Two Zen Drive questions

true, love or hate em. so many varients, amps playing style/touch/technigue. And its a pedal that takes some work dialing in the right tone. Dont have exact expectations on it sounding like a Dumble. It just depends. Its also a pedal that doesent cover weak technique, it gives you back what you put into it. You can get a great sound from single coils if you work at it. Then when you play it thru humbuckers, it seems to come alive in a different way.I generally like simple 1-3 knob pedals. This is a very sensitive complex piece of gear that wont always sound great out of the box like my Eternity or Keeley Rat but it 100% lives up to the hype. I waited over a year for mine, just for that, its a family air lume and Ill never sell it, well never say never, but waiting that long for it has created a sentimental value on it for me. Dial it in and its smooth as silk, its a fine balance between the tone and voice knob. I think its designed for tweakers which Iim generally not, but every guitar player should at least try one. Its not a hard rock or metal pedal, the volume is also important, if you get it right at or slightly above unity gain, it compresses and sounds perfect, if one aspect or control is off , it can sound dissapointing to your expectations. It will probably take me just as long to learn the perfect settings on it as I had to wait for it. Its pure magic and so is Alf Hermida. As far as the price, its worth every red cent

 

$179, wait is 4-5 months. I got mine right before Xmas, it was gone 2 weeks later. I didn't like it at all.

Have to say I don't care about getting Dumble tone and wasn't lured by the hype. I had a chance to try one out in a store near me and was impressed so I got on the list. Turns out it was probably the gear I was using at the store that impressed me (Carr Vincent & a Suhr).

With my rig (PRS Hollowbody -> JC120/peavey Classic 30) the Zen was very thin sounding. I checked a couple of Zendrive settings threads but tweaking it only made it sound compressed & muffled. Tried it out live and it just wasn't the sound I wanted.

I do agree that you should try one out if you have the chance. There seems to be no middle ground - it either stays forever or leaves pretty quickly.

 

Indeed, the sound you get with a Zendrive very much depends on the rig.
It seems to work best with 6L6 Fender type amps. I can confirm that with my EL84 based amp, it didn't sound all that spectacular, but with my Carr Rambler, it comes alive, and the sound is hard to beat. It just adds the right amount of crunch in the lower and upper mids, and stays transparent.

 

I love my Zendrive with my '67 Deluxe Reverb and my '66 Princeton Reverb. I play a '62 AVRI Strat and I've heard it sounds better with Humbuckers. I don't agree. I like it better with my Strat than with my LP Deluxe. I don't even know what a Dumble is, but I love this pedal.

 

I just got a ZD2 and was able to get great tones out of the box into my Club 40. I am greatly looking foward to trying it with my Super Reverb as well.. It sounded fantastic wiht my Les Paul but in my case when I plugged my strat into I was really blown away! Seems to mate very well with my club 40.. BTW I have been on the list since the ZD2 was announced and just got it today