hold me to this but in some ways, it sounds more JTM-45 than the Route 66 does. Great sparkley clean and a nice aggressive crunch. Maybe leaning slightly to the fender side but definitely it's own thing too. It sounds like a Dr Z. Amen ! Set all dials to 3:00 > a greenie and it's the best, most useable old skool Marshall tone around for club gigs. Somewhere in the sounds section is a video of mine cranked with a Hot Rails loaded Tele, straight in > a greenie, harmonics??? Uhm yep
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Post by oldwoodak on Mar 1, 2008 11:26:05 GMT -7
Hey Just got a Z-28 head a couple of weeks ago; playing it through a Weber silver bell 30-watt in an open back cabinet. I switched the stock preamp tubes with Dario EF-86 and Philips PI (KCA NOS Tubes) right away (will try the stock some day and post comparison). Played a gig the first weekend after about a five minute test drive (ordered amp unheard no dealers within 1,500 miles). I was totally impressed by the ability to cut through the mix of a six piece band with a loud drummer and sax. My other guitar player said it sounded thick. I got great chime and drive with very little knob turning. It loved my buddah wah, chorus, ts-9, blues driver, Line 6 delay and fuzzulator. We played covers, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Motown, junk, Garcia, Wolf, Allman's, etc. It handled them all. Played the Godin and 335. I finally had a chance to get out into the garage and put it up against my SF deluxe and Soldano Astroverb ( I got the Z-28 because the astroverb or deluxe wasn't clean enough for loud gigs). Using a Godin LG (P-90 LP jr clone) the Z-28 had much more head room than either of these amps. At 3 to 4 on the deluxe there was a similar vibe with the Z at 9 oclock setting. Once the deluxe got up to 5 it lost all single string definition (OK for Neil Young) where the z still had some excellent thump and clarity on the high strings. The options for settings on the z seemed unending I tried tone cranked, low volume setting, guitar wide open; excellent fuzzy edge. I tried cranked volume with low tone knobs and got better fuzzy than the previous setting ? This was a big pleasant surprize. Turning the guitar down did clean things up in all settings. I like wide open guitar volume so I know where I'm at. Obviously the z is cleaner than the astroverb; The astro has killer drive for the Warren Hayes type stuff. The Z-28 may be more comparable to a Super??? I don't have one. My neighber does so we'll compare soon. Soon to come a review of Z-28 when played with a strat; which according to many is THE guitar for this amp (can it get better?)
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