at long last, a Maz 38 (questionz)

[kingink]

Well, the magic elf all in brown in his brown van dropped off a Maz 38 Sr. with reverb this afternoon. This is one of the nicest pieces of gear I've ever owned, and it almost scares me. I'm almost afraid to take it to my crappy rehearsal space and to all the crappy dives I usually play.

In any case, the tone is phenomenal, as everyone on this board who's a Z fan has said. All that business about touch sensitivity and controlling grit/clean with the guitar volume is true. I especially like the full sound, fluid sustain, and bass that doesn't flub out. Also, the master volume is great, and the amp sounds great at any number of settings, even with an attenuator, which is a really pleasant surprise.

I have two questions that I hope someone can answer. First, what's up with the speaker outs? Can I run 4 ohm, 8 ohm, and 16 ohm cabs simultaneously? Can I run a 4 and a 16, or do I have to run a 4 and an 8 or an 8 and a 16? Or can I only run one cab at a time?

Secondly, the gain factor. Are there any tricks to add crunch to the circuit? Does that Fender reverb mod work, the one where you wire two RCA jacks to a 470K .5 watt resistor and plug them in in place of the reverb send/return cables?

Can the 12AT7 be replaced with a 12AX7 (I imagine not, but I thought I'd ask)?

The amp may have plenty of crunch, but right now I'm running it through my Z Best, and I've got two 50-watt, Hiwatt/Fane cast frame "high efficiency" speakers in there. With these speakers, the amp is pretty clean and a little "stiff" (which does allow me to dial in a pretty convincing BF clean).Tomorrow I'll head down to my practice space where the G12hs and V30 are, and see what kind of difference that makes.

I'd like to thank all the Z fans on this board, esp. Big Mike Blues, Bill Bolling, and Myles Rose. All the threads about Dr. Z amps helped me make an informed decision about pulling the trigger on this amp, while simultaneously making me want to own the entire Z line.

Thanks again,

David

 

[m1911]

Congrats on the MAZ Senior....Definately my favorite amp!

I can't answer any of your technical questions but, I used to wondered about the speaker outs also.
About the only thing I've tried is to use two 8 ohm cabs with a "Y" cable and plug into the 4 ohm hole for an exact 4 ohm load.
There will be guys here that will probably tell you Z's output transformers will handle a mis-match load in either direction....but I've always had the flexibilty to simply use the "Y" cable-parallel deal.

As far a Speakers go....I put two Tone Tubby Original H1's in a Z-Best a long time ago....and it's GREAT. You will be able to dial more Treble and Cut.

If you have the dough....buy a Z 4x10 Cabinet.
As much as I love a MAZ "JUNIOR" with a Z-Best....I probably like the MAZ "SENIOR" with a Z 4x10 a hair better.....BIG, tight low-end that handle Blues-Rock stuff with ease....but then, never tried it with anything else

Go see Buddy Whittington live sometime.....When he walks onstage and starts laying into it....I believe he epitomizes "Texas Tone".

I'll be interested to hear from others about your gain questions too.
Great Amp...good luck.
Mark

 

[Brion]

To answer your question about the speaker outs, You should only plug into 1 at a time. If your impedence is 8 Ohms plug into that one. It will probably handle a mis match, but I've never heard the sonic benifit of doing this. The reason there are several outputs is that the output transformer is wired to each jack using the respective taps for 4, 8 and 16 Ohms. Separate jacks are much more reliable than a single jack with a selector switch to select the various Ohm ratings. As far as your reverb mod question, I have no idea. The Sr is a pretty loud amp. I picked a Maz Jr because I can't think of a club I've ever played that I could get away with the volume while setting it for the tones I like. Sometimes the Jr is too much. Welcome to the Z club.

 

[tmac]

I just picked up MAZ Senior too. I had a MAZ Jr. for a short while & this Senior sounds totally different to me - bigger, rounder, and richer (I think that the Jr. I had may have had some issues, just never sounded right to me).
The iron in the 38 is massive. Defintely a lot of headroom and volume available.

I was thinking of getting some sort of booster to goose the front end a bit for singing lead work. Anybody using a booster pedal with their MAZ?

David, it certainly won't hurt anything to plug in a 12AX7 for the 12AT7 and try it. May cause some feedback though, don't know. I'll try it and see if any gain is achieved.

I've also heard that these amps will accomodate a Hot Plate or Weber Mass very nicely to allow you to run the master higher and knock off a few dbs.

 

[kingink]

Thanks for the advice everybody. Good to know about the speaker outs. Years ago, I was thinking about buying a Fargen (and still want to), and I know that some of Ben's amps have independent speaker taps (4 and 8 ohm, for example), and you can run two cabs (4 ohm and 8 ohm) simultaneously, hence my question in my original post about the Maz speaker taps.

tmac--Nice! And it's red, no less. Actually, I've got my Maz running through a Hot Plate even as we speak. It works really well with attenuation, maybe better than any other amp I own. I doubt the gain thing will be that much of an issue, and yeah, I can always take the Hot Plate with me to gigs, it's just that I prefer to haul fewer gadgets around (so much stuff can get misplaced in the hustle of breaking down after a set and making room for the next band).

David

 

[nateco]

The Maz an the Tim pedal are a perfect match for each other....I traded mine in a moment of poor judgement...got to order another.



Right now I'm using a TMB with my Maz Sr Nr...it likes the modern side a lot, but the treble boost is more at home with marshally amps.



I'm lucky I guess....I can run my Sr wide open, pre close to dimed, master at abou 7 or 8...great crunch tone.I'm running Mullards in the pre and I find they are on the cleaner side, but sound great and the boost just gets me into great lead tones.I set all the tone knobs at abou 11'oclock and adjust the cut to taste...seems to work best for me with my speakers and guitar...Weber 50 watt Blue and silver and a p90 loaded SG.


I remember when I got mine...me and my friends tried to get a bad sound out of it with just about every guitar we had at our practice space and we couldn't.


To me the Sr is the perfect club amp....no sound guy has ever told me to turn down...it's loud, but it's a good kinda loud...and the cut knob is perfect for dialing in to the rest of the group and the room.

 

[Bx3]

Nice David, enjoy!

 

[PerryR]

Hey Guys,

The original MAZ 38, with the smaller output tranny, was able to use all 3 speaker output jacks simultaneously. It was just the design of the tranny. Many MAZ 38's were built in 1-12 combo's, and one of Z's tricks was to load em with 16ohm v30's and then the user could set the combo atop a layed down 8-ohm ZBest plugged into the 8-ohm tap and essentially have a 3-12. And Z liked that sound!

The MAZ Sr uses a different output transformer, and is designed to use 1-speaker jack at a time. This is more "normal" as far as OT's are concerned, but the newer, larger OT is designed for increase bandwidth, power and headroom. For using multiple cabs you would need to do what Mark does and use a "y" cord to combine the cabs and the select the appropriate speaker jack.

Congrats on the Sr!

 

[kingink]

Thanks, Perry and Madison. I've been rockin' out all day on the amp, and in a couple of hours I'm going to take it down to rehearsal. I'll report back. I can't wait to hear it without the Hot Plate.

Here's a dumb question: will any old Y-cable work, or are there special Y-cables like there are special speaker cables?

 

[John Thigpen]

Thanks for the info, Perry. I have 1x12 Maz Studio Deluxe, with metal grill, which I think is identical to one you have. I didn't know that about using it with a Z Best. Of course, I don't have a Z Best...yet.

One other question...it has an effects loop with send and return level controls, and has six preamp tubes vs. the usual five. I assume the extra tube is for the loop. Do you know what tube is recommended there? For the other five preamp tubes, can I just use the recommendations for the Maz Sr?

Thanks.

John

 

[big mike]

Congrats bro!!! Maz is a great amp. Enjoy it in good health.

 

[m1911]

Originally posted by kingink
Here's a dumb question: will any old Y-cable work, or are there special Y-cables like there are special speaker cables?

It must be "Speaker" quality "Y" cable or adaptor....(not "Instrument" quality)

 

[PerryR]

Originally posted by John Thigpen
Thanks for the info, Perry. I have 1x12 Maz Studio Deluxe, with metal grill, which I think is identical to one you have. I didn't know that about using it with a Z Best. Of course, I don't have a Z Best...yet.

One other question...it has an effects loop with send and return level controls, and has six preamp tubes vs. the usual five. I assume the extra tube is for the loop. Do you know what tube is recommended there? For the other five preamp tubes, can I just use the recommendations for the Maz Sr?

Thanks.

John

Very Cool john, Vintage Z!

Yes, that is a tube drivin' effects loop, both send and return. Put a patch cable from send to return and you can dial in a giant boost! Or, you can plug into the return with your guitar and get a cool very pure tone as that would be after all the tone control circuitry. Just kinda cool stuff about that amp.

The tube effects loop uses a low gain 12au7. You can try other tubes, but its optimized around a low gain tube. As far as the other tubes, yes, tube it like a Sr with a possible exception of using a 12AX7 in the last spot next to the power tubes... the phase inverter. This could be either a 12AX7 or a 12AT7.. matter of taste, but I think many were shipped with 12AX7's.