EMMA ReezaFRATzitz owners! have a couple questions

[Lution]

Looking into this pedal. The sound clips are really convincing, however I can't find anywhere that says if this pedal is true-bypass or not.

Can you Zitz owners tell me if it is in fact TB?

If it is not, how is it at tone suckage when its off?

Thanks -Lution

 

[JPenn]

I'm pretty sure it is, but I've never really checked. I'm running mine thru a Hot Rod Deluxe and I just pretty much leave it on all the time. I don't like really clean cleans and it cleans up well from the guitar.

 

[humbert]

Hm. I haven't checked. I was too impressed with the EFFING MASSIVE distortion.

I'm actually using it as an overdrive pedal -- I prefer the thickness and fuzziness of the Hot Cake. However, it's the best overdrive I've ever played. It beat the crap out of my Blackstone. I put the gain on 9:00 and the Bias at 3:00. Tone is at about 1:00. This thing sounds very much like the guitar player from The Band's tone, especially on the Last Waltz dvd, or Layla/Bluesbreakers era Clapton.

I almost never turn it off, and use my compressor and Hot Cake for variant distortion levels. However, I'm pretty sure there's minimal if any tone suck. You can't design a pedal this good and then forget to make a good bypass.

 

[Lution]

sounds like you both like the pedal.


still looking for an answer if this pedal is true bypass.

 

[carltonh]

Does the maker have a website? Also, has anyone compared one of these to a MI Audio Tube Zone?

 

[Lution]

Does the maker have a website?

http://www.emmaelectronic.com/emmarw/index.htmlhttp://http://www.emmaelectronic.com

they don't say whether it does or not.

 

[Ben C.]

It is not true bypass.

There's nothing wrong with the buffer though. It's extremely transparent. I did notice that the buffer seemed to put out a little hotter signal than I wanted though and dropped the headroom a tad in a couple analog devices that came afterward. Mind you, this is when I'm running active single coils and hot humbuckers.

SO. I emailed Jan at EMMA and had him build me one that was true bypass. I notice no difference in the sound at all, only that there's virtually more headroom in the analog devices that come after it now.

Again, if you're not running EMGs or Tone Zones before the Reeza, or if you don't have an analog chorus or trem with low headroom to begin with coming after the Reeza, you won't need to worry about getting a TB version at all.

-Ben

 

[Lution]

It is not true bypass.

There's nothing wrong with the buffer though. It's extremely transparent. I did notice that the buffer seemed to put out a little hotter signal than I wanted though and dropped the headroom a tad in a couple analog devices that came afterward. Mind you, this is when I'm running active single coils and hot humbuckers.

SO. I emailed Jan at EMMA and had him build me one that was true bypass. I notice no difference in the sound at all, only that there's virtually more headroom in the analog devices that come after it now.

Again, if you're not running EMGs or Tone Zones before the Reeza, or if you don't have an analog chorus or trem with low headroom to begin with coming after the Reeza, you won't need to worry about getting a TB version at all.

-Ben

Thanks Ben.

One guitar has seth lovers and the other has dimarzio blaze7s which are hot mofos and might cause a clean headroom problem. Ben, how easy was it to get a true bypass Emma?

 

[Ben C.]

It really depends on what's coming after your Reeza... questions like: Do you already have headroom issues with the pedals coming after it? If you strike a clean chord hard with the Reeza bypassed, is it 'overdriving' those pedals that come afterward? How about if you take the Reeza out of your signal chain, is the headroom noticably improved? And I know you can't answer those until you get one

The point is, if all you have coming afterward is a DD-20, and RC Booster, etc., this isn't something you're going to have to worry about. Spec. I have 5 pedals after it, two of which I can 'overdrive' just by hitting the strings hard- an Analogman Clone chorus and a Kaden Fluttertone trem. And I noticed the decrease in headroom with those pedals only... which already distorted pretty easily (again, with very high output pu's). If you don't have any pedals that this is an issue with now, I doubt you'll need a TB Reeza.

But if you do... it's about a 3 week wait and cost me $250. Having owned the Reeza for months before deciding to order this, I knew it would be worth it (great pedal). Yea, you could just get a switch and DIY, but I foresaw problems because EVERYTHING is black-gooped back there. EVERYTHING.

I'll PM you Jan's email address... don't know how he'd feel about it all over the net.

Hope this helps,
Ben

 

[screamingduck]

I may be just repeating old news here but I like the fact that my
Reeza is NOT true bypass. I'm currently running a HUGE pedalboard
of mostly TB pedals so I like the fact that my Reeza and Boss DM-2
are buffered with quality buffers as I feel that it improves my signal
chain. I believe the consensus around here is to have at least one
or two buffers in a chain of true bypass pedals. Definitely works for
me.
The Reeza is one of my favorite pedals especially for pure, warm single
note lines. What a beautiful sound!

 

[Robzilla]

are there more soundclips besides the ones on the website?

 

[Frosted Glass]

Musiciansfriend have some...or did a while ago. Haven't checked recently.