zt club 12 - freakn loud, new amp review

[Kev77]

fresh from the love dungeon of Custom Audio Boutique - My newly acquired ZT club, the slightly larger ( a single twelve inch speaker) in a nifty sliver enclosure.
If this is your bag, size - style and features wise you'll have already read better reviews than mine - but.,.,

The club comes with a really tasty plate style built in reverb, think early dire straights, the smiths and jangly jeff buckly.,., she's clean like that.
The lunchbox is awesome but the club has much better low end and warmth - I would normally have bought a lunch box,., but i just got drawn in by the club.
she's little like a portableTV size, light to pick up with my little finger - but LOUD, like dial in to 25% and you need, like really need to turn her down.
the rating advertised is 200watts.,, I cant verify that - but is louder than any guitar amp i could lift in one go - My mate has a marshall stack - and it keep up with that. for really.
The loudness aside, its the "rightness" of the sound for me - so what I'd wanted an amplified sound to be. I'd always been a fan of 5-18 watt amps - and have struggled to find
a amp that wouldnt get all "ampy" on me.

I'd say after a week of loving attention and thrashing this lil amp is best thought of as a "clean slate"
clean as in - it doesn't sound like a fender - doesn't emulate any "amp" tones - just the guitar and pedals - always with the pedals me.
It's clean all the way to max volume or near abouts - meaning you can add crunchy goodness without the big volume shifts.
I say clean also because if your on the Johnny marr rather than the Dimebag side of the guitar fence this amp wants to be your friend.
next gearfest I'll bring it along and your welcome to inspect,
again thanks to ryan at custom audio bou-teek

[MogwaiBoy]

I honestly can't believe that amps that portable can push enough air/wattage from a single speaker to compare with stacks etc - so I really need to check these out for myself, and hope to at some stage

Cheers for the review bruv! Wonder if they'd be at all usefull for keyboards? Our keys player just gets BURIED in the jam room and is starting to dislike going DI-only at gigs and being at the mercy of the (usually shitty) foldback system.

[Benrocky]

Mmm the ZT is something ive been keeping my eye on for awhile now.

How would you say its like vs the lunchbox?

[Kev77]

if the zt lunchbox is raw and middy, not crunchy or harsh - but raw.
the Club is way smoother, rounded out.
the zt lunchbox, no disrespect to the lunchboxers is often advertisied that you can plug it into other cabs for fuller sounds - but the club is really all that already.
as for the validity of the volume cliams - its one of those - you really need to see it for your self deals =\..
not that sheer volume is the holy grail, but that the club amp can be so useful and compact..
and look so purty
I also have a markbass amp, that lots of cork sniffer bassists poo poo untill they hear them. I was in an akld music shop playing a lil 10 inch mark bass combo - massive sound i was sitting in the amp - , a punter walked in looked at a big towering rack of bass gear gave it the "chur bro" nod and said something like big sound eh - I stood up and showed him i was plugged into the stool sized combo - he couldnt believe it.,.,
he had to follow my lead back to the combo before he got it

[Benrocky]

So hows the zt club like with pedals?

[RuBear]

if the zt lunchbox is raw and middy, not crunchy or harsh - but raw.
the Club is way smoother, rounded out.
the zt lunchbox, no disrespect to the lunchboxers is often advertisied that you can plug it into other cabs for fuller sounds - but the club is really all that already.

What makes me want the lunchbox is that I can chuck it in my backpack for a half decent sound, but plug it into a cab when available for a decent sound. How would you compare the club to the lunchbox when using a cab? Pitty the lunchbox doesn't have the clubs reverb, or i'd be sold.

[bender]

What's the RRP on the ZT Club?

[Kev77]

pm ryan, he's member here -
I got the zt for the size and the "clean page" thing because im a pedal whore - it takes em plenty good

[Terexgeek]

Cool review, thanks Kev; I would love to Phildo this one, sadly I'm not sure there's any this far South.

[jeremyb]

Interesting, how does the clean compare to say a hotrod deluxe or classic 30?

[crushing day]

nice one kev... looks tres cool

does the internal speaker disconnect if you plug an external speaker in?

[RuBear]

nice one kev... looks tres cool

does the internal speaker disconnect if you plug an external speaker in?

If it's the same as the lunchbox there is a switch for it, so you can have it either way.

[jeremyb]

Does the handle smell like gasoline?

[Kev77]

Interesting, how does the clean compare to say a hotrod deluxe or classic 30?

good question. IMO there's clean like a fender princeton or classic 30,, in that regard the zt is more like a jazz combo,
The zt is has the gain knob as a great dial into a hotrod deluxe sound or back off into a super pure,, almost taste the magnets on the pickups guitar tone.,.
does the handle smell like gasoline?,,, keh?