Have your say in a very ambitious project

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ZEN Amps

ZEN Amps

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Some of you may know that we've been in R&D for a new tube amp for quite some time now. All going well - but very slow for all sorts of reasons I won't bore you with.

I've already had some interesting DM chats with members here, but before we sign-off on the feature set let's throw this open to everyone.

Cost aside (and difficulty of implementation) aside - what features and options would you love in your ultimate amp? Go nuts, it can be way, way more than a modded Marshall with a good clean channel, or something already well-covered. Think big, and innovative.

EDIT: Be good if you noted your main areas of use/interest - playing out, recording, enjoying at home etc.
 
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Make it a big, loud, hammer-reliable single channel with simple but powerful EQ controls that sounds the bollocks for clean to edge of breakup while interfacing with a boost and OD's nicely and then the cherry on top can be an a extra long power cable and big sack of bit o honeys with my order. Thank you for asking.
 
Multiple parametric midrange controls centered around 600-700 Hz and 1k

Variable frequency pre-input hipass to remove flubby low end, commensurate depth or resonance control to dial low end back in above 80-100hz

Footswitchable lead boost with separate volume control and FX loop toggle (you could set the boost to unity all the way down on the volume control if you want the lead volume the same, or even have it as an expression pedal control or something)

Multiple 16ohm speaker outputs

Negative feedback control standard

Separate/discrete cascaded high gain preamp and ef86 or octal preamp clean

Legit spring reverb

Separate resonance and presence controls for clean, or at least hardwired so its actually balanced with the gain channel for once

Ability to run any common power amp tube
 
The pipe dream for me has always been dynamic changes inside the amp when it knows when to emphasize or increase volume (like a compressor but realistically more like when you would ride a fader) and change the hair and thickness of the notes depending on the context of chords and individual notes. Mimicking a lot of the studio tricks but in the room. Not sure if that’s remotely possible without DSP or subjectivity but hey let’s toss it out there.
 
Devastating doom to sweet chime cleans..
4 channel midi switched
Yes accepts any common tube -
Built in load / IR
Somehow change the voice that the transformers impart to increase / decrease the headroom - sag.
A deep control but also a secondary control that changes the response from tight / fast to slow / doomy.
Something that breathes and feels alive.
No matter how the design, the sound must inspire.
 
I often actually prefer amps with fewer controls/features. For me less is often more. Many of my favorite amps don’t have much. My Gjika for example literally is just a volume & tone knob, bright toggle switch and power switch (no standby)

I’m much more of a stickler about the actual core tone of the amp. Like is it organic and raw or filtered/sterile/bleh. Do notes connect well. Is there a good amount of overtones heard over the notes played aka 3D sound. I think the starting point should be to get as amazing of a tone and feel first (not that you guys didn’t do that. I have no idea) and then see what features can be added, but be very critical about how much this is comprising the tone, if it is. What I really don’t want is yet another modern amp with amazing 10/10 features:flexibility, but the core tone itself is fine, but nothing amazing

That being said, it would be cool to have jacks like a line out or one to use just the power amp of the head. I do like playing around with that sometimes. Flexibility to use any type of powertube and without the user needing to bias or even having to have the tubes matched like my Ronin amp. At the very least have it be able to be externally biased. A good noise gate would also be nice
 
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DanTravis62 said:
Multiple parametric midrange controls centered around 600-700 Hz and 1k

Variable frequency pre-input hipass to remove flubby low end, commensurate depth or resonance control to dial low end back in above 80-100hz

Footswitchable lead boost with separate volume control and FX loop toggle (you could set the boost to unity all the way down on the volume control if you want the lead volume the same, or even have it as an expression pedal control or something)

Multiple 16ohm speaker outputs

Negative feedback control standard

Separate/discrete cascaded high gain preamp and ef86 or octal preamp clean

Legit spring reverb

Separate resonance and presence controls for clean, or at least hardwired so its actually balanced with the gain channel for once

Ability to run any common power amp tube
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The part about ef86 and octal pre’s is a good one that few here would consider (more on tpg lol), especially 6SJ7’s for octal pre’s like Ronin. One of my Ronin’s is a high gain amp with all octal pre’s (4), so it could also be done for the whole amp potentially and from what I could tell have maybe the potential for a more interesting/rich tone
 
braintheory said:
The part about ef86 and octal pre’s is a good one that few here would consider (more on tpg lol), especially 6SJ7’s for octal pre’s like Ronin. One of my Ronin’s is a high gain amp with all octal pre’s (4), so it could also be done for the whole amp potentially and from what I could tell have maybe the potential for a more interesting/rich tone
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The 6sh7 pre on my 1993 clubman was the best clean amp I've ever played or owned
 
DanTravis62 said:
The 6sh7 pre on my 1993 clubman was the best clean amp I've ever played or owned
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That tube I haven’t actually heard of, looks like they are metal rather than glass, more old school, but have every brand in existence now of 6SJ7, 6SK7, 6SL7 and 6SN7 and 6SC7 if that counts

I got recently a Jamison J30 upon Tiago’s recommendation and it’s great. He said it’s like a better Matchless and would probably agree, but it’s all 12AX7’s. I’ll have to look up the clubman

I think my favorite clean amps so far are still my Alessandro DAZZ and ‘69 Marshall Tremolo 50 surprisingly and then ‘63 Vox AC30TB and Bogner Caveman. I play mostly classical guitar finger picking stuff for cleans, so I need lots of clarity/separation of voices and sparkle, but matchless’s tend to excel there. Back when Ultra Studio’s in NYC was still around I tried lots of Matchless’s there (many were Samson era), but don’t recall if they had a clubman. I just tried googling clubman’s and they seem to come up with having 12AX7’s, EF86 and 2 EL34’s
 
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braintheory said:
That tube I haven’t actually heard of, looks like they are metal rather than glass, more old school, but have every brand in existence now of 6SJ7, 6SK7, 6SL7 and 6SN7 and 6SC7 if that counts

I got recently a Jamison J30 upon Tiago’s recommendation and it’s great. He said it’s like a better Matchless and would probably agree, but it’s all 12AX7’s. I’ll have to look up the clubman

I think my favorite clean amps so far are still my Alessandro DAZZ and ‘69 Marshall Tremolo 50 surprisingly and then ‘63 Vox AC30TB and Bogner Caveman. I play mostly classical guitar finger picking stuff for cleans, so I need lots of clarity/separation of voices and sparkle, but matchless’s tend to excel there. Back when Ultra Studio’s in NYC was still around I tried lots of Matchless’s there (many were Samson era), but don’t recall if they had a clubman. I just tried googling clubman’s and they seem to come up with having 12AX7’s and 2 EL34’s
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They only made the 6sh7/6at6 preamp for one year, 93 and maybe a couple 94s
 
For the best gain + clean in one amp, switching the NFB along with the channels seems to work well. The Marshall 6100 had something like that.
 
i prefer more simple amps also, like a couple people above. Versatility is also not really important to me, I just want to dial in ‘the sound in my head’ and play. Most of my amps are single channel, or ‘two channel’ but might as well be one channel (shared eq). My only true multi (three) channel amp is my recto, and that amp just stays on channel 2 for about 95% of the time.

I have found i rarely change the eq settings once I find what works, instead I change what boost I’m using to change the feel (when I want something tighter/looser, sharper/softer). A few amps I have, I have done extensive mods to make them more to my liking, usually I’ve also added switches on the front that change various things that adjust the feel, like adjustable bright caps, coupling caps, cathode bypass caps, or interstage dividers.

I have read online people talking about more complex amps with multiple channels and lots of switching seem to lack something that simpler amps have, but I haven’t played a ton of multichannel amps to experience that myself. Zen Amps you have about a million amps, is that something you have experienced, or is it just an ‘options overload’ thing with multiple channels and switches on an amp?
 
home producer bias - here we go
simple dial layout like Pres, TMB, MV, Gain than toggles or buttons.

low voltage pre-eq switch to add a TS- SD boost + cut; just 1 setting on a toggle bc most users dial their pedal boost very similar.
Gate - maybe in the loop
US-Brit voicing - whatever that means. or maybe a low end resonance peak switch to make the amp more adaptable to a Marshall or Recto cab
Stack before vs after gain

Then a toggle to switch where the bass introduced and how is it voiced - preamp or later on. instead of depth.
A "scoop & doom'' switch engaging a V shape EQ in the manner and place as Boogie Mk.
a switchable high voltage boost/ gain stage in a 3 way toggle; off, tube, diodes
a mid voicing toggle like chew (e.g. bogner) and raw
a highs voicing toggle like fuzz, swirly, pristine.

I don't think there's innovation in the voicings but there's defs gonna be some el. eng challenges to introduce so many different things with just toggles in an otherwise simple panel layout as above.

For gigging, I'd only make the following footswitchable
-low gain (i.e roll guitar volume down)
-high voltage boost
 
DanTravis62 said:
Multiple parametric midrange controls centered around 600-700 Hz and 1k

Variable frequency pre-input hipass to remove flubby low end, commensurate depth or resonance control to dial low end back in above 80-100hz

Footswitchable lead boost with separate volume control and FX loop toggle (you could set the boost to unity all the way down on the volume control if you want the lead volume the same, or even have it as an expression pedal control or something)

Multiple 16ohm speaker outputs

Negative feedback control standard

Separate/discrete cascaded high gain preamp and ef86 or octal preamp clean

Legit spring reverb

Separate resonance and presence controls for clean, or at least hardwired so its actually balanced with the gain channel for once

Ability to run any common power amp tube
Click to expand...
I'm signing up for Dan's amp.
:giggle:
 
I like what Driftwood did on their amps with a built in tube screamer circuit. I would want that along with a good noise gate. Also digital reverb and delay. A Fender clean and American voiced high gain channel. If you can squeeze in a mid gain channel or switch that would be great. A footswitch that you can save presets would be killer.
 
putting a Vox AC-100, Fender Super Twin, Marshall JMP, Mesa IIc+, etc., into one amp is great in theory, it's overkill. I recall there are amps that had multiple preamp gain stages you could add or remove, and had sets of different power tubes you could combine or use independently, etc.

100W
I'd like three channels. Clean, Rhythm, Lead with their own controls. (I have this in my JP-2C)
I'd like four preamp gain stages, with stages 3-4 switchable (in/out) in the rhythm and lead channels.
I'd like a switch that changes the placement of the tone stack for each channel (not a deal breaker)
I'd like a flexible power section with 4 x EL34, 4 x 6L6 that could be used independently per channel (e.g., all El34 or all 6L6), and blended (2xEL34 + 2x6L6)
I'd like presence, resonance and noise gate per channel.
I'd like an effects loop with a level/blend to control the overall wet/dry mix, and in/out switch to take it out of the circuit completely.
I'd like a 3-band, semi-parametric midrange control (low mid, mid, high mid) to put the mids where I want them; for each channel.
I'd like solid metal carry handles on the front, with the option to take it out of the head shell and put it in a rack, or make a rack version. (my JP-2C is rack version).

No fucking built-in reverb (I hate reverb) or other built-in effects.
 
Stay the fuck away from LND150s. Quickest way to make an amp sound thin. Keep it all tube even the effects loop.

Allow the effects loop to act as a build in volume boost for solos when engaged or to account for tone suck from pedals. It also lets people play with tubes to change how the volume boost sounds.
 
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