Hermida Zendrive: Who Has One? Opinions?

[castpolymer]

Had one of these bad boys offered up to me as part of a trade yesterday. Never used one or heard one. Anyone out there have any input? All opinions are welcome.

[Tonemonkey]

Great pedal.

Warm,creamy OD/Boost which really, really loves a Tele, turn that voice pot up and listen to your front pup cry out in lead breaks. For me its not so much for chording.
IMHO, it doesn't love Strats quite so much, though recently I have spent some time to get some really nice boosted tones.

This week I stacked it with Keith's Colorsound Overdriver clone....the ZD driving the OD....wow....really, wow!

In summary, it has replaced - BD2, TS9, Fuzzhead, Sparkle and Javaboost as my goto lead OD boost. I have happily gigged Tele > ZD > Lightning (voxish amp) as my most sparse rig.

[cuzzinmark]

I've had mine on the board for well over a year now, and it's done somewhere around a hundred gigs. It is great with a tele, for exactly the reason stated above, and with a 335, it's just one of my favorite tones ever-I've literally watched people's heads snap around when I first fire up that rig. I use it with a strat all the time now and am getting good tones, but I have had to change the nature of how I use it:
At first, I used it after my Fulldrive2, and it was my lead boost pedal. I mostly left the FD2 on all the time at a low gain setting, worked the volume/gain with my guitar, and used the Zendrive for bigger/gainy-er/over the top tones. After a bit, things have changed. Now, I use it the way I used to use the FD2-set 'Paisley-style'-gain at 8:30, vol at 9 or 10, tones around 12-2. It's just great at this-reall adds a subtle punch and thickness and takes away that clean strat shimmer. I set the pedal at just about unity gain, so I can go from shimmer to thick without jumping out of the mix. I use a Keeley modded Sparkle Drive as my lead boost now, and have it before the ZD-works/sounds fantastic to my ears. It took me a long time to get here, but I am very happy with my tone from this setup these (well, ok, most) days.

Great pedal-reasonable price=jump on it. You can always sell it if it's not right for you. They are still in high demand.

Good luck in your search...

Cuz

[OuttaspaceMan]

I love my Zen. Great unit.

The thing I like most is that it remains tight in the low end while yielding a beefy thick tone in the mid and upper register. I love the voice knob as well - you can tweak this pedal with the right amount of bass and as much "teeth" as I want in the upper register, and it still "feels" warm. YMMV =)

[zoppotrump]

+1 with teles it sound superb.
i like that clean sparkle shining through in that overdrive

[getrguy1]

Great pedal.

[dalandan]

Zen with a tele and blackface amp sounds a lot like Robben Ford. RF uses this on fly gigs with Twins or Supers and just his telecaster. You may want to search youtube for a demo. They're in the ballpark of the actual sound.

[gypsyseven]

I have a Zendrive Clone and love it with humbuckers....

[imsilly]

I think they are cool overdrive pedals. They are big hit with the Dumble/Robben Ford Fans. They are like a greasy sounding tubescreamer.

[Tele-Monster]

Go for it Cast, its a great pedal. Mine replaced my LTD, though I'm not sure its a "better" pedal it is very unique. One thing you may or may not like about the pedal is its lack of compression. That was the biggest thing for me to get over. Compared to a Tubescreamer its a much more open sounding OD. It is very different than most ODs, so chances are you don't have anything like it in your pedal collection. I say go for it!!!

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by Tonemonkey

This week I stacked it with Keith's Colorsound Overdriver clone....the ZD driving the OD....wow....really, wow!

That's almost eerie. I just built up another Colorsound OD clone (with stuff that was left or shelved after building yours), and accidentally pushed it with an OD as well, and now the two are simply a tag team affair.

It's got me to thinking of putting everything under the hood of one box, but I think I prefer the flexibility of the mix n match thing.

Regarding the ZD - neat pedal. I even converted an SD-1 into something similar a while back, and save it as a sort of standby. My only gripe is the fourth control - the voice control. I end up doinking around with it a bit too much when I switch guitars. But I go through the same thing with the Timmy - constantly fiddling with the EQ controls probably more than using the pedal.

Other than the rare occasion with something like the Colorsound OD, I guess I'm not much of a "four knob guy."

[Robsocal]

+1 on all the great reviews on the Zendrive. It's a great pedal that is small and well made, and it is very tweakable. All the sounds on it are really good, especially with a Tele or 335.

[SngleCoil]

I built a clone...but honestly, I have no idea if the schematic I used is close to being accurate. Sounds very close to clips I've heard, though. So my take may differ from the real deal. That being said. I like it very much. I have found the voice and tone control to be pretty effective for getting a couple of different textures out to the pedal. Overall, it is very smooth.

I have had the fortune of trying out a bunch of different OD circuits and this one is one of 2 on my board if that helps.

[jmecale72]

I know if I had a chance to trade for a Zendrive I would do it. I have a buddy who owns one and every time he uses it, I just melt. Great, great, great tone. I want one!


Did I mention great tone??

[Timbeaux]

I play strats primarily and it didn't do anything good for my sound. For leads, it was pretty good, but for rhythm, it was mushy and not very articulate. It also didn't have enough gain for me....I know it's not supposed to be a high gain pedal, but to me, it didn't even sound medium gain on my rig......sounds good in Brad Paisley's chain, but not mine.....

[robt57]

Just got a timmy, and the zen is the last on my quest, but I like not so gainy pedals myself. I grab a different amp when I want gainy. I sure would grab it, you will have no problem selling it if it does not work for you... Hell I would trade for it. ;)

[Tonemonkey]

Originally Posted by Timbeaux

I play strats primarily and it didn't do anything good for my sound. For leads, it was pretty good, but for rhythm, it was mushy and not very articulate. It also didn't have enough gain for me....I know it's not supposed to be a high gain pedal, but to me, it didn't even sound medium gain on my rig......sounds good in Brad Paisley's chain, but not mine.....

As discussed, its definitely Tele friendly - what amp are you running it into?

[DavidS]

I've had one since they first came out and it is great with humbuckers and Teles. Unlike any other OD pedal I've owned. I agree its best for solos rather than rhythm. I use a Timmy for mildly crunchy chords and either kick in the Zendrive with the Timmy or by itself for solos. The Zendrive loves Fender amps, but sounds good with Marshall and Vox as well.

[detuned]

I'll be the contrary voice here.

I had one, & used it with my strats & Dr. Z Maz Jr.

Meh.

Nice pedal, & does what it says it does, but I never really bonded with it.

Bonus points though: I unloaded it for what I paid for it. Yay.

[Tonemonkey]

Not contrary, mate - seems the consensus is its not that Strat friendly - but loves Teles.