Zinky?? Got a used Blue Velvet Zinky today.....

[Heritage Softail]

I was struggling to find a nice little practice amp for my living room or little jam sessions. My regular rig is an SLO or Rivera Knuck Tre. Not a really portable setup and not good for evening jams in the living room while the wife watches TV.

On to the Zinky.....Usually not a fan of pimp wear, a blue velvet amp looked odd to me.... This amp just begged to be test ridden. Must admit I had never heard of Zinky. The guy at the store was practically gushing over how great this amp was going to sound as I found a guitar and cord.

Holy Shit Batman.... My search for a great 'grab and go' amp ended today. Great tone and nice and easy to dial in, exceptional reverb. I Googled it and found they are pricey and hard to find. $625 was the cash price and it was worth it.

Anyone else own or play a Zinky??

 

[Death by Uberschall]

Highly under rated amp, played one about 5 yrs ago and really liked it.

 

[Mudder]

Zinky, as in Bruce Zinky of Prosonic fame, is a smart cat. Blue Velvet, Mojo, Superfly, all killer amps. Add in his line of new Supros and the guy just does amps right.

 

[tnourse]

Those amps are super cool. A buddy of mine had one. Great tones with a Strat or Tele!

Cool looking too!

 

[FourT6and2]

I owned a Superfly for about a month. It was the worst amp I've ever played. Period. I returned it. Never played a Blue Velvet, though.

 

[bikerdude2]

I owned a Superfly and dug it! Great amp for a cover band, with 31 presets. Owned a Mofo a few years ago also. Top shelf stuff!

 

[Heritage Softail]

I think the Velvet must be on the more simple side of the Zinkys. Only a few knobs to tweak and hit the cleans/blues/rock/older metal. I put an Xotic AC boost in front and it did get another gear. Was playing Sanitarium for a few minutes warming up this morning before hitting the much anticipated woodshed scale time. I like it. It is pretty easy to find great 100W heads. Finding a little tyke with good portable mojo... not so easy.

 

[Primakurtz]

I heard a guy playing through a tiny Blue Velvet in a big club once. He sounded HUGE.

My main amp is a strange one-off Zinky built in 2002. It is based on the Mofo, but is a 100 watt (4 6L6) head with huge old Fender transformers and a whopping 5 knobs. It is freaking amazing! Doesn't do cleans, but she covers Marshall through Bogner & Soldano territory really well.

Bruce Zinky is an amp whiz, and a really solid guy to deal with as well. I want a Blue Velvet and a Supro Sahara...

 

[rupe]

I used to gig with a Fender Tonemaster...I miss that amp in a big way. He also designed the Vibro-King which I believe is still Fender's top selling custom shop amp. I also have a few of his Smokey amps...they sound pretty damn cool when running into a 4x12

 

[Nigel]

I have a Mofo and 2x12.

Put some old mullards and JJ's in your BV and prepare for ubertoanz.

His amps are really sensitive to tube changes.

 

[Ascension]

Sorry for adding to a Zombie thread guys for a first post but just found this board by accident after doing a search for a review of a Zinky Velveteen.
I currently own a 08 25 watt Velvet combo that Bruce signed but have owned a number of Prosonics including a one off 120 watt Prosonic head with Reverb that I bought off Brad Whitford.
My #1 gig out rig is the little Velvet and it always floors me with the tones I hear when I record live.
This one for example with the Velvet, no effects other than the Boss delay and my 07 PRS Custom 24. The Song was purely spontaneous and this was recorded with a little Sony SX750 sitting on a chair in the front row of a small church.
https://app.box.com/s/hi3so3xhrf4m758wxbvw
This was with another group of folks again the song is spontaneous. This time I am running unmiced, running few effects and playing a 1990 Peavy Generation S-1 with the stock actives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxwlHNkJQd4
Nothing else I have ever owned or played through has so much dynamic sensitivity at high gain as a Bruce Zinky designed amp does!!
Any of the Zinky fans still around??

 

[ubermetaldood]

I don't know if he still sells his line of amps, but I tried the head version once. Great amps and the prices used to be very good too. It would be too bad if any of that has changed.

 

[Ascension]

I don't know if he still sells his line of amps, but I tried the head version once. Great amps and the prices used to be very good too. It would be too bad if any of that has changed.

Bruce is now working as the chief designer for Supro after he sold the brand. I need to call him as i understand that he is not doing the Zinky amps anymore.
I got to know Bruce after I bought the one off 120 watt with Reverb Red Prosonic head from Whitford.
This beastie.



Used the amp on this in the studio.
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7804039

 

[mooncobra]

I don't know if he still sells his line of amps, but I tried the head version once. Great amps and the prices used to be very good too. It would be too bad if any of that has changed.

Bruce is now working as the chief designer for Supro after he sold the brand. I need to call him as i understand that he is not doing the Zinky amps anymore.
I got to know Bruce after I bought the one off 120 watt with Reverb Red Prosonic head from Whitford.
This beastie.



Used the amp on this in the studio.
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7804039

the prosonics sounded good if I remember correctlky. it was around 93 when they came out, or 94??

 

[mooncobra]

I don't know if he still sells his line of amps, but I tried the head version once. Great amps and the prices used to be very good too. It would be too bad if any of that has changed.

Bruce is now working as the chief designer for Supro after he sold the brand. I need to call him as i understand that he is not doing the Zinky amps anymore.
I got to know Bruce after I bought the one off 120 watt with Reverb Red Prosonic head from Whitford.
This beastie.



Used the amp on this in the studio.
https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=7804039

the prosonics sounded good if I remember correctlky. it was around 93 when they came out, or 94??

 

[TrueTone500]

I owned a Superfly for about a month. It was the worst amp I've ever played. Period. I returned it. Never played a Blue Velvet, though.

+1 on the Superfly. Big, heavy, sterile sounding amplifier.

The limited 100 Mofo however...

 

[Zachman]

I was struggling to find a nice little practice amp for my living room or little jam sessions. My regular rig is an SLO or Rivera Knuck Tre. Not a really portable setup and not good for evening jams in the living room while the wife watches TV.

On to the Zinky.....Usually not a fan of pimp wear, a blue velvet amp looked odd to me.... This amp just begged to be test ridden. Must admit I had never heard of Zinky. The guy at the store was practically gushing over how great this amp was going to sound as I found a guitar and cord.

Holy Shit Batman.... My search for a great 'grab and go' amp ended today. Great tone and nice and easy to dial in, exceptional reverb. I Googled it and found they are pricey and hard to find. $625 was the cash price and it was worth it.

Anyone else own or play a Zinky??

Yes, I used to have one, but sold it. It was actually an inventory item, that I enjoyed playing. Great sounding little amp w/ a Boogie MK series gain feel, and a really punchy clean tone.

 

[Ascension]

the prosonics sounded good if I remember correctlky. it was around 93 when they came out, or 94??

93 I think. Big red was not your normal Prosonic though as it was a true Bruce Zinky hand-built one off that was a head built off a combo chassis ( heads did not have reverb) and had the 120 watt power section from the Tonemaster. BIG time LOUD and had the best cleans I have ever heard! Sadly I no longer own the amp but have owned a number of the Prosonics as well as the Zinky Velvet I now own.
Here is a group shot with Big red I had one more combo also in black that was badly damaged in transport and in pieces at the time .

 

[rupe]

The Tonemaster was a great amp...wish I still had mine. It was 100w though, not 120.