Interesting guitar, nice woods and neck joint execution. Here are my critiques:
Something about the body looks a bit bloated to me; the curves are kind of blunt. I might try to make it a bit curvier/more sculpted. For my personal style I would also move the knobs closer to the playing area...
Finally got my Deluxe Reverb back from the tech and gave the RF Zen a good spin today. So far, this is my "goldilocks" Zen. The Red Zen was the first to arrive; it's very fun to play but gainier and more compressed than what I was looking for. The Gold Zen II arrived shortly thereafter. It's...
I owned the DMB and 550TT at the same time. The DMB has darker repeats that degrade faster than those on the 550TT. It's not bad, just more lo-if. The other major difference is the 550TT knob setup gives you better control of the modulation; I didn't find the square wave on the DMB useful...
I started playing guitar as a kid, so through college, early years of work etc. was somewhat resource constrained and couldn't be playing the pedal flip game. I settled into a very stable core rig that is "my sound". Now with a bit more disposable income I'm trying out new things and flipping...
Exactly. The difference is actually bigger in real life than in my clip because I ran the gain a lot higher on the Gold Zen to make them sound somewhat comparable. My gut tells me the Gold would actually be the better pedal for live use. It's a bit short on sustain and note "burn" in my...
My Zendrive trifeta will be complete on Monday - but naturally I'm bringing my amp to my tech for some mods tomorrow and will be ampless through the first weekend of January :bonk
In the meantime, here are two quick ones comparing the Red Zendrive and the Gold Zendrive. The voice and tone...
Gold Zen II arrived today; had to work late tonight but had a few minutes to plug in and compare with the Red. TOTALLY different. In fact, the Red Zen sounds closer to my Barber Direct Drive than the Gold! Gold has much less gain and compression, more top end chime, and feels like a flatter...
If we're posting strats (or G&Ls) I'll play:
It's nice but my K-Line Tele is next level. I'm giving hard thought to flipping the G&L and using the proceeds to help fund an order for a K-Line Springfield.
Thank you! I think the Zen just has a different voice and feel than what I'm used to - I've been using a Barber Direct Drive/Gain Changer combo as the foundation for my sound for years, so anything new is a shock to the system versus my existing rig which is really dialed in and familiar. I'm...
Thanks! I definitely noticed that interplay between voice and tone. Dial up the voice and subtract the excess grit via the tone (or vice versa I suppose). Excited to dial it in over the weekend...makes me want to skip all these damn Christmas parties!!! :D
Thanks - 2 on the volume of the DRRI. Which is still kinda loud. I live in apartment in NYC, can't push much past that in the evening.
I plugged in again for another quick super low volume session before my neighbor-imposed 10PM cutoff. This thing is super chewy. It just begs you to bend...
Spend about an hour with the red Zen tonight. I think this is pedal that takes a bit of time to dial in due to the interaction between the gain, voice, and tone knobs. I'm definitely a Robben Ford fan, although I'm looking to do more than just slavishly re-create his sound. My favorite tones...
Red Zendrive arrived a day early! :banana
Will post some initial thoughts and perhaps even a terrible clip later tonight! The Gold Zen II didn't ship until yesterday, so a comparison may sadly need to wait until next week.
Just pulled the trigger on a red Zen - I've always wanted try the Zen, and while I think I'd prefer the original black one, I figured this would be a good gateway drug into Zen land!