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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Mar 23, 2019 15:25:35 GMT -7
So today I saw a sale on the Lovepedal site and jumped on a Zendrive II Gold for $99. All I knew was that they had a good reputation for a long time, and I thought "Wow, that's a great deal" and jumped on it.
Then I did my due diligence and it looks like there have been a bunch of iterations of Zendrives, plus a change of builder. Is this pedal any good, or did I just toss a hundred bucks out of my Z-Master savings account? I did listen to a couple of clips and it sounded great but I'm second guessing it now...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2019 15:46:28 GMT -7
According to the website, the current run of "gold" Zen Drives were built by Alf Hermida, so it should be pretty good. I looked at that, too, and almost pulled the trigger.
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Post by Faze on Mar 23, 2019 15:49:58 GMT -7
So today I saw a sale on the Lovepedal site and jumped on a Zendrive II Gold for $99. All I knew was that they had a good reputation for a long time, and I thought "Wow, that's a great deal" and jumped on it.
Then I did my due diligence and it looks like there have been a bunch of iterations of Zendrives, plus a change of builder. Is this pedal any good, or did I just toss a hundred bucks out of my Z-Master savings account? I did listen to a couple of clips and it sounded great but I'm second guessing it now...
I never tried his Zendrive but have had many of his other pedals. They do somewhat hold thier value so even if you don't like it you can resell it for what you paid for it or even more sometimes. Thats funny that you said what you said about the Z-Master. I sold almost all my pedals and an amp to fund mine and Im still working on paying it off! Its all good though Im chipping away at it. I got that add from Sean as well and Im like no not now! I was tempted to pull the trigger on a few of those deals as well. But the Z-Master is my priority right now.
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Post by freddieg on Mar 23, 2019 18:17:27 GMT -7
Its a great pedal.
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Post by j4gitr (John) on Mar 23, 2019 18:21:48 GMT -7
Went to the site; apparently I was too late.
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Post by runninwiththerevil (Matthew) on Mar 24, 2019 18:47:10 GMT -7
Stupid weekend deal sales on Lovepedal. I need to get off that email list. I order three on Friday, a couple over drives and a tremolo. I did the Zendrive on a sale a while back and it didn't work in my rig. It had unique thing going, but not for me. Reminded me of the Mesa's I had in that way. The nice thing about getting two, three, or four is that you can usually break even. You should be fine at $99 if you don't like it.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Mar 25, 2019 17:41:36 GMT -7
Stupid weekend deal sales on Lovepedal. I need to get off that email list. I order three on Friday, a couple over drives and a tremolo. I did the Zendrive on a sale a while back and it didn't work in my rig. It had unique thing going, but not for me. Reminded me of the Mesa's I had in that way. The nice thing about getting two, three, or four is that you can usually break even. You should be fine at $99 if you don't like it. It reminded you of Mesas? I didn't need to hear that...I had a DC3 back in the late 90's and I tried so hard to like that amp...I'll never have another one. PIA to try to get a great tone from. Come to think of it, they're exactly opposite of Doc's amps, which are a PIA to get a BAD tone out of!
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Post by freddieg on Mar 25, 2019 18:13:59 GMT -7
It doesn't sound anything like a DC3...
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Post by runninwiththerevil (Matthew) on Mar 25, 2019 20:19:22 GMT -7
It reminded you of Mesas? I didn't need to hear that...I had a DC3 back in the late 90's and I tried so hard to like that amp...I'll never have another one. PIA to try to get a great tone from. Come to think of it, they're exactly opposite of Doc's amps, which are a PIA to get a BAD tone out of!
I had a couple in the Mark V family, from all I saw DC3 had very mixed reviews. I don't mean that the Zen Drive has a Mesa tone, more that I can tell they want to sound good but that they probably weren't going to sound good with my style and what I wanted it to do. Come to think of it, I might have had the Mesa when I had that pedal (it would be a great explanation as to why I've tied them together). But I'm pretty sure I was playing through a Therapy at the time.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2019 11:55:50 GMT -7
I had a couple of original Zendrives and foolishly sold them off because they're kind of an amp-blanket and don't have much gain. I was big into very transparent pedals at the time, and maybe not smart enough to understand that an amp blanket can be a good thing as long as it sounds good. Maybe if Alf builds a few more of the Golds I'll try one out.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Apr 11, 2019 15:14:46 GMT -7
Almost three weeks since I ordered the Zendrive II Gold on the Flash Sale and I still don't have a tracking number. On the website I ordered from it said they were in stock, while other pedals on that page said 3 to 4 week build time. The website has been cut back to basically a front page now, all links are dead. I guess they got swamped with orders? I checked with Sean on the facebook page and he said that it could be a month before they ship it.
Ah well, I guess when the fruit is ripe it will drop...
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Post by "Z" Steve on Apr 11, 2019 16:02:46 GMT -7
When Alf was running the show by himself I waited almost 6 months for my Zendrive. He was very good about emailing updates whether it was an apology for him being swamped or waiting on a part. I also had a Zendrive II, but as with a lot of my "booteek' pedals I don't gig at a volume where these pedals will shine the most - so I sold them. I dealt with Sean a long time ago when I ordered a Woodrow pedal from him. He wasn't what I was used to re communication, but I did get the pedal. It didn't work out for me either. Best of luck to you Dave!
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Apr 11, 2019 16:48:26 GMT -7
When Alf was running the show by himself I waited almost 6 months for my Zendrive. He was very good about emailing updates whether it was an apology for him being swamped or waiting on a part. I also had a Zendrive II, but as with a lot of my "booteek' pedals I don't gig at a volume where these pedals will shine the most - so I sold them. I dealt with Sean a long time ago when I ordered a Woodrow pedal from him. He wasn't what I was used to re communication, but I did get the pedal. It didn't work out for me either. Best of luck to you Dave! Thanks, my only experience with Lovepedal has been store bought pedals (the JCM and the Jubilee). I guess it's time to pull out my spare portion of patience.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Apr 20, 2019 14:51:56 GMT -7
Well, the Zendrive Gold came in today. I opened it up and there's no signature from Alf, plus it's not hand wired at all. Every connection is via PCB. That said... It sounds really good. A nice overdrive, harmonically full sound and it cleans up well with GV. I put it on the front end of my drives, and it does a great job goosing other drives or just by itself. I'll gig it at church tomorrow morning and let you know how it goes, but I'm generally pretty pleased with it. I need to find out what the 'Voice' and 'Tone' controls do at gig volume, and how they interact. Any suggestions or hints from ya'all would be appreciated.
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