Zoom Power Drive?

[Nathan]

Obviously has a reputation as some poor man's Klon. Can you list your experiences? Thanks!

 

[A440]

adds a nice shimmer/jangle with some guitars. I really like it with my mccarty, gives a nice smidge of od/edge of clean sound going into a fender type amp.

also boosted an old blackface deluxe into creamy goodness

 

[Zero]

Didn't realize how it worked as a clean boost until I read a review on HC that said to keep the gain off. Because once you start turning it up it adds an extra something, a midrange like a TS9. Almost as if when the gain is off it bypasses that. I find that within the sweep of the knobs Gain, High and Low they seem to do something right away then most of the sweep they stay the same then right at the very end of the sweep there is a huge change.

 

[cr8z4life]

Great pedal shhhhhh.....dont let out the secret.. they can be had for about $45 used! I set it up clean (basically no OD) - with the bass at about 2 and the treble at about 11 and volume up and put it before my OD on the board and it makes an incredible lead pedal......there is something in the mids on these.....great singing lead tones!!!!!

 

[Lucidology]

Pulled one of these Zoom drives out of my pedal storage bin...(it's been there for years...)

Man, I compared it to my Klon... & I have to say I like it much better...
It's very natural feeling & extremely transparent with the gain off...

I've never been able to adjust to my gold Klon..
I've always detected that it added something to the natural sound and/or feel.
In fact, this may be the actual reason why a Klon is so popular,
as a lot of players obviously really like what it does...

However, this little Zoom drive, with the gain off is blowing my mind...
It's a simple clean sounding, natural feeling boost...

Too cool indeed!

Great little natural feeling clean boost... wow!!

 

[BillyK]

I bought one years ago and never really tried it out. Been stored away since. Maybe I have to dust it off and see if it will give my RC a run.

 

[fr8_trane]

I'm probably the one whose review you read on HC. This pedal is absolutely Zoom's attempt to recreate the Klon at least in functionality. Those who own Klon will say they didn't succeed . I say who cares - its a pretty good pedal in its own right.

I was amazed that a large # of people who owned the pedal were unaware it was a dual function Boost/OD. The gain knob is actually a blend control for the OD and when its full CCW the OD is out of the circuit and its literally a straight up clean boost with bass and treble. This is different than using a TS as a boost because you are ALWAYS running through the drive circuit even with the gain on 0 and you are therefore subject to the built in EQ response (midhump).

Anyway as soon as the gain on the PD-01 reaches about 8:00 you can hear the drive and its TS type voicing kick in and cut the lows and boost the mids. Its pretty subtle gain up to about 3:00 and then its gets dramatically gainier from there. The OD is OK but I use the pedal strictly for boost.

 

[Lucidology]

I bought one years ago and never really tried it out. Been stored away since. Maybe I have to dust it off and see if it will give my RC a run.

Would be extremely serious to hear how it compares to your RC...
please let us know when you compare the two (thanks in advance..)

I was amazed that a large # of people who owned the pedal were unaware it was a dual function Boost/OD. The gain knob is actually a blend control for the OD and when its full CCW the OD is out of the circuit and its literally a straight up clean boost with bass and treble. This is different than using a TS as a boost because you are ALWAYS running through the drive circuit even with the gain on 0 and you are therefore subject to the built in EQ response (midhump).

Now that's just too cool indeed....

Thanks for that insightful info fr8_trane

 

[fr8_trane]

Here's another little tidbit:

The RC boost is essentially the Fulldrive in comp cut mode. That's right people...the RC is a TS based pedal. Do a search on the DIY pedal forum and you will learn all.

 

[BillyK]

Here's another little tidbit:

The RC boost is essentially the Fulldrive in comp cut mode. That's right people...the RC is a TS based pedal. Do a search on the DIY pedal forum and you will learn all.

Hey fr8, isn't the Klon, the pedal the Power Drive aspires to be, also a TS based pedal? Not like that really matters to me, as the RC is one of the very few pedals I've held on to over the years, and I love what I get from it, TS circuit or not.

I read your HC post as well and that's when I really understood how the PD works. Thanks for your insight. Again, maybe I have to dust off the PD!!

 

[bluesjuke]

The RC may be but sure doesn't sound like it.

Have you got a link fr8_trane?
Satisfy the curious.

 

[Lucidology]

Here's another little tidbit:

The RC boost is essentially the Fulldrive in comp cut mode. That's right people...the RC is a TS based pedal. Do a search on the DIY pedal forum and you will learn all.

Wow, that's a new one...
maybe we should start another post about that ... a lot of folk here would be curious..

Meanwhile the Zoom Power Drive is truly a great pedal..
I've been meaning to pick up an RC, but if this does the trick ...

 

[fr8_trane]

I was incorrect about the FD. Comp cut takes the clipping diodes out of the circuit I believe (which also results in a huge volume boost) and the RC booster apparently uses alot of them in series to reduce the compression to nearly 0. Here's the link I am referencing with some quotes and probably way too much tech stuff for most.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=42546.0

The AC and RC and BB are basicly plain TS-808 copies with an added active baxandall tonestack. The AC and RC are absolute idenditical, except the no. of cliping diodes in the FB-loop (to me it's a joke to sell 2 pedals, a simple switch for the diodes arrangement and 1 pedal would have been the better solution for the user).

The BB's front end is more similar to the reverend divetrain, except the tonestack, on the train it's passive. Common to all Xotic drives pedals is "bad filtered" Bias-divider (BTW: the OCD use the same divider and values) and a soft sounding I-buffer, so the sound is slightly more compressed on the AC and BB w less highs and a somewhat flabby bass when played on low volume. Played on it's own the sound is not so good, but they come alive as a low gain drives in front of a BF amp when played on stage levels. The RC has nearly zero compression due to the amount of diodes in the FB-loop.

Wow. Are you sure about this? Amazing.

Yep, sure! The white RC has 6 Diodes (>+>+>) in parallel w (<+<+<), the yellow AC has the stock TS-clipper, diodes are 914, 1S15888 or sim. The I-buffer work with 3V BIAS on the resistor, the rest w 4,5V, for a bit more headroom switch the 470k BIAS-R in the buffer to the normal 4,5V VREF. The AC/RC is nothing but a downsized BB, basicly they are all TS...

This schematic shows the same 4k7/47n network associated with the clipping feedback loop as a regular TS, but the BB (I use one) does not have a pronounced midrange at all - in fact, I typically use an EQ bumping 400 and 800 Hz to give me some 'cut' in a live setting.I haven't torn the goop off of my BB's board to see what's what. Any thoughts?

The 4k7k/47n will not produce any mid hump at all, only a bass cut with rolloff frequency about 720kHz. The overall tone of the BB is the result of the Baxandall-tonestack, the 4k7 connected to the basspot and the 10uF is mainly responsible for the mid shaping, increasing it will increase the mids in the BB, decreasing it will decrease the mids.

Discussing the Boss FA-1 EQ circuit as it relates to the xotic EQ.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=49995.0

The OD on the klon sounds somewhat TS like to my ears but MANY knowledgable posters claim that the circuits are not similar. I use the bad monkey so what do I know.

 

[Lucidology]

Great little unit... used it in an emergency (since it's my backup)
& it really did the job ...

 

[samboneecanada]

Thinking about this one. A few came up for sale. Any more first hand experience ?

 

[samboneecanada]

Well finally got it. $40. Good deal. Well awesome deals as it really is a two trick pony. I like the drive a lot. It's ts9 family for sure but somewhat different. I had forgotten about trying it with the gain off and so I still have some experimenting to render.

 

[El Gallo Negro]

I had a couple back in the day. Really good. Only complaint was they were pretty hissy. When you're cranked up it doesn't really matter though

 

[samboneecanada]

I haven't found that problem. I also haven expirenced much with it. Time will tell.

 

[El Gallo Negro]

I really dug that soft footswitch.

 

[rjung22]

I picked up my pd-01 shortly after zoom discontinued the line (hl-01, uf-01, and the fm-01.) At first, I didn't really understand the pedal and viewed it as a weak overdrive bc of what I thought was a less than stellar distortion tone. And then one night at an impromptu jam session where someone unexpectedly hopped on a drum kit, it all came clear. I had only brought my prized 61' Gibson skylark ga-5t, expecting to only accompany acoustic players but when the drums came in it was evident that I was gonna require a little more volume. After diming the ga-5t, I still needed a little more. I pulled out the pd-01 cranked the volume while leaving the drive down and was blessed with the most beautiful creamy tone. Now the amp was still barely loud enough to be heard but the tone was to die for. Since that day the pedal has not come off of my board. As a boost, it offers a secret sauce. But the most important thing is that you have to already have a great tone to start with, then add the pd-01. A cranked old Gibson skylark sounds pretty darn good but when you add the pd-01, it just takes it over the top. The same holds true for a great clean tone; the Zoom just makes it more dimensional.

Curiously, a lot of people say this pedal was a copy of the Klon but when I bought it, I wasn't even aware a Klon existed (and I would argue most players weren't. At least not enough to merit a company as large as Zoom trying to copy it.)

I also purchased the hyper lead hl-01 and the ultra fuzz uf-01 but never seemed able to truly bond with either. Sold em both.