Below is a great video of the new Dr. Z Zmaster (Joe Walsh Signature) amp by Lance Keltner. It's Doc and Joe Walsh's take on his Bandmaster. The video does a good job of what the amp can do and then demos the amp in a band setting.
I love the sound of my strats through this amp. The tone is rich and dynamic. It really is beautiful sounding amp.
Is there an amp that doesn't sound great when Lance plays through it? I swear, i digested a ton of his videos and kept putting those gear items at the tops of my various lists until i realized it wasn't the gear. He's just got the best taste in tones, knows how to get them, and his style makes it all sound so fat and delicious. I'm gonna start playing more with my fingers instead of a pick—see if that gets me a part of the way there..... But, oh, yeah—this amp sounded sweet, too....
I'm sorry... I'm a huge Dr. Z fan. For clean to gritty - I believe they make the best amps available. This isn't my style of amp, but man... its super cool. Sounds great for this style of music too.
The amp sounds ok. I've heard Peavys that sounded ok. If you need a pedal to make an amp sound better, then there's something inherently wrong with the amp, or it's not the amp for you. Most amps have a shortcoming of some kind.
I love Lance's demos and love Dr Z as a brand even more. This Z Master does nothing for me here. I was expecting some magic, got a whole lot of ehhh...sounds kinda cool. Don't mean to beat up on Z as a brand, but running the Zverb isn't helping this demo. Those things are little tone suckers IME. Had to return mine pretty much immediately.
Like I said, its not my style of amp - but I can tell its sounds pretty darn good from this clip. That said I don't think any video clip is a basis for dismissing or choosing an amp. Gotta play through it. Also players that can have anything they want like Andy Wood, Paul Gilbert, Dave Grissom or Eric Johnson all rely heavily on pedals. Different approaches for everyone based on their needs. I have a couple of amazing amps where I can get amazing clean sounds to the best OD/distortion sounds I've ever heard. Yet I leave them at home and gig with one of 3 Dr. Z's set clean with pedals. Tones that are not a compromise at all.
Like I said in the other thread.......this amp would have been so much better if it had a nice reverb and trem like a Vibro-King. I know this is a Walsh Sig, but.