Dr. Z

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oldflame

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I want to know more about how these sound. I've been to the website but are there any "Users" out there. I like the smaller amps with 6v6's in the power amp.

Anyone heard em?
 
As the wise man once said: Me too!

The Z-28 amp got a pretty good review in guitar player. It's a 22-watter 6v6 that was said to be like a Deluxe on human growth hormones. Plus it only has three knobs (one more than the Mazerati)

not that I could afford one right now ... :(
 
Hellooo TG! :D

That's the little fella that go me interested. I have a couple of Deluxe's that are pretty precious these days so I was wondering how the Z-28 would compare.

The interest in a Dr Z escalated somewhat rapidly last week at a tent gig (Marquee). Some Goon knocked a PA column over in our break that fell on one Deluxe so hard it knocked the 2 valves into the bottom of the cab :eek: :-? :cry: . The vocalist saw the action as the rest of us were stuffing our faces on a Hog Roast. By the time I arrived back at the stage, the culprit had done a runner. Never did find him and the organiser had no clue as to who it could have been... :lol:

Lucky for me, I'd been switching the amp off between sets as the tent was running off the house supply (150 yards away) and the power had cut once or twice.... :roll:

Sorry to rant on, but this was a hell of a shock I can tell ya. Won't tell you what happened to my White 81' Tokai LP Custom as you will all be crying for a week. Least to say there was no "fatal" damage.

If you all want to know, maybe I'll start a thread somewhere and tell you about it. HEY! Let's all post a 'terror guitar story'.

Anyway, if you are planning to track down a Z-28 for a listen TG, would you mind giving me some feedback please?
 
To hear DR Z amps go to http://www.drzamps.com some great clips there espescially Buddy Whittington clips on the Mini Z (which is also one of the main amps on the Time well wasted CD by Brad Paisley, who also contrinutes some coool sound clips on the drz site.
Be sure to check out the Dean Parks link on the right hand side too.
Stringkiller
www.drpickup.com - the home of the ultimate Tokai LP!
 
You can also see Dean Parks on the Xotic Pedal website demonstrating the pedals using a Dr Z

http://www.prosoundcommunications.com/english/video/dean_parks/index.html

Can't say I am too impressed with their spares and aftersales service. I have a 110v Z28 top and live in Oz now so I mailed them to see if I could get a 240v output transformer. They were totaly not interested in helping me out. Still using my step up transformer so I can manage no thanks to DrZ.
 
The "Z" amps sound great, no question about that, but Dr. Z is one of the two biggest a--holes in the business, and based on that alone, I would never even consider owning one of his amps. There are a lot of really nice folks out there building wonderful sounding amps, so there is no reason to put up with someone who will take your money and treat you like crap. Of course this is just my opinion, but it's one that seems to be shared by a lot of people.

Bill
 
I wonder if anyone else has a bad story about the guys at Dr.Z

You are right though Bill. There are plenty of great sounding amps on the boutique market so they should be watching their backs as people will soon tire of their attitude and go else where.

Are you listening Mr service guy at Dr Z?
 
I've got a Z28 head. Kind of a mixture of a Brownface deLuxe with a Marshall.
The bass- and treble controls are in fact not just tone controls but also act like gain controls. The amp snds best with all controls dimed i.m.h.:)
I ordered mine from Fatsounds in the US. I asked for a 230volt version (cause I live in The Netherlands) and received the amp in about 5 weeks.
 
Everyone seems to be so surprised over the dr.z amps, they're fine to be sure, but nothing out of the ordinary, he uses the EF86 to amplify the signal big time in the first gain stage (which some brands have experimented with in the past, like vox for example)... After that for the 28 and the route 66 it's nothing but brown era stacks, long tail phase inverters and power stages with out negative feedback... all pretty standard stuff, even the components he uses are mostly shelf stuff, not great stuff like brands such as Clark...

even the fact that the controls are interactive and add gain when dimed is not out ordinary for anyone familiar with a tweed or brown fender.

I much rather look at amp makers like emery sound, clark, allen or even mission amps, even though I like the dr z amps there is nothing extremly original about them...
 
One of the guys in the band I'm in has a Dr Z Maz combo....nice amp. Great tone and heavy as anchor.

Lately I've been playing my Bad Cat CubII Reverb combo and side by side, I think mine has a little more versatility - partly due to mine being a 15watt Class A amp and the smaller, underpowered amps have a natural overdrive when pushed that the Z needs to really be cranked to ear splitting levels to achieve. Guess I'm biased (no pun intended)
 
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