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Post by benttop (Steve) on Sept 11, 2015 19:17:36 GMT -7
The Z-Lux is the first Z amp I've owned with a TSL (Tone Stack Lift). Holy smokes - this is two entirely different amps!
I had taken apart my setup to get some pictures of the preamp tubes, and when I put it all back together, I guess I must have stepped on that pedal. On powering up, I decided to set the preamp at 2 o'clock, because that seems a great starting point on all of my amps. No attenuator, set to 20 watts, and it was sounding gnarly. Hair straight up on my neck gnarly. I played with some Z-Drive ideas, and finally decided to step on that pedal and THAT is when I realized I had been playing with the TSL engaged. WOW - what a great sound i was getting with the preamp at 2 o'clock.
Dang... what a great amp!
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Post by purpletele on Sept 11, 2015 20:13:03 GMT -7
The Z-Lux is the first Z amp I've owned with a TSL (Tone Stack Lift). Holy smokes - this is two entirely different amps! I had taken apart my setup to get some pictures of the preamp tubes, and when I put it all back together, I guess I must have stepped on that pedal. On powering up, I decided to set the preamp at 2 o'clock, because that seems a great starting point on all of my amps. No attenuator, set to 20 watts, and it was sounding gnarly. Hair straight up on my neck gnarly. I played with some Z-Drive ideas, and finally decided to step on that pedal and THAT is when I realized I had been playing with the TSL engaged. WOW - what a great sound i was getting with the preamp at 2 o'clock. Dang... what a great amp! Does the TSL bypass the Treble Middle Bass? Sonds like you have a beast. How fun.
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Post by simpleton on Sept 11, 2015 21:23:15 GMT -7
One cool thing about getting older is we have more hair on our necks to stand up. So we really appreciate those moments....Z Lux - A hair raising experience
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Post by greenblues58 on Sept 12, 2015 1:39:15 GMT -7
^^^^^^^^ Certainly true but unfortunately it disappears from your head to compensate!
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Post by simpleton on Sept 12, 2015 1:48:24 GMT -7
^^^^^^^^ Certainly true but unfortunately it disappears from your head to compensate! For more aerodynamic head banging....it's ergonomics I think....
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Post by doctorice on Sept 12, 2015 4:11:32 GMT -7
EQ bypass/TSL is my default currently for the Z-Lux. I was playing a 335-style guitar yesterday. Lovely, rounded jazz tones available by dialing in the guitar, with V and Master both around 10 o'clock. Now, if I could actually play jazz...but I kept myself entertained.
As Steve found, crank that volume and there's plenty of rock and blues gain there.
When I talked with Doc at Z Fest, he mentioned he's thinking of trying the "pot on the pedal" modification so that the user can control the amount of bypass. (In the Z-Lux, unlike other Zs equipped with this feature, the tone stack is not completely bypassed.)
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Post by Dan F"i"fe on Sept 12, 2015 7:00:09 GMT -7
When I talked with Doc at Z Fest, he mentioned he's thinking of trying the "pot on the pedal" modification so that the user can control the amount of bypass. (In the Z-Lux, unlike other Zs equipped with this feature, the tone stack is not completely bypassed.) Interesting, I did not no this. That would be a sweet mod.
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Post by doctorice on Sept 12, 2015 8:01:42 GMT -7
When I talked with Doc at Z Fest, he mentioned he's thinking of trying the "pot on the pedal" modification so that the user can control the amount of bypass. (In the Z-Lux, unlike other Zs equipped with this feature, the tone stack is not completely bypassed.) Interesting, I did not no this. That would be a sweet mod. It appears to be quite simple to do. My biggest concern would be drilling the hole in the pedal case. Bet my buddy who owns a machine shop could take care of that.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Sept 12, 2015 8:10:46 GMT -7
Quite a few years back I had a Princeton Reverb that had a boost feature that was whack. It only appeared for one year because it sounded awful. But that meant it already had a footswitch jack on the chassis and a pull switch on the volume pot. So I re-purposed those for a tone stack lift, and I have to tell you, it changed that Princeton from a clean polite bedroom amp to a freaking monster. But it was so over the top it wasn't really something you could engage in the middle of a tune. The way the Z-Lux is done is brilliant as a step-on boost. But I think I like Dr. Ice's method too - just leave it on there all the time.
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Post by doctorice on Sept 12, 2015 8:16:11 GMT -7
^^^
I didn't use the boost/bypass/lift when I did a "rock 'n' roll" party concert back in July. That gig was heavily tilted toward 50s and early to mid 60s music. (Mostly clean) Z-Lux with Tele was perfect. Stomped on a pedal when I needed more grit.
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Post by Dan F"i"fe on Sept 12, 2015 9:45:13 GMT -7
Interesting, I did not no this. That would be a sweet mod. It appears to be quite simple to do. My biggest concern would be drilling the hole in the pedal case. Bet my buddy who owns a machine shop could take care of that. Ok now I remember... I believe it was Dave(premiumplus) that modded his.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2015 15:44:54 GMT -7
Mike, when i added a pot to my EQ bypass pedal for my Maz 18, i just used double stick tape to secure it inside the case at a set value. I didn't want to hurt the resale value of the Maz and wasn't sure if it would be a desirable mod for anyone else. I don't have the ability to change the amount of bypass without opening up the pedal, but it's set just where i like it. Love the EQ bypass and use it all the time now. I should probably just drill a hole in the case and mount the pot so it's adjustable, it's a lot of fun to play with the range
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Post by doctorice on Sept 12, 2015 19:48:52 GMT -7
^^^
Certainly an alternative approach that can be completely reversed.
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Post by zpilot on Sept 12, 2015 22:26:00 GMT -7
A couple of years ago I posted that I was experimenting with using my Ernie Ball volume pedal to control a variable amount of tone stack bypass on my MAZ Jr. I don't remember where I posted but I didn't get any replies. I think this is similar to the "pot on the pedal" mod and what has been changed on the Z-Lux bypass. It was interesting but I didn't pursue it much farther than to just see if it would work. Anyone remember me mentioning this? Seems like I'm always tinkering with something on my gear.
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Post by doctorice on Sept 13, 2015 5:04:12 GMT -7
A couple of years ago I posted that I was experimenting with using my Ernie Ball volume pedal to control a variable amount of tone stack bypass on my MAZ Jr. I don't remember where I posted but I didn't get any replies. I think this is similar to the "pot on the pedal" mod and what has been changed on the Z-Lux bypass. It was interesting but I didn't pursue it much farther than to just see if it would work. Anyone remember me mentioning this? Seems like I'm always tinkering with something on my gear. I don't remember that, but it's a neat idea.
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Post by Easyrom on Sept 13, 2015 5:19:41 GMT -7
The basic footswitch is easy to find and quite cheap to buy. I did drill mine a few years ago (Maz 8) and used a 250k pot I had, but I plan to change it to 500k or even 1M. It's, to me, a great and very easy mod to do.
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Post by zpilot on Sept 13, 2015 20:13:43 GMT -7
A couple of years ago I posted that I was experimenting with using my Ernie Ball volume pedal to control a variable amount of tone stack bypass on my MAZ Jr. I don't remember where I posted but I didn't get any replies. I think this is similar to the "pot on the pedal" mod and what has been changed on the Z-Lux bypass. It was interesting but I didn't pursue it much farther than to just see if it would work. Anyone remember me mentioning this? Seems like I'm always tinkering with something on my gear. I don't remember that, but it's a neat idea. And by the way, it DID work. I basically just had to wire up a cable that placed the 250K pot in series.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Sept 14, 2015 5:18:04 GMT -7
When I modified my boost pedal, I tried a lot of different pots to find the most effective sweep of the knob. From my experiments it turns out that the 250K audio taper pot works the best. A larger pot narrows the effective range of control; in other words, the pot makes no audible change when you add resistance to the circuit above ~ 250K. A 500K pot will influence the bypass up to around 12:00, then as you turn it up further it does very, very little. It effectively becomes an open circuit around that point, which is what you've got with the bypass switch engaged. I used an audio taper pot because this makes the changes linear throughout the sweep of the control. I was going just mount the pot with foam tape inside to avoid drilling a hole in my pedal but it's too handy to be able to adjust the amount of Tone Stack Lift that is engaged. Plus, I've got two boost pedals so I just modded the one that came with my Maz 8. Hope this helps...
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Post by Easyrom on Sept 14, 2015 7:04:50 GMT -7
When I modified my boost pedal, I tried a lot of different pots to find the most effective sweep of the knob. From my experiments it turns out that the 250K audio taper pot works the best. A larger pot narrows the effective range of control; in other words, the pot makes no audible change when you add resistance to the circuit above ~ 250K. A 500K pot will influence the bypass up to around 12:00, then as you turn it up further it does very, very little. It effectively becomes an open circuit around that point, which is what you've got with the bypass switch engaged. I used an audio taper pot because this makes the changes linear throughout the sweep of the control. I was going just mount the pot with foam tape inside to avoid drilling a hole in my pedal but it's too handy to be able to adjust the amount of Tone Stack Lift that is engaged. Plus, I've got two boost pedals so I just modded the one that came with my Maz 8. Hope this helps... Thank you Dave for the feedback. I may not try the 500K pot I have then, and stay with the 250K I have in there!
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