Foxrox TZF Paradox

It's very easy to use once you understand the concept & design of the device. (It would help to understand what flanging is all about as well, but it?s not necessary.) I'd recommend plugging a drum machine or cd-player into the TZF. This will free-up your hands to do some exploring and become familiar with the knobs & their functions. There are sample settings on the Foxrox website, but (IMO) they shouldn't be regarded as 'set in stone'.
The positive reviews posted here and on the internet have pretty much proven that this really is a great device. I won't repeat what others have already said about the knob functions, but I will toss in a few of my own observations.

1) Think of the 4 modulation knobs as 2 teams/pairs: ENVELOPE & MANUAL, and DEPTH & SPEED.
2) Remember! Envelope-flanging will not occur if the incoming signal isn't strong enough to 'goose' it.
3) As soon as you engage the Depth knob, the Speed knob becomes part of the equation. In other words, if you're aiming for true 'envelope-flanging', then you should cancel the Depth knob. Otherwise you will also hear an 'up & down' flange cycling in the mix. (Though an 'envelope/up-down' combo would sound interesting.)

OUT-STANDING!
The 'thru-zero' effect really is awesome! It is present in both the Negative & Positive flange modes, and it is especially dramatic in the Negative mode. You'll swear that Jimi was using a TZF when he recorded 'Bold As Love', 'Burning Of The Midnight Lamp', 'House Burning Down', and 'Midnight'!!! Jimi would weep, the effect is THAT GOOD!

I'm definitely a gadget-head.
Univox Univibes, Bi-Phasers, Fuzz Faces, Rotary Simulators, Tape & Digital delays, Distortion units, Wah-Wahs, Flangers....
I play Strats, Les Pauls, PRS axes.
No noise detected in the TZF whatsoever, and the effect has an adjustable mix w/plenty of strength.

I've only had the TZF for a few weeks, but it's been working just fine, and it's built pretty solid! When I opened the box I was surprised at how small it was, but it's got some decent weight for such a small gadget. I would STRONGLY recommend that you buy the Expression Pedal. The TZF is the PERFECT device for this pedal. With it, you will have complete control over the sweep. This pedal allows you to determine exactly where the ?thru-zero? point should appear (in the travel of the pedal). Therefore, you can now ?bulls-eye? EXACTLY where the ?thru-zero? appears in a song or solo! Recording engineers from yesteryear would?ve smiled like fools if great flanging had been possible by the mere turn of a knob!

Dave Fox has been great with support. My first contact with Dave was way back in 1989 - 90. I'd purchased a Fuzz Face from Crest audio and wound up talking to him. I'd then sent him 2 Univox Uni-Vibes, and an old silver/grey DA Fuzz Face for 'maintenance'. He was helpful back then, and he was very helpful (and patient) when I bought the TZF. (I found this 'never been used' TZF - and the expression pedal - on Ebay...and I genuinely feel bad that I didn't buy it directly from Dave.....:-(
Lately I've been eyeballing the Captain Coconut. When I take the plunge I'll bypass Ebay and go right to Foxrox.)

I played with this thing so much when it arrived that afterwards everything I heard had a slight flange to it: traffic, music, television. The effect wore-off after a while. I would use it without a backup, and I would immediately purchase a new TZF if this one disappeared. Having FINALLY experienced true 'thru-zero flanging' in a live environment, I am now spoiled. I've been playing guitar since April 1971, and I can honestly say that every time I'd demo'd a new flanger, I'd hold my breath as the sweep flew to the top of the cycle. "Will this be the one? Or will it just drop back down....?"
The sweep would then hit the peak......and then fall back down......*sigh*.

Flangers I've owned:
Tychobrahe Pedalflanger: Not bad. Foot-controllable sweep was nice.
MXR 4-knob: A classic.
MXR flanger/doubler: Nice. I especially liked the doubler function.
Electric Mistress: The worst of the bunch. Probably the worst ever!
Eventide Clockworks Instant Flanger: Positive AND Negative flanging, Envelope-flanging, a GREAT doubler effect, and plenty of knobs to twiddle! Before the TZF appeared, this was the only flanger I knew of that had an Envelope-flange function, which I used a LOT!
........but none of them had 'thru-zero'?..;-(

NICE JOB, DAVE!

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awesome!

awesome!

this is just an update....I had my tzf go bad, see jrj below and have had zero problems since Dave Fox fixed it. and I assure you I have put MANY hours use live, at practice, and at home. I have absolute confidence in this pedal!

Not the easiest effect to use. Interaction between the knobs is substantial leading to lots of options and sounds. Some combinations have no effect while others have to much effect. Good for tweakers.

I was using a Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket at the time I had this pedal. Awesome sound, incredible vibrato and chorus sounds. The through zero is wicked sounding, I really love the sound of this pedal.

Unfortunately this is a warning. My experience was not so happy. Long story short, pedal died twice and does not work as advertised.

Was jamming enjoying my new purchase, and heard a faint bump, no sound-nothing. Dave fixed the pedal for free and was returned after 2 weeks. Then I was wondering how he got all those wonderful envelope flange sounds on the website where the through zero effect is acheived by pick strength, couldn't get it, tried everything in the manual. Sent the pedal back to Dave 2 weeks later I get the pedal back and still no envelope flange. Then I went to make a sandwich one day after jamming, went back and the pedal died again. Guessing the pedal just didn't work for me asked Dave for a refund. He says he can't give me one because I bought it at a dealer. He agrees to buy it back from me though for a little more than half what I paid. Harsh lesson. Going with the tried and true. Boss never failed me.

Noticed someone below had a problem with the pedal dying. Not an heirloom, for sure.

Wonderful pedal when it works. No bad feelings, just a warning.

READ THE MANUAL! It isn't your daddy's A/DA Flanger! Much deeper and complex but well worth the learning curve.

My list of guitars is too long for here so we'll just talk about a Strat for now. Fender Cyber Twin amp. USE THE EFFECTS LOOP if you have one. Hendrix like sounds are in there for you to bring out. I highly recommend an expression pedal with this unit. Awesom sounds. I'm not kidding or just gushing! Serious tape flanging effect that you control.

I don't gig but I have no reason to think it would fail. Very solid construction. Totally pro gear.

I have not needed service. I did e-mail Dave to see about my order as it seemed to fall through the cracks. He was very responsive and got it out to me pronto.

I've bee playing for 37 years and love hard bluesy rock. It is a perfect match for this style. I have several Strats and a couple of Jackson's and a few Gibson's. If I lost it or had it stolen, I would replace it. I love it all. I hate nothing about it. There is nothing in it's class to compare it to that I've seen. It would be cooler if you could have a programable interface and save settings to switch to and have repeatability. Perhaps this is in the works? It isn't cheap but is worth the price. You do need to tweak it a bit to get what you want but when you get there, magic can occur! Like I stated earlier, READ THE MANUAL and follow along with the tutorial. It becomes much easier to use. It is complex but this gives you so much more flexibility to get truly amazing sounds.

by nature of what this pedal acheives, it MUST be complex to manipulate! any other manufacturer would have had 10 knobs and 4 footswitches to pull this off ( if they had created TZF ). by this criteria, this pedal is a true 10. it makes sense, all the knobs are ultimately your freinds after you figure out what they do.

perfect in every way. i never realized flange like this could be. it's what Hendrix, The Beatles, etc. had to do in the studio. you can do this live, what an advantage. Hendrix would have had a field day. that said, i am no Hendrix immitator, just a big fan. i bought this pedal for 60's psyche music. more like Prunes, Clear Light, early Barrett ambient oscillatory sitar like trip stuff. it delivers. it more than delivers. if i had to say bad it would be that i CAN'T turn it off!!!! no really! I'd be lost without it.
anyway fucking amazing.

10, 10, 10. actually mine went dead the very same day i got it! just long enough to realize i was in love, and just as i was figuring the potential of the envelope function( when you buy yours you'll see what this means)! i bought mine used for better than a steal, for which i feel bad. it's worth full price. if you think this pedal is expensive, please listen to the sound samples. i said i would never spend this much on a pedal right before i listened to them.........i digress, Dave, humble creator of foxrox was contacted, and it was just a BB analog chip had gone bad as happens every so often with any electronic gadgetry. short and long is Dave fixed it FREE, even though i got it used. a 10 because it's 100% backed by The Creator......................reverent silence.

see above. perfect customer service!

10's across the board. i will never do this again, i have never done this before. this is no horsepucky, this is amazing design, sound quality, versatility. check the website for compatibility with your amp and pedal layout. i had given up completely on flange about 11 years ago and can't get enough now! and as other reviews say, this is way more than just flange. i wanted to wait until i really had a grasp on this device before i reviewed it, and now that i do, i realize it will be years before i truly grasp it's full capabilities. thanks again Dave!

i like effects that you plug into and just play. early boss pedals, mxr, etc. by way of comparison, this thing is a beast. you MUST read the manual, there is no getting around it. basically, it would be best if you locked yourself in a room for a week, and turned all the knobs at very small increments, so you can hear how interactive they are. but put in the time, and all that work is worth it.

my current setup:

ibanez rg
gibson sg
danelectro convertible

mesa boogie subway rocket

bruce bennett insane gain
eb volume
digitech digiverb
TZF
fulltone supatrem

the TZF can be very subtle without distortion. but it sounds incredible clean, with reverb. i originally bought it because i wanted a leslie simulator. but when i priced them, they were just as expensive so i got the TZF. it can do a very good leslie sim, but it obviously doesn't nail it dead on. and the added flexibility makes it the ultimate modulation pedal. if you can think of a modulation sound, the TZF can probably do it. i've had it for 5 months now, and every time i plug in, if the knobs are off just slightly from the last time, it can sound completely different.

this thing is a brick shithouse. the only thing i'd be wary of is drunk club-goers spilling beer on it.

dave is great. he talked with me for an hour before i bought, and has answered every last e-mail i've sent him within hours.

once you get it, the TZF is a 10. if you're a stoned knob twiddler, its a great pedal. if you want to nail a specific sound on your favorite recording, its a great pedal. like i said, any modulation sound you can think of, it can do. its just a matter of whether or not you have the patience for it. the TZF is an unforgiving lover, but all the time is worth it.

It's easy peasy japanesey to fiddle with the knobs and dial in a good, even great, sound on the TZF... but to get to the point where you are comfortable making adjustments on the fly is something that takes some real time with this pedal. I'm still getting it down after 4+ months. The parameters are highly interactive. The manual is very good, and the website is also very helpful in getting started, however.

I use a Burns Steer / Gibson ES-335 / Fender Telecaster into...

Pro-Co Rat (w/ Keeley 3-way Mighty Mouse mod)
John Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive
Keeley Compressor
Moog Moogerfooger Envelope Filter
Moog Moogerfooger Ring Modulator
Morley Bad Horsie Wah
Ibanez Digital Delay
Ernie Ball Volume
Foxrox Paradox Flanger (w/2 expression pedals)
? Stereo Out I to Carr Imperial
? Stereo Out II to Vox AC-15

Although it does respond best when driven by a fuzz/distortion, I often use it running from a clean signal, and it really sounds great. Whisper quiet, LUSH flange, chorus, phase. It is amazing (ESPECIALLY in stereo!!!). This is one of those few remarkable units where the "honeymoon" never ends. Simply the best investment in a pedal I've ever made.

Everyone else better be giving this category a "10," because I am the proud owner of the very first TZF to EVER go down. Aaw yeah. Something went south on the circuit board, taking the power down. See the Customer Support section for the conclusion of this spine tingling tale of terror...

Well, you can't get better Customer Support than with Dave. When my TZF wasn't feeling so good, he shipped out a power supply right away so I could trouble shoot before sending him the whole unit. When I finally did send my TZF to him, he didn't have the time to figure out what went wrong with the board... so he just popped in a new one, did a volume boost mod, and calibrated the TZF knob (so you can get full negative TZF cancellation by setting it at max, and setting the MIX knob all the way on Delay. It makes it easier to get maximum effect, previously the TZF knob had to be backed off off a bit to get there) all of his own volition & at no charge. Excellent communication, and a very friendly guy on the HCFX forum to boot. If you need that final excuse to lay down the loot for this toy, look no further. The sound quality is truly worth the cost of the unit alone, but the magnificent customer service that makes Dave tops in the boutique world just puts it over the top. Buy it! You know you want it!

My only complaint about the TZF is its size. But taking a look inside of it, one wonders, "how the hell did he fit all that stuff IN there???" It really is something.

I play hip hop and jazz/blues, and I gig with this thing relentlessly, sans a backup. If it were stolen, I would replace it in a second. Again, this is the best investment in a pedal I've ever made. No regrets whatsoever.

The manual is a big help. It takes some noodling with the knobs to really understand what each does. There are no bad settings. Controls are very interactive.

Played through a Groove Tubes Solo 75 and a Marshall 4X12 w/ 25's. A bit of hiss, but nothing major. To really let the Paradox shine, you must place a fuzz/dist IN FRONT.The sweep, the depth and the warmth of this pedal are truly remarkable. The Paradox IS the best "flanger" AVAILABLE. BAR NONE.

After only a month it still tickin'. I have no worries. It feels bulletproof!

Mike is Great!! Everyone oughta support QUALITY companies like this(that actually have integrity, and care about the products they put out) and others. Not Boss, DOD, or the other "toy" companies!

The extra $$ is worth it, by no means would I say the price is outrageous. You can't expect a Ferrari if you pay for a Ford.
(you want the best you got to pay for the best)

The manual it came with is a huge help for beggining to explore the TZF's possibilities. Easy to use but whatever is good in life takes some effort. I asked about a preset for all of these different settings but Foxrox wrote back and said that only can happen with Digital garbage. They told me they are working on a Ramp up/down box for the unit.

Strat (KAMINSKI) or Gibson Les Paul '74 standard>66Bassman>72 SuperLead . RMC1>Fulltone OctaFuzz>Bi-CompRossor>DOD250grey>GTO>TZF in stereo >AMPS. The TZF sound is unbelievable. I've had it for a few weeks now, so I'm out of the honeymoon stage. I sold my ADA Final Phase, my Maestro Phase Shifter PS1A and an Ibanez PhaseTone(wedge box_one knob early) plus a FL-301dx Ibanez flanger from the 808 series. This TZF is really all I need for any swirlly sound I can imagine.
The sound is REAL. This is the REAL DEAL! All analog no, drop in volume, no toy effect sounds whatsoever. The House Burning flange is so perfect and useful, Plus the conventional Flange sound blows an ADA away. Chorus-excellent, Leslie-superior, Vibrato-warm and true. Univibe-the search is over!!! This has so many incredible sounds.

Family heirloom.

Very good contact support. Very helpful. Dave Fox is very knowlegable and helpful. 5 year warranty.

Also, the foxrox expression pedal is helpful live. It has a trim pot on the side to dial in the control you want.

It does take a while to figure out how to use this unit, but once you do you can get whatever you. I'm using this in a gigging situation, not in a bedroom situation, so I really don't explore alot of it's more esoteric sounds as for my purposes they won't work. I pretty much set it before a gig to what I want it to sound like for the night and leave it alone. I don't have time to screw around with it during a gig between tunes, but in studio situation, it offers many flavors for sure.

It sounds wonderful, you can get any sound you can think of out of this unit.. and it is QUIET and not fake, whimpy, crappy sounding like just about every other flanger/phaser I've tried. I use this in my amps effects loop (I use a couple of Riveras), I don't care for it before the amp, it sounds better after the preamp section. I also tend not to use distortion pedals, I like tube amp power tube distortion (I use a THD Hotplate) with some grit on the preamp gain stage for leads. This unit sounds GREAT for that effect (think Hendrix, Kravitz, etc). There are times I get a slight more of a gain boost or cut then I care for(depending on the settings), but that might just be part of how this effect works.

Extremely well built.. I don't bring a backup to gigs.

Dave Fox is one of the true class guys in the business. very responsive and very helpful. There is no doubt that if the unit needed work, he would take care of it instantly.

I really like this unit..

pros
-Sounds great, can get anything you can imagine in terms of sound
-very reliable
-very flexible
-very natural sounding.
-Way better than any other unit I've used or tried (for flange/phaser type effects).
-Very responsive company support

cons
-big unit, takes up alot of pedal board space.
-not something you want to play with during a gig, unless you are in a jam band. Once you know your settings you can just set it to them before a tune (if you remember..LOL)
-depending on the setting, there is occasionally a definite gain boost or gain loss. This is probably part of the way this flanger works (a side effect of zero through flanging), based on Dave's description of how the unit works.