Product: Zachary Guitars Human Touch - Tone Optimizer
Price Paid: USD 400
Submitted
05/15/2007
at
02:54pm
by
eligit
Ease of Use
:
10
It does not get much easier. you set your amp for a "cleanish" setting, put the pedal on it's "starter" setting....and work from there. it is as natural an intuitive as any pedal i've tried.
starter setting:
tone: 12 o'clock
drive: 12 o'clock
level: 9 o'clock
boost: off, at first anyway.
this gives a truly great natural overdriven tone if placed in front of a nice clean tube amp. easy.
does not use batteries, only ac power supply.
Sound Quality
:
10
The sound quality is extremely "hi fi". i define this as being extremely transparent. you hear every nuance of what your fingers are doing clear as a bell. the components are obviously high grade not unlike something you would find on an expensive stereo. if you mess up...everyone can tell (especially if the drive is no higher than 12 o'clocl and the tone is at least at 12 o'clock.)
as far as "getting the sound of your favorite artists"....that is really not what i am going for so i cannot say for sure. it sounds like a really high quality overdriven tube amp. huge dynamic response. even with the boost on it sounds almost totally clean if you play super lightly or turn down the volume on your guitar. then if you dig in....rich organic crunch in 3-D.
the pedal itself is not noisy at all. switches and knobs are silent. obviously if you use normal single coils you are going to amplify that buzz when you crank the boost. just the nature of the beast. but as far as the pedal adding noise...no.
i use this pedal with a highly modded fender princeton which has an almost completely clean sound. works great with the pedal.
i have tried the pedal with my Z-2s AND with lots of student's strats, teles, PRS....etc etc etc....the pedal really does it's thing with any kind of guitar. to be clear tho: the pedal is really transparent. it does not make a bad guitar sound good. if the guitar sounds bad the pedal will convey that to the amp. so if you are not happy with the clean sound of a particular guitar when plugged right into the amp...the z pedal will not help you. if your guitar is lacking in acoustic resonance that will still be apparent. however, if your guitar sounds really great just clean into the amp...you are in luck.
side note: the bass response is very substantial.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Never had a single problem.
Customer Support
:
10
the most responsive customer support around. every email answered. not sure "kind" is the word i would use (hehe) but alex is super responsive to feedback and/or help with the gear. he is obsessed with doing the best work possible.
Overall Rating
:
10
i play rock, jazz, funk, fusion (or something like that), experimental improv playing, etc. this pedal is ideal for me. it is not a "special effect pedal" a la z-vex etc. those are cool sounds and can be really fun but this z pedal is unrelated to all that. it sounds like a great amp, not a special effect. so for me that is perfect. basically i leave it on all the time. for jazz stuff you can set it really low for just a mild subtle little touch of O/D...or you can go nuts and crank the drive and boost for a totally over the top "amp is exploding" + insane feedback kind of thing, which i have done on occasion.
if stolen i would have to replace pronto. nothing else i have tried does what it does (barber, boss DS-1, all kinds of modded and unmodded tube screamers, z-vex o/d and fuzz pedals, mesa v-twin, RAT, turbo RAT, Klon centaur-yes i a/b'd it with that one, not even in the same catagory).
basically i had burned out on using overdrive pedals until i got this one just because it always sounded like an effect. it veiled the tone of the guitar and after a song or two i was ready for just "guitar to amp" tone. not anymore.
true $400 is not at all cheap for a pedal....but it is worth every dollar. so it is a great value IF the tone of your guitar is something you want to preserve after it goes through the pedal. if NOT a less hi-fi and less expensive pedal will be fine for a serviceable rock or blues tone. the barber DD-SS i used to own did that just fine...but the acoustic quality of my guitars was covered up and the dynamics/clean up factor was not happening nearly as well.
bottom line: this thing is just 3-D, transparent, and sparkling where all the other O/D pedals i have played over the last 15 years sound flat, congested, veiled, and 2-D by comparison.
