Foxrox ZIM

The ZIM is s professional OD. You can patch into it anyway you desire. You do not have to run the OD's concurrently. Mine is one of the first at has a variation of the H9 cards in both slots.

I use the ZIM with both Tele's and Strats through a Bruno Cow 45 (2X12 Greenbacks)or a Siegmund Midnight Special (1X12 Celestion Blue). The Zim is not noisy. Of course there are some higher gain settings where more "hiss" is present but that is expected. It does everything from smooth overdrive and beyond. Maybe more than I use but I like to have the headroom as far as the amount of gain goes in case I want to explore heavier music from time to time, and I do. I prefer Foxrox effects because they are built like a tank and I like the sound of them. I can in the long way so I have been through many of the boutique dealers to arrive here. I have been here a couple of years and I'm sticking around. The TZF and CC2 are incredible as well. Dave if I had only known I could have saved thousands!!!!

Never had a problem yet. Dave Fox has always been great to deal with.

I have upgraded both my wah's with The retrofit upgrade. A must for Fuzzfoot users. I couldn't say enough good thing about Foxrox.

I play all styles of music. I think the Zim is helpful in all styles Been at it for 27 years!! I think I'll keep the ZIM forever. I run it straight behind a Analogman KOT (on all the time)set at low gain. At the end of the chain is an RC Booster (on all the time)!! What a great match for me. I love Foxrox pedals for live and studio. One recording session I saw people amazed at the tones. It was all CC2 and the TZF. Just incredible and sonically beautiful. I am proud to be a Foxrox user if you couldn't tell. I love flexibilty. That's what I always dreamed of and that is part of the goal. If you are like me and looking for flexibilty then do your self a favor and let me save you some time and money. The ZIM may be the most flexible OD ever. Plus more tone for your bone makes it even more of a steal at what some consider a high price. If you went ZIM,CC2,TZF. You'd have all the tones you ever wanted and a whole lot more. The richness of these effects are, for the lack of a better term, nothing short of amazing.

I will not be redundant with other feedback, as it is pretty much the same as mine.

I would not be so hasty has to say it is the "best", because as I have learned there is always something better, and everyone's taste is different. This is a great sounding OD/Distortion pedal. My favorite pedals for OD is my Original Ibanez Tube Screamer with the Analog Man silver mod and the Analog Man King of Tone. My favorite distorition is the vintage MXR Distortion +. After A/B'ing my pedals with the ZIM, I removed the AM TS9 from the pedal board and replaced it with the ZIM. I would not go as far as say that the sound is better, just a little different. Depending on the day, I will like the AM TS9 better than Zim. The AM King of Tone is not replicatable by ZIM, so it stayed. The MXR Distortion + will soon be a card for ZIM, which of course, I will also buy. I have one of the original ZIM's so I received two Hot 9 cards, I hate them both. I replaced the Hot 9 cards with a T9 on channel A and a B9 on channel B. This makes a killer dual tube screamer tone. For my taste I did not like the B9 in Channel A without the filtering.

100% Solid!

100% Excellent!

My sound is mainly clean with occasional dirt. My guitar rig is generally a Fender Strat Plus with Lindy Fralin custom under-wound pickups -> Teese RMC3 Wah -> Analog Man (AM) Orange Compressor -> Captain Coconut II -> Qtron + -> AM Beano Boost -> ZIM -> AM Comprossor -> AM King of Tone -> Boss Tremolo -> Vintage Ibanez PT9 Phaser -> AM Chorus -> Boss TU-2 Tuner -> Bad Bob Booster -> Echoplex Pro -> Red Iron custom amp. The pedalboard is by pedaltrain, love it, and powered by the voodoo lab's pedal powers.

People have covered this pretty well. It's not easy to use compared to, say, a Fulldrive II, because Channel B's voice options offer a massive variety of tones depending on the settings you choose. Still, many of the settings are extremely usable, which makes the pedal a breeze compared to the Fulltone Distortion Pro, which I had to tweak for hours just to find one great sound. So, it's easy to get a good sound out of this pedal, and since that's the main criterion of this category, I give the ZIM a 10. This score also reflects Dave Fox's intelligent design, like the detents on his pots, the easy access to the battery, and the removable ZIM cards which alter the character of the distortion sound. (Oh, great manual, too!)

Well, here is where the unit shines. I want to say first off that the reviewer below made a major error by not trying a different ZIM card before returning his unit. This is one of the major advances Dave has made with this pedal's design. Especially considering that the reviewer mentions the FDII by name, saying he prefers that pedal's sound but not its control scheme. Well, I hate to break it to you, but replacing the Channel B ZIM card (stock H9) with a B9 would give you the same tone as an FDII, but with the ZIM's myriad voicing options. So, for those who read that review and thought, "Huh, the distortion is fuzzy?", just know that you can order your ZIM with any of the available ZIM cards Dave describes on his site. You can even swap cards if you want to experiment, or buy additional cards with a money-back guarantee. This may be the most generous, player-friendly offer I have ever heard a boutique pedal manufacturer make, and is one of the reasons Dave is currently my favorite man in the business.

Anyway, moving on my setup. I have owned and demoed a ton of different OD pedals in my day, and the ZIM has ended my search. Seriously, it's that good. I still keep my FDII in line, because the ZIM is more transparent, and sometimes I actually want the muddier, mid-humpy sound of the Fulldrive. Why don't I switch ZIM cards, then? Because I like the stock sounds too much to give them up. In the future, I will buy a second ZIM with two B9s installed, which will give me a super-tweakable, ultra-rugged version of the Fulldrive. Until then, I run my FDII into a Saffron Squeeze compressor, and follow the compressor with the ZIM. This gives me a whole range of OD/Distortion tones, from almost-clean-but-more-present to raging, endless sustain. With the setting I use most (Voice knob at 2, Boost at roughly 2 o'clock) the B channel never gets fuzzy or fizzy. It's chunky enough for rhythm, and sounds incredible when cascaded with Channel A or my FDII for leads. It's also pure heaven with a wah, something I can't say for the FDII or any other distortion pedal I've owned. This is the wah sound I've heard on records but never been able to capture, like Slash, Jimi or Eddie Hazel, dripping with rich mids and vocal overtones.

I play through a Dr. Z MAZ-18, and the key to getting the most out of the ZIM is to use it with a tube amp, cranked loud enough to work the power tubes. With my MAZ running clean but hot, I can conjure Trey Anastasio and Eddie Hazel from the ZIM. It's astonishing how amazing this thing sounds. I've been imagining my dream guitar sound for years now, always going, "Hmmm, that's sorta close," but this is IT. It makes me want to play more, and it's so dynamic and responsive that when I do play, I sound better than I ever thought possible. Which inspires me to play more. That's what great equipment does for you, and that's the reason I save my hard-earned pesos to buy the good stuff.

Two specific things I want to mention re: the ZIM's clarity and sound quality. One is that this pedal responds to guitar volume incredibly well. I keep Channel A's gain at around 1 o'clock, and just by rolling off my volume, I can go from completely clean to Big Star-crunchy, where individual notes maintain clarity and chords don't turn to mush. The second things is the ZIM's responsiveness to pickup selection. My PRS (a 1992 Custom 24) has a five-way selector knob. For years now, I've only used the bridge pickup, because none of my pedals ever sounded good with the neck pickup. In many cases, it didn't even make a difference what pickup I used, because the pedal added so much coloration to the signal that bridge and neck sounded identical. With the ZIM, every notch on the 5-way selector sounds discernably different, especially through Channel A. Like my Dr. Z amp, this pedal puts out in proportion to what you put in. If you play with dynamics and precision, this pedal will reward you in ki

Feels rock solid. And Dave stands by all of his products in a major way. I'm certainly not sweating it.

Ludicrously good. Dave answers emails in hours or minutes, not days or weeks. He answers your dumbest questions. He backs up his products and repairs them if anything goes awry. He offers services like ZIMSwap (see foxroxelectronics.com), which sets him so far ahead of cats like Mike Fuller it's like they're on different planets. I can't say enough about this man. He deserves your money and adulation in equal amounts.

I don't know what else to say. This pedal has ended a very long quest for the ultimate OD. As most of you know, this is THE most crowded category in the boutique pedal market, and I am beyond happy to be done searching. I don't care what comes out next month or next year, the ZIM gives me the tone I've been looking for since I began playing, and even if I win the lotto and can afford an entire Pete Cornish pedal collection, I can't imagine I'll sound any better than I do now. The ZIM is so versatile and unique and well-built, I think almost any type of player would benefit from it. For people like the guy below, don't forget you can SWAP OUT the ZIM CARDS! The ZIM can be a Tubescreamer or a Big Muff or a RAT or anything else you want it to be, with the added versatility of Channel B's voice section. It's a brilliant pedal and deserves all the 10s I'm giving it. Thank you, Dave Fox, you've made my year!

The ZIM is both as easy to use as any pair of OD pedals and as complex as wrapping your brain around an entirely new approach to overdrive. The only quibble I can come up with is that the tone pots are inside the box. For me it makes no difference, as I don't tend to fiddle w/ them much. As far as the Voice control goes, coming to grips with it is as easy as playing around with it for 10 minutes. No arcane menu screens or key combinations to muddle through, just big fat tactile knobs. The in/out scheme is perfect, allowing you to configure the pedals in any order, exactly as if they were two completely seperate pedals.
The back of the ZIM comes off easily with four strategically place screws... and you don't have to unscrew the rubber feet! Nice. The ZIM cards are easy to swap out by just loosening one thumbscrew and sliding them out.
The size of the pedal is perfect as well, and it's clearly labeled. The detents are also a stroke of genius. They give you the confidence to look for new settings without fear of losing your favorites - it's easy to remember right where you like it. For all the features and cool new stuff in this pedal it's still a breeze to use, and that rates a solid 10.

Trying to quantify the ZIM's sound is like trying to describe a chameleon's color - it just depends. With four currently available ZIM cards and several more on the way, it's crazy to say how the ZIM sounds without specifying what card you're listening to. I've heard the CS, H9, and B9 cards. The CS and H9 were stock, and I ended up swapping the H9 for the B9, which I prefer. Here's how I'd describe them:
The CS is very transparent. No TS style OD here... it's completely see-through with plenty of bass on no mid hump. Just the right amount (not too much!) of saturated gain.
The H9 is very clean sounding with much more gain. Very hi-fi. It's also much more noisy. Frankly, I wasn't super keen on it. I didn't like the way it worked when cascaded w/ channel A (CS card), and I didn't like the way it interacted with the Voice control. It was good, but not the GREAT tone I was searching for. I ended up swapping it for a B9.
The B9 card is beautiful!! Easily the best TS style OD I've ever heard. The balance of mids and bass is perfect and the settings with the Voice control are much tastier than with the H9... not so extreme at the far ends of the control, which results in more useable tones. It cascase beautifully w/ the CS card. Man... I love it!
From here it's tough to really get across how mind-blowing the voice-conrol really is. You take the great tone of the B9 card and start throwing in the great EQ curves that literally make your Fender sound like a Marshall or anything else. Great for multi-tracking!!
I won't waste any more time trying to convince you... the ZIM simply must be heard.

This OD weighs in with the heft and feel of a wah. It is SOLID!! The guts are neat and secure. Top notch all the way..

Dave is great. When I swapped cards I sent my H9 in on a Friday and had my B9 in my ZIM by the following Wednesday. His website is the best, with great insight into the development of the ZIM and all its prototypes and incarnations. Lots of meaningful sound clips too... (are you reading this Mike?? :o) )

If I had to sum up the ZIM in one short phrase it would be "thinking outside the (hammond) box". Dave's thinking on this pedal is so far beyond the typical boutique stuff that's it defies explanation. No hammond box anywhere in sight. From the detented knobs and voice control to the swappable cards and case design, Dave has truly done what he set out to do: develop the definitive OD pedal!

The A channel is pretty straight forward but the B channel takes a lot of working ( I never got it where I wanted it).

My setup consists of a Godin LGX-SA (with duncan hums) and a mesa dc-3. I also tried it with my piece of crap carvin solid state amp so I could see what it would sound like runnning through the other pieces of crap that I get stuck playing through so often (namely the JC-120..... sorry to you jc lovers). TO all who said it was noisy.... I don't know what you're used to because this is one of the quietest dist./overdrives I've ever heard. But in the minus category, it was totally not what I was looking for. The A channel is beautiful and so transparent, but the b channel is no good to me. It's distortion sound is too fuzzy, for lack of a better description. It seems better for classic rhythym work than for lead work. This channel is also transparent (which I like) but I don't feel that it has enough gain for me. And when you do crank the gain and the boost, it feedsback a lot. I was hoping to get a good clean, slightly overdriven sound out of the A channel (which I got) and more of a Kevin Eubanks type of singing lead sound out of the B (more thick and focused) with a boost when you cascade the two (which I didn't get). The Fulltone FD-2 (which I do not own but played today to compare) has a much more pleasing overdrive tone to it in my opinion. Although I'm not totally keen on the FD-2's boost features and versatility, if the Zim and FD were my only 2 to pick from, I'd pick the FD. $260 is way to much for this pedal in my opinion and I put it back in the mail today to get a refund. NOTE THAT JUST BECAUSE IT'S NOT FOR ME DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT SUCKS!!! I can definitely see why it has gotten good reviews... but for $260 and how it's laid out it should do way more than it does.

I only had it for a week, but it looked very strong. My qualm is that the battery (if used/without power supply) isn't totally locked down and it seems that it could float and cause some problems in the long term if the unit gets thrown around. More than likely this wouldn't happen but it could.

Dave Fox is a beautiful guy and I will be purchasing the captain coconut 2. He's real cool about me returning the zim (although sad that it didn't work out for me). He's always returned any questions the same day. More companies should be like his.

I play r and b, soul, rock, gospel, and just about everything else other than straight ahead jazz or polka. I play with and have recorded with major artists in all of these respective fields. I grew up playing in really heavy rock bands so it's taking some time for me to appreciate the tones of lesser gain. I do make my living solely from playing the guitar and have for the past two years. I've been playing a total of 8 years and I AM NOT a hard core blues or jimi fanatic when it comes to my sound (Jimi is my favorite player and main inspiration though). Although I am a pro, I understand that I am young and still have a lot to learn when it comes to sound. But I want a sound that I can call my own, and this pedal won't give me that. It will give you bad-ass blues tone and decent classic rock tone. But for the professional that I am, it's not versatile enough and in my opinion, not current sounding enough. What it is is quiet and transparent.... you can play chords with however many strings your guitar has and hear every note. It has a total marshall overdrive vibe which I'm not into... but if your are, then this is the pedal for you. And to top it off, you couldn't buy it from a nicer guy.

Currently I use a fulltone clyde deluxe wah, a sans amp gt2 dist. pedal (which is okay but I need to upgrade... to noisy.... no transparancy), a boss dd-3 delay (which also needs to be upgraded), and a boss tu-2 tuner. Pretty simple.... added with my godin lgx-sa (which i love and will take to the grave) and my boogie dc-3 (which is getting upgraded to a lonestar or a carr imperial soon).

A lot of knobs, but easy anyway.
The user manual is very clear; if you take five minutes to read it, you have already a good idea of what you have in your hands.
Channel A cannot be easier: two knobs, drive and volume...If you're lost, sell everything and buy an acoustic guitar.
Channel B is more complex, but it's actually an overdrive with a efficient tone control.
Most of the pots are detended, a great idea which makes easy to remember your own settings.

I played the ZIM with a Strat with Kinman pups, a standart Strat, and an Ernie Ball Van Halen Signature. My amps are a Vox AC30/6 TBX or a Peavey Classic 30.
The A channel is very clear and transparent, and works well in both channels of the VOX -someting VERY rare!!!- Kind of SRV tones are easy to get.
You can either have a light drive, a clean boost, both, or a boost AND drive a la Klon or Banzai Cold Fusion.
The B channel is more a cross between OD and distortion, depending on the amount of drive and the EQ. It's not the quietest pedal of the world, but I cannot say it's noisy, anyway.
Tones range from blues to hard rock, metal possibly, from Gilmour to Santana, AC/DC...Your playing and your taste will do the rest.
I've found an easy way to search for tone with the B channel:
With the Depth control at noon (no action), set the drive, set the volume. Ten or eleven o'clock for both would be a good start point.
Then set the Depth control at 2 o'clock, and select any number with the Voice control. If you like the tone, note it. If you don't like it, turn the Depth control at 10 o'clock, and listen: you will immediately love the tone much more!
I find more musical to seach for pleasant tones like this, better than the drastic way consisting in full clockwise or counter clockwise depth.
With this method, you can figure out the B channel's possibilities in a few minutes. Ten, you can spend the next 3 hours to enjoy the ZIM!

Seems to be very seriously built.
Also, the ZIM is upgradable. A real plus for reliability, IMO.

Dave is a very cool guy. I've had some problems with snail postage, and believe me this man knows what customer service is.
I could rate more than 10 is it was possible!

An innovative concept, a very good pedal.

In two words, a future classic.

Very easy. Just like two overdrive pedals next to each other. It took some time to dial in but I found some great sounds along the way. Determining where to put this pedal in my chain was the tricky part.

I can dial in two great but different overdrive sounds, each perfect for rythm playing. And for leads I cascade the two channels. So this box gives 3 different sounds on the fly (not including bypass).

I love the way channel A cleans up. It's a mild hi-fidelity OD with full bass and treble, no mid hump.
Channel B is amazing. It's like a TS-9 but with the voicing selector it gets several different non-TS sounds. Every time I play ZIM I find my self messing with different voice settings. IT's very gratifying.

The lead tones that come from cascading channels A and B are the icing on the cake. I love the sound of cascaded overdrives, and ZIM delivers.

ZIM is like a brick. Would I gig without a backup? Well if I had two ZIM's I'd probably have them both on my pedal board with different settings.

I got it as a gift.

I play blues and hard rock and this pedal covers it. It's my only dirt pedal now. There was a lot of hype around ZIM and while I don't buy into hype, I have to say that I realy like this pedal. I can tell a lot of thought went into it, with the modular cards and the insert jacks and everything. It deserves a ten.

The ZIM is a remarkable pedal. The tonal quality is exceptional. You can't get a bad sound out of it. It is very easy to use. Who needs a manual? This pedal is totally user friendly!

I am using a Marshall TSL-122 2X12 combo amp with 4X12 cabinet. My guitar is a Gretch Beast. I also play a Fernandez Revolver and a Fender Mutant Coronado Jazzmaster 12 string. The ZIM pedal always cuts through and sounds great!

Dave Fox makes very reliable products. I own three of the pedals that he manufactures. I love every single one of them and you would have to pry them out of my dead, clutched hand to get them away from me! I would use this pedal anywhere. It really adds to my sound, and I won't leave home without it! Who needs a backup for this pedal...it's so well made that no backup is necessary.

Dave Fox has always been on call and has helped me everytime that I need him. He is very friendly, professional, and knowledgeable. He is on top of his repairs. I am very happy with his service.

I play mostly Rock music. This pedal is a good match for my tone. I have been playing for 40 years. I own so much gear that it would take all night to list it! If my ZIM were stolen, I would definitely replace it. It has a unique sound that other pedals do not reproduce as well. I love it! There is nothing that I hate about the ZIM. Everyone should have a ZIM on their pedalboard!

In regards to the ease of use, this pedal is your basic two-channel overdrive with one exception. Each channel can be turned on and off separately and both can be on together. At first I thought this was going to be an issue footswitching wise, but nothing could be further from the truth. The footswitches are close enough to each other that even the narrowest of feet should have no trouble hitting both of them at once.

There are a few unique features of this pedal that affect it?s ease of use.

1) Each channel has it?s own removeable circuit board that allows you to swap out the cards for different circuits. This offers one the opportunity to ?customize? the pedal to suit the user?s particular needs. While this is an extremely cool feature the one drawback is that the basic tone control (like the ones found on TS-9?s, Blues Drivers, and numerous other overdrives) is located on each of these boards. Most players usually set this tone control and forget it, but for those of you who tend to tweak this control a lot when using the pedal with different guitars and amps, it might be an issue.

2) Besides the standard type tone control on the circuit board, Channel B also features a very effective two-knob midrange control. The ?voice? knob is an 8 position rotary switch that allows you select various mid frequency points and the ?depth? knob allows you to cut or boost these frequencies. The detented middle position of the ?depth? knob is the flat setting and no cut or boost is present. How this affects the ease of use of this pedal is that there are so many sonic options that one must spend some time with it to explore its vast sonic possibilities. Personally I believe this to be it?s greatest asset, however those who subscribe to the ?less is more? way of thinking may become quickly overwhelmed. That being said, it is difficult to yank a bad sound out of this channel.

Overall this is a very easy to use pedal with a clean layout. With a clean boost or a Phase 90 being a 10 in this category the ZIM scores a solid 8. It could have easily scored a 9 in this category were it not for the internal tone controls, but as Dave pointed out, there simply isn?t much room internally for a surface mounted tone control. The trade off is you get more free pedalboard real estate which is also a good thing. It should be noted that the ZIM is the perfect size for a two channel overdrive.

I was able to audition this pedal with all the guitars, amps and pedals in my collection as well as a borrowed black face spec modded Deluxe Reverb and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2?this includes the following?

GUITARS
?87 American Standard Tele with Dimarzio Fast Track 2 in the bridge

?00 American Deluxe Fat Strat with Duncan JB in bridge with Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Solo pickups in the neck and middle positions

Various G&L ASAT Specials

AMPS
?73 Hiwatt DR-103 and 4x12 Fane Loaded Hiwatt cab

Hiwatt UK Studio/Stage 2x12 Fane Loaded combo (PTP wiring with 30
watt EL84 power section)

2 Emery Sound Custom 28?s with matching 2x12 cabs loaded with Webber alnico and Celestion Vintage 30 speakers

Emery Sound Modded Fender Blues Jr loaded with Celestion Greenback speaker

Emery Sound Modded Marshall TSL-602 2x12 combo (tube) and matching TSL series 2x12 cab.

Fender Super Reverb Reissue

I was also able to compare the ZIM to the following pedals?

Klon Centaur, Analog Man 808/Brown Sound Modded TS-9, Analog Man Silver Modded TS-9DX (Turbo), Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Keeley Fat Mod BD-2 and the Keeley Freak Fuzz Mod BD-2.

Both channels worked GREAT with all combinations of amps and guitars.

Now?on with the review?

While both channels have a fairly similar circuit design, there are some electronic and sonic differences between the two (besides the mid control on Channel B). To put it simply, they sound similar enough that when you switch channels it doesn?t sound so different that it sounds out of place, but they are different enough that they can serve very different functions (rhythm and lead for instance) without one simply being louder than the other.

CHANNEL A

Channel A is simply great. It is similarly voiced with the TS-9, but it is far from a clone or a mod. No joke?this it the most balanced TS-9 style overdrive available at any price. Dave has managed to achieve something no other TS-9 clone or mod has?the perfect balance between compression, transparency and bass and mid range response with plenty of headroom on tap. One really starts to appreciate how well balanced this pedal is when one runs through a series of chords, then arpeggios and finally leads. Gone is the humpy mid range, the overly squashed chords, and the murky sound. It?s almost like it?s a part of your amp. Truly inspiring. I use this channel when I want a nice drive without tearing off peoples heads?When a song calls for sonic decapitation, I simply switch to?

CHANNEL B

OK?this is where things really heat up. Do you need to turn your Fender into a Marshall? Do you need to turn your Marshall into a fire breathing beheamoth? This is that channel. Many pedals claim to be able to do just that?some succeed?this one succeeds in spades.
With the 8 position ?voice? knob and ?depth? knob there pretty much isn?t an overdrive or distortion sound you can?t get with this pedal (with the exception of a clean overdrive of course). You can go from Mic Ronson to Clapton to Kerry King with a few twists?Yes?it?s that versatile.

This channel is a lot brighter than Channel A?Think Blues Driver (but sweeter) as opposed to TS-9 and you start to get the picture.
For leads there is plenty of sustain on hand?I do a lot of textural work and I was able to nail the Frip and Eno ?No Pussyfooting? tone with the aid of a nice delay. For rhythm work there is plenty of mids and highs so no need to worry about getting lost in the mix and enough ballsy low end to chunk most handily.

One could literally spend weeks exploring the subtleties of this channel.

And for you gain heads?should you find yourself in the unlikely position of not having enough gain in Channel B, simply engage Channel A along with it. Not only will you get endless sustain, the two channels work extremely well together.

My only real complaint is that the ZIM could be a bit less noisy. That?s not to say that it isn?t already quieter than most pedals available, I just feel that there could be some room for imp

I also have a Captain Coconut 2 and like the CC2, the ZIM is built like a tank with very clean soldering joints. There is no reason to suspect that this pedal won?t last several lifetimes.

Dave is great about returning e-mails and answering questions. He also appreciates feedback about his work. There is no question in my mind that if anything ever happened to any of his pedals he would fix it quickly.

I liked the ZIM so much I had to have two of them?one for each pedalboard (I have a separate board for each band I am in). I use the ZIM with the following setups?

BOARD 1 (power trio G, B, D)

Teese RMC-3 => Analog Man Bi-Comp => FoxRox Captain Coconut 2 => Keeley Java Boost => Custom Built Clean Boost => FoxRox ZIM => Analog Man Clone Chorus => Dunlop High Gain Volume Pedal => Line 6 Mod Pro (rack) => Line 6 Echo Pro (rack) =>
LEFT AMP?Emery Sound modded Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 2x12 combo (60 watt)
RIGHT AMP??82 Marshall JCM-800 2x12 combo (50 watt)

and...

BOARD 2 (quartet G, G, B, D)

Keeley Comp => FoxRox ZIM => Keeley Fuzz Head => Custom Built Clean Boost => Dunlop High Gain Volume Pedal => Analog Man Clone Chorus => Line 6 Modulation (pedal) => Line 6 Delay (pedal) => AMP?Fender Super Reverb Reissue (4x10, 45 watts).

This is the best two-channel overdrive being made at this time. Nothing that Fulltone, Barber, Banzi, etc. makes can hold a candle to the sound, performance, versatility and build quality of this pedal. Nothing.

While there are some great single channel overdrives out there (The Keeley Fat Mod BD-2 being my choice for tone and versatility) this is where to turn when you need a 2 channel solution for your setup. Try one for yourself and see.

Quite literally - if you can?t get numerous excellent voicings out of this pedal in the first 10 minutes - you should take up another instrument. That having been said - please don?t misconstrue it?s powerful array of voicings and adjustments and on the B Side at least - it?s infinite ability to shape, hone layer and create with the Cut/Depth/Boost knob. Ease of Use - I give it an instant 10 because there are no complex parameters like on most multi-effect banks of various overdrives and distortion-type pedals to concern yourself with here - yet even more gratifying is that you can easily get lost in this pedal for days at a time. This is built solid as a tank -very gig-worthy, and is put together on the premise of a dual overdrive/distortion unit featuring an A Side and a B Side - both which, once tweaked to your tonal please - can then be combined (i.e. dual) to an even more powerful wall of tone giving an instant rating of 10 on the goose-pimple meter. WOW - like ZIM - is a three letter acronym for the most powerful and tweakable unit of it?s kind on the planet.

Let?s cover the Knobs/Controls & Adjustments available - not forgetting the ability to swab out cards (modules/circuit board inserts) later as Dave Fox further develops other usages and parameters for this unit - although in my view - how do you improve upon perfection? Side A features 2 knobs: Volume and Drive. Straight forward, very easy to dial it in quickly. Side B - there are 4 Knobs: Volume, Drive, and an 8 position Voice knob and an infinite-setting Cut/Depth/Boost knob. I?ll get more into this amazing channel in the Sound Quality section - but initial reactions were Oh......My.......God....It also features 2 independent stomp switches, with a Green LED for the A Side and a Red LED for the B Side.

Voice adds in a decidedly luscious range of 8 different layered frequencies - the Cut/Depth/Boost knob allows you to incrementally select which frequency ranges to blend into, cut, boost or add dimension-depth to those frequencies. Some of the higher settings on the Voice knob - mix in a phase like quality that is easily one of the very best ?layered? voicing representation I have ever heard.

Lastly, and equally cool as hell - are the applications that this unit can be placed into. With the jacks out and in on the back side of this pedal - you can run it as two separate overdrives (or put them together)...or you can insert other various effects between the 2 overdrives or send each one to a different amp - how cool is that! This pedal easily gets a 10 for ease of use combined with powerful and easy to dial in tonal voicing options.

Sound Quality:

Oh.......My.......God would be a good place to start here. Dave Fox has raised the bar substantially with the sound qualities of this unit - other manufacturers had better pay attention. It is, with the issuance of the ZIM - not as acceptable as it once was to release pedals of this genre without providing this kind of glorious palette of shaping tools and options. This ladies and gentlemen - is a dedicated distortion/overdrive unit - and it is the best of the best on the planet. Let me preface that by saying that I have played for 38 years, and over 20 of them in live band/gigging environments. I have played thru more of this specific genre of pedal than I care to think about - and the ZIM - on a scale of 1 - 10, rates an easy 20. It?s just that good. It?s not easy to surprise me - especially with this genre of pedal - Dave Fox not only surprised me - he blew me away. This pedal sits at the throne of the pile..of since discarded past attempts at selectable, easily dial-able, delicious wonderful harmonic sustaining beautiful and glorious overdriven mayhem. The ZIM brings the future to ?right now?.

Over the past 3 days, I have spent no less than 12 hours with this pedal. I used a variety of amplifiers and guitars for my review. Included were the following: Top Hat Ambassador, Top Hat Deluxe, Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker, Mesa Boogie DC-5, and a Fender Custom Shop Hot Rod Deluxe. Guitars were: Gibson Les Pauls (Studio, and 2 Standards), Gibson ES137 Classic, Fender Big Apple Strat and a Gibson SG-Z. The ZIM loved them all in every setup and combination. Why? Because with the Voicing knob and the Cut/Depth/Boost knob - this pedal made love equally and without prejudice humbuckers, single coils, Celestion and Jensen speaker combinations. It has that innate ability to just sound excellent with everything - not an easy task especially with this genre of pedal.

Side A offers up a powerful organic open sounding overdrive that just melts into an array of juiciness aka Stevie Ray voicings without that awful mid-range hump that most Tubescreamers include - this is a powerful overdrive in it?s own right with it?s own idiosyncracies?s and personalty.

Side B......I have to pause for a moment to reflect upon the monumental change in my way of thinking on how overdrives are supposed to behave - cuz this side my friends - is where Dave Fox comes along to rule the planet of overdrives..nothing, and I mean nothing - comes close. The Voicing knob offers a type of organic and very raw phase-shifting non-sweeping (don?t think of Phase or Phasers in the normal sense or applications here) capabilities that not only shine for leads and layering of riffs but in some spots on the upper registers of the fret board -an octave up type of ghosting that quite literally made my jaw drop to the floor. No -this is not an Octave pedal - please don?t misconstrue -it?s a layered luscious blending/shifting of tonal bliss that has to be heard to believed. When you add in the Cut/Depth/Boost variable to this equation - it?s nothing short of nirvana, the, yes - I?m going to say it here and now - ?Holy Grail? of overdriven compilation. Those of you who challenge the notion that there actually could ever be a HOLY GRAIL of any genre of pedal - simply have not tried the ZIM. I give the ZIM a resounding solid 10 (cuz that?s as high as this rating system allows me to give) on superb and well thought out and implemented Sound Quality.

This is my first Foxrox pedal - but I?m going to give it a solid 10 due to Dave Fox?s history and multiple reviews testifying to his other product?s overall reliabilitys. Dave Fox has been inside of this thing - you can relax and gig without a backup.

Give me a break - it?s Dave Fox for crissakes. A solid 10 here too.

Easily a 10. Dave Fox is not only a Master Builder, but also a working guitar player. He may not realize it - but the ZIM has been in production for decades because it was born out of an inherent need to have something that just didn?t exist before - not in the way that one normally thinks about in the genre of overdrives and distortion units that is. And Dave Fox?s hands and technical knowledge has very fortunately found its? way to his soldering skills, and understanding of circuitry and components that, when combined perfectly - create all those luscious organic, raw, open, honest & real voicings that he?s been carrying around in his head for years. He has mastered the art of bringing an idea, a vision if you will - and captured into this beautiful red metal box. If you only had one overdrive pedal that you could take to a deserted island and have no other - this is the one you?d take along. Thank you Dave Fox...thank you...

As always, thanks for reading. Go check out the sound files on his website. And then order one. You can thank me later.

Please visit my band's website for more upcoming info on the ZIM and other pedal reviews:

www.rivercityrockets.com

David Lee