Is this a better way ?

[hipbluescat]

Hello All

I need feedback.

Would you consider that the Zendrive into a good quality tube amp that gets a great clean sound is a better choice than owning an actual "Dumble " amp ?

What does the pedal lack ?

I am not knocking ( putting down ) in any way, owning or building a Dumble style amp.

I have built many amps myself.

What is more practical verses what actual sounds best ( or better tone ) ?

Regards

[Funkalicousgroove]

I have a zendrive, it sounds very close, but not identical.
I prefer the Dumble, I mainly have the Zendrive so I can bring it everywhere incase I get asked to sit in with friends bands and such so that I always have(close to) my tone.


There are 4 footswitchable sounds with a dumble, and the clean alone is worth it. The Zendrive is either on or off.

[ayan]

Hello All

I need feedback.

Would you consider that the Zendrive into a good quality tube amp that gets a great clean sound is a better choice than owning an actual "Dumble " amp ?

What does the pedal lack ?

I am not knocking ( putting down ) in any way, owning or building a Dumble style amp.

I have built many amps myself.

What is more practical verses what actual sounds best ( or better tone ) ?

Regards

I will chime in too: I was blown away by the Zendrive when I heard it at the 2006 NAMM show. After building many D-clones, I wanted one such pedal and got one from Alf -- who, by the way, is as nice a guy as I've ever met. I had tried the Zendrive through a TR amp at NAMM, and it just so happens the lead channel on that amp was broken, but the Zendrive sounded simply heavenly through the clean channel though.

Fast forward to when I got my pedal from Alf. Sure enough, playing it throguh the clean channel of my amps it sounds almost the same as the real thing, although you can tell it has more of a pedal character to it. In a band context, however, you'd be just fine.

Playing the Zendrive through other amps rendered mixed results for me, though. For instance, it sounds very good through a Vox AC30 I have, and it also sounded real good through a friend's Boogie (a DC-XX). However, it's sounded bad through a friend's modified Fender Bandmaster and for the life of me it sounded absolutely terrible through a Music Man RD-50 I had. Originally, I wanted the MM and Zendrive to be my grab and carry rig, but the combination was so awful that I ended up selling the amp (maybe great for the "Chris Cain" tone, but anything besides a Gibson on the neck pickup sounds bad through that amp, IMHO).

So, to summarize, for a live situation the Zendrive will certainly do the trick with some amps, most notably Dumble clones. But it will not sound better than the amps themselves as per my experience.

Cheers,

Gil

[llemtt]

I think power amp and OT account for 10-20% of the D sound. This can explain why pedals like the Zendrive do their best with D-clones.

my .02
Teo

[Funkalicousgroove]

I agree with Gil on the amp choice, the Zen sounds great through a BF deluxe (alf's amp of choice BTW) but it sounds like ASS through my Bogner Shiva. Through the clean sound on one of my clones it is GORGEOUS, it is SO close the first time I heard it I got a Knot in my stomach since I had just spent all that time building a clone, and had a pedal sound almost as good!