Foxrox ZIM

Very easy to use and get a great sound out of this pedal. Two pedals built into one box. Two footswithes to switch between Vintage tube boost or H9 for a great overdrive sound.

Using a Road worn Strat loaded with Fralin Blues specials pickups into a Keeley modded Wah>Analogman Bi-comp->Foxrox Octron>Foxrox Zim w/H9 and VT cards>Bluesdevil overdrive>Keeley Fuzzhead>SIB Tubedrive delay(original blue one)>Boss DM-2>Tex-Rex Roomate Reverb>Dr. Z Maz 18NR amp.

This is the quietest overdrive/distortion pedal that I have ever owned, including the Klon Centaur, Analogman Silver modded TS9, Bluesdevil, Xotic RC Boost and others.

There are so many great sounds that you can get out of this pedal, that it would take too long to describe them all. The H9 with the voicing knob allows you to dial in any overdrive sound you like. The VT Vintage tube side of the pedal gives you great boost sound also.

I also own a Foxrox Octron and hope to own a Foxrox Aquavibe. These pedals are made to stomp on and last. Heavy duty casing. Very dependable.

Dave Foxx is a great guy and has to stay pretty busy, but he's always replied to my emails.

Also I have to mention that I order this ZIM from his website and I ordered the B-Stock pedal because it had a lower price. I got the pedal a week later and he sent me a new one at the B-stock price because he had sold the last B-Stock one. How's that for customer support?

I've been playing Blues/Rock/and Jazz since the mid 1960s and through the years tried many different pedals,amps,guitars,etc. and have worked as a Quality inspector for a major amplifier manufacturer. The ZIM is built like a tank and would definitely buy another one if it was stolen.

I'm on the Aquavibe waiting list and looking foward to getting one. I take my hat off to guys like Mike Piera(Analogman),Robert Keeley, Mike Fuller(Fulltone) and Robert Fox(FoxRox) that take the time to put Quality in thier pedals and know what guitar players need to get the sounds that they want. Thanks!

This pedal is modular meaning that you can buy replacement circuit boards which plug easily onto the master circuit board. There are a wide variety of pedal clone circuit boards available from Foxrox - mostly based around the tube screamer but there is also a big muff, rat and silicon fuzz face as well as buffers, clean boosts and mild overdrives.

All the clones, at least, the two i've heard sound very authentic and are easy to get good sounds out of.

Pedal also includes a voicing circuit which acts, kinda, like an EQ. You can either cut or boost a preset centre frequency for a wide array of sounds. However, it's based around a single pole phaser design rather than a filter like an EQ is... as far as I understand.

The voicing controls are very easy to use and you can quickly dial in the sound you're after. Boost all the way - dial through the presets and listen for your sound then dial back the boost for a bit more subtlety. Or cut all the way, etc...

Doesn't include a manual but you should be up and rockin' within half an hour. However, there is so much variety in terms of cards, it can take a while to find the combination of cards to fit your sound.

Here's the thing... while the cards sound pretty darn cool, this thing is NOISY! Sure, I have a high gain tube screamer and a big muff but even so, I'm sure the original pedals don't make that much noise.

It's a shame because it's an extremely well made pedal and a truly original idea (of which there are few in this era of stomp box over-supply).

I probably shouldn't be comparing it to another pedal, but, I have a hot cake which can get to fairly similar gain levels as the TS clone, which is nowhere near as noisy.

In the ZIM's defence, though, it is two overdrives for about the same price as a HC.

But that's not really the bad part - the thing sucks tone in bypass which I almost could not believe when i discovered this fact at a recording session. It's very quiet as you'd expect from true bypass - what i didn't expect was the extreme loss of highs (which, for a tele player is sacrilege).

When the pedal is on and rockin' it sounds good - but I don't play with it on all the time, and sometimes it's just not possible to dance on the pedals fast enough when changing sounds mid song to eradicate the noise.

Possibly, this pedal would sound better with a solid state amp where a tubey tone is required.

So well constructed I would gig it after running over it in my car without testing it first. Solid.

I emailed Dave Fox about the noise issue and he sent me something back very quickly with a number of solutions based mostly around my settings. He also told me that I should get faster at turning it on and off in time so that you don't hear the noise before distorted passages in the song... thanks Dave...

He didn't think there was anything wrong with it and I think I agree - the ZIM is what it is. A bit noisy at high gain and a bit of a tone eater.

But as soon as they receive an order they ship straight away and they ship anywhere in the world.

Top customer support... can't fault it considering I live thousands of Km from him.

This pedal is original, looks great, is extremely versatile etc etc and the last thing I want is to give it a bad review - but for me, it's noisy and takes away quite a bit of the Tele brightness in bypass (which may not be such a bad thing...lol... but in this case is just a bit much).

It could be the combination of the pedal and my guitar or cables... I dunno.... but I like my guitar and amp more than the pedal so the pedal is being sold on. Someone out there might be able to fit it into their sound better. I've talked to someone else who owns one of these and they say it's the single best overdrive they've ever owned - so go figure? And check out the other reviews here - glowing to say the least.

Generally easy to use. I found the channel B EQ a little unintuitive, but got it eventually. I wish it had EQ for channel A.

Changing Zim cards is very easy. I ended up with 4 different cards and swapped them out in all combinations until I found the one that worked best for my setup (CS in channel A and B9 in channel B).

Using it with a PRS CE24 through a Bogner Shiva with various other effects, particularly an Analogman Bi-Comprossor. I like the Shiva overdrive channel with very low overdrive and the Zim.

I've tried numerous overdrive/distortion boxes, most notably vintage, Keeley and Analogman silver TS-9s. I'm not crazy about any of the TS pedals, they kill the low end and squish the sound too much.

The Zim is awesome. To my ears it sounds very high-fidelity, altering the sound without killing the punch or the low end. It handles guitar volume changes well. Switching from no Zim to Zim overdrive to Zim distortion in a song is quite natural, the sounds all blend well. It handles compression well and all in all gives me a set of sounds that is just right.

Haven't had it long enough to know, although it seems very well built and Foxrox has a good reputation. The jury is always out until you've used something for quite a while, but so far the Zim has given me no reason to worry.

Dave has been very friendly and helpful. I get the sense that he's a little busy these days, but he's been fine in all my dealings with him.

I've had a Zim about 8 months and it is the only overdrive I use. It sounds great, is quiet, flexible and has just generally impressed me. It gives me the sound I've been looking for.

To be up front, I haven't tried some of the other boutique favorites, fulldrive, klon, KoT etc. But after years of this and that, have happily settled on Zim.

The card switch idea is cool - you get two different sounds, and if you like one but not the other, you can try different ones. I found 2 that work just right to my ear.

I'd recommend trying one out.

The unit I own is one of the very first. The cards are two variations of the H9 card. The transparent one is put on channel A and the dirtier one is in channel B, which leads you to use A for boost and B for dirt. Each channel has a volume and a drive knob whereas channel B has two extra knobs for the voicing circuit. There are outputs / inputs that allow you to put whatever wherever in any possible order.I opened the box to set the trimmers on each card counterclockwise at my liking (full bass with no treble loss either). There is the very intriguing option to swap cards on the channels so B becomes a boost with the extra possibilities of colouring the sound via the 8 settings of the voice section, leaving the A to be a pure distortion channel. However leaving it as it is gives me an unbelievably wide palette of voicing the distorted channel that makes me reluctant to swap cards yet. In short, a beauty.
(I'm sorry I don't give 10s to pedals that eat batteries like peanuts AND expect you to stop, unscrew four tiny black screws, lift the bottom surface, change the battery, put surface back, find the tiny screws somewhere in the floor beside you, screw them back AND don't feel like a jerk. This is the 00s, hello!)

The sound quality is superb. You have to dislike the cheap effects by Boss etc to appreciate the ZIM and understand its high price. I know that another dual overdrive unit, the KOT, which I haven't tried yet, is selling nowadays for even higher prices, but I am not a person to be counted as a tone maniac who is after holy grails and meanings of life in sound circuits. I even hate Trower for god's sake! I am just a musician that plays his own music and wants clarity, integrity, versatility, transparency, hisslessness and inspiration I suppose as anyone else. And the ZIM is quiet, transparent, versatile, handy
(A,B,A+B), punctual and absolutely inspiring.
In my book I rate it higher than the CaptainCoconut2 which I also own and has caused some sensation as well(remember the Trower issue). I enjoy every nanosecond of my notes ethereally overdriven with channelA's purity and then dragged to dungeons by channelB's voiced up distortion!

Excellent choice of elements and the best knobs I
've tried. I constantly use it without a backup. It will eat a battery after 2 to 3 hours' heavy use, though. Be prepared.

Well I live in Athens (that's Athens the original, not Georgia) and I am the happy owner of three FoxRox pedals, the ZIM, the CC2 and the TZFParadox.
Given that I was lucky enough to get all three of them in flawless condition, I pray I will not be in need to send them to the US to be cured. Having said that, I might try to get some ZIMcards, though these two I have are already the bassier of the collection and anyway CC2's fuzz unit provides some serious heavy distortion sounds that put ZIM to its place: an inspiring overdrive pedal. So no need for RATcards either.

I use Fenders and a Gretch. All my pedals are boutique/analog and the ZIM is very friendly to all of them. The chain goes gtr>wah>cc2 oct&fuzz>zim>cc2uni>tzf>delay>fender silverface twin.
As a coda, hats off to the guy who conceived and made it. AnalogMan's KOT, or Hermida's Mosferatu/Zendrive might or might not be even better tonewise, but I don't think I would kiss ZIM's voicing goodbye for all the other so-called holy grails of the world.

very simple. Get the stock cards in it though because they really compliment each other well and if you think about it there is probably a reason that it comes with those in stock! Swapping the cards out is a piece of cake though all you need is a phillips head and you're done!

I use a strat or sg >crybaby>qtron+>cc2fuzz>cc2octave>analogmants808 w tv mod>zim>cc2 provibe> marshall tsll 2000 Head with a paradox flanger and bbe sonic maximizer in the effects loop. I ordered the zim with the cs card instead of the vt and don't get me wrong I love the sound of the clean smile card but I had a hard time getting the right sound cascading it into the h9 or ts808 so dave being the hell of a guy that he is sent me a b9 and vt card when i ordered my tzf and zim and expression pedal, He says he always gives away free stuff when you buy multiple things! Is this guy great or what! Any way I ended up putting the vt card where the cs was and wow does this this tear it up!! That is why i recomend the stock cards. I also really like the b9 card and each card also has a trim pot on it to either brighten up or dull the sound!!

built like a tank!!

dave is a great guy and a hell of a businessman I would highly suggest his pedals to anyone!

mostley blues to rock and trust me I don't care what kind of music you play I guarantee you can get the sound you're looking for out of this pedal!

Bone simple. If you read the guide on his website, it is
a cinch to get great tones out of this box. Swapping zim cards
takes only a minute, once you get the four short screws that
hold the unit together out.Well designed unit. A nine just because
the B channel takes a second to figure out.

I've been using the zim with the VT and B9 cards, and it
is like adding two more channels to my amp. Three, if you
count using both channels at the same time. It has tone that
inspires you to play, that is very musical, and yet you can
really drive it if you want. I've been using it with an old
70's Princeton reverb II (Rivera era fender), and have yet
to play it through my boogie. One of the best toys I've ever
purchased. Only good feedback from everyone who has heard it.

Very solidly made. I don't bring a backup.
Better made than most everything else out there.

Two emails responded to with questions answered in less
than 24 hours. Can't ask for better than that!

For me, I'm a totally happy guy. I bought the Zim used
for $200 with 4 Zim cards, and have yet to really experiment
with the T+ and H9 ( only into the board, so far) , because the other two sound great. I've been playing 25+ years , tried all different stomp boxes out there, and this is one musical overdrive/distortion unit. I play rock/funk/jazz world fusion...and the tone works.

Muy facil de usar.Si estas leyendo esto habras visto la web de este pedal.Dos overdrives: el primero con controles de ganancia y volumen y el segundo con ganancia, volumen,voz, y el control de voz.La verdad es que es imposible equivocarse con este pedal,tiene un buen sonido pongas como lo pongas(en la web de foxrodx explica el porque).El selector de voz en el segundo overdrive es un potenciometro con 8 posiciones que produce 8 estados distintos de distorsion, la verdad es que son 8 tonos increibles que mediante el booster de voz, puedes cortar o incrementar.Creo que es el overdrive mas versatil que he visto nunca y sin duda tiene una coleccion de tonos que van del overdrive a la distorsion con altos niveles de ganancia al poner los dos efectos a la vez que seguro has oido en tus discos favoritos.

Sin duda.Se nota la diferencia con el tipico ts-9 esto es alta fidelidad.El overdrive A es muy limpio y suena caliente con la ganancia al minimo.Con la ganancia al maximo tienes el tono perfecto para rimar.El overdrive B tiene mas nivel de ganancia perfecto para solos.Este pedal tiene un sustain natural que nunca habras oido si solo has provado los tipicos pedales fabricados en serie. Los dos overdrives se complementan uno a otro, yo digo que son dos, pero suenan como uno solo.Simplemente: perfecto

Es una idea bien pensada,sin duda creada por un guitarrista para guitarristas, una herramienta imprescindible para hacer:ROCK AND ROLL.

Tengo otras cosas hechas por Foxrod y son de "primera".Ademas de mandar su pedal por medio mundo despues de previo pago siempre contesta a mis mails.

Con un pedal asi esta claro.Conectado a un JCM 900 a un Mesa Nomad 55 y a un blackface 65 twin y realmente suena cojonudo con todos,con fender Standart y con Les Paul.Es una maquina de rock and roll.

Very straightforward, channel A has your basic two knobs (Volume & Drive), Channel B has the same plus the all-powerful voicing section(more on that later). You can play just channel A (a low gain OD, just channel B (high-gain OD/dist), or cascade them both together for extreme sounds. There is no manual, just came with a few photocopys of information on the web site. Really, the web site has more info and will tell you everything you need to know from wiring setup options to card replacement (more on cards later)

There are really two categories for sound quality in an effect. The first concerns matters of noise, tone coloring, etc. In other words, is having this thing in my signal chain going to change my tone just by virtue of plugging it in? The ZIM is extremely quite, true-bypass, and will leave you with what you started with when not in use. The second category has to do with the actual quality of the effect. How good does it sound, how versitile is it, how usable is it in live situations, etc. This is where the ZIM stands head and shoulders above any other gain-increasing pedal I have used.

I have been playing through a 1965 Super Reverb (not a reissue) for almost 25 years. Incredible tone, with one flaw. It cannot produce high-gain (think Marshall) guitar tone. My band plays a variety of music (Waylan Jennings to Metallica, no shit!), and the Super covers the country, pop, ballads, etc. immaculately/ But when it comes time to push the pedal to the metal, it struggles to achieve that high gain distortion and overdrive those type of tunes require. I have always run the amp on 10 to maximize the overdrive and just dialed back my guitar volume for cleaner sounds. I have searched for years to find a distortion/overdrive pedal that I could use to "get over the top" on heavier material, but still keep my amp on 10. The problem is that all other pedals I have tried just give me distorted mud and feedback. The genius about the ZIM is the voicing circuit. It consists of two knobs, one selects any one of 8 voices, the other cuts or boosts the frequencies selected by that particular voice. In simple terms, it gives your guitar tone a different "flavor" while adding distortion/overdrive. The results are dramatic! You can dial in just a touch of flavor, or radically change the sound of the amplifier, and you even have another channel you can cascade into the other for more variety!

In short, my Super can now sound like a Marshall, or a Boogie, or like any other high-gain amp out there. I just dial in the Drive knob to about 9:00 - 10:00 (I just need a little estra oomph to get me over the top), and then select what kind tone I want using the voice circuit, and I am in heaven. And here is the KICKER, my guitar still sounds like my guitar! Previous pedal of this type that I have tried just fuzz out my tone, this pedal allows me to retain the playability of my rig. For years (about 25 years now) I have stood on stage playing a song and thinking "I wish I could kick my sound in the ass just a touch, then it would be perfect", now, with the ZIM, it is perfect.

Note: I know many of you fun your amps clean and use a pedal to get your dirty sound, I do not. I run my amp at 10 at all times (a Super at 10 with your guitar volume set at 3 yields a beautiful clean tone). Therefore, I am reviewing The ZIM for its performance with my rig, the way I like to run it. My need was for a clean, non-tone-coloring device that gave me a way to push my sound over the top when necessary with a large tone palate to work with. The ZIM does exactly that - a staggering array of high gain tones that are extremely playable, all contained in a little box.

I ordered my ZIM on line from Foxrox and recieved it a week ago. I wanted to spend time playing with it before I reviewed it. However, since it is brand-new, all I know is that it has worked great for a week, so I will not rate its reliability, but it weighs a ton and looks like it is well built.

Haven't needed any, so I won't rate this either, but Dave did write "Enjoy!" on my packing slip and signed his name. A little thing, I know, but it does make a difference to me.

I like everything about this pedal. Mine came with the H9 and VT cards. My review is kinda long, so I didn't to into the cards and swapping options, but check the website for information on this feature. The whole card thing is a brilliant concept, and I will be trying others out in the future (the Tar+ card sounds cool). It is mind-numbing to think that with the hugh amount of tones this thing will produce, I can get other cards and get even more options. the voicing circuit makes the ZIM the most versitile box on the market I have seen, and additional cards available means it will stay that way. If you are like me and have an old vintage amp with great tone, but you need a OD/dist pedal to get you over the top without destroying your tone and the playability of your rig, a pedal that does exactly what you want it to, when you want it to, I highly recommend the ZIM. It is the only pedal of this type that has worked for me, and it works better than I had hoped it would. How often can you say that about an effect pedal?

It's easy to get a good sound from the pedal. My biggest fear was changing cards, and that's very easy... just have Phillips screwdriver handy!

I haven't gotten my mind around the Voicings yet, hence the Ease of Use is only an 8. It isn't EQ, but a phase thing that boost or cuts certain frequencies. But you can't tell what the Voicing settings do for you till you invest some time in it. Based on my HC forum discussions, I seem to be the only one with a problem here. But the Voicings just don't sit well with me yet.

Excellent quality. Keep in mind as you read this I'm only a 'basement' player, so someone who plays in clubs might have a different experience.

The Zim has gotten superlative reviews from a number of good folks at Harmony Central. The cards I've tried have been the CS and B9 together, and the BB and TAR+ together. So, it's kind of hard to give this any overall review.

The CS is a very musical clean OD. Reminds me of the Keeley BD-2 I had. The B9 is a boutique version of the tubescreamer, and it's my first tubescreamer of any kind. (No, I don't count the BD-2 as one.) It's sounds great, but I'm not really into the B9 sound.

So I swapped those two card for the BB boost/ clean card and the TAR+ Rat clone. I've never owned a boost pedal, other than my EQ. I have a Vintage Rat. And I have a Keeley Ultra DS-1, which isn't a Rat, but delivers dirt in roughly the same ballpark. Anyway, I'm really pleased with the BB. I'm driving it hard into my tiny 1/2 watt Nano tube amp, and getting some very cool extra juicy overdrive tones this way. The BB also does well going into dirt pedals, or following dirt pedals.

The TAR+ is better than the Vintage Rat, mostly because it's less noisy. Does the TAR+ beat my Ultra DS-1? Hard to say. There are different, and there's more variety to the DS-1. Maybe not a fair question.

Another note.... There's some value in just having two pedals like this together. No chance of extra noise from a cable. They are both there working together in high-quality fashion.

I'm afraid I'm not giving a 10 here, probably because my expectations were so high. Maybe I'm expecting each card I've tried to be jaw-dropping amazing and best-of-breed, which isn't fair to Mr. Fox.

I don't gig, but this seems put together well. Like someone else noted, the only perceived flaw is the battery compartment, which leaves the battery a bit loose.

Dave has answered a few emails. I bought this off eBay, so I appreciate his willingness to correspond with me.

An important feature of this whole deal is the card swapping. Dave turned around the swap quickly. The only quibble here is Dave didn't respond to a couple of email asking how much it would cost to swap two cards at once. Not a big deal.

I'm a classic rocker, playing electric for 4 years, and guitar in general for over 20 years.

You can't go wrong buying this pedal. The swap ability makes it especially attractive.

Honestly, the jury is still out for me on whether or not this is a keeper for me. The Zim is helping me discover the joys of a good boost, and will later help me discover some quality fuzz cards. If I get excited enough by what I hear, I might opt for single pedal versions of the cards I like the most.

In other words, it's hard for me to tell if I will end up keeping a $200 pedal for two great pedal sounds that are worth that much. Probably will. It's hard to find any two pedals of this quality for that price.

i didn't have any trouble getting good sounds out of Channel A, but getting used to the voicing thingy in CHannel B took abit longer and thus the 9.

I bought this unit with the Stock cards (CS and H9) and i plan on keeping them both in my ZIM, if another card impresses me, i guess i just have to get another ZIM...

The Cs delivers one of the sweetest and more transparent overdrives i've ever experienced, and it's knocked my keeley ts-9 and Bd-2 off my board. Like someone here said before, it sounds like it's part of the amp. I use this channel basically for low gain smooth lead tones and some crunch, one more thing i love about this channel is that it LOVES chord play and works amazingly with my TMB.
I use the H9 for heavier rock tones , and it delivers a very natural sounding overdrive, and with the voicing/depth controls (i use it in Channel B) one can find alot of tones in this channel. This channel is like a Tubescreamer on drugs, and i use it when i need something extra to heat up a song w/o going into massive distortion. The sound i get really reminds me of my Ibanez TUbe King (with some unknown tubes in them). This channel however generates abit of noise, which is still very bearable even at louder volumes.

Dave has really outdone himself with this unit..

8 although this thing really looks solid and well built, i've been having some problems with the input jack which i'm still trying to solve, the volume on this unit sometimes just dies on me sometimes.
i think it's just a loose connection somewhere and will get a friend to open it up (i'm a nut when it comes to repairing stuff like this.)

I hate to pour cold water over all the good reviews of his customer service, although i love this pedal, i was pretty fustrated when he did not respond to my emails when i enquired about the price and etc when ordering it from Asia. I had to get a friend from the US to order it for me then send it to me...

I play all types of rock (alternative, classic, progressive, pop) and this pedal really helps me in getting the sounds i need for most of the music i play..
I've had it for just over a month, and it has a firm place in my pedal board which includes Time Machine BOost --> ZIM --> MOdded Sd-1 --> Ibanez Tube King --> ToneBone CLassic --> Line 6 Modulation MOdeller --> Digitech Delay
i just wish the voicing control was available on both channels... but i know it would be too much work and cost involved. I would buy this if it were stolen, but i would have to sell a whole lot of shit to get it again... a worthy investment for 260 i must add.

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

How to get a good sound out of the ZIM:

Step 1: plug your guitar into one end, and your amp into the other

Step 2: play to your little heart's content

unfortunately, there is no manual right now, however, none is really necessary unless you're looking for specific sample settings. basically what you have here are 2 overdrive pedals, each with volume and gain control. the B side adds a voicing control, which can be easily bypassed by setting the depth at 12 o'clock.

my setup runs as follows:

ibanez rg/gibson sg/danelectro convertible

dunlop crybaby -> bruce bennett insane gain -> FOXROX ZIM ->

mesa boogie subway rocket

(in amp effects loop)
ernie ball volume -> boss tu-12 -> digitech digiverb -> foxrox paradox tzf -> fulltone supatrem -> boss ge-7

the only time the ZIM is noisy is when you cascade both channels with the gain on full. otherwise, its dead quiet. i've found this pedal best for everything but metal. if that's what you're looking to do, then don't do it here, with the ZIM in its "ts-9" incarnation. maybe later, once foxrox introduces higher gain cards, but not now. but if you're looking to nail the classic overdrive tones, then this is the pedal for you. i've captured, with ease, the tones of gov't mule, sloan, frank black, god street wine, and many others. in most cases, i haven't even touched the voicing controls, just plugged in and played. and it seems to be the only overdrive that agrees with the danelectro. even my amp's 2 overdriven channels give the dano a harsh, tinny tone. but the a side of ZIM seems to be the perfect match.

like my TZF, its a brick shithouse. i don't fear it breaking, i fear it getting stolen.

dave's a great guy. he answers all my e-mails, asks me about my jazz lessons, and chews my ear off on the phone. while some companies have made me wait the better part of 4 months for gear, i've received all of my orders from dave in 3 days.

my style is "rock music." take that for what it's worth, i have too many influences in my 13 years of guitar. as i said above, in its current incarnation ZIM is an overdrive pedal, and should not be expected to play your favorite slayer tune. but all the classic overdrive sounds are here. you really shouldn't need more, as the voicing control really runs the gamut. the problem you'll generally run into is remembering every setting you liked.

the only thing i wish the ZIM had is an input for a GIR expression pedal, possibly to control the voicing depth, or to do exactly the opposite of what you want it to. (fans of jhonen vasquez will understand that one).

I wanted to give it 1 because of the B side, but there are people out there who wouldn't know I was joking. I've spent about three weeks sitting on my cold basement floor because of all the different tonal options from the B side. This is a dual overdrive pedal in it's first release, as it's it designed to be a modular system with cards that you can swap in and out, example; overdrive, boost, fuzz, distortion...etc. It is also two seperate pedals if you want to run it that way as Dave has designed it so you can insert other effects between the two overdrives or send a signal from each one to a different amp or whatever you want. Channel A is very straight forward with volume and drive, it gives a very smooth yet clear overdrive tone. Channel B is where the fun begins, it gives you more of what A has, it also has the volume and drive controls, but also adds depth and voice. Voice selects different frequencies and depth adds or cuts those frequencies. It some what reminds you of using a wah pedal as a tonal boost, but alot more. Finding a great tone on channel A was very easy, finding a great tone on channel B, there's too many to choose from...a good problem.

Right now I mostly use a Fender Strat, with two single coils and a pearly gates in the bridge position with 12-52 strings. Using a Carr Rambler and Hammerhead as I run a stereo set-up. The pedal is very quiet and also uses a standard Boss plug and 9v AC/DC adapter, it works fine on my Voodoolabs Power Pedal II standard outputs of 80mAs.
I can get just about any overdrive sound I can find in my head from the B side. The A side will do your typical SRV tone and both sides together will take you almost to some of the high gain Mesa/Marshall style tones. Sounds great at low volume playing also, alot of sustain with no amp volume. Works very well with my other overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals; Klon, Death Rattle, Captain Coconut II. Did take a little moving arround to find the right spot for it though, as when after the Death Rattle and the fuzz it took some of the edge off those effects as it smoothed out the fuzz and distortion tones. When before them it kicks them up to a new level. I also don't have words to describe how good this pedal and the Klon sound together, I use my Klon as a VERY light overdrive and is more of a boost. I have only used the ZIM with cranked clean amps as I get all my tones from pedals. I also use vibe(CCII), flange(TZF), chorus(CE-20), and Delay(DD-20)with no problems.

I guess you're going to make me say it...built like a tank!

I have three of Dave's products; CCII, TZF and now the ZIM, with another one ordered with the release of the next two cards. Have never had a problem with them!

You can't beat Dave for service, almost always answers my emails in under 24 hours. Offered to call once when having a problem in setting up the TZF flanger for a desired effect, he really cares that you're happy with his product, and wants your feedback so he can make any improvements if needed.

I play a wide range of styles from classic, new, to original. I have played guitar since 1965 and still have all the equipment that I have ever brought, my basement looks like a small music store. There is nothing that come close to the tonal options offered in just this one pedal. Not to mention the smoothness and clarity of its overdrive cards, except maybe the Klon and this goes way beyond the Klon in overdriven sounds. If lost or stolen, get another one.....in a heart beat. Wish for anything else I don't know as the ZIM is not a closed end pedal with card changing. I do know what the future holds, another ZIM, I can't wait for a distortion and fuzz card to see what the B side can do with these tones.

If you can't get a good sound out of the ZIM, something is wrong with you. The problem is every setting sounds good! The coolest thing about ZIM is the circuit is on cards that can be modified or changed out if you are looking for a different sound. Dave said new ZIM cards will be available in the future. Some cards that are being considered are Clean boost, compression, heavy distortion, possibly fuzz and others.

There are 2 channels on ZIM. Channel A & B. Channel A is your lighter overdrive, but still with a quite a bit of gain. It has a volume and drive knob. Channel B is a more transparent overdrive that has more gain than channel A. What is really cool is to boost the B side with the A side. Also on the B side is the coolest feature of ZIM; the voicing. The voicing circuit uses a type of non sweeping phase shift. This works really well for getting different lead tones. There are two knobs, one for voice and one for depth. This works well for using different amps, guitars and playing in different rooms. You can cut or boost with the depth knob and you can select through 8 different voicings.

This sounds like alot of options, and it is, but you can get a great sound right off the bat with the depth knob left in the center.

First, here is the setup I use:

'68 Fender Twin Reverb and a Gibson Les Paul Standard and a American Deluxe Stratocaster. I use a ton of effects between my guitar and amp. Guitar-->EB Volume Jr.-->Teese RMC2-->Boss TU2-->EH Q Tron +--> EH Bass Microsynth-->Analogman Bi-Comp-->FoxRox ZIM-->Fulltone SupaTrem-->Analogman Clone Chorus-->Maxon AD900-->Boss DD5 with analogman hi cut mod-->Boomerang Phrase Sampler.

The ZIM is not noisy at all. That is the first thing I noticed. The only time you could possibly hear any type of noise would be if you had both gain knobs and the volume way up. If you need that much gain, you would need to get the heavy distortion card for ZIM. On all setting I've tried with ZIM, it sounds great. The hardest part is picking one sound and sticking with it. I mostly use Channel B for my rhythm sound and boost it with channel A for leads. This is the best way for me to use it. I fiddle with the voicings and boost/cut knob fairly often just for fun. There are no bad settings. Everything is very useable.

FoxRox products are known for being very reliable and they are built extremely well. Dave knows what he is doing.

I've exchanged plenty of e-mails with Dave and he always responds quickly and answers my millions of questions. I know that if I ever had a problem with any FoxRox product that he would take care of it.

I play everything from alt. country to 80's new wave to heavy rock. When I say heavy rock, I mean 80's Metallica, Slayer, etc. I'm sure ZIM would work well with any type of music you wanted to play. I like mine so much, that I will be ordering a second ZIM to use with other ZIM cards, when they become available.

Let me just say that I have tried tons of overdrive and distortion pedals looking for the right sound. Some of the pedals I've had sounded great and some of them weren't so good. Here are some that I've had: Menatone Red Snapper, King of the Britains, Analogman TS9, Analogman King Of Tone (awesome pedal, sounds just like a cranked blackface Fender), Proco Rat, Tonebone Classic, Keeley BD2 and tons of others that I can't even remember. All of these pedals work well in their own way, but none of them bring everything together like the ZIM has done. I don't believe that I will ever need another distortion/OD pedal again. I think it's a great deal for what you get. 2 pedals in one with the option of swapping out new cards in the future. What could be better than that?!!?