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The best Zvex Guitars reviews

The reviews Audiofanzine members found the most helpful.

Zvex Box of Rock

« Slightly expensive but fantastic pedal »
This is a distortion/fuzz pedal for guitars. It is an analog pedal made by Zvex, a lesser-known company with an excellent reputation amongst those in the know. There are two 1/4" connections, input and output. There are no midi or computer editing capabilities and the pedal is not rackable. UTILIZATION This pedal has four knobs (drive, volume, tone, and boost) and has two switches (one for the effect itself, the other for the boost feature). Utilizing this pedal is really easy, and in fact, it is probably one of more awesome pedals to use live that I've encountered. This mainly has to do with the boost feature, which, combined with a fantastic sounding distortion, is quite useful in a live scenario. I often find myself wishing for a boost of some type when using my big muff, as it's loud but doesn't always ring out over the sound of the instruments. This pedal solves that problem quite nicely. SOUND QUALITY This pedal has a fantastic sound. There is a phenomenal amount of distortion with this box. The levels range from a reasonably heavy, classic-rock type sound, to a full on sonic assault. Combine that with the boost feature and you have a fantastically capable pedal. This pedal is capable of heavy distortions for ringing out chords, blistering leads, as well as lighter distortions as well. I wouldn't recommend it as an overdrive as it tends to usually be just too heavy for that. The distortion is comparable to the big muff, but with more flexibility and an added boost feature. OVERALL OPINION I like the great sound of the distortion this box provides, as well as the boost feature. At $200 it's really pricey, but it will probably be able to replace one, if not two of the pedals in your board. This is a truly fantastic pedal that will hold up well over the years. I'd recommend using it with some humbucking guitars like a Les Paul or a PRS. It also tends to sound better with a Marshall-style tube amp than a brighter Fender one.

by mooseherman 1 10/15/10
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Zvex Super Duper

Audiofanzine FR's review
(Originally written by poufinou/translated from Audiofanzine FR) The Super Duper 2 in 1 is a preamplifier pedal. It provides the sound of the Super Hard On (SHO). But it's two SHO in series. The goal of a preamplifier pedal is to boost the signal without coloring it or altering it. It brings more punch to weak signals. Usual ZVex high-grade construction. Hand-made and hand-painted (including the autograph of the artist, Jason Mylord, and Zack Vex). Impeccable original finish (and more so if you find a custom finish). Powered with a 9-volt battery (unscrew the bottom side to get to it). No PSU operation. Input/output, volume and gain controls for the first SHO and gain control for the second one. Two footswitches for independent control of each SHO. It's sold with an original cloth bag. Everything gives away its quality as a handcrafted product. UTILIZATION Very easy: just plug in and turn the three controls. It's difficult to find an easier tool. - Is it easy to get the right sound? If case you don't know ZVex, every product is a bit special. Turn the controls until you get the sound you like. So yes you get a good sound but not necessarily the sound you were looking for!!! Very intuitive (but not logic). The user's manual is as original as the product. It's very funny (but useful too). The only con is the battery. No PSU operation is possible and the housing must be unscrewed to get to the battery!! But it gives you the opportunity to look inside the beast!! I give it 9/10 because of this non-ecological aspect... SOUND QUALITY With only one SHO and a low drive setting, the boost is fully transparent and it brings to life low output pickups. The sound becomes progressively dirty when you turn the gain up and it ends up being quite saturated. Note: when you change the drive setting you can hear a crackle noise. Zack mentions several times that it's normal. It's funny but in the beginning lots of people returned their pedals because of this noise!! The second SHO provides a second booster for a fatter distortion sound. As a summary, you get two boosters or even three different gain stages. This pedal is ideal for all vintage amps and guitars. OVERALL OPINION If you have a guitar with low output level pickups (a Danelectro for example) or a vintage amp without master volume control (a Fender from the 50's for example), this pedal will enhance your guitar's signal and it will add a distortion channel to your tube amp without coloring or altering THE precious sound of your guitar+amp combination. It also allows you to add three channels to your single-channel amp. Handcrafted, high-quality and very original pedal. The price?? Don't speak about money when you talk art!

by Audiofanzine FR 1 3/9/09
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Zvex Fuzz Factory

« Better off with the vexter »
This is a fuzz stompbox made by Zvex. It has 1/4" input and output jacks and can be used with a 9V battery or a standard boss style power adaptor. It's true bypass and has five controls, which are: Volume, Drive, Stab (stability), Comp (compression) and Gate. The difference between this model and the vexter series is just cosmetic. This model is hand painted where as the vexter is screen printed. UTILIZATION This pedal is simple to set up, just plug your amp and guitar in and put a battery inside and you're ready to roll. The five controls on this pedal are very interactive and can react strangely in certain settings and produce feedback. It can be quite difficult to get a traditional fuzz tone out of this pedal I find, but then again if you want a traditional fuzz sound then you're probably not going to be buying a fuzz factory. One thing I dislike about the utilization of this pedal is that due to the small enclosure and high amount of knobs it's quite easy to knock your settings when engaging the bypass footswitch. SOUND QUALITY I really love the sound of this pedal the germanium transistors sound amazing. The range of sounds you can get out of this pedal are ridiculous. My personal favorite is a heavily gated "velcro-fuzz" sound. Like I mentioned previously in certain settings this pedal can be prone to produce wild feedback and oscillations, I really like this feature of the pedal but a lot of people can be put off by it. I enjoy using it to produce a huge wall of fuzz sound that trails into oscillation. The pitch of the oscillation can be changed by the volume and tone controls on some guitars I found so there is possibility for new creative aspects which aren't available with other traditional fuzz boxes. OVERALL OPINION Overall I think this is a great pedal but I can't justify the price of owning a real one and despite building more than five clones I haven't managed to get the right sound yet. I think if you're considering this pedal you should try it before you buy it as it isn't for everyone. I think that that this model is ridiculously priced compared to the vexter series considering the only difference is the paint work on it, this is why the overall opinion score is low on this pedal.

by badgerific 9/14/11
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Zvex Ringtone

« Fun...not needed »
I am a big fan of the Zvex products line of guitars pedals. They have built very high quality guitar pedals that just sound incredible! I have owned several pedal from this company and all of them have sounded simply amazing. This pedal is a pitch or ring modulation pedal with essentially is a synth type pedal that gives you guitar a synth type effects that is cool for certain parts of songs or during solos and things or that sort. They are not used in high frequency because they are very wacky and crazy sounding and don't exactly mesh for long periods of time in and music style. UTILIZATION Features: Hand-painted artwork Sequence/random/step switch, 8 individual carrier pitch adjustment knobs, step control stomp switch, true-bypass stomp switch Powered by 9V battery SOUND QUALITY These pedals absolutely sound amazing! The tone from these pedals are simply addictive to play with. Almost to addictive in some instances because I can see myself playing around with the sequencers more than actually playing the guitar. These pedals can be a bit of fun and sometimes if you aren't careful pull you away from working on being competent or efficient at the guitar and wasting time dinking around with effects. This pedal has 8 ways of synth operation or 8 different voicings or waves lengths. Each position changes how the synth reacts in its wave pattern which will give you a whole new style of ring modulation. OVERALL OPINION At new these pedal come in at around $400.....ouch...that is expensive. That is the one problem with the Zvex pedals in my opinion. They have great sounding units but they are very expensive in price. You must have to really like the sound of a ring modulator in order to slap down $400 to get this pedal. You can buy a TC Electronics rack effects processor like a G Major and get a modulation in it with an assortment of different effects for the exact same price as this pedal. While this pedal does sound fantastic it is not worth price of admission. I can understand the quality that goes into this pedal but it is a hard buy for someone to get for one effect, even though you have some versatility.

by iamqman 7/6/11
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Zvex Machine

« Bizarre noise maker »
Zvex is usually known for their more bizarre sounding pedals, but this one really takes the cake. This isn't your daddy's fuzz, and it isn't your son's distortion pedal. This is a unique and crazy noise generator that is meant to create some bizarre crossover distortion to help cut through even the densest mix out there. It's pretty simple in that it has an in, out and limit knob. It also has true bypass to make sure you don't lose any of your original tone. UTILIZATION There are only three knobs on this thing, so you'd think it'd be hard to get a "bad" sounding setting, but this is just the opposite. It's actually hard to get a good sounding setting. I'll get to that later down in the sound category, but this thing is truly ... unique. There is a manual for this, but I never bothered reading it because the pedal is so simple and easy to use. Zvex also has some killer video demos of the pedal, so be sure to check those out. SOUND QUALITY The thing sounds bad, and I don't really mean that in a good way. Imagine the raunchiest, nastiest fuzz out there, and now imagine some bizarre noise that can cut through it. That's basically what the Machine is. It's some weird crossover distortion noise generator with a built-in fuzz to allow you to stand out no matter how many instruments are playing. It's really hard to find a use for this besides in the studio doing some indie punk/grind kinda thing. OVERALL OPINION You have to be a pretty "out there" person to recommend this pedal, but it's meant for those that are looking for sounds outside of the box. It's not a typical pedal so much as it's a noise generator meant to help you stand out from the crowd and give you that extra boost that makes your guitar signal slice through the mix. It's not a pretty sound, but it's unique. Check out the video on Zvex's site to see what I'm referring to.

by Hatsubai 6/8/11
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Zvex Octane 3

« Interesting Fuzz-Octave pedal »
This is a fuzz-octave pedal made by Zvex. This company isn't a household name but they make a solid lineup of great products. This has two 1/4" input and output connections as well as a jack for a power adapter (9V, it can also use batteries). This is a one hundred percent analog pedal, as you'll be able to tell when you hear it. It's got no updates or edits available online and is not a rack unit. UTILIZATION Using this pedal is really incredibly simple. It has three knobs which are pretty basic in their function at first. There's an output gain (master volume), tone (which really only controls mid-range), and input gain (which will control the amount of signal that goes from your guitar to the amp). This may seem like not a whole lot of parameters to adjust with the pedal, but remember that it's a fuzz-octave, and that the amount of the octave effect depends on the levels that you set on the input and output gain, as well as the tone knob. SOUND QUALITY This pedal has a very retro feel. I feel like I've heard this same effect before in other pedals, but the setup on this one is definitely kind of unique. I ultimately liked the sound of the pedal very much but often wondered how much I'd be using it in my own stuff. I play mostly indie-style rock, and I didn't need a super-retro sounding fuzz as much as a more in-your-face kind of fuzz which could really feedback and get loud. However, I can't knock the pedal as it sounds awesome. People who need a more sparkling, brilliant high end on their lead playing should check this out, as should anyone with a serious passion for Hendrix style tones. I personally think that the octave effect is great here, as it's not too highly pronounced as to be distracting but it helps notes ring through very well. OVERALL OPINION Overall, this isn't my favorite Zvex pedal or octafuzz pedal, but it's still a great pedal. I'd recommend it to people who like retro-sounding fuzzes and whatnot. While I personally wouldn't use it for my stuff I'm sure there are plenty of people who would. Keep in mind that it's really noisy with single-pickup guitars, and as such, can produce really shrill feedback that can be really irritating. Otherwise it's a great pedal and I highly recommend it to those looking for more classic sounds. Just try to find it used as it's way too expensive honestly.

by mooseherman 1/10/11
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Zvex Mastotron

moosers's review
The Zvex Mastotron is a unique distortion/fuzz pedal for electric guitar. It's an analog pedal consisting 1/4" connections for input and output and has options for both a nine volt battery and power supply - they actually give you tips on what is best to use in different situations. It isn't going to be rack mountable as it's a foot pedal. UTILIZATION The make up of the Zvex Mastotron has both familiar and unique parameters. I like the configuration of pedal as it gives you a lot to work with in a small box. From left to right the parameters include knobs for volume, tone, pulse wave, fuzz, and relax/push. It also has a switch for choosing the amount of sub frequencies wanted. The relax/push knob is definitely the most unique, as it is for setting the impedance and can come in very handy when using different kinds of guitars with different pick ups, as it basically adjusts the sensitivity. A manual shouldn't be necessary, although I haven't seen one so I can't speak to it's make up. SOUND QUALITY The tone of the Zvex Mastotron is seriously thick and fuzzy, but it has great tracking and it's easy to make musical sense of the sound unlike many other fuzz boxes out there. It's perfect for getting that thick and crunchy fuzz tone that still sounds almost clean and precise. It's definitely a modern sort of sound, but again there's a lot of room to mess around between the more traditional parameters and then the parameters like relax/push (impedance) and the ability to set your sub frequencies. OVERALL OPINION If you're looking for a versatile fuzz and distortion box that gives you more control than your average pedal, the Zvex Mastotron is absolutely something you should known about. It's not going to be the cheapest pedal out there, but it's also not the most expensive and is actually a pretty good deal considering the amount of flexibility and high sound quality you're getting here. Definitely check this pedal out if you're looking for some serious fuzz/distortion.

by moosers 10/13/10
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